Oak Hill Baptist Church

What do we do now?

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20

Our thought for today: “What do we do now?

At Oak Hill Baptist the way we approach our study of the Bible on Sunday mornings is, I select a book of the Bible that I am going to preach through, then we start in chapter one, verse one, and we study every major theme in the book as it comes up. So, whatever the next major theme is, that’s the subject for this week’s sermon. By approaching the Bible in that manner, we don’t pick and choose what we’re going to study and what we’re going to skip. We just take it all, exactly the way God gave it to us.

Over the last couple of years, we’ve been studying the Gospel of Matthew. This past Sunday we completed that study with a sermon on the last passage in the Gospel, Matthew 28:18-20 – the Great Commission. If you would like to watch that sermon (I encourage you to), you can find it on the Oak Hill Baptist Church website (oakhillbaptist.net).

These are difficult and perilous times we’re living in. Many people believe we’re living in the end times. Are we? I don’t know. Maybe. The fact is that every generation since the time of Jesus has believed they were living in the end times and that there were events taking place in their world which proved it. But all of those generations were wrong. They were not living in the end times. So, are we? Again, maybe. But it doesn’t really matter. Our job today remains the same as it has been for every generation of Christians who have lived in the two thousand years since Jesus first spoke the words of the Great Commission. We are to be on-mission with Him in the world, helping to build and spread the kingdom of God on earth.

We are to live each day with a sense of urgency that Jesus could come back today, and therefore people need to hear the Good News of the Gospel, and they need to hear it now. But we are also to plan and work as if Jesus isn’t coming back for another 100 years. We are to start new churches, send out missionaries, support Bible colleges and seminaries, and we are to plan for kingdom-building work for decades into the future.

For the remainder of this month, we will conclude our study of personal responsibility by thinking very specifically about what it looks like to be on-mission with Jesus in the world that we live in today. We will address some of the most difficult and challenging issues of our times, and we will consider how Christians must engage with those issues.

In the meantime, I encourage you to take thirty minutes, go to our church website, and watch that sermon.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Are you infectious?

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Are you infectious?”

This morning I want to pick back up where we left off yesterday, by thinking about Eugene Peterson’s concept of living a simple life that’s “a long obedience in the same direction.”

Perhaps you’ve heard about the old deacon who was in the grocery store when he encountered a younger man who used to attend the same church but whom the deacon hadn’t seen there in a long time. The deacon asked the other man where he had been. The younger man said that he had stopped going to church because he felt he wasn’t getting much out of it. He said, “Over the years that I was in church I can’t count the number of sermons I’ve listened to, and I honestly can’t remember any of them. So, what’s the point?”

To that the deacon replied, “I’ve been married for fifty-seven years. My wife has prepared a meal for me every day of those fifty-seven years and honestly, I can’t remember most of them. But each one of them nourished my body and helped to keep me healthy.” He went on, “Sermons are like that. Each one of them nourishes my soul and helps to keep me spiritually healthy. Even if I can’t remember them, they accomplished their purpose at the time and I’m spiritually healthy today because I was there in church every Sunday.”

For a long time afterwards that other man considered the words of the wise deacon. He also thought about how much he admired that deacon for the man he was – wise and kind, a man of character and integrity. Finally, he decided that if faithful church attendance over all those years helped to make that deacon into the man he was, then he was going to return to church and be faithful as well.

Pastor Chuck Swindoll once wrote, “Few things are more infectious than a godly lifestyle. The people you rub shoulders with every day need that kind of challenge. Not prudish. Not preachy. Just crackerjack clean living. Just honest-to-goodness, bone-deep, non-hypocritical integrity. Authentic obedience to God.”

The deacon in our story was a faithful man with an infectious godly lifestyle. How about you? Is your faith infectious? Do people observe you and decide that they want what you have? Such faith begins and continues as the result of a long obedience in the same direction – just being where you’re supposed to be, doing what you’re supposed to do, day in and day out.

I encourage you to attend your church this Sunday.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

This is your primary responsibility

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” Ecclesiastes 12:13 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “This is your primary responsibility”

Have you ever read the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes? If not, you should. The entire book is one big powerful lesson. Solomon was the wisest and wealthiest man of his day. The King of Israel. Blessed by God with wisdom, position, power, and wealth. And … it wasn’t enough. For twelve chapters Solomon writes that despite all God had given him, he still wasted decades of his life chasing after sex, drugs, and rock and roll (or the Old Testament equivalent).

But he had started out so well. Like his father King David before him, Solomon was a man after God’s heart, and God was very pleased with him. But then he lost his way. He became bored with a godly lifestyle and began dabbling in the ways of the world. He married hundreds of wives and had a haram of hundreds more concubines. He indulged in every sensual pleasure from sex to alcohol to food to wild entertainment. He accumulated works of art, stables filled with horses, and all sorts of other toys and baubles. More was never enough. In fact, there didn’t seem to be any such thing as “enough” for Solomon.

Finally, he realized that it was all empty and meaningless, “a chasing after the wind” he said. And after all of those wasted decades, he ended up right back where he started – humble and submitted to God. That’s what he was writing about in 12:13 (above).

Pastor and author Eugene Peterson once described the Christian life as “a long obedience in the same direction.” What he meant is that day-in and day-out we are to simply apply ourselves to the basic disciplines of the practice of our faith. We are to live quiet, simple lives based in prayer, Bible study, worship, and service to others. We are to remain faithful to the Lord and just live life. That’s our primary personal responsibility.

Life isn’t supposed to be a constant pursuit of one fun moment after another, one party after another, or one sensual pleasure after another as Solomon did. Even for those who are living faithfully, life isn’t supposed to be one ecstatic spiritual epiphany after another. Instead, it’s a simple and quiet life of faithfulness, like Paul described in 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12, “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”

That’s it. Just live a faithful life that honors God and blesses others. As a Christian, this is your first and primary personal responsibility.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

It’s like having a spiritual sweet tooth

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “In every way I’ve shown you that it is necessary to help the weak by laboring like this and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, because he said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Acts 20:35 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “It’s like having a spiritual sweet tooth”

Do you like Twinkies? I like Twinkies. I also like donuts, cake, cookies, and ice cream. In fact, my appetite for those things is so strong that I have to discipline myself or I will consume way too much. I have a sweet tooth, and the more sweets I have, the more I want. For me, sweets are addictive. I like them so much and find them so satisfying that I could easily get in the habit of consuming them all the time.

Blessing others is like that too – it’s addictive. The more you do it the better it feels, and then the more you want to do it. It’s kind of like a having a spiritual sweet tooth.

For more than twenty-five years, as a Pastor and as a mission team leader, I’ve had the privilege of leading groups of Christians to participate in a wide range of service projects and mission trips. Those activities have spanned the spectrum from simple acts of service caring for church members in need, to projects in our community like helping at the local homeless shelter, to short-term mission trips to places like the coal-mining region of eastern Kentucky, to multiple international mission trips to remote locations like the Amazon Jungle.

One comment I’ve heard over and over again, from hundreds of Christians involved in a wide range of service and mission activities is, “I received the bigger blessing”. No matter how big the sacrifice they made to be a blessing to the other person, the giver ended up feeling like the blessing they received was better than the blessing they gave. That’s what the Apostle Paul was referring to in Acts 30:35 (above) when he quoted the words of Jesus, and it’s what my friend from yesterday’s devotional was referring to as well. “It’s more blessed to give than to receive.”

Blessing others is addictive because it feels so good. It helps you realize that the practice of your faith is making a real difference not only in your own life, but in the lives of other people too. That just feels good – and it makes you want to do more of it. It’s like having a spiritual sweet tooth. I encourage you to get in the habit of blessing others. The more you do it, the more you will want to do it. It’s addictive, and therefore, habit forming.

It really is more blessed to give than to receive. Try it and see.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

What are you hungry for?

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” John 4:34 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “What are you hungry for?”

I was speaking with a friend the other day who has a passion for serving the Lord and for blessing others. God has blessed him with a successful business and significant resources, which he then uses to support a vast array of Christian work. He’s also instrumental in drawing others to participate in service projects to help and bless those in need.

During our conversation he commented that he feels very blessed to be used by God to be a conduit for resources to flow to those in need, and that the equation is out of balance, with him receiving a much bigger blessing that he is giving.

What my friend was describing was similar to the truth Jesus was teaching in John chapter four. There we see Jesus and His disciples traveling through the region of Samaria. They were on a long trip from Judea in the south, up to Galilee in the north, and they were passing through the region of Samaria to get there. At the end of a long day of traveling, Jesus stopped at a well outside of town while the disciples went into town to get some food. While He was there, Jesus struck up a conversation with a Samaritan woman who was an outcast because of her sordid past. Long story short, Jesus leads her to faith in Himself and into a right relationship with God.

When the disciples returned, they offered Jesus some food but He responded in verse 32 by saying, “I have food to eat that you know nothing of.” Then in verse 34 he further explained, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me.”

Being involved in the work of God was so satisfying and so fulfilling to Jesus that it was more important to Him than anything else in life, including food. It’s what got Him up in the morning, and it’s what kept Him going through the day. This was the thing that Jesus was hungry for beyond anything else.

And how about us? What is it we’re really hungry for? What is it that gets us out of bed in the morning, keeps us going through the day, motivates and inspires us – the thing that we find most fulfilling in life? As we learned from Samson’s example yesterday, our appetites can control us. Therefore, we need to give careful thought to what it is we’re really hungry for. And is it possible to control that? Is it possible to perhaps cultivate those appetites so we’re hungry for the right things? Yes, it is, and we’ll think more about that tomorrow.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Control your appetites, control your life

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. When he returned, he said to his father and mother, ‘I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.’” Judges 14:1-2 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Control your appetites, control your life”

This morning I want to continue our thinking from yesterday regarding Moses’ challenge to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 30:19 to choose God’s way or the way of the world. Each of us chooses the path we will walk through life, and that choice will determine how our life unfolds. “Choose your path, choose your life”.

But far too often we allow our appetites to dictate our choices. We allow the things we are hungry for, the things we lust after and deeply desire, to guide our thinking and to determine our choices. Samson was a man who was controlled by his appetites. On the one hand, he was extraordinarily gifted by God. He had amazing strength, he had good looks, he had a charismatic personality, and he inspired trust and loyalty in the people. They even appointed him to be a judge over Israel.

But on the other hand, Samson was a man of raging appetites and out of control emotions. He allowed lust, greed, anger, and revenge to dominate his thinking and to determine his choices. As a result, he lived a short, turbulent life that ended badly. You can read his story in the Old Testament book of Judges, chapters 13-16. Samson’s potential for doing good and for honoring the Lord and for blessing people was never fulfilled because of his bad choices. Repeatedly he chose the ways of the world over the ways of God. He allowed his appetites to control his choices, and ultimately to determine the course of his life.

I knew a young man like that once. He was a talented singer, songwriter, and musician. He led music for the church youth group and he had the potential to not only be a worship leader, but perhaps a Christian recording artist. But he made the bad choice to leave the world of Christian music and he went to Hollywood instead to try to make it in the world of secular music and movies. Long story short, he succumbed to many of the bad influences in that world and he lost his way. I performed his funeral not too many years later. Like Samson, he chose the ways of the world over the ways of God, and the ending was tragic.

It really is true that if you control your appetites, you control your life. But how can we control our appetites? We’ll think about that tomorrow. Choosing God and His ways over the world and its ways is always the best choice.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Choose your path, choose your life

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life …” Deuteronomy 30:19 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Choose your way, choose your life”

We each choose our path through life. God has ordained it to be so. He has set before us His way and the world’s way, and then He requires us to exercise our free will and to make a choice. Will you follow Him, or will you go the way of the world? The choice is yours. You have a personal responsibility given to you by God to choose your path – and then you will have to own that choice.

In order to fully appreciate the passage from Deuteronomy 30:19 quoted above, we need to go back a few verses and pick the conversation up in verse 11: “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, ‘Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?’ No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.”

Moses’ point was that obeying God is not that hard. In fact, if you fully surrender your heart to Him and then look to the Holy Spirit to guide you (Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight), you will be living in a way that honors and pleases the Lord and you will be blessed by Him. Your best life will be a life lived in the center of God’s will.

But you have to want that and you have to choose it. And be sure to choose carefully, because when you choose your way, you have chosen your life.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

If you see something, do something

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” James 4:17 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “If you see something, do something”

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” It’s uncertain who originally said that. The quote is often attributed to the 18^th century Irish philosopher Edmund Burke. The 19^th century English philosopher John Stuart Mill is sometimes also given credit for it. But whoever the original author was, the point is well-taken. Evil triumphs when people allow it to. Albert Einstein once said it this way, “The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually do it.”

Most people are good and decent – they’re just narrowly focused on the activities of everyday life like jobs, family, friends, church, hobbies, etc. They’re just minding their own business, not really hurting anyone, and living life. Most people are not evil and diabolical, plotting mass murder or creating sophisticated online scams to steal the life savings of senior citizens. It’s not that they don’t care about evil, they’re just busy and distracted, and hoping someone else will do something about the things that are wrong and which need to be dealt with.

No, most people are not actively engaged in evil, they’re just not actively opposing it. And as a result, evil often flourishes because good men and women allow it to.

This brings us back to the point we’ve been considering in our least several devotional messages that Christians need to be engaged in our world, opposing evil and actively promoting good. We are to be salt and light. We are to be the ones who will take the time and make the effort to say something and to do something.

For instance, abortion is a terrible sin – an offense against God. So, we must say so, we should help to fund Christian crisis pregnancy centers, and we should vote accordingly. Poverty and homelessness are big problems in our society too. So, we should support and assist rescue missions, food banks, and transition programs for the homeless.

You get the point. Jesus and James both taught us to be active advocates for good in the world. That will necessarily involve opposing that which is not good, and then going one step further and doing something about it.

If you see something that isn’t right say so, and then do something about it.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Just do the next right thing

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” Ruth 2:20 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Just do the next right thing”

In the Old Testament book of Ruth, we find the story of Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth. Naomi was a Jewish woman who lived in the land of Moab with her husband and two sons. Tragically, the husband and both sons died, leaving Naomi and her daughters-in-law in dire straits. Eventually Naomi and one of those daughters-in-law, Ruth, returned to Naomi’s homeland in Bethlehem, homeless and destitute.

When they got there, Ruth encountered a man named Boaz, who was a wealthy landowner and a distant relative of Naomi’s. Boaz had compassion on the women, he gave Ruth a job working in his fields, and he provided for them in other ways as well. Eventually Boaz married Ruth, had children with her, and they became part of the long line of descendants that eventually led to Jesus.

The editors of the “Every Man’s Bible” noted that Boaz didn’t really do anything exceptional or extraordinary, he simply showed kindness and compassion to people in need. And out of that, the story that led to the birth of Jesus advanced in history. “God didn’t ask Boaz to be a hero, just to do what was right.” That’s true for us too. God isn’t asking us to single-handedly save the world, He’s just asking us to do the next right thing as we go through our days.

This brings us back to the story from yesterday’s devotional about those two police officers who are making a real difference simply by doing their jobs and doing them well. Their commitment to making a positive difference one person at a time, one situation at a time, is exactly the approach we should take too. Just be a person of character and integrity, honoring God and blessing others as you go through your days.

God isn’t asking you to be a hero. Just do the next right thing.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Restrain evil and shine the light

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “You are the salt of the earth … You are the light of the world.” Matthew 5:13-14 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Restrain evil and shine the light”

Our church is currently hosting the Cumberland Country Sheriff’s Department Citizens Academy. On Tuesday evenings members of our local law enforcement and justice agencies are educating the community about law enforcement policies and practices. It includes presentations about the use of force, self-defense tactics for citizens, investigations, traffic stops, SWAT tactics, active shooter scenarios, and much more.

The other night two comments were made that caught my attention, both of which reminded me of how fortunate we are to have good men and women who dedicate their lives to protecting the public. The first comment was made by a Lieutenant who is a narcotics investigator. He told us about the massive flow of drugs coming across our southern border, about the influence of Mexican cartels even here in Cumberland County, and about all the fentanyl being pumped into our communities from China through Mexico. The comment he made was that their work in narcotics can be frustrating and discouraging, because sometimes it seems like they aren’t making much progress dealing with the problem.

The other comment was made by an officer in the juvenile justice system. He talked about how his officers don’t treat the juvenile offenders as perpetrators but as children and teenagers who are struggling in life and who need positive role models and good encouragement. Their approach (in addition to enforcing the law) is to bond with the juvenile offenders, try to figure out what’s going on in their lives, and find ways to address the root causes of their criminal behavior. He told some heart-touching stories about juveniles whose lives were turned around simply because they encountered an officer who cared enough to get involved in their lives in a positive way.

Both of those stories reminded me of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5:13-14 about being salt and light. Salt is a preservative that helps to prevent decay and rot. That’s what that narcotics officer is doing. He is acting as a restraining influence to hold back the spread of evil in our communities. It can be frustrating at times, but without him and others like him, there would be no restraint and things would be much worse. In a similar manner, Christians should be active in our world to help restrain the spread of evil in a wide variety of ways. Our presence in those situations should make a difference for good.

With respect to the comment from the officer from the juvenile justice system – light chases away darkness. That’s the influence that officer was describing. Instead of just arresting and incarcerating those young people, he and his team of officers treat them as troubled young human beings in need of help and enlightening. Likewise, that should also be the role of Christians in society as we interact with people lost in sin. Instead of just judging them and condemning their behavior, we should be helping them to experience the love of Jesus and to discover a better way to live.

The presence of those officers and their colleagues in those situations is making a real difference for good. That should be true of the followers of Jesus was we encounter people in our daily situations as well. Work to restrain evil and to shine the light.

God bless,
Pastor Jim