"Offer a thanksgiving sacrifice to God, and pay your vows to the Most High. Call on me in a day of trouble; I will rescue you, and you will honor me.”(Psalm 50:14-15)
As I read verse 15 this morning it almost took my breath away. How many times have I called on the Lord in the midst of distress? Time after time He has been faithful to rescue me from trouble. God is faithful!
Faithfulness is a part of God’s character. It’s almost as if faithfulness is such a part of who God is that it simply overflows out of Him upon all who are nearby. The apostle Paul encouraged Timothy with the reminder that God’s faithfulness doesn’t even depend on us. “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself” (2 Timothy 2:13). He is faithful! Likewise, the author of the book of Hebrews told the early church to, “hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23). Because of God’s faithfulness to all who believe, we can move forward in confidence, be bold in the faith, have peace under pressure, and assurance in the trials of life because God is always faithful.
Below you will find some celebrations from the previous week, as well as our weekly financial update.
Baptisms: This Sunday is the third of 4 weeks in a row that we will have baptisms during our worship services! Over 20 people have or are going public in their decision to follow Jesus. Join us each week as we celebrate the life transforming power of the gospel. If you have never been baptized and would like to be at an upcoming worship service go to hhbc.net/nextsteps to learn how to be a part!
HHBC Loves Our Community:
Hyland Heights is a church with a deep love for Jesus and an incredible love for our community. One of the phrases that I’ve often used when helping Christians figure out where they can begin making an impact for God is to “start where you are”. As our staff prayed about where God was leading us to “start” this Fall, we felt that God was asking us as a church to bless our schools in the area. While we can’t adopt all the schools in the area just yet, we started with the closest school to us to adopt for the year! For the 2020-2021 school year we will be partnering with Yellow Branch Elementary School teachers and administrators. We are looking for ways throughout the year to bless them and because of your continued incredible generosity are starting by sending Yellow Branch teachers classroom supplies that they have personally picked for their specific classroom. In addition, you will begin to see HHBC social media posts of a Yellow Branch “teacher of the week” that you can pray for and even send an encouragement to. It’s exciting to continue to find creative ways to serve and impact our community with the love of Jesus. This is just the beginning. If you would like to give to specifically support this yearlong outreach, you can do so by dropping off donations at the office or designating gifts in the offering to YBES Outreach.
Fall Missions Offering: At Hyland Heights we want to make the biggest impact possible for the gospel. This year, our mission team has asked our church to prayerfully and generously give to the Fall Missions Offering on Sunday, October 25th. This is NEW to HHBC so let me explain. The vision of the Missions team is to focus our missions offerings with a Spring and Fall Missions Offering each year. This year, our Fall Missions Offering will go to: 40% International Mission Board, 20% North American Mission Board, 20% HHBC sponsored missionaries, and 20% to create a scholarship to help send more HHBC members on HHBC short-term mission trips than ever before! Begin to pray about how you can give and stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks!
Ways to Serve at HHBC:
Do you want to be a part of a ministry that is reaching people with the gospel? Even if you don’t know how to share your faith yet, we can help, and God can use you to reach people for Christ. Each week our Evangelism Team is sharing the hope of Jesus with dozens of families as they come to our food pantry on Wednesday nights. If you would like to be a part, email our college pastor, Sean Best at sbest@hhbc.net and he will help you get connected.
Doreen and Carmen are still in need of extra help on Wednesday nights for Cubbies (ages 3-4) and nursery (2 and under). The times are from 6:15-8:00 and we start this week. Also, Doreen still needs help on Sunday mornings with our special needs class. If anyone would like to volunteer for either of these, please contact us at mykerrboys@aol.com or Doreen.close@campbell.k12.va.us.
Sunday Reminders: As we continue to see Covid-19 numbers rise in our community, we remind everyone to take the precautions you would take when entering into any other building. If doing things like social distancing, washing hands well, and wearing masks can help us love our neighbors better and avoid potential spread in our church family so we can continue worshiping together in person, we should strive to do these things as much as we are able. Last week we saw many more people wearing masks in our hallways and would say this is a good thing, as our hallways are the hardest place to maintain social distancing. We also want to remind everyone that the 9:30 service still has plenty of room for you and your family to join us while best maintaining social distancing. Thank you for your help and understanding as we strive to keep the people we love as safe as possible. For additional information on HHBC’s response to Covid-19 go to hhbc.net/coronavirus
HHBC Weekly Financials:
Weekly Offering: $44,895.95
Weekly Budget: $33,228.00
As of September 7th, we have received 106% of our year-to-date budget.
Please remember that giving in worship will continue to look different as long as Covid-19 persists. We will not pass the plates for your safety, but will have offering baskets where you can give as you exit the worship center following whichever service you attend. For many, we know that you have started to give online, and this continues to be an excellent choice to make giving easier/safer for you and to make sure that the ministry and mission of HHBC continues to impact more lives the weeks to come. If you would like to give to Hyland Heights online, simply go to hhbc.net/give.
"Lord, your faithful love reaches to heaven, your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your judgments like the deepest sea. Lord, you preserve people and animals. How priceless your faithful love is, God!" (Psalm 36:5-7)
Dr. Josh Carter
Senior Pastor