For the newsletter article following the student retreat weekend a couple of weeks ago, I thought it would be nice if I shared some snapshots of our weekend. During our retreat, we had 55 students and nine faithful and fearless leaders to watch over them. Our speaker, Brian Joines, is a good friend of mine and was my family and discipleship pastor in college. And with this big of a crew, we decided to return to Highland Lakes and enjoy the outdoors over the weekend.
First and foremost, praise God for all of the work He did while we were at retreat, for bringing 65 total people to retreat and for working in the hearts of everyone while we were there. I pray that He would continue to work and cultivate our hearts as time goes on. Second, I want to give a big thanks to all the parents for letting their students hang out with us over the weekend. I pray the time they had and the sermons they heard would not fall on deaf ears and hardened hearts. I pray that it would truly help grow their relationship with our Father. Third, thanks to all our leaders for helping me run this weekend. I’m very thankful that Oakhill has men and women that want to serve the Lord and serve their church. What a gift it is to partner with others in ministry.
Next, I’d like to share my theme and goal for the weekend. Our theme was called “Sow Seeds of Faithfulness”, and my desire was to challenge students and ask how faithful they are in their lives. This was not in any way to cause some to doubt their faith, but to question: where their faith lays, is their faith in action, and are they led in their life by faith? Here are some specific questions Brian and I asked them over the weekend for them to consider: "Do we think, act, and make decisions according to the Bible? Do we let the Holy Spirit speak and convict us when we consider sin? Does God, the Bible, and the Gospel impact the choices we make?” All of these questions tried to help drive the point of do you live your life faithfully or ignorantly? Then, Brian and I organized four sermons to help students consider these questions and understand what the Bible and Jesus has to say about these questions. We utilized the parable of the Sower, the story of Jesus explaining He is the true vine, using Galatians to understand sowing and reaping, then finally we had our last sermon teach and equip students on Biblical decision-making. Brian did a tremendous job preaching and teaching these main ideas to the students and in a way that they would understand. I could tell right away that he would be a hit with them.
So, there’s a little snapshot of our weekend. We also spent a lot of time hanging out, playing games, fellowshipping, and singing hymns as well. Please be in prayer with me and ask the Lord to continue to work in the hearts of these students and that they would pursue faithfulness to Him in their lives. I leave you with a picture of our group for the weekend, what a great time we had!
His Glory Alone
