Oak Hill Baptist Church

Life is short, time is precious, enjoy it while you can

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Savor the time”

Our Bible verse for today: “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” James 4:14 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Life is short, time is precious, enjoy it while you can.”

The other day I attended the funeral of an old friend who died rather suddenly. He was seventy-seven, but he had been a healthy and vigorous seventy-seven. However, one day they discovered he had cancer and seven weeks later he was dead. Just like that, he was gone.

Many of you reading this know that last year my daughter Tracy died suddenly as well. The cause was also cancer. It was exactly one week from the time they discovered she even had cancer until she died. One week. I have another friend who lost his daughter instantly, in a car accident. One moment she was alive and well, and the next she was dead.

This is what James was referring to in James 4:14. There’s a thin line separating life and death and any of us can cross it at any moment. Life is fragile, unpredictable, sometimes short, and it often ends abruptly. Therefore, we must savor and guard and cherish the time that we have. Time is precious and shouldn’t be wasted. That’s why one of my favorite sayings about time, and one which I often think about, write about, and use in my preaching and teaching, is the one from Benjamin Franklin which, when rephrased in contemporary language says, “Do you value your life? Then value your time. Because time is the stuff that life is made of.”

Too many of us waste our time, or we rush through our lives allowing ourselves to be so busy that we don’t really enjoy it, or we don’t give our time to the people and things which are most important. The older I get the more I appreciate and value my time.

All this month I would like to explore with you the idea of slowing down, focusing on the people and events that matter the most, and truly savoring this gift of life the Lord has given us. Let’s learn together how to truly savor our time.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Others sacrificed so we can be free

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “You have been set free”

Our Bible verse for today: “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Others sacrificed so we can be free.”

It’s fitting and appropriate for our study of “You have been set free” to conclude on Memorial Day. Memorial Day is the day each year when we as Americans stop to honor those who have given their lives in defense of our nation. They died to protect our freedom. We owe them a great debt of gratitude and they are perfect examples of what Jesus described in John 15:13.

However, as we have learned this month, the far greater sacrifice was made by Jesus when He died upon the cross to win for us freedom far greater than our constitutional freedoms. As precious as those are, they pale in comparison to the spiritual victory Jesus won for us. Our spiritual freedom is so much more important. If you would be interested in learning more about our spiritual freedoms, I encourage you to do a personal in-depth Bible study of the book of Galatians. Two helpful tools for such a study that I have used myself and which I recommend to you are, “Be Free: Exchange Legalism for True Spirituality” by Warren Wiersbe, and “The Life Application Bible Commentary on Galatians” published by Tyndale House. Galatians is a study in freedom.

Over the centuries millions of American service men and women have made the ultimate sacrifice so we can live as free citizens of the greatest nation in the world. Be grateful for their sacrifice. Honor it and celebrate it. Almost two thousand years ago Jesus made an even greater sacrifice so we can be free for eternity. People need to know this, and we can be the ones to tell them. Since today is Memorial Day, people are thinking about and celebrating freedom as citizens. We Americans cherish our freedom and therefore, the subject of freedom can be a great conversation starter to lead a person into a discussion about true freedom found through faith in Jesus Christ.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Help others find freedom too

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “You have been set free”

Our Bible verse for today: “Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.” 1 Corinthians 9:19 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Help others find freedom too”

As we near the end of our study on the theme of “You have been set free”, I think it’s important to remind ourselves of the two primary reasons Jesus has set us free. First, He set us free from the penalty of our sins so that we can spend eternity in heaven. And second, once we received that salvation and experienced that freedom, He then left us here on earth in order to help others find that freedom too. As we have learned, we are now to be on-mission with Him in this world blessing others and leading them to faith in Him.

The Apostle Paul understood that. From the moment He was saved on the road to Damascus, the focus of his life was to help others find the freedom from sin that he himself had received. That’s what he was describing in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23. In the rest of the passage, he went on to describe all of the sacrifices he was willing to make in order to reach people with the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Not only did Paul live that way himself, he taught the rest of us to do so as well. In Galatians 5:13 he wrote, “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature, rather, serve one another in love.” Likewise, in Philippians 2:4 we read, “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” The Apostle Peter taught this as well. In 1 Peter 4:10 he wrote, “Each one of us should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.”

And all of this of course, is based upon the example that Jesus Himself set for us. “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45. And, “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” John 13:15. Jesus even went on to say that as far as He is concerned, the greatest and most faithful followers are those who are the best servants: “The greatest among you will be your servant.” Matthew 23:11.

The teaching is clear – we have been set free from our sins, now we are to help others discover that same freedom. The best way to do that is to serve them in the name of Jesus, then tell them the Good News of the Gospel. Nothing we do will be of more benefit to our society and to our nation than for Christians to be on-mission with Jesus in the communities where we live.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Be a source of grace, peace, and comfort

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “You have been set free”

Our Bible verse for today: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Corinthians 1:2 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Be a source of grace, peace, and comfort”

I love the way Paul began his letter to the Corinthian believers, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” What a wonderful word of blessing to greet someone with. Then, he immediately follows that in verses 3-4 with an explanation of how it is that we can be a conduit for that grace and peace to flow from God to other people: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort that we ourselves received from God.”

It never ceases to amaze me how much pain and suffering there is in this world. From famines and wars; to natural disasters like earthquakes, hurricanes, and pandemics; to the normal everyday trials that we all experience like the death of a loved one, sickness, wayward children, betrayal by friends, etc. And Christians aren’t exempt from any of it. We suffer those things right along with our fellow humans.

Yes, there is a lot of pain and suffering in life. But that’s just life in a broken, bleeding, sin-filled world. However, God often does His best work in the middle of suffering, because that’s when people are most open to Him. As Christians we often experience God most and best in the middle of pain and suffering, and that’s even truer for non-Christians. Typically, the closer a person gets to rock-bottom in life the more open that person is to seeking comfort from the God of all comfort.

That’s the situation Paul was describing in 2 Corinthians 1:3-6. First, God will comfort you in the midst of your own pain and suffering. Then, He will use your times of pain and suffering, and what you learned through them, to make you more sensitive and empathic to those who are suffering like you did. That then creates the opportunity for God to use you to deliver His grace and peace and comfort to others who are suffering and who may not even know Him.

Through their pain and suffering you can help other people to find the grace and peace that you have found from God through faith in Jesus Christ. Pain and suffering can become a pathway that leads them to freedom – the true freedom that we’ve been thinking about all month. I encourage you to look for someone you can be a source of comfort to today.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

The Jesus way

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “You have been set free”

Our Bible verse for today: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” John 14:6 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “The Jesus way”

Pastor and author Eugene Peterson once had this to say about Jesus’ metaphor of being “the way”: “The Jesus way wedded to the Jesus truth brings about the Jesus life … But Jesus as the truth gets far more attention that Jesus as the way. Jesus as the way is the most frequently evaded metaphor among Christians …”

We commonly think of Jesus as “the way” to heaven. And He is that. That is the primary context of John 14:6. But He’s more than just the way to eternal salvation, He’s also the model of the way we as Christians are to live. Repeatedly throughout the gospels Jesus demonstrated with His own life and taught in His parables how He wants His followers to conduct themselves, and then He said “Now go and do likewise”.

Seriously. We need to pay attention to this. Jesus is our example. He shows us how we are supposed to conduct ourselves in this world. We are to measure our life and conduct against His, and then make adjustments accordingly. His life is the gold standard and His example is our guide, it’s what we’re supposed to be striving for.

Not too many years ago there was a popular saying in Christian culture which we were supposed to frequently ask ourselves as both a challenge and a reminder. It was, “What would Jesus do? (WWJD)” It’s true that it was overused to the point of becoming a trite cliché and yet, it is Biblical. And important. And helpful. What would Jesus do in your situation?

Granted, He is not you and you are not Him. Your world today is different than His world was then. Jesus wasn’t a forty-year -old man driving a car in Crossville, TN and He didn’t just get flipped off by another driver who thinks you cut him off. But if He was, then how would He respond in this instance? What would Jesus do? And Jesus wasn’t a fifty-year-old woman working in an office with an irritating and obnoxious coworker. But if He was, how would He deal with this person? What would Jesus do? And Jesus isn’t here to show us how to deal with angry fellow citizens on the other side of the political spectrum. But if He was, how would He respond in such situations? What would Jesus do?

You get the picture. The Gospels don’t provide us with explicit instructions to address every situation we will encounter in life. But they do provide us with principles that apply broadly, and they do offer us enough examples from the life of Jesus so that we can ask the question “What would Jesus do?” and then apply those principles and His example to our situations.

Jesus is “the way” that we are supposed to be conducting ourselves in our world. It’s “the Jesus way”, and not enough of us are doing it. I think our society needs to see a little less of our way of handling things and a little more of the Jesus way.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Let them see it in your life

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “You have been set free”

Our Bible verse for today: “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.” 2 Corinthians 3:17 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Let them see it in your life.”

In the passage from 2 Corinthians that we’re looking at this morning, beginning in chapter two and extending throughout chapter three, the Apostle Paul was in the middle of a discourse about what it means to be “ministers of the new covenant”. He was using his own ministry as an example but what he described should be true of all of us.

In the passage, Paul explained that as we make our way through our days people should sense the “fragrance” of the knowledge of Jesus from us (2:14); they should be able to read us as if we are a letter to them from Jesus Himself (3:3); and while Moses covered his face with a veil after he came from meeting with God to hide the fact that the glory of the Lord through him was temporary and soon faded away, the glory of Christ should shine through us continuously and not only should we not conceal it, we should be intentional about letting it shine through us (3:12-18).

Then, in 3:17, we read that the presence of the Lord is meant to bring freedom – just as Jesus declared in Luke 4:18, “I have come to set the captives free”, and we remember that the presence of the Lord is meant to set people free in all the ways we’ve been considering this month.

Taking all of this together, we realize that what Paul meant in 2 Corinthians 3:17 is that we must let people see the glory of the Spirit of God at work in our lives, and they should see the freedom we have because of it. Don’t hide it behind a veil like Moses did. Don’t be silent about Jesus or inactive for the cause of Christ. Show them Jesus by what you do and tell them about Jesus with your words.

If you have been set free by Jesus; if the Holy Spirit of God is at work in you and through you; if the fruit of the Spirit describes your character; I encourage you to let people see it in your life today.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Do your part to restrain evil

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “You have been set free”

Our Bible verse for today: “And you now know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.” 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Do your part to restrain evil in the world. “

2 Thessalonians 2:6-7 is a critical passage of scripture for Christians today to understand. The Apostle Paul was giving his readers insight into the end times when Satan, through the work of the antichrist, will be unrestrained and therefore evil in the world will be worse than ever. This will happen at the midpoint of the seven-year tribulation period which occurs just prior to the second coming of Jesus.

It’s at this midpoint in the tribulation that the rapture occurs and all the remaining believers in Christ are removed from the world. Since the Holy Spirit resides in the hearts of those believers and does most of His work in this world through them, when they are taken out of the world the work the Holy Spirit was doing through them stops. Up until this point, the Holy Spirit has been present in the world living in the hearts of multiple millions upon millions of Christians. Through their faithful ministry in the world evil has been restrained and pushed back; lost sinners have been led to Jesus; lives have been changed; and eternal destinies determined. But at the time of the rapture their influence in the world is gone and then, all hell literally breaks loose on earth.

Every day we get a little closer to the end of time, but right now you and I live in the pre-rapture period. The Holy Spirit lives in our hearts and works through us to oppose Satan and to restrain evil as we promote Kingdom principles, minister in the name of Jesus, and lead people to faith in Him.

Remember, Jesus has set us free so that we can help others to be free too. In this fractured and hurting world that we live in the best thing we Christians can do to help make our society a better place is to actively oppose the influence of Satan. It is for this that Jesus saved your soul and then sent you off on-mission in this world. You are to help restrain Satan’s evil influence in this world. I encourage you to find ways to do that today.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

We must represent Him well

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “You have been set free”

Our Bible verse for today: “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” 2 Corinthians 5:20 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “We must represent Him well.”

In his great Bible study series “The Kingdom Agenda”, Pastor Tony Evans likens Christians in the world to ambassadors sent to another land on a diplomatic mission. The Ambassador is commissioned by his or her government to go to a foreign land and represent the interests of their homeland. The ambassador has the authority of the home government to conduct the business of the homeland in that foreign country.

In 2 Corinthians 5:20 the Apostle Paul says that we Christians are ambassadors of Christ. We are citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20) but we have been sent to this foreign land to represent the interests of the homeland (heaven) and to promote the policies of our King (Jesus). Just as a diplomatic ambassador is not there to represent his or her own interests, nor are we here to represent ours. We’re on a mission from our home to a foreign land to promote the interests of the kingdom to which we belong.

In the Great Commission, as it is expressed in Acts 1:8, Jesus said, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Please note He said, “You are to be “my” witnesses.” We are not here to be witnesses for ourselves, or to promote our own agenda. Nor are we here to be witnesses for someone else, or to promote some other agenda. As Christians our purpose here on earth is be witnesses for Jesus and to promote His kingdom. Our role is to help others see the goodness and the righteousness of the rule and the ways of our King, and to convince them to follow Him as well.

One of the reasons we Christians often lose our influence with the unbelieving world is that we sometimes lapse into self-promotion and pursue our own interests. Or, we seem to be more of a witness for a political party or a politician than we are for Jesus Christ.

As Americans we appreciate the freedom our democratic system of government affords, and we eagerly and proudly promote democracy around the world. How could be do anything less as Christians in our efforts to promote the cause of Christ in the world? We should be even more eager to represent Jesus in this world and to promote Christianity than we are to represent anyone else or to promote any other cause.

Jesus set us free and then sent us out into the world to be His witnesses, His ambassadors in this broken and bleeding world. I encourage all of us to represent Him well.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

We are free to gather

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “You have been set free”

Our Bible verse for today: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. Now all the believers were together and held all things in common.” Acts 2:42-43 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “We are free to gather together”

During the recent pandemic we Christians here in the state of Tennessee never lost our right to gather together with other Christians for worship. Initially, at the beginning of the pandemic, when there were so many unknowns and our leaders were scrambling in their efforts to figure it out and to protect us all from this dangerous virus, our Governor did “ask” us to “voluntarily” suspend in-person services until healthcare and government officials could gain a better understanding of what was happening and how to control it.

We gladly cooperated with that effort. We did it voluntarily, not because we were compelled to. Our constitutional freedom of religious assembly was never infringed upon. Not in our state. Unfortunately, and sadly, the same wasn’t true in many other states. Some states compelled churches to close rather than asking them to. I believe that was an unconstitutional infringement on religious liberty and it violated Biblical principle as well.

God’s people must be free to worship. That’s what Moses told Pharoah was one of the reasons he needed to let the people go. It’s also the picture we’re reading about in the scene in Acts 2:42-43. There we’re seeing the early New Testament church, shortly after the day of Pentecost, gathered daily in Jerusalem for worship, study, prayer, fellowship, and ministry. At that time, they were still relatively free to do so. Shortly, the persecution would begin. When it did, many of the believers would continue to meet anyway and simply suffer the consequences. Many others would leave Jerusalem and go to other places where they could gather and worship in peace and security.

The freedom to choose to gather for worship is a non-negotiable. There may be occasions when we choose not to gather – perhaps because of personal illness, or maybe because of a weather event like a snow or ice storm makes it dangerous and so we chose to cancel church for the day, or perhaps even at the “request” of a government official in order to assist with an emergency situation of some sort. In such cases we can decide for ourselves to gather or not, but the freedom to gather for worship should not be infringed upon.

Throughout Christian history believers have often faced persecution for gathering, yet they have done it anyway and chosen to suffer the consequences. It happens every day in China. Believers are forced into what is called “underground churches” in order to gather for worship, while avoiding the authorities who are trying to prevent it.

For those of us who don’t face such persecution and obstacles, we should exercise our freedom to gather with other believers. We have Biblical instruction to not neglect gathering together (Hebrews 10:25); we have Biblical models for it (Acts 2:42-43); and we even have the freedom to do it. Why would be not?

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

You are the plan

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “You have been set free”

Our Bible verse for today: “Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Our thought for today: “You are the plan”

You are God’s plan for spreading the Good News of the Gospel. It’s through you that He plans to shower the world with the love and blessings of Jesus Christ, and it is you who will help to build His kingdom on earth. You’re it. You are the plan, and it is for this that you have been set free by Christ.

How does that news make you feel? If you’re like me then you feel unworthy and inadequate. Certainly not up to such a task. What could God be thinking? There must be better ways for Him to accomplish His plan than through an imperfect, deeply flawed, sometimes confused, and often lazy knucklehead like me. If I’m the best plan He has then I’m afraid He has set Himself up to be disappointed.

Fortunately, there’s a little more to it than that. Actually, there’s a lot more to it than that. It turns out that His plan involves us – plus the Holy Spirit. As Paul explained in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, at the time of your salvation God placed the Holy Spirit in your heart. This is where the power comes from. It’s not you or me, it’s Him living in us and working through us. This is such an important understanding that the subject of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is addressed at least sixteen times in the New Testament.

But what does the indwelling mean, how does it work, and what does it accomplish? It means that the Spirit of God lives within us and works through us. In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Paul painted a picture of the follower of Christ being a walking, talking, mobile temple of the Holy Spirit. Wherever you go, you bring the Holy Spirit with you in a very focused way. If you let Him, He will use your mouth to speak God’s words, and He will use your hands and feet to accomplish God’s purposes.

Jesus taught this truth in John 15:5 in His parable about the vine and the branches. Just as a grapevine lives its life through the branches that grow off of it and produces its fruit through those branches, so too Jesus lives His life through the lives of His followers and produces His fruit through them. In Galatians 5:22-23 the Apostle Paul picked up on that analogy and described for us what some of that fruit will look like – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

As we go through our days, carrying the Holy Spirit of God with us wherever we go, we’re to simply allow Him to use us to accomplish God’s purposes through us. We are God’s plan – but it’s the Holy Spirit who actually accomplishes the results. We just need to let Him.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim