VBS Message 2025

 

What was this week all about?

OK, Monday was about remembering those who gave the last full measure of devotion for their country. It was about those who gave their todays for our tomorrows. We should remember those who did not return every day that we live in liberty.

The rest of the week was this thing called Vacation Bible School or VBS. But why?

Why do VBS?

It’s not that anyone who was teaching or making snacks or leading songs didn’t have anything else to do this summer.  Do you know anyone these days with time on their hands?

So why?

It’s a money maker for us, of course. Not. VBS is fairly expensive in time, resources, manpower, and money. 

So why VBS?

Parents, would you let you children experiment with drugs so they could decide if they wanted to use heroin or meth or maybe a little acid? Would you let their 12-year-old mind contemplate those choices without some education and counsel?

Parents, would you just give you 9-year-old the car keys and say, “Good luck” or send them to the tattoo parlor with $200 and then go to Wal-Mart for a couple hours and see what your kid looks like when you come back?

So you thought a swastika on your forehead would be cool? Oh, it was a by one-get one deal. You got a what, where? At least it was on sale.

Would you just let them eat junk food all the time? It’s their body and their choice, right? I can’t believe that some of you let your kids eat frozen chicken nuggets. Put those things in the microwave for 38 seconds first.

The world will tell you just those things. The world will tell you to let your child choose their own gender even though your child may not understand gender. Many of them are still wondering about cooties. If you follow the science, there is really no such thing as a sex change.

You can play Mr. Potato Head all you want, but you were born with two Xs or an X and a Y, and you can’t change that.

What’s that got to do with VBS?

Would you let your child go through their formative years without education, guidance, or counsel?  Do you want them to know the truth?

Of course we do!

So, is the purpose of VBS to indoctrinate? No, it is to educate.  But what then?

Then, these young people need to look at the examples of those who believe in God and profess his Son, Christ Jesus as Lord. It’s simple education and example.

The education part sounds good, but I don’t know a single Christian who hasn’t made a whole bunch of mistakes, some very serious.

And for those who have been educated in the ways of the Lord, we know that the world doesn’t always forgive, but God does.

God forgives!  For the believer, God has promised to forgive us whenever we confess our sins—our missteps, our mistakes, our attempts to hit the target of right living that just missed the mark.

God forgives.

There is a way in which we should go that God has prescribed. It is for our own good and we are blessed to follow it, but nobody can get it right every time.

Don’t throw in the towel because God has loved you with an everlasting love. He knows you and your struggles as well as your victories. He knows you and he loves you.

Why VBS? People need to know:

·       God is real. He is more than a concept.

·       God is good. God alone can define what is good.

·       God is important. He is not an option. He is central to life.

·       Knowing God is important.

·       Trusting God is important.

·       Receiving God’s love through Christ Jesus is important, most likely the most important thing anyone of us will ever do for ourselves.

·       Bringing up our children in the way they should go is absolutely important, and surely the most important thing you will do for them. Parents, don’t leave your children’s future to chance. Bring them up in the way of the Lord.

VBS is about education. It’s not just rules to follow but what happens to us when we fall short, and we all fall short.

VBS is about knowing that God will always love you and wants the best for you. His law was given for our own good.

His forgiveness comes from a divine heart of love. He did not create us to throw us away but for us to realize everything that we can from life. God wants us to have full lives.

I didn’t say trouble free lives for you will have trouble in the world.

Do you want to know how much God loves you? While we were still sinners Christ died to take away our sins. God through Christ did everything to make us right with him.

I see this meme too often online. I sinned more than you could imagine, but God dropped the charges.  It sounds good but it is nonsense. God did not drop the charges. You were charged and found guilty. The sentence was death.

Jesus stood in your place and took your punishment so you could live. The gift of God that we know in Christ Jesus is life, life abundant, and life eternal!

It’s a gift. We did nothing to earn or deserve it. We have nothing to brag about. It is 100% gift.  All we have to do is receive it. We receive it in our profession of faith.

One day, these VBS students will wrestle with the idea of life and the many theories of what life is all about. They may flirt with worldly models and concepts. They may explore the world’s religions.

In my day, many were becoming Buddhist because it was the cool thing to do. Some explored other Eastern religions. The common denominator among them is the ultimate goal in life is to reach a state of nonexistence.

Some of us grew up with cogito, ergo sum or I think, therefore I am. That was Rene Descartes for those who want to fact check this message.

I think, therefore I exist, but my life goal is not to exist. Tom has to put that one in the that dog don’t hunt category.

I’m not here to beat up Eastern religions, but I hope that we train our children to think about and become educated about what they say they believe.

I can’t imagine what it was like to grow up as a child in my household. One of the kids would say “I’m all about that,” or “This is what I believe,” and Tom—Dad—would say, “Let’s examine that.”

So much for casual dinner conversation. I’m sure that ranked right up there with reading A Message to Garcia a dozen or more times. That’s each, not total.

One day, these young people will need to make some serious life choices. Most of these children are not quite mentally or emotionally equipped at this time to wrestle with what God says and what the world says. They rely on their parents for a while and we pray they believe in the one true God and the One he sent to do what we could never do—make us right with holy God.

This week these young folks learned about magnifying the Lord. On the surface, it sounds like an oxymoron. How can we—people created by God—make God appear greater than he is?

In the context of this week and most of the Bible, magnify is to exalt—to lift up and proclaim God’s greatness and righteousness and most of all, his love.

It is for others to see God in our very lives. My heart, my soul, my very being exalts the Lord. The Lord is magnified as he lives in me and I live out his commands the best that I can.

Others will not see a faultless human just because we profess Jesus as Lord. They will see a fault-filled human who is forgiven. We are forgiven!

I hope that these VBSers—when you are the preacher, you get to make up your own words—know these things:

·       God is Great!

·       God is Good!

·       God loves us!

·       God wants us to believe in him and profess his Son as our Lord.

·       God want others to see his love in us so much that we are known as his followers by our love.

Do you remember how we began our service?

GOD LOVES YOU – LOVE ONE ANOTHER

There is more to it, of course, but if these VBSers—I have used that term twice now so it’s officially a word—can remember that God loves them and they are to love each other, the week was a success.

And if they know this, magnifying the Lord becomes our first nature. Exalting God is always on their minds.

OBTW—God loves you, love one another applies to parents as well.

Kids, remember what you learned and learn more, for one day, the world will try to teach you anything but the truth. Give yourself a chance to Stand firm when the world wants you to give in to whatever it is selling this year or decade or century.  Stand firm in the truth.

Parents, while you have the chance and these years go by so quickly, bring them up in the way of the Lord.

·       Do not let them become victims of your own comfort zone.

·       Lead them to worship.

·       Bring them to Bible Study.

·       Pray at home.

·       Forgive as God has forgiven you.

·       Be an example of love. Be known by your love.

One day, these young folks are going to ask, “What is the purpose of life? Why am I here? Why am I alive? Why?”

I hope they come to this conclusion or something like it. The purpose of life is to bring glory to God and to enjoy him very much.

Our lives should be lived so that God is glorified through them.

Note, the second part of that is not to enjoy life but to enjoy God. That’s part of our purpose. As it turns out if you are enjoying your relationship with your Creator, you are very likely enjoying life—even in the struggles and trials that come with it.

Bring glory to God and enjoy him very much.

I have covered quite a bit, so, we will wrap up our short time together with something to take home that is easy to remember.

GOD LOVES YOU – LOVE ONE ANOTHER

Amen.

VBS--Lessons in loving obedience

Read Isaiah 65

Seven years ago something was missing from the life of our church body.  We have always been a friendly bunch.  People knew there was love here.  If someone needed help, they found helping people right here.

God’s love in action was a natural for our motto.

That’s who we were.  That’s who we are.  There is some identity to being known by your love.  Jesus said that everyone will know that we are his disciples by our love.

But 7 years ago, something was missing.  There was a hollow spot in who we were.

At the elders retreat that year, many of us were of the same mind and all were of the same accord by the end of the meeting.

What was missing was VBS.  Vacation Bible School had atrophied away to nothing.  It went from being a few days with little help to a day to not even attempting to put it on the calendar in the years previous.

It had seemed too hard.  It didn’t have any support.

But at this elder retreat in 2008, the leadership of this body knew that VBS was something that had been on the roadmaps of so many of our lives that it was inconceivable that we did not do it anymore.  It seemed unconscionable to put it in the “too hard” category.

We were led surely by God’s own Spirit to put Vacation Bible School back on the annual calendar, and we did.

How would we make it work this time?

We had no idea—not a clue—notta.  We knew it was exactly what we were led to do.  We could not fill in the who, when, and how.

We didn’t have a clue what we needed to do next.  The past few VBS attempts had just fizzled out.  What would we do to make this different?

We just didn’t know.  God knew.

Before they call I will answer;
    while they are still speaking I will hear.

Two young ladies, Laci Stegall and Kendra Walker came forward about a month later wanting to know if they could be in charge of the Vacation Bible School.  Others joined them.

VBS was moved to an evening format.

We had enough teachers.

We had enough helpers.

We had more kids than ever before.

We learned a little each year.

The transformation of the building into each year’s VBS theme took on an atmosphere of chaos and clutter.  Glue guns and duct tape were at every turn.

Ranches, forests, national parks, big back yards, and tropical islands emerged where there had been only carpet and walls before.

VBS was not just a church event again.  It was a big event.  It was and is a very big week in the lives of those who came and learned and those who contributed.

It is not just something that we do.  It is something that God has called us to do, led us to do, equipped us to do, and blessed us by doing.

During the course of the past week, many of the VBS staff probably thought that they had all of the blessing that they could handle.

I have said this before and it holds true this year as well.  There is tired, and there is VBS tired.

Paul wrote to Timothy that he felt like he was being poured out like a drink offering.  That’s VBS tired.  You get poured out until you have nothing left.

Then God fills you back up and you come back for the next day.

Much of the Old Testament talks about God’s people not heeding his call.  They turned away from him time and time again.  They were not tuned into hear his prophets.  They were out of tune with his heart.

Earlier in this 65^th chapter, God spoke through the prophet.

“But as for you who forsake the Lord
    and forget my holy mountain,
who spread a table for Fortune
    and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny,
 I will destine you for the sword,
    and all of you will fall in the slaughter;
for I called but you did not answer,
    I spoke but you did not listen.
You did evil in my sight
    and chose what displeases me.”

We do not fear judgment and wrath and punishment.  We are liberated from our sins by the blood of Jesus.

But don’t we want to please God?  He loves us so much, don’t we want to give him what he desires?

He can’t stand it when his people do not listen to him and he loves it when we listen and actually do what he tells us to do.

He loves it so much that he enjoys our response of loving obedience even before we begin.

Before they call I will answer.  God has already put in motion the logistics to support us when we answer his call.

The blessings are already on the way!

Seven years ago the Lord spoke to the elders of the church. 

They listened and responded. 

Leaders emerged.

Funding was provided.

Volunteers abounded.

And the children came, more than ever before.  The children came and were blessed.

The leaders and helpers were blessed.

VBS is an important week in the lives of these children.  It is also an example of what happens when God’s people hear God’s voice and respond in loving obedience.

He is already equipping us and sending us blessing before we take our first step.

VBS is more than a week for the kids.  It is a lesson in the blessings of obedience to God.

God’s Spirit is leading us and urging us and nudging us to stay on the narrow path of discipleship.  We need to understand that on this narrow path of loving obedience, countless opportunities to bring glory to God abound.

In fact, the more that we narrow our focus to living in loving obedience, the greater and more frequent the opportunities to bring glory to God become.

We should not respond to God’s love with obedience because it is something that we have to do.  It is something that we love to do for it pleases our heavenly Father and he is pleased to bless us for our loving obedience.

Amen.