Why Do We Do VBS?

Well, I am not sure if you noticed, but Vacation Bible School is here, isn't that right? If I understand the curriculum and the theme correct, we are going on an Irish adventure. Is that right? Keith, do you have a leprechaun outfit? I mean, don't you think you need a leprechaun outfit to help you? Yeah, I mean, he's going to be leading a lot of VBS music. I kind of think he needs a leprechaun outfit. So he'll get me back for that later, I know. Well I am proud to say that Vacation Bible School is a big part of our church. It has been for the 14 plus years I have been your pastor.

I have said this many times, but Vacation Bible School was a big part of our church way back when we were a very small church in the far corner of Lawrence County, right over the Lincoln County line. We were Nola Baptist Church in those days before we relocated, renamed, and reconstituted in March of 2020. Nola Baptist was a church that was almost closed, but God led me to Nola in 2010 and by God's grace, listen to that folks. God's grace alone. We experienced what we call the rebirth of a church. Now if you were a part of Nola in those old days, you need to be sharing those stories from time to time with our new folks.

I know that my family, we have wonderful precious memories of those old Nola days and even those Vacation Bible School days, the recreation across the street in the vacant lot, which was really a gravel vacant lot. Now most of you know this, but those who are new to grace life need to hear it, but a major part of what God used in rebirthing that old church was our commitment to Bible centered children's ministry. That may surprise some of you.

I can say what I'm about to say with the utmost confidence, God rebirthed that old church and God used our solid commitment to a few vital things that are sadly missing in many churches and these things are vital because they are seen in the scripture. God rebuilt that old church first and foremost on the preaching of God's word. Now when I took Nola Baptist Church, it was only a Sunday morning service. That was it. And the first thing I did was institute a Sunday night service to preach the word and a Wednesday night service to pray and to teach the word. God rebuilt that old church on prayer and seeking God and His will for the future.

God rebuilt that old church on loving people. Loving people matters folks. Loving each other, brothers and sisters, and loving the lost matters. And God rebuilt that old church on loving biblical ministry to children. I think the first children's class we started was called Little Class. Is that right? I don't know where that came from, Little Class. And Luke Church, as long as I am your pastor, we will continue to minister to our children and the children that God brings through the doors of our church. I am thankful that Travis Crotwell has stepped up and begun to organize our children's ministry a little better.

I look forward to how God is going to use him and everybody involved in the future. We have children's classes on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights and I am very thankful for everybody who serves and what we teach our children because we do teach them solid biblical material. I am thankful that God provides the monies that we need for all of the children's ministries we have, especially Vacation Bible School. I am thankful for the manpower and the woman power. As I said, man power and woman power. And lots of churches, it is only the women who minister to children. We have lots of men who minister to children and we need that.

I think that is healthy. But I am also thankful that Vacation Bible School is a part of our church and I am thoroughly committed to that ministry. But if you have paid any attention, you see that a lot of women and men have been working very hard to get ready for Vacation Bible School. And if you look around tonight and the rest of the week, you will see a lot of faithful men and women working very hard. But a question, why do we work hard and devote the time and the effort and the energy and the money to VBS? Why do we have Vacation Bible School?

This is a question we should examine every year at this time, not just to justify what we do, but to answer that question from the Scripture. So this morning I want to answer that question in two ways. First and foremost from the Scriptures, now we know we cannot find a Vacation Bible School in the Bible. We have been in a study through the Book of Acts on Wednesday nights for quite a while. Now just imagine a Vacation Bible School in the church at Jerusalem in the early days. For now, the church at Jerusalem in the early days was comprised of thousands. There would have been thousands of kids there.

There would have been kids from Perthia and Meade and Elam. There would have been kids from Mesopotamia and Judea, Cappadocia, Pontius and Asia. Kids from Fergia, Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya and even Cyrene. Kids from Rome, Christian kids and Arabian kids. All those folks were represented in that church. So that would have been a multicultural Vacation Bible School. We've not studied the books of 1st and 2nd Corinthians. I would love to. That's on my list to get to one day. But imagine a Vacation Bible School at Corinth. Many of you know the problematic church at Corinth.

They would have struggled with some questionable women leading the music for the children. The leaders of Vacation Bible School probably would have played music at the Temple of Aphrodite, but with Christian lyrics hopefully. Some may have played music at the Temple there on Saturday night before Vacation Bible School started. The wealthy parents would have excluded the poor children like they did at the Lord's Supper. Sadly, some of the leaders would have had too much wine to drink after the commencement service. That Vacation Bible School would have been something to see because their church was something to see.

Tommy is itching to write a study through the book of Galatians. But think about Vacation Bible School in the Galatian churches. Many of you know the problems they faced. Instead of getting their curriculum from answers in Genesis, they would have gotten their material from answers in legalism because they struggled horrifically with Jewish legalism. The theme for their VBS would have been, "We have been saved by grace plus keeping the law." Now, I know I'm being humorous and I'm taking some liberty, but jokes aside, I know we do not see Vacation Bible School in the Bible. So why do we have VBS? And do we even have the right to do this?

Well, I want to address this first from what we see in Matthew's account, Luke's account, Mark's account of the event we read about earlier when they were bringing the children, the babies, to Jesus. And then second, I want to answer the question, "Is your pastor really on a personal level?" Now, we read our verses earlier, but I did mention that we will look into Mark's account of these events about halfway through the message. So if you have your Bible turned there, just leave it open. We'll get to those verses in a little while. Now, I think we can see that Matthew, Mark, and Luke record the same event.

And we can see that some give a few more details that others do not. But before we get into the verses, I want us to understand what was going on on this day in this situation. We have this circumstance where parents and adults were bringing babies and children to Jesus. Luke uses the word for infants or newborn babies. So we definitely had mothers and possibly some fathers, and all that was going on here, these mothers, these fathers would have been bringing their babies to Jesus. Mark uses a general word for children, so we can assume that there were children possibly of all ages as well as babies.

And in this event, Jesus had a very important two-fold purpose. First, he explained how a person can come into the kingdom of God. And then second, he prayed for and he touched and he blessed those babies and children. Now, as I have studied and meditated over these verses this week and really through the years, I think it is safe to say that there was a lot of confusion and commotion in what was happening there on that day. You had adults and parents bringing babies and children to Jesus, and things got problematic when the disciples got involved. As a matter of fact, there were other times when the disciples were problematic.

Mark tells us that the disciples began rebuking those who were bringing babies and children to Jesus. And this was no soft rebuke because the word Mark uses speaks of a very strong reprimand. Jesus used a similar word when he rebuked the demons. Of course, you have Jesus who was right there in the center of all that was going on. And you may have noticed that Jesus wasn't sitting there in silence. Jesus was rebuking the disciples because they were rebuking the ones bringing babies and children to him. In Mark's account, the English Standard Version says that Jesus was indignant. Indignant.

And this is a very strong word in the original which means to be angry, even irate, even outraged. So Jesus was angry, even outraged at the disciples because they were keeping the adults and children from coming to him with their babies and their children. Simply Jesus strongly rebuked the disciples while at the same time he welcomed the parents, the adults, the children, the babies in great love as we will see. And to me, again, this sounds more like a big disagreement than some kind of a smooth ministry event. To me, it seems a little messy, even heated.

And we can assume, I believe, that some kind of got their hackles up with what was going on. And at first we might not see it, but I believe there is a lot here that applies to Vacation Bible School and really how we should view all of our children's ministry here at Grace Life Church. Now at this point in the message, I want us to examine some things in a little more detail. I want to give us four points of observation from the passage here, and this will be easy for us to follow if you're a note taker. First I want us to see children were brought to Jesus. Children were brought to Jesus.

We see this in Matthew 19.13, Mark 10.13, and Luke 8.15. Now there is a little more going on here than we may see at first glance. We might not relate to this, but this was a common practice in their day for parents to seek out a spiritual blessing for their children. It was the norm for parents to bring children to respected rabbis or teachers so that they could pronounce a blessing upon them and over them. Fathers did this for their own children in the Old Testament. From Genesis 9 we see that Noah gave a blessing to his children. In Genesis 27 we see that Isaac blessed his children. And in Genesis 49 Jacob did the same thing.

So a father laying his hands on his children and pronouncing a blessing upon them was a common practice in the Old Testament. And in New Testament times, parents bringing their children to respected spiritual leaders for a blessing, it was just a common practice. But we need to ask a question here. What were the parents wanting in the blessing? Think about that. What were the parents wanting in this blessing? It is safe to say that they were seeking some type of a spiritual blessing to be bestowed upon their children but more.

Truthfully, the text only says they wanted Jesus to touch their children, but I believe it is safe to assume that they wanted more than a customary spiritual blessing because of all that they had seen and heard with Jesus. By this time in his earthly ministry, Jesus had already been healing all sorts of diseases and performing great public miracles. And no doubt they had seen Jesus as a loving, very kind miracle worker because of the way he had healed the sick, even touching them while performing such great miracles. And this was a glaring contrast to the religious leaders and the religious establishment of the day.

So I believe these parents brought their children to Jesus for a blessing and more. I believe they wanted him to bestow a great spiritual blessing from God upon them because they saw Jesus as from God doing great things for God. But for us, what can we learn here? First of all, I believe we need to honestly examine what we take our children to and who we take our children to, even some in our own family. Let me repeat that. I believe we need to honestly examine what we take our children to, who we take our children to, even when we take our children to people in our own family. Let me give you some examples.

We take our children to a coach and a team to be instructed in sports. Some play soccer, some play baseball, softball, football, volleyball, track, cross country. Whether it is a team sport or an individual sport, we take our children to coaches and others to be instructed. Isn't that right? We take our children to teachers to be instructed in academics, whether it be homeschooling, private schooling or public schooling. We are taking our children to be instructed by a teacher as well as those authors of the books, experts in those fields. I think that's easy to see. And I can go on with other examples I know, but think about it.

We take our children to particular people and into certain environments and circumstances to be taught, influenced and instructed. Now at this point we need to ask ourselves, are we taking our children to Jesus? Now dad's moms don't want to single us out. Are we taking our children to Jesus as we should? And do we take our children to other people like a coach, like a teacher, even people in our family more than we take them to Jesus? Dad's on a personal level. I'm speaking straight to you because you, we are supposed to be the leaders in our households. Are we bringing, are we taking our children to Jesus through and in our own lives?

Are we purposely doing that with our children in our homes? What about as our children observe our personal lives, dad, by observing our personal lives do they see us taking them to Jesus by the way we live? What about in prayer? Dad's, do you spend time in prayer for your children, bringing their children, bringing your children to the throne of grace, to the foot of Jesus in prayer? And what about in the life of our church? Now this applies to all of us. Are we taking our children to Jesus in all that we do, in all that we do? And how do we do that? Well first of all, we are dependent on a work of the Spirit of God.

We believe in the Holy Spirit. He is the third person of the Godhead, right? The Holy Spirit is not a thing or an influence, no. The Holy Spirit is God. We believe in the filling and the equipping of the Holy Spirit. We believe in a guidance of the Holy Spirit. So we need God to guide us and fill us and empower us in these things in our church. And that turns into what I call incarnational Christian living.

The Spirit of God is in us and working through us as dads and moms in the home, in our workplace, as we relate to our kids, as we teach them the Word, as we model Christian living in the home and in all that we do in the life of the church. Now I could keep going, but you see the application. So we see those that brought the children to Jesus. And then second, we see the children were blocked from Jesus. We see that the children were blocked from Jesus. And we see this in all three gospel accounts. Now we have already seen some of what the disciples were doing here.

They were rebuking the parents and those who were bringing children and babies to our Lord. But if we dig a little, we'll see a little more. First Mark says they were rebuking the adults and parents. In this word rebuke means to reprimand or to censure. Peter used this word when he rebuked Jesus after he said he was going to the cross. Jesus used a related word when he rebuked the demons and when he rebuked the storm. So as the children and babies were being brought to Jesus, the disciples stepped forward and they strongly reprimanded those adults and parents for doing so. But there's more.

In rebuking them for bringing the children to Jesus, they were actually blocking the children from coming to Jesus. Do you see that? In rebuking the adults for bringing the children to Jesus, they were actually blocking the children from coming to Jesus or they were trying to block them because we will see that Jesus was not having that. So the disciples were actually doing two things, rebuking and blocking, rebuking and blocking. But why? Why did they do this? Why did they rebuke the parents as they did? There are some hints from the scriptures and we can do some speculation based off that. And I believe this is accurate.

It could be that they thought Jesus was too busy or too important to be bothered by children and babies. It could be that they did not see the children as very important. Maybe they saw the children and babies as a nuisance or a bother. We know that there were times when the disciples saw certain people as less important. They saw certain people as second class or worse, even a nuisance. When Jesus thought otherwise, I think about the Samaritan woman sometimes called the woman at the well in John 4. The disciples did not want to go to some area, much less be in contact with the Samaritan woman, a very bad reputation.

But whatever the reason, here in this situation, the disciples rebuked these parents and adults. They blocked these children from getting to Jesus. Now what do we need to learn here? I see this applying to us in two ways. As individuals and as parents and as members of the church, we can block our children from coming to Jesus by the way we live. Not just our children, but other children as well. That needs to be restated. As individuals, parents, and even members of our church, we can block children from coming to Jesus by the way we live. Let me get specific.

Our sin and our hypocrisy can come out and be at such a level that we prevent our children from coming to Jesus. Have you ever seen that before? Sin and hypocrisy is made known. Maybe someone's been a member of a church for 25 years and they've had sin and hypocrisy and it finally comes out. This relates to hypocrisy, but secret sins can block children in the home. That if you have a secret sin and your wife knows and your children know and you keep it a secret behind that closed door, that will hinder your children from coming to Jesus.

If you come in here and sit here and you sing, if you sit in small group and act like you love the Lord and love what God's word says, but you have a secret grievous sin that will hinder your children, it'll block them from coming to the Lord. I'll never forget years ago I had a friend of mine who was at a funeral of a minister and after the funeral they went to the church to eat and they were sitting, eating with a family. And one of the children of the ministry who had passed away now spoke up and said, "I wished I knew the guy they talked about in the service." Sin and hypocrisy.

Casual and carnal Christianity will block children from coming to Jesus. Look, moms and dads, we better be Christians at home, Christians in the workplace, Christians at the church house. External, legalistic Christianity that is burdened down by excessive rules and legalisms, that'll block children from coming to Jesus all day long. As a matter of fact, that does one of two things. It exasperates them and makes them run or it makes them twice the legalist you are. This one will surprise some of you because you might not see it as sinful. A lukewarm commitment to the church will do the very same thing.

See folks, if you're halfway committed to the church, that means you're more committed to the things of the world. If you're more committed to hobby, if you're more committed to vacation, if you're more committed to entertainment than the church, well you're telling your kids that the things of the world are more important. Even if you're more committed to work, of course we should work. There's nothing wrong with hobby, there's nothing wrong with vacation. But all of those things can't come first. I'll get a little more personal. A troubled or a bad marriage will hinder children and teenagers from coming to Jesus.

Look folks, if you come to church and you act like you got it all together but yet behind closed doors you have a troubled or a bad marriage, your children will see a hypocrisy. They will see hypocrisy and that will be a hindrance. If your children see fussing and fighting and contention and bitterness and animosity in the home, that's a huge blocker because you're saying that you love the Lord but yet you can't even have a healthy marriage. Christians should have the healthiest marriages in town.

If children see mom and dad that are distant and estranged and they just keep the marriage together on the outside, on the surface, that's a big hindrance. That's a big hindrance. But let me turn it around. Children can be blocked from coming to Jesus because of sins in the life of the church. There are some churches that don't want to spend any money or give any resources or time for children. They'd rather send the old folks to Branson than have a decent nursery for the babies. They'd rather have a vibrant senior adult ministry than have anything for the little boys and girls. Am I against senior adults?

No, but many times those are the churches that are selfish. Some churches just devote all of their energies to adults and the older people and the children are just ignored. All of that matters, folks. But let me show you one more. Church fights and hypocrites in the church block the children from coming to Jesus. Sadly in my youth ministry years I saw some very, very, very difficult church problems led by hypocrites in the church and I watched more than one teenager leave church and say, "If that's church, I don't want it. If that's a deacon, I don't want it.

If that's a church leader, I don't want it." Church fights, hypocrisy in the church calls them to reject Jesus. So we see those who block the children from coming to Jesus and may we never block our children or others. Now at this point, the language of the outline is going to change and here we get to the two-fold purpose that Jesus had in these events. And this is where we will answer why we do VBS. The third notice, Christ's salvation analogy. Here we see Christ's salvation analogy. Now this is where I want us to go back to the verses. Mark 10, verse 14 to 15. Verse 14 to 15.

But when Jesus saw it, that is when they were blocking the children. He was indignant, angry, outraged and he said to them, "Let the children come to me. 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." And he took them in his arms and he blessed them laying his hands on them. Now we can see that Jesus welcomed the children to come to him and we will talk more about what that looked like here in a moment. But after he welcomed the children now, he pivoted to the most important point in this event.

He used the children as an analogy, as an illustration to show what it looks like for someone to come into the kingdom of God. Simply Jesus used the children to illustrate what salvation looks like and what is necessary for one to be saved. And notice how he does this. He asserts himself and he heightens the seriousness of what he is about to say by saying, "Truly I say to you." This was a common form of speech that Jesus used often where he would assert himself and the seriousness of the moment and what he was saying. To me the greatest example is seen in John 3 where he explains the new birth.

In John 3.5 Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." The Amplified captures what's going on here in Mark very well by saying, "I assure you and most solemnly say to you." Well, what does he say? "Truly, I solemnly say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." And this is what Jesus was saying. Babies and small children are helpless, dependent, and totally unable to care for and provide for themselves. And so it is with a person in salvation. All people are unable to save themselves and attain salvation on their own.

Therefore, all are dependent on the mercy of God and the grace of God for salvation. Ephesians 2.8-9 says that by grace we are saved, not of our works. As Matthew Henry said it, and I'm quoting him, "We must receive the kingdom of God as little children. That is, we must stand affected to Christ and his grace as little children do to their parents, nurses, and teachers." Again, the Amplified captures this well saying, "I assure you and I most solemnly say to you, whoever does not receive and welcome the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all." But there's a mistake here that some can make.

Jesus is not speaking of some kind of innocence like children are innocent or that we must possess some kind of a child like innocence. No child, no person is innocent of sin. Ephesians 5.12 clearly corrects that error by saying, "Sin came into the world through one man," well we know that's Adam, "and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sin." Notice the Bible says all sin. And also, this does not mean that only children will be in the kingdom.

Jesus was using the babies and the small children as an analogy, a teaching tool to illustrate how a person must come if they are going to enter into salvation in the kingdom of God. Again, Jesus was saying that for any person to be saved and enter into God's kingdom and kingdom life, they must come to Him with childlike characteristics and a childlike disposition and a simple childlike faith. But that can only happen if one is affected to Christ and His grace. Matthew Henry said that. I like it. It's good. "Affected to Christ and His grace." And this is the mainmost point of the event, folks.

As we see, Jesus took into His arms babies and small children and He declared to everyone there listening, "Whoever does not receive and welcome the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all." This reminds me of when God saved me. I didn't really know New Testament from old. I didn't know Job from Job. I knew that if I opened my Bible in the middle, I'd hit Proverbs, Psalms. I knew the VBS stories. That was about it. I didn't have any religion or religious pride, but there was a church in Laurel, Mississippi praying for the lost and they believed that God could save anybody.

I had family that had come to faith in Christ and I saw the change in their life and they began to witness to me and through a series of events, God was working in my life before I got saved. I ended up at a contemporary Christian concert and it wasn't just music, but they preached the gospel. And I'll never forget He preached out of the book of Matthew from a big red Bible and in childlike faith with a childlike disposition, I knew I wanted Christ. I knew I was a sinner and I went forward. Why? Because I wanted Christ. Going forward didn't save me.

No, it was a work of God in me to quote what Henry said, "I was affected to Christ." Before that, I hated God. Before that, I loved my sin. I didn't want Jesus at all, but a miracle, the miracle of miracles happened in my life. I was born again. I was affected to Christ by His grace. Therefore I cried out in a childlike way with a childlike disposition. I just wanted Christ. You know, I'm afraid sometimes we can complicate things. Folks, if you'll do what Jesus says here, you'll be saved. If you'll do what Jesus says here, you'll be saved. Would you come to Christ? Some of you have been fighting this for years, years. Leave your sin.

Leave your earthly loves and devotions. Come to Christ and be saved. If God could save me, He can save you. So Christ's salvation analogy, which wasn't is the most important part of the event. And then last notice, Christ's special blessing. We see Christ's special blessing. Matthew mentions this in his account, but Mark really fleshes it out more. So I want us to look back at Mark 10, but I don't want us to read verse 15. I want to skip over that. I want us to read verse 14 and verse 16. But when Jesus saw it, that was the disciples blocking the people. He was indignant, angry, outraged, and He said to them, "Let the children come to Me.

Do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God." And He took them in His arms, and He blessed them, laying His hands on them. Now I have touched on this blessing some, but actually there is a lot more going on here than we may realize. First we see that Jesus rebuked the disciples. We have seen this already, but this was a very strong rebuke. Now I know that this can be hard for some to accept, but Jesus was indignant. He was angry at how the disciples were blocking the children from coming. But even though He was outraged, He did not sin. Now this may surprise some of you, but Jesus got angry more than we may realize.

Of course Jesus was never sinful in His anger. He was never uncontrolled or selfish in His anger. His was always a righteous anger. I put together a short list, and we can clearly see how Jesus got angry more than we know. In Mark 3.5 the text says that Jesus looked upon the people with anger. In Mark 10.14, which is before us this morning, Jesus was indignant with His disciples. In John 2.13-17, Jesus was angry when He cleansed the temple with a whip. Now that's the first account of Jesus cleansing the temple. In Mark 21, Mark 11, Luke 19, we see that Jesus was angry when He cleansed the temple a second time.

In Matthew 23.13-26, Jesus was angry as He was pronouncing those great woes against the Pharisees. And Matthew 16.23, in Mark 8.33, Jesus was angry when He rebuked Peter. In Matthew 11.20-24, Jesus was angry as He denounced those unrepentant cities. In John 11.33-38, Jesus was angry at Lazarus too. In Revelation 3.15-16, Jesus was angry when He rebuked the church at Laodicea. So Jesus rebuked the disciples. He was angry. He was angry, and He had a right to be. But then second, we see that Jesus received the children. Verse 14 says, "Let the children come to Me.

Do not hinder them." Now one important detail we need to see is found in the construction of this word "hinder." It is in the present tense. It is a present tense verb which speaks of a continuous action. So that means the disciples were to continue to allow them to bring the children to Jesus. Now in my Holy Spirit inspired imagination, maybe it's just me, in my mind I see this big group of parents, this big group of adults, children, and babies, and the children keep coming. They keep coming. They keep coming to Jesus.

I think it's safe to say that the disciples go from blocking the children to bringing the children and bringing the babies themselves. And they keep on coming, and they keep on coming until all have been touched by Jesus, prayed for by Jesus, blessed by Jesus. I just cannot see Jesus leaving anybody out. So Jesus received the children and babies. And then third, we see that Jesus blessed them. Verse 16 says, "And He took them in His arms, and He blessed them, laying His hands on them." Now notice the text says Jesus actually took the children into His arms, and what takes place here will surprise some of you.

This phrase took them in His arms. It means to wrap one's hands and arms around someone and to hold them close just like we would do with a baby or a small child of our own that we love. And then He laid His hands on them and He blessed them. And He did this until all had been held, all had been loved on, all had been blessed, all had been prayed over. Now at this point, we need to ask what this blessing was. Well, the language kind of tells us. The language tells us this was a strong blessing, a fervent blessing. So it is safe to say that Jesus would have been praying for them. He would have been asking God to bless 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, great seriousness, and a love that could only come from God because Jesus was God and He is God. Now for us, what do we need to learn here? What do we need to apply in our day? We should be bringing our children to Jesus so that He will touch them and bless them. Of course, we know that Jesus is not sitting here today physically. Today in our day, we bring our children to Jesus spiritually so that through the power and the work of the Spirit of God, Jesus may touch and bless our children.

Luke Church, we are to be the agents, the conduits for this work. We are to be the living channel through which God works to touch and bless our children. In Luke Church, God has entrusted this work to us. We are responsible here. And God can use us. God can enable us. God can help us. So Christ's special blessing, and we should want that very same blessing through us. Now as a wrap up this message, I said that I would answer this question, why do we do VBS? Do we even have the right to do so? Simply we have VBS so as to bring our children to Jesus. We want Jesus to touch our children and to bless them.

Ultimately, we want God, the Holy Spirit, to do a great work in our children. We want salvation for our children. And look, God can save a child this week. God can save a child this week. God can save an adult this week. God can save a parent this week. And we should be praying that God would save someone through the work of Vacation Bible School. I have seen adults be saved at youth camps. I've seen a youth minister get saved at youth camps. I've seen deacons who came as youth workers saved at youth camps. So a child can be saved, and a parent can be saved, a worker can be saved.

We want the Word of God and the work of the church to be planted down deep into their hearts and minds because they will be learning a boatload of scripture this week. They will be hearing great lessons from the scriptures this week. They will be singing massive amounts of truth from the scripture this week. And we want all that they see, hear, learn, and experience to impact them greatly for Christ and the kingdom all of the days of their life. I was reminded that that can happen this week. Many of you know that years ago I served as a youth minister at a church in this community. I left there in 2006. That's been a while now due to math.

Quite a few years. Just this week Teresa Stovall ran into one of our old students. This was a teenager that Keith ministered to and I ministered to. He kind of came from a difficult family and home. Keith poured into him and I poured into him. I haven't seen him for years. Teresa bumped into him and he said to Teresa, "Tell Chris and tell Keith I remember everything they taught me, everything they said." It works folks. It can work. Now for me as your pastor, vacation Bible school is very important because I love your little boys and girls with a love that God has put within me. I believe in you as you serve.

I believe in this work wholeheartedly and I believe that God will use this week to impact our little boys and girls and all that God brings in the door. So let's love on children. Let's love on babies. Let's love on their parents. As best as we know how is Jesus did. Is Jesus did.