Why Do We Do VBS? (2026)

We have sung come to the feast for years. It's a very good song real short very powerful But that should express our Evangelistic heart should it not I Think that was very fitting to finish out our worship with that one. Thank you Keith. I appreciate it Well, like I said earlier in our scripture reading we're gonna be in Matthew 19 a little later We're gonna be in Luke 18 a little later And we're gonna be in Mark chapter 10 a little later. Now. I don't mean to overwhelm you By saying we're gonna be in three places.

What we have here is Matthew's account of this story we have Mark's account of this event and then we have Luke's account and this all comes together to show us What the Lord is doing? Purposefully in the lives of children and I'm really excited about what we're going to study here Well, I said this earlier. I think everybody knows that we are right here on the verge of vacation Bible school As a matter of fact vacation Bible school has already started for some of you Some of you been making preparations for the last week or two even this morning Some of you were up at the church earlier.

You were here earlier unloading things in the kitchen stuff like that So vacation Bible school doesn't start for you tonight. It's already started. I know it has in my home as well But you know, I was thinking about it vacation Bible school has been a big part of our church for years except for last year Covid ruined it all did it not I think we are getting over Covid.

I'm very thankful We might even have a Covid hangover if that makes sense to you Now some of you have been a part of our church for years And you know that we experienced that what we call a rebirth of a church our church was a little church out in a country that was almost closed and all of this started about 10 years ago a little over 10 years ago and You know besides adding Sunday night services back in those rebuilding years besides adding Sunday night services Wednesday night services We started really pouring into the lives of our children and other children and that led to starting vacation Bible school our first vacation Bible school back in those years was in 2012 and you know our vacation Bible school back then was very basic.

We had our children We had children from the community We were working hard to teach good curriculum good Bible centered Christ centered curriculum And you know, we had a lot of good fun And you know vacation Bible school just took off and we have a lot of fun memories I think about all of the recreation across the street from the old church in that vacant lot Some of that lot was more gravel than grass.

I know some of you know You know, I was thinking about it last night There's got to be at least 10 or 15 of those old recreation balls in the woods all around that old church We never got them all I promise But vacation Bible school has been a big part of our lives. It's been a big part of our church since 2012 You know our reference to rebirth of a church.

I'll never forget about 2012 2013 one of the older ladies in the church looked to me and she said, you know We haven't had vacation Bible school here since the 1980s So sad that many years of just barren ministry and we were blessed and we were thankful and we still are Now this morning what I want to do is I want to ask us a question. Why do we have vacation Bible school? Why do we make all of these preparations? Why do we spend some of the money that we spend why do we invest all of this time? And you know for some of you you're gonna work a lot and you're gonna work hard. Why do we work so hard here? Why do we go to the trouble? Why?

Vacation Bible school really that's the title of the message. Why? Vacation Bible school now, honestly, this is a question that we should ask We should ask this not just to justify what we do. No, I'm not trying to just justify what we do here this morning I want us to answer this question in two ways first from the scriptures Now I'm not gonna try to tell you that they had vacation Bible school in the scriptures Imagine vacation Bible school there in Jerusalem Jerusalem was the first church folks Imagine vacation Bible school there Probably what I had Martha busy in the kitchen Then you probably would have had married she would have been all about the worship Mary probably would have complained that Martha was putting too much time in the kitchen and Martha probably would have complained that Mary Wasn't coming and helping her with too late and cookies Peter would have probably been over recreation You know, he was a little rambunctious Rather than cutting off a child's ear with a sword.

He probably would have beat some of the kids up with dodgeball Now they didn't have vacation Bible school I know that and I'm gonna get to that a little bit later But first I want to show you from the scriptures Okay jokes aside from the scriptures while we do vacation Bible school and then I want to answer this question from my heart It's pastor of the church.

I want to answer this question from my heart and Well how I feel about this ministry now, here's where I want us to look at the scriptures I want us to look at Matthew first Then mark and then Luke 18 and then for the rest of the message you just follow me I think you see I don't have any information on the screens It'd be easy for you to follow me. I just want you to follow you follow me with your mind with your heart If the Lord leads you to write something down you do that.

Let's look at Matthew's account first Matthew chapter 19 starting in verse 13 Matthew records this event this way then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray and The disciples rebuke the people verse 14 But Jesus said let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven And he laid his hands on them and went away Now let's look at Mark's account marks accounts a little bit longer a few more details here verse 13 and They were bringing children to him that he might touch them and the disciples rebuked them But when Jesus saw it he was indignant that might surprise you he was indignant and he said to them This was the disciples let the children come to me do not hinder them for to such belongs the kingdom of God Verse 15 truly I'll say to you Whoever does not receive the kingdom like a child shall not enter it shall not enter the kingdom and then verse 16 And he took them into his arms and he blessed him laying his hands on them And then Luke's account Luke 18 verses 15 to 17 Luke 18 15 to 17.

It's really not fair. I can have all this marked ahead of time. I know that Now they were bringing even infants notice Luke Uses this word infants now they were bringing even infants babies to him that he might touch them and When the disciples saw it they rebuked them But Jesus called them to him saying let the children come to me and do not hinder them For to such belongs the kingdom of God truly I say to you whoever does not receive the kingdom of God Like a child shall not enter it Now I think we can all see that Matthew Mark and Luke Record this same event of course we can pick up on a few details A detail or two that are a little bit different and this all comes together to give us what the Lord wants us to see here Now before we get into many of the details.

I want us to see what was happening here in the situation We have this event where parents were adults were bringing babies and children to Jesus Luke in his account uses the word for infants. This would be newborn babies So to me we definitely have mothers that are in everything that is going on here You're not going to separate mothers from babies in there, right?

Then mark and his account uses a general word for children So there were children there as well as babies and Jesus purpose here was twofold He was explaining who belongs in the kingdom and how they come into the kingdom We've seen that in the verses and we see that Jesus was blessing the babies. He was blessing the children that were brought to him Now as I meditated on these verses all week to me, I think there was a lot of commotion here You had adults you had parents bringing babies and children to Jesus and things get chaotic when the disciples get involved The disciples began rebuking the parents for bringing their children to Jesus and this was not a soft rebuke folks The word mark uses here describes a strong reprimand Jesus used a similar word when he rebuked demons all throughout his ministry.

So this seems to be very chaotic to me Let me explain what I mean by that You try rebuking a mother when she wants to do something with her kids and I promise you it'll get chaotic real quick It might even get violent You might even have to run So, of course we have Jesus Jesus is right in the center of it all in that right now You've noticed that Jesus what Jesus wasn't sitting here like a statue Jesus was rebuking his disciples because they were rebuking the parents even the adults So this sounds more like an argument this really sounds more like an argument more like a chaotic situation than a then an even smooth ministry event and Mark's account the English Standard Version says that Jesus was indignant I read that earlier and This is a very strong word, which means he was angry.

He even became a rate. This word means that he was outraged So Jesus was angry. He was outraged at the disciples because they were keeping the adults they were keeping the children They were keeping the parents from bringing the children to him Jesus strongly rebukes the disciples while lovingly welcoming the adults that the children the babies the parents everyone And to me this is an interesting event and we can't overlook this but there's a lot that we need to see here There's a lot that applies to us. Yes in vacation Bible school, but really and truly this applies to a lot of ministry as well So I want us to go a little deeper here.

I want us to notice a few details First I want us to see those who brought the children right away We will see those who brought the children look at verse 13 if you have Your scriptures open. I'm in Mark chapter 10 and They were bringing the children to him that he might touch them Now there is a little more going on here than we may see We may not relate to this but this was a common practice in their day to seek out spiritual blessing for children It was a common practice for parents to bring their children to respected teachers respected rabbis So that they might pronounce a blessing upon them and over them.

We also see this in the Old Testament Fathers did this at times with their own children Noah He pronounced a blessing over his children in Genesis 9. That was an interesting blessing Isaac he did the same over his children in Genesis 27 Jacob did the very same thing with his children in Genesis 49 So for a father laying his hands on his children and pronouncing a blessing on his children or parents Bringing their children to a respected spiritual leader for a blessing. This was common This was a common practice in their day again. We might not relate to that But we need to ask a question here. What were the parents?

What were their motivations? What were they seeking after? It is safe to say that they were seeking some type of a spiritual blessing for their children Truthfully, the text only says that they wanted Jesus to touch their children But it is safe to say that they wanted more than a customary spiritual blessing You see Jesus had already been healing all sorts of diseases He had already been meeting all types of needs and he had already been performing all types of great miracles So I believe these parents brought their children to Jesus for a blessing but also for more They had seen Jesus as a loving kind miracle worker Because of the way he healed the sick and he even touched the sick He touched the untouchable while he was performing these great miracles and this was in stark contrast To all of the Jewish leaders that they were accustomed to But for us, what is the lesson here?

What is the lesson that can be applied for us in our day? First of all, we need to honestly examine what we bring our children to you see we bring our children to certain things And we need to honestly examine what examine who we take our children to we do this all the time Let me give you a few examples We take our children to a coach we take our children to a team. We take our children to participate in sports Maybe it's a team sport like soccer or baseball or softball even football.

It could be an individual sport But what I'm showing you is this we take our children We bring our children in that environment to be instructed by coach or coaches and to be a part of that activity There's nothing wrong with that We take our children to teachers to be instructed in academics We have folks in our church who home school private school public school You know, we approach those things as a matter of conscience We do what the Lord leads us to do the Lord leads us in different ways here in all of these matters But what we do is this we are taking our children to be instructed by a teacher And we're also taking them to be instructed through books and through experts in those particular fields.

Isn't that what we we do? Now these are not necessarily bad, but what I'm trying to show you is this these are examples And what I'm aiming to show you is that we take our children to particular people into certain environments to be taught to be Instructed we take them and we bring them But I see the lesson here in the form of a question a little more specific are we bringing our children to Jesus as we should That's what these parents were doing What does the text say they were bringing their children to Jesus and so to be specific I'm asking you are we bringing our children to Jesus? Are we bringing and taking our children to Jesus?

Personally personally are we bringing our children to Jesus through our own lives? Do our children see Christ in our lives? Do our children hear Christ in our language and in our voice and and do we do we purposely? Share about Christ and what God is doing in our lives see do we personally bring our children to Christ in our own lives? And by the way, we live and what we say what we do what we don't do Are we bringing our children to Jesus in our home in our home in our family life through? Yes, our witnesses dads and our witnesses moms are we bringing our children to Jesus in our home and in our home life?

And then are we bringing our children to Jesus in the life of our church? In the life of our church. We are responsible to do this work folks. This is a collective work We are responsible to bring our children your children all of the children that the Lord will bring us to Jesus So we see those that brought the children to Jesus Some scholars say these were adults some say they were parents probably a little bit of both And we have to ask ourselves are we bringing our children to Jesus as they did and then second?

Notice those who block the children we see this in verse 13 as well those who block the children and They were bringing children to him that he might touch them and the disciples Rebuked them and we've already seen some of what the disciples were doing here Rebuking parents rebuking adults, but if we pay attention We will see that they were doing several things here. Follow me first.

They were rebuking the parents rebuking the adults this word Rebuked it means to reprimand it means to censure Jesus used a related word when he rebuked demons I shared that earlier and also when he rebuked the storm and he quieted the storm and then Peter used this word this related word when he rebuked Jesus Remember that story Jesus shared that he was going to the cross and Peter pulled him aside and tried to rebuke him So the disciples here they step forward and they strongly reprimanded those that were bringing the children to Jesus and Also in rebuking the adults they were actually blocking the children you see in Rebuking the adults for bringing the children to Jesus.

They were blocking the children from coming to Jesus So the disciples were really doing two things here. They were doing two things. They were rebuking. They were blocking They were rebuking and they were blocking now question Why did they rebuke? The parents Why did the disciples step forward and why did they rebuke these parents these adults therefore blocking the children? We really don't know we really can only speculate why? It could be that they thought Jesus was too busy or too important to be bothered by children It could be that they did not see children as very important.

Maybe they saw them as a nuisance There were times when the disciples saw certain people as less important. There were times They even saw people as a complete nuisance Throughout the ministry of Jesus, but Jesus thought otherwise I think about the Samaritan woman Sometimes she's called the woman at the well John chapter 4 You know that story Jesus sent the disciples to buy food and when they can't came back We see that the disciples did not want to be in some area much less deal with a Samaritan woman You see but whatever the reason the disciples rebuked these parents and they blocked the children from getting to Jesus now a question for us What's the lesson here?

What do we need to see? I? See this is a lesson in two ways On a personal level and on a corporate level See as individuals we can block our children from coming to Jesus by the way we live And not just our children, but other children who were under our influence You see our sin and our hypocrisy can be at such a level where we prevent our children and other children from coming to Jesus I've seen people have secret sins in our life now look we're all sinners I'm not preaching some type of sinless perfection no, but I've seen people I've seen men I've seen women have secret sins in their lives and all their children know it everybody in their family knows it and that secret sin That just dominates their life dominates their family.

It will prevent those children from coming to Jesus Cardinal Christianity can block children from coming to Jesus There are people that come and sit in our pews and they come and sing even sing in the choirs and teach Sunday school And they're just carnal they're worldly they live for the world They live like the world and see what happens is they say they're Christian, but they're carnal. They're worldly. They're sinful They're not converted and see that carnal Christianity can block their children from coming to Jesus.

I've seen that for years I'll give you another one that might surprise you a Terrible commitment to the work of the church can do the same Let me show you what I mean mom dad listen if you have a casual approach to the work of the church You're actually telling your children that God and the things of God we can approach that in a casual way See the scriptures say don't forsake the assembling of together We see that in the book of Hebrews and what we see is this the most important Institution the most important work on the face of the earth is what the church and so when you're casual in your commitment To the work of the church You're actually telling your children that they could be casual in their commitment to God and the work of God and the kingdom work And really everything that pertains to God And you might not realize it but that will block your children from coming to Jesus But I want to shift gears here children can be blocked from coming to Jesus because of certain things that go on in the life of the church This can be a corporate problem.

Let me share with you a few there on my mind Some churches have such a high theological position Some churches approach theological things in such a way that children get left out They just get left out of the mix and what I'm trying to show you is this any theological position that minimizes children any theological position that pushes ministry to the little ones off to the side or Relegates at the second rate or even relegates it to not doing it at all that theological position is wrong Jesus didn't have that approach There are some churches that they want to spend money.

They don't want to put resources They don't want to put money and resources behind children. See a lot of times they will invest money's Piles of money somewhere else, but they don't want to invest in the little ones I've seen churches have Mountains of money invested in things like cemetery funds, but they wouldn't give a dime to invest in children I've seen churches have savings accounts with plenty of money But they wouldn't dare invest that in young families and children and pour those monies and resources there Some churches devote all other energies and their expectations to adults and old people So much so that the children are kicked to the curb Now listen, do we minister to old people?

Yes, senior adults are valuable folks Do we minister to all ages all of the adults? Yes But see we don't minister to some at the expense of the others. It's called balance and I've known churches Oh, they pour all other energy They expect the ministry staff to pour all other energy into the adults and into the old folks and the children just get leftovers But here's the last one Church fights hypocrites in the church All that stuff blocks children from coming to Jesus see folks. We're better at pretending than they are Your children can look across the sanctuary and they can spot it They know the hypocrites they know the church fights.

They see it all the great contradictions And look lots of things go on in Deacons meetings and elders meetings and committee meetings But that stuff comes out in the pews it comes out in the eyes of the church and I've seen teenagers and children Be able to discern hypocrisy and fights in the life of the church. And what happens is this?

Whether they know it or not, they'll say, you know, if that's what church is like, I don't want it That blocks children folks So we have those who block the children See they block the children They rebuke those who are bringing and see sin and hypocrisy can do this in any theological position That's so high that causes us to devalue ministering the children. There's so many things We have to be careful here that we don't block the children from coming to Jesus and then third I Want us to see the one who blessed the children? I want us to see the one who blessed the children. Let's look at the verses and again.

I'm in Mark chapter 10 I want us to read verses 14 to 16 But Jesus saw it What did he see this commotion and his fix to get even worse? And he was indignant and he said to them let the children come to me do not hinder them For to such belong the kingdom of God truly I say to you whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child Should not enter yet and he took them.

This was the children the babies Into his arms and he blessed them laying his hands on them now We've touched on this some already this blessing I know but actually there's a lot more happening here than maybe you know a lot more than just the blessing first the obvious Jesus rebuked the disciples We've already seen this this was a firm rebuke now this can be hard for some to accept. I know Jesus a firm rebuke.

Yes Jesus was outraged the word tells us that he was outraged He was indignant and how the disciples were acting they were rebuking the parents the adults and blocking the children But he was not in sin Don't think he was in sin Next we see that Jesus received the children Jesus says let the children come to me do not hinder them think about that phrase Jesus says let the children come to me let the children come to me do not hinder them see he received them One important detail here is this word hinder It's a suburb in the present tense which speaks to a continuous action This means the disciples were to continue allowing the parents to bring their children to Jesus This means the disciples were to continue to continue to allow the parents to bring their children to Jesus Every now and then I'll take a little liberty with the text.

I just kind of have my maybe it's Holy Spirit Illuminated imagination going on here. I just kind of envision this big group of parents and adults and children Obviously it wasn't quiet. I'm sure there was a lot of commotion Even a lot of chaos and the children just keep coming. Oh the children just keep coming. I originally thought maybe it was a line No, I don't think it was a line I just think they were coming in mass and they kept on coming they kept on coming and what did he say?

Don't hinder them don't hinder them see he's receiving them And maybe the disciples go from blocking the children to bringing the children If they receive the rebuke I believe they did So Jesus rebuked the disciples and he received the children but After Jesus sets the situation straight He begins to teach and he really gets to the climax the pinnacle of this event First Jesus uses the children as a teaching analogy. This is an illustration to explain salvation He starts off by asserting himself here. That is the phrase That's the meaning of this phrase truly. I say to you. That's what that's all about. See he's stepping up.

He's asserting himself Jesus was asserting himself so as to say something of great importance and now notice verse 15 Look back at your copy Truly, I say to you see stepping forward. He's asserting himself Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it and what is he saying? One if they're gonna come into the kingdom, they must receive the kingdom like a child.

Otherwise, they cannot enter Now we need to ask what this means This really can pose a lot of questions and it should If Jesus is teaching and illuminating what salvation looks like we really need to get it in that right Well, let me start off by showing you what it does it mean this does not speak of innocence No, man is innocent. No woman is innocent. No one is innocent of sin Also, this does not mean that only children will be in the kingdom and then we could go on down the line with what it is not but notice Jesus was saying for one to enter the kingdom.

He must come with a child like disposition he must come with child like Characteristics for one to receive the kingdom for them to enter the kingdom. They must be childlike with characteristics and a disposition like a child One must come dependent and trusting they must be submissive and humble Let me put it another way by turning it around one must not come prideful One must not come self-sufficient or holding on to their external religion You see and it is not like these childlike characteristics make someone a Christian. No like some magical ingredients these characteristics this disposition. It's all aimed at Christ himself.

It's personal So Jesus is illustrating how someone comes into the kingdom. He is illustrating man's salvation here But then second he blesses the children Isn't that what the text says? But notice what the text does say he took them into his arms go back and look at the text Truly I say to you whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child should not enter it In verse 16 and he took them into his arms He took them into his arms and he blessed them laying his hands On them see the text says he took them into his arms and this phrase means to wrap one's hands And arms around someone and even holding them close one commentator said holding them to their bosom This would be like you would do with a baby This is exactly what you would do with a small child or a baby that you love You would wrap them into your arms and hold them close to your chest And then he laid his hands on them and he blessed them now remember the crowd.

He blessed them continuously He blessed them over and over he put his hands on him and he prayed for him over and over Over and over and listen, I believe he did this until every single child that was there that day was blessed no one was left out folks Now we need to ask what this blessing was The language tells us that this was a strong blessing a fervent blessing Jesus would have been praying for them during this time He would have been asking for God God the Father to put a blessing on them He would have been giving them assurance that he was the true Messiah of God and this would have been done with great Intensity this would have been done with great seriousness even with great emotion Now for us, what is the lesson that we need to learn here?

Of course, we need to understand this illustration on salvation. We can't hop over that No one enters the kingdom of heaven who comes to Christ Unlike a child we come to Christ with a childlike disposition trusting in Christ Depending on Christ submitting to Christ believing on Christ in Christ Not as a child or being childlike but with that childlike disposition and those childlike characteristics But there's more We must see that we are to bring our children to Jesus We must see that we are to bring children to Jesus so that he might touch them and bless them Now this is not physical Jesus is not sitting here today.

Just like he was in that day. See they had the physical and the spiritual We don't have the physical And today we bring our children to Jesus spiritually so that through the work and the power of the Spirit Jesus may touch our children and may bless our children and Look, we are the agents folks. We are the conduit for this work God has entrusted the work of the ministry to what to me and to who to us Me and dad's us mom's families us church us all of us We do this through prayer We do this through prayer by bringing them before the Lord we do this through teaching the Word of God Weekend and week out we do this through Evangelizing our children by sharing with them the truth of their sin by sharing with them the truth of Christ and the truth of the gospel By sharing the fact that they need to be converted to Christ born of the Spirit of God Folks we do this in the life of our church We should do this every single week on Sunday mornings.

That's what we're doing right now We're taking our children to Jesus in these pews right now through the taught Word of God We do this on Wednesday nights Every Wednesday night our children go into a class to be taught the Word of God We do this with our students our young people in all of our programming. We're about teaching them the word taking them to Jesus Specifically we do this through vacation Bible school You know what with the recreation and the crafts? It's all about Jesus all of that stuff is a vehicle to teach truth in the music It's a vehicle to teach truth.

Oh listen even in the refreshments you might say Kool-Aid truth there might not be truth in that Kool-Aid, but you can be the Hands in the feet of Jesus that give them that Kool-Aid as they're there enjoying that that time of drinking Kool-Aid or having a refreshment you can pray over them and you can be the love of Christ to them And we're doing it in our Bible lesson You know for years. I've served in all kinds of capacities during vacation Bible school in my youth ministry years.

It was always recreation Maybe recreation is the thing that nobody wants to do always got thrown into recreation Starting off in our vacation Bible school years of old I would always assist brother Keith during the music I just tried to do whatever needed to be done But a couple of years ago. I got thrust into helping with a Bible lesson And you know what I really had a hard time Because half the time I wanted to turn to the wall and just cry my head off You know why because I knew we were teaching the truth of God to these children I love them I had a burden for them and I knew that every word and every phrase Needed to make an impact into their little minds and into their hearts and listen in all that we do We are taking them to Jesus and you might say pastor all I'm gonna do is security All I'm gonna do is take out the trash all I'm gonna do is sweep the floor You can take them to Jesus in prayer Now what are our goals here?

We want the Spirit of God to touch them We want the Spirit of God to take the truth of his word and to touch them We want them to be molded by the truth of God and be molded into the people that God would want them to be you see We want them to be blessed by Jesus Now as I begin to wrap this up I said that I would answer the question Why do we do VBS? Why do we put forth this effort? Of course, we don't see VBS in the scriptures We don't But we do see Titus chapter 2.

What do we see in Titus chapter 2 the older teaching the younger see the principal See God gives us wisdom to know how to flesh that out and this is just the older teaching the younger folks and Look, we do VBS to bring Children to Jesus we want Jesus to touch them We want Jesus to bless them and ultimately we want Jesus to do a great work in their life Now let me get specific here three things that we can pray for Three things we can aim for three things that we can teach for three things that we can expect number one salvation Folks we got a point in the Jesus we have to point them to the gospel We have to point them to their sin we have to point them to their need of the gospel We have to point them to the fact that they must be born of the Spirit of God converted to Christ Whether that happens at 8 or 18 or 38.

It doesn't matter. That's God's business But we must point them to conversion to Christ Number two we want the Word of God to be planted down deep into their minds and hearts folks It's the word that sanctifies us. It's the word that changes us It's the word that molds us It's the word that makes us more like Christ less like sin less like the world If we think that our children can grow up and be good Christians outside or disconnected from the word. We are fooling ourselves And then third we want them to grow up and serve Christ Listen folks What good does it do if your children grow up and have the world yet forfeit their soul?

Listen folks life goes by fast What good does it do for your children to attain all of their dreams and miss? Christ and really folks it really doesn't matter if they drive the space shuttle or a garbage truck if they're doing it for the Glory of God because God has called them to do it That's what matters and the third thing we do is pray that they would discover what God would want to do in their life What God would call them to do and everyone has a different calling on their life Now I transition from the scripture and I just want to share with you as pastor why I do VBS It's because I love kids I Just love kids now I have to be honest with you.

I didn't always love kids God called me in the ministry in 1995 and God called me to do student work I did student work full-time for 10 years And you know I could load up van loads bus loads of children teenagers. Excuse me. I could take teenagers Anywhere and everywhere now I had a few problems, but I could handle them all sometimes I did it without enough chaperones I could take them to mission trips on the streets of New Orleans. I could take them to camps and retreats I could take them anywhere. I could teach them.

I could handle how rambunctious they were I could handle the the rough ones I could handle the easy ones I had a man come up to me one time and he said how in the world do you do this? I didn't really knew what he meant God called me to do it But I'll never forget years ago. I got asked to do children's church And I stood up in front of all those children and I opened up the Bible It was in about 20 seconds. I had a panic attack I thought what have I done? What have I gotten into? I thought I'm not gonna make it these kids are gonna eat me alive But you know as I grew and matured God changed me. It wasn't that I didn't like them.

It just it wasn't my Calling at the time But what am I trying to share with you folks? I do VBS because I love children Why do I want to spend time and teach our teenagers on Wednesday nights? I love teenagers. I love your teenagers Why do I care to take your calls? Why would I meet you for lunch or breakfast? Why would I meet you to counsel with you? It's because I love you Listen, I don't work nine to five or eight to five. I was explaining this to Keith this week You know, it's hard to just turn off when you do what you love Why do I do this? It's because I love people and look folks.

It's a work that God put down in me It's a work that God did in me It's a work that God did whereby I love people and I want him to come to know Christ And I want him to know the Word of God and I want him to do what God would call him to do all throughout life As I was studying this week I dug out an old book from years gone by Years ago when I first started in full-time ministry, I don't know how it came about but I determined to start reading biographies About individuals that God used in ministry One of the first biographies I picked up was a book about DL Moody DL Moody was an interesting American minister and evangelist DL Moody was interesting because he was extremely uneducated By our standards, he was very uneducated and by his standards in that day.

He was very uneducated He's from Boston moved to Chicago for business reasons But he came to faith in Christ and when he moved to Chicago, he got involved in ministry and he got involved in Sunday School ministry See Chicago at the time was really considered the West You know if you follow his life story He ended up starting his own Saba school Sunday school.

It was in the bad part the rough part of town And you know it wasn't long before he had over a thousand kids off the streets coming to Sunday School And it sounded pretty rambunctious pretty sounded pretty rough Teaching the word loving kids teaching the word loving kids You know as I read that account I went back and found it this week. I had to put my eyes back on it There was an account of a little boy who lived on the streets rough family And he moved his family moved all the way across the other side of Chicago And he walked all the way back to be on Moody's cyber school Somebody asked him. Why do you walk all the way back?

There are plenty of Sunday schools around here He simply said this they love a fellow over there They love a fellow over there Now why did Jesus take those kids and babies in his arms? He loved them folks And let me tell you if we love children and we love teenagers and we love people God will touch them through us Why do we do VBS? Let's pray. I want us to commit this to the Lord And then we're gonna close and get ready for a good night tonight