8/22/2026 Message

August 22nd, 2026
by Val Tharp

Hoping everyone had a great week!

A special thanks to Shelly Filkins and Reaching Souls International for helping us partner with them in reaching lost souls around the globe for Christ. Last Sunday’s message from Jeff Bradley and Pastor Paul Karani provided a great explanation of what RSI is doing for the Kingdom and how we are joining in by our prayers and financial support.

Thursday evening’s celebration of RSI’s 40th anniversary at the Cowboy Hall of Fame was incredible! To see how millions of lives around the world are being transformed by the Gospel through the efforts of RSI was impressive, inspiring, and convicting. It certainly renewed my commitment to do a better job of personally living a purposeful evangelistic lifestyle and to encourage our congregation to be more strategic and intentional about sharing Christ with those around us.

Happy 40th RSI, and thank you for reminding us of our highest priority – winning souls to Jesus. May God continue to bless your efforts!

Our building fund continues to grow!

If you were in church last week (even if you weren’t, I suspect you’ve heard by now), we shared that by last week, our congregation had given a phenomenal total to our building fund. However, as offerings have continued to come in this week through cash gifts and materialized pledges, our total is growing! We’ll give a quick update tomorrow in the 11:00 am service. It is exciting!!

Upcoming runoff elections

Statewide runoff elections will be this Tuesday, August 25. It is imperative that we all participate and vote according to our biblical values. You can check out “Charlie’s Picks” on our church website if you want to know who Charlie Meadows is recommending. Click here!

Thank you, Teri Lopes and others, for bringing gubernatorial candidate Mike Mazzei to LifePoint last Sunday. I hope everyone found his comments helpful.

Also, thank you, Ashley Hall and others, for encouraging us to consider James Taylor for our next OK School Superintendent. James is a long-time friend, and I will personally be casting my vote for James.

Even though our church does not officially endorse candidates, because of the biblical principles we teach and preach, we always want to vote according to those biblical, conservative beliefs.

Plymouth/Boston tour in Oct 2026

Since we had to postpone our tour to Plymouth & Boston last spring, we’re attempting to reschedule a tour for Oct 5-9, 2026. Although we have not yet determined the exact cost, it will likely be around $900-$1000 per person. We have very little time left to make all the arrangements. So, if you think you might be interested in going, please let us know asap by completing the brief form (click here). This will not obligate you to go; it will simply give us an indication of how many are interested. The time to pay and secure your spot will come in a couple of weeks. But we only have approx 5 weeks to pull everything together, so time is of the essence. We need at least 35 participants to make this tour feasible. So, I need to hear from you this week if you’re interested. Please contact me if you have any questions.

Baptism service is next weekend!

Just a reminder that we have a baptismal service after church in 2 weeks, much like what we did last summer! Mark your calendars for 2 PM on Sunday, August 30, 2026! If you have not been Scripturally baptized and you want to be placed on the list, click here to go to our website to complete and submit the Baptism Request form. If you have any questions about your spiritual walk and baptism, contact me.

Crossroads Clinic annual walk for life!

As hard as it is to believe, a year has passed since last year’s Crossroads Clinic Annual Walk for Life fundraiser. The next walk is scheduled for Saturday, Sept 19, at Mineral Wells Park in Guthrie. So, let’s step up and out for the unborn and support Crossroads in their vital ministry. See Amy Bachelor or visit https://ccwalkforlife.com for more information.

Tomorrow at LifePoint

Pastor's/BRR Class, 10 am - We will continue our verse-by-verse study of the Book of Revelation as we complete (hopefully) lesson 7: “The church age – Ephesus & Smyrna.” The letters to the 7 churches of Rev 2-3 are critical to a proper understanding of the rest of the book. For those of you who haven’t been able to join us in these early lessons, we’ve just begun studying chapter 2, so there’s still time for you to get in on the “ground floor” of this study. Come join us.
Worship/Preaching Service, 11 am - Over the past few weeks, we’ve been addressing believers’ plummeting biblical worldview in America and the resulting bad positions they’re taking on critical issues. To refresh your memory, we’ve discussed (you can click on each title below to be taken immediately to that message for review):
- Going, going, gone, Part 1 & Part 2 (investigating the sliding biblical worldview of American believers)
- Why Israel?
- Why hate Israel?
- Why save Israel?
- Blind shepherds, blind sheep, and the ditch they drive into (investigating the deplorable biblical worldview of our church leaders in America)
- Does America have the “commie blues”? (investigating the spiritual causes and consequences of the alarming rise of Communism in America)
  
  Tomorrow’s message will be, “The physics of morality.” It will discuss the primary reason why (other than spiritual decline) this is all happening. It will reveal the primary biblical principle that is the basis for morality, and the reason Americans are losing their grip on basic moral principles. You won’t want to miss this sermon.
  
  As always, if you missed or need to review a previous message, you can always do so on our website at Lbcok.com.