Newsletter for October 8, 2025

Make plans to join us as we continue our sermon series,
"Unshakable: Lessons from the Prophets."

Start your Wednesday evening with a delicious supper at 6:00 PM, followed by a powerful lesson on finding strength in God during life's trials. We will offer a special breakout class for young people, allowing the whole family to participate.
Come discover how to stand firm, no matter what.

Chicken and Dumplings,
Garden Peas, Pear Salad,
and Caramel Cake 

Special Guest Speaker at the Turner Baptist Annual Meeting
This Sunday night, the Turner Baptist Association will gather for our annual meeting, and we are excited to welcome Dr. Mel Blackaby as our guest speaker.

Dr. Blackaby serves as the Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church, Jonesboro, where he leads with a passion for making disciples who impact both their community and the nations. His ministry reflects a deep conviction that salvation is personal but never private—our faith must be lived out before a watching world.

In addition to his pastoral leadership, Dr. Blackaby is also the author of Going the Second Mile: Letting God Take You Beyond Yourself. In this powerful book, he unpacks Jesus’ teaching from Matthew 5:41 and challenges believers to move beyond “first mile living” into the abundant, Spirit-empowered life that only Christ can provide. His message is one of joy, rest, and freedom that comes when we allow God to work through us in ways far beyond our natural abilities.

We invite you to join us this Sunday evening as Dr. Blackaby shares from God’s Word and encourages us to live with Christ at the center. It promises to be a night of worship, fellowship, and challenge as we gather together as an association.

All ladies are welcome to join our WMU group.
Monday, October 13
1:30 PM

Meet in Bill Hardin's SS Classroom

Last year, our church family distributed over 500 goodie bags during the Ashburn Halloween Open House—and this year, we’re planning to reach even more families!

Each bag will include candy, information about our church, and the plan of salvation, making this an incredible opportunity to share the love of Christ with our community.

If you or your Sunday School class would like to help, you can donate candy or money for supplies. Please drop donations off outside Jonathan’s office by Wednesday, October 22.

Together, let’s shine the light of Jesus on a night when so many families are out and about in our community!

We are excited to begin collecting items for Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes!
For the month of September, we are focusing on toys and school supplies.

Suggested Toys: Small dolls, stuffed animals, jump ropes, balls, cars, puzzles, card games, musical toys (like harmonicas or recorders).

Suggested School Supplies:
Crayons, markers, colored pencils, small notebooks, rulers, erasers,
or pencil sharpeners

 Please Do Not Include:
Toy guns or weapons of any kind
War-related toys

 Drop-off boxes are located outside the church office.

Let’s join together to bless children around the world with the love of Christ through a simple shoebox gift!

We’d love your input! Please take a few minutes to fill out our church survey so we can better plan activities that serve and bless our church family.

Don’t miss Brother David’s Mid-Week Devotions in Psalms!
New messages are posted every Wednesday on our media page—take a midweek moment to be encouraged and refreshed in God’s Word.

Budget for 2025 . . . . . . . .  $329,624.00
Tithes Needed to Date . . . . $253,787.60
Received to Date . . . . . . . . $217,260.80      
Needed for weekly budget . . . $6,344.69
Tithes Received this week . .  $10,630.93

In Hebrews 4:16, we are told, “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”  Isn’t that wonderful? We can come to God with the confidence that He will hear and answer us. We can rest assured that we will receive the help we need.

But is that really our experience in prayer? Do we really have confidence in approaching God? Do we leave our prayer time with the certainty God will meet our need? Most of us probably admit there are times we struggle in our prayer life.
We can find help for our prayer life by looking at Nehemiah. God answered his prayer by moving the king's heart to allow Nehemiah to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls of the city. God further answered his prayers by enabling him to overcome all the obstacles to his work.

What do we learn about prayer from Nehemiah? When we look at his prayer in Nehemiah 1:5-11, we see some key elements. We need these same elements in our prayers.
First, there is the recognition of God’s greatness. Nehemiah began his prayer by saying, “I beseech, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God…”  Our prayer will be directly influenced by our concept of God. If we see God as the Sovereign and Almighty God that Nehemiah saw, we will be able to pray as Nehemiah prayed.

Next, we need to see that God is faithful. Nehemiah continued by praying “…who preserves the covenant…” Nehemiah knew God kept His Word. We will only pray with confidence when we realize we have a God who is worthy of our confidence.
Third, we base our prayers on the goodness of God. Nehemiah prayed according to God’s lovingkindness. We teach children to pray, “God is great, God is good …” How we adults need to learn those simple, wonderful truths! Our prayers and our life would radically change.

Last, we stand on God’s grace. Nehemiah confessed the sins of the nation and depended on God’s promise to restore. Nehemiah’s and Israel’s only basis before God was His grace. Wonderfully, His grace is more than sufficient. He Himself makes it possible for us to come before Him and pray to Him in confidence.
God invites us to come to Him with our every need. If we follow the pattern of Nehemiah’s prayer, we will experience God moving in wonderful ways in our life.