Matthew 18:6

Speaker 1: And then grateful for the good music here today. All day, morning and evening. And appreciate Brother Matt. I probably don't say it enough, but. I told you guys before, but sometimes I'll watch other people's live streams. Definitely not to make fun of anything, you know, because I totally understand what our livestream is like. But I do hear a lot of other people leading songs and most of them cannot stand their voices, just absolutely can't stand it. And and so I'm very grateful for rhythm that God's gifted Him with a great voice. And He does a good job of leading our singing. And I don't always catch it when I'm up here because he's obviously in front of me, but standing down there with the voice, I can hear him coming through the main speakers. And so it's just he does a good job. So I'm appreciative of that. Take your Bibles if you have them, and we're going to kind of be moving around a little bit tonight. This is not an expository message by any means. We're not going to take a passage in and just break it down and get a whole bunch of stuff out of it. We're going to go to Matthew 18 to start. I just want to share some things regarding Vacation Bible School to hopefully just remind us of some some things to keep in mind over the next several days. Matthew, Chapter 18. And we're going to reverse number six, if you don't mind, standing in honor of reading God's Word. Matthew 18, verse number six. The Bible says this, it says. Whoso shall offend one of these little ones, which believe in me, were better for him, that a millstone were hanged about his neck, that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Let's pray. Holy Father, we ask you to help us now as we look into your word for the next few moments. Just give me the words you have been saying. Folks are here to listen. Apply here to their lives. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen. Thank you. May be seated. I think I said this last year, but I'll tell you again, because there's new people here, they've never heard me say it. Vacation Bible School was instrumental in my life from a very young age. Three years old was when we started at Canyon Creek Baptist Church. And the only caveat was if you were three, you had to be potty trained. Which I was not. And so that was the rule. And so my mom told me, if you want to go to vacation Bible School this summer, you have to be potty trained. Now, the scary part about that is my birthday's in August. So if I was three years old, not potty trained, and we're talking about vacation Bible school, that means I was almost. Four years old. And so that tells you a little bit about my intellectual abilities. They're waiting till the very last minute to do that. But anyway, so you know that it pushed me towards that goal. But I remember VBS, and one of the things that most kids love about VBS are the skits. And there's some great skits that happen at VBS, and people break bones for the skits at VBS. So I've heard. I mean, it's just it's it's a lot of fun. I was scared of them. I was scared of anything in the costume and our VBS, it was hardcore. We had a guy that dressed up as Satan. And I mean scary. Satan. Not like cartoon Satan. We had a guy who dressed up as silly Billy and silly Billy was the the kid that every year, you know, he had to get saved. Every year he was getting into trouble. And so silly, Billy. I was scared of him. He had a mask. I was scared of Satan, which is probably a good thing. But then there was the worst, the worst of them all. It was old timer. No offense to the old timers that are here, but old timer was a teenager who would dress up in this mask and and these different suits. But and he would walk around the halls of vice and try to, like, jump out at kids during vacation Bible school. And so you can understand how a child who's already scared of costumes would not appreciate something like that happening. And so I remember just I was so upset. I was crying. And one of the youth took me out into the hall and and sat with me during the skits. And I remember them peeking in the doors to see if the skit was over. And I it's not over. It's still going on. Do you want to go back in? You know, teenagers are like, come on, come on, let's go back in. And I was like, no, no. And so it was vibes from a very, very early age was obviously making an impression upon me. We went to a couple of different churches. VBS is growing up. I went to one church and they they did this big it was a big production and they would build a haunted house, not really haunted, but, you know, they would have like little maze that you went through. And if you brought a visitor, you got to go through the haunted house. And so that was pretty cool. I enjoyed doing that and I brought several visitors, said all my verses that that year. And so that was great. And then there was the church across the street, little church that my friend went to, and so we went to their VBS and every year they would do they would teach the kids songs and then at the end the kids would be like a choir on Friday, and the parents would come and they'd, the kids would sing all their songs. And I still remember some of those songs. Somebody the other day said a line from one of those songs, and I almost broke out into the song that I learned as a kid, which I probably could have still sung most of it today. VBS Obviously it was a big deal and it should be a big deal. How many of you grew up and went to VBS at least once in your in your childhood? Okay. Most of the hands in here, most everybody went to VBS at least once growing up. VBS is an incredible church ministry. Six out of ten American adults have attended Vacation Bible School. Think about that for a second. 60% of American adults have attended Vacation Bible School. Out of that 60%, 90% of them have positive memories about VBS. That's pretty incredible, especially considering the continuing decline of of Americans opinions of church. The fact that 90% of American peop American adults who went to vbs have positive memories about it. Perhaps most exciting is this one eight out of ten VBS attenders said that VBS was a childhood highlight in their lives. Now that's pretty cool. This upcoming week, we have an opportunity to establish new, fond memories for these kids that is directly connected to church. God's people, more importantly, God and His Word. You know, working with teenagers. One of the things that that I believe pretty strongly in my philosophy of ministry was that by having fun with teenagers, you tear down some of those walls, some of those defensive barriers, so that they will connect you in what you have to say with good things. And that's what we're going to be trying to do this week with the VBS kids. Every year at vacation Bible School, two and a half million kids will attend. Two and a half million kids will attend VBS this year. Over 70,000 kids will get saved at vacation Bible School. Almost 1400 will surrender to the ministry. This is incredible. This is harvest time. There are planting times. There are watering times. But even what we've seen over the last few years is that vacation Bible school is a time of harvesting these young souls with the gospel. During Vacation Bible School, if you think about it, nine to noon, five days of the week, that is 15 hours of concentrated discipleship and investment that's going to be taking place in these kids lives. This is very exciting. But you know what? These kids aren't just on the receiving end. We're going to see that. They're also on the giving end. We're going to be doing the penny offering like we always do. And over the every year, VBS kids contribute six and a half million dollars towards world missions. That's pretty amazing. I know where the money's really coming from. Don't. Don't get me wrong. But those kids get to have a part in missions. And this year, we have four different missionaries that we're going to be taking the money and just dividing it and distributing it out to overseas and to stateside church planners. And we're really excited about the offering this year. We've got a new scale to weigh the offerings, and it's going to be a lot of fun. The kids love it. It's it's an awesome, awesome time. Now, some people, not you people, but some people are cynical about VBS. They might even say things like this VBS is just free child care for the summer. Now, as I told you this morning, that's not always the case anymore. More and more voices are charging people for bringing their kids. But it isn't. It's not just free childcare to give parents a break at the beginning of the summer. First off, a lot of our parents are volunteering at VBS. And so for those parents that are volunteering at VBS, it's definitely not a break. And I'm grateful for each one of them. But did you know only 12% of parents view VBS as child care? I mean, you think about it, most most American adults that have attended a VBS have positive memories about it. And so bringing their kids to VBS is not about just getting them out of the house for a few hours. It's about instilling those same memories in their children, giving them the same experiences that they had when they were a kid. Now you say, but still there's 12% out there that say it's just free childcare. If we have 100 parents, that means there's 12 of them that are just trying to unload their kids for a few hours. That's not the kids fault. Right. It's not their fault that mom and dad just want to get rid of them. So let's love on them and let's care for them while they're here. Because even if mom and Dad think that the kids are still here and we have an opportunity to minister to them now, as we talked about, we've got a lot of kids coming this week, 300 plus kids registered already. And I have no doubt I know that. Well, for example, my kids aren't even registered yet, so I know there will be more registering tomorrow. For the matter, your kids registered. Okay. They were the test subjects to make sure registration worked. We're going to spend a lot of money on VBS. And, you know, maybe some would think. Well. You know, shouldn't. That's a lot of kids that don't go to our church. That's a lot of kids that go to other churches. Shouldn't we just spend that money on something that's going to, you know, uniquely, specifically, in a targeted way, go straight into our kids answers? No. This is community outreach. This is one of the few events that modern churches can have where the community still feels comfortable coming to a church, knowing exactly what's going to be happening. You invite people to church. How often is it met with suspicion, you know, and excuses or well-meaning meaning? Comments of, Oh yeah, we might come and you know, they ain't coming. VBS is an investment. It is an investment in our children, but it is also an investment in the children of our community. It's a positive investment. Some of the things that I'd like to say to you tonight are pretty well, they're my opinion. But this week. Please don't come. Have a bad attitude about VBS. Don't come this week and complain to your superintendent or your helpers or Ms.. Leah or the children. When you laugh, you think that wouldn't happen? Oh, it most certainly does. If you've got a problem with VBS this year. Tell Brother Matt. And if you can't tell Brother Matt, if it's about Brother Matt, come tell me. If not, keep it to yourself. You have something about me. Go tell Brother Matt to. We need to maintain a positive attitude and atmosphere among the workers. Because if the workers and the adults and the youth workers are. Are excited and are positive about what's going on, guess what? That will trickle down to the kids. Some of our teenagers are here. If you're going to be here for VBS, be excited about the songs. Don't don't stand in the back in little huddles of, you know, of workers and just be like. Get in there with the kids, sit among them, don't sit on the edge, sit among them and sing out and do the hand motions. You know, when it comes time for our God is so big, you know? Yeah.

Speaker 2: Yeah. You know, do it.

Speaker 1: I mean, really get into it. Say, yeah, but. But someone's going to see me and think I look like a fool. Who cares? For them. That's only going to be walking around with a video camera, and yet it'll only be posted on social media for all of society to see. But other than that, who cares? It's PBS. Be goofy. Be excited. Have fun. It is it is a spiritual investment. But it's also an opportunity to make some of those positive memories with with our kids and your family and your friends that will come. This is an opportunity that we have to take advantage of. Listen, we have no idea. We have no guarantee that these kids will come back year after year after year. This could be our churches, one and only opportunity to reach that specific kid with the gospel. Next year, they may move. Right. They may never come back. Maybe it's a sixth grader. I'm so excited. Okay, look, every year we have a lot of forest fires. Like a lot of fires and fives. You know how many fifth and sixth graders we had registered yesterday? 40. How many? We're up to 62, I would say 43 yesterday. We've never had 62/5 and sixth graders. It's amazing. That's awesome. This is an opportunity for 62. However, the clearance is teaching them this year, not me. This is an opportunity for us to. Spend more time with these kids. One of the greatest complaints of a youth pastor or a children's worker is how little bit of time we actually get to spend with the kids. I mean, you think about it. Sunday school is not even an hour. It's 45 minutes. Junior church makes up for it because the pastor preaches too long. You get that extra 15 minutes back. So Sunday you got him for 2 hours Sunday night. A lot of them don't come back. Wednesday night. A want is an hour, so we're talking about 3 hours a week. That is not a lot of time. You add that all together? That's not a lot of opportunity, but this week we get 15 hours of their time. This means we can spend more time giving them perhaps some deeper explanations for things than we normally would. Each lesson is going to build upon the lesson from the day before. I would encourage you with your class mystery, maybe not the first and second graders, but, you know, third, fourth, fifth and sixth. Give them the opportunity to ask some more questions. Maybe as you're moving from place to place, open up some conversations with these kids and ask them about what they believe about God, what their church experience is. Do you have any questions about the Bible lesson? Let them ask some questions they don't normally get to ask. You know, there's going to be less distractions, you know, in some of the smaller groups we've tried this year to break some of the groups down into smaller sections and and hopefully in the years to come, we'll be able to do this even more. But, you know, it's not just going to be 100 kids in a room. It's hopefully going to be a smaller group, too, where they can have that meaningful interaction with their teacher. You know, there's a possibility. That the majority of the kids who will attend this year. Might think they're already saved. And maybe your class will have a bunch of kids who come from other churches or come from this church, and they all give a testimony of salvation. Don't look at that as Oh, well, Bomber, I'm not going to be the one that gets called out for having a whole bunch of salvation. Well, this is an opportunity to disciple. 88% of Americans who attended VBS growing up said this, quote, Participating in vacation Bible School as a child helped me to better understand the Bible. We're trying to connect these kids with God's word. Trying to help them understand that God's word is not just some ancient book that doesn't have anything to do with their life today, but it is a very practical book that helps them to know how to deal with the things that this life throws at us. One author said this. They said, With biblical, biblical literacy at an all time low vacation, Bible School provides an opportunity like no other time on the church calendar to help kids learn about God and grow in his word. Not only are these kids going to be getting Bible stories every single day, they're also going to be memorizing Bible verses. Some of these kids are going to memorize a lot of Bible verses, especially when they see the prizes that we've got lined up for them. They're going to be super motivated, and I don't mind bribing children to memorize the Bible. I have no guilt on my conscience for that.

Speaker 2: But you.

Speaker 1: Said that we're supposed.

Speaker 2: To do our.

Speaker 1: Spiritual face expressions for the Lord and not for men. Yeah. We'll fix that later. Okay. But right now, we want them to memorize the Bible. That means giving away a summer water fun pack to one of the kids. Hey, we'll do it. If it means giving away a sports kit to a kid, we'll do it. If it means giving away a new bike so that they'll memorize as many verses as they can, we'll do it. Let me ask this. If this is your first year doing VBS at at our church, would you like to maybe slip your hand up? All right. A few. This is an awesome opportunity for us to grow as a church family. For us to serve together, say, out in the foyer that we believe in fellowship. Fellowship has to do with with living life together, serving God together, working as a team, learning how to rely on one another and work together. And so if you are a long time Baptist Tabernacle, VBS, sir. Take this as an opportunity to train new leaders, new volunteers for the future. We're going to have a lot of our teenagers going about helping out with different things. Yes, they absolutely should be mature enough to take initiative and do something without you having to ask. But if you're working with teens from our church. Maybe go the extra mile and help them to know what needs to be done, because one day they'll be the ones watching over a group of kids teaching a class and they'll know what to do because you taught them. It's not just about teaching the kids, it's about teaching them as well with the hopefully. As I say, smaller class sizes. They're not really gonna be that small. But hopefully you'll be able to give some people some opportunities to serve and get experience that they might not normally get. Let them try some things. And if they. If they. They'll. It's okay. It's okay. Let them have some time to experience and try new things. Get experience sharing the gospel with someone. I'll be available walking around as much as I can. We'll be glad to share the gospel with any kid. But you have the Lord. I mean, you've accepted the Lord is your Savior. You have a testimony, so you should be able to share the gospel with the kid as well. It doesn't have to be a pastor, although we're happy to do it. And then deepen your connections with other members of our church. Grow closer to somebody this week through service, together, through fellowship with one another. It will only strengthen our church. Allow me to give you just a couple of thoughts for a successful vacation Bible school. The verse I read to you earlier says, whoso shall offend one of these little ones. Come on my shoe. Which believe in me. If it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck. We were drowned in the depth of the sea. This is very serious. Have to do everything above board. Do not assume. That. That you won't be accused of anything. It would be much safer for every single one of us to assume that we are going to be accused. Make sure you do everything above board. Keep yourself accountable. Nobody should be alone with a child at any time over the next five days. There needs to be two adults in the room. Whether you're taking kids to the restroom, whether you're counseling with a kid, it doesn't matter what it is. Keep yourself safe. Don't let yourself get into a position where you could potentially be accused of something. Two adults. It's so important. You know as well as I do that you don't have to be guilty. You just have to be accused. For your. For the testimony of the church's sake. The testimony of the gospel sake. Let's be very, very careful this week. If you need help. Grab another adult if they resist and say, I'm busy, I can't help you. Grab them by their shirt collar. Get in their face and say, Oh.

Speaker 2: You will.

Speaker 1: Help me. It's probably a four and five year old worker that's responding that way. There have been a lot of little ones who have been offended in a church by adults who abused them. And when I say pray for God's safety, I am praying for the safety of his children. All of our workers have to go through a background check, and I understand that it has caused some consternation for people that we have over time pulled back on, allowing people who are not members of our church to be involved with VBS. But it is for this reason. We cannot afford for one kid to be mistreated. If you don't like that, be mad at me. I don't care. It's fine. But I believe that's the right thing for us to do. Colossians four six gives us our second thought for a successful VBS. We protect the safety of these kids. We don't want any of them to be offended. But number two, we have to watch ourselves that our speech throughout the week would be seasoned with grace. Colossians four six is let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man. We know what grace means. We spent a whole year looking at it. It's undeserved favor. Do you think there might be some situations this week where a kid has to be shown some grace, some undeserved favor? Man. Isn't it amazing how a second grader can get under your skin? I know the buttons to push. Then they get into sixth grade and they think they're a teenager and they act like it. Be graceful in your speech. These kids may not deserve. Good treatment based on their behavior. But if we're going to show them, Grace will treat them better than they deserve. Even the church kids that will be here need to be shown love. I say this kind of often, but I don't know what goes on in your home. You don't know what goes on in my home. There are going to be church kids that will be here this week that may not have the most ideal home life and there may not be a whole lot of love that is shown to that little boy or that little girl. Show love to them this week. Let them know that when they're at church there are people that love them and speak kindly to them and compliment them and affirm them. Be graceful in your speech. You don't know what is going on in the homes of the kids that will be in your class. You don't know what was said in the car ride over here. The anger and the hateful words that were said in their earshot or to them. Let's be different. Let's show them God's love. Which is the second point. Let your speech be characterized by truth and love, Ephesians 415 says, But speaking, the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. The truth in love. This is not a license to say mean things and then qualify it as love. Right. The truth hurts. But I said it in love. Let's not. Let's not do that. There is a right way to correct and a wrong way to correct. Every kid has something you can praise them for. No matter what, there is something that you can compliment them on, even if it's just that they came today thinking, Well, I wish they wouldn't have come today. That's not the point. Johnny. I'm so glad you came today. Johnny, I'm so glad you're in my class. Johnny. You've got to sit still and be quiet. Much better. Thank you, Johnny. Praise them for something. Then correct whatever needs to be corrected. And then when you see that they're trying to do what you asked, praised them again. There will be those that need correction. But our next verse reminds us of what we must balance correction with. We want the kids to be safe. We want to show them grace. We want to speak the truth in love. First Thessalonians 514 tells us we also have to be patient. So now we exhort you brethren warn them that are unruly. Show me some unruly kids. Comfort the feeble minded. Support the weak. Be patient toward all men. All Men includes that fourth grader that is tap dancing on your last nerve. Thursday at 1130. Do you find yourself at all needing a break this week? You find yourself with a child that just absolutely won't play ball. Don't feel like you have to handle it all yourself. Brother. Matt, can we get myself? We would love to give you just a moment's break. And maybe if it's even if it's absolutely required, make the call. It's all mom and dad or grandpa, grandma, whoever it is, you're going to have to come get Johnny. He's causing too much of a disruption. Whatever it takes. Maintain patience with all men. I've seen our children's workers. And I don't anticipate this being a problem. I mean, if you ask most people in the community, what's the one thing? The Baptist Tabernacle is known for. It would probably be for most people who haven't had any interaction with our church, our children's ministry. Why is our children's ministry well-known and so special? Why would over 300 children be signed up for VBS? Because of our workers. It's because of the workers who have dedicated and invested their lives year after year into children. Workers that go above and beyond what is expected and what is asked to show these kids love. That's why so many people want to come to this vacation Bible school. This week we're doing. God's work in the lives of these kids. Mark Chapter ten verses 13 through 16 says this They brought young children to him. He should touch them. His disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased that under them suffer the little children to come under me forbid them not from such as the Kingdom of God. Rarely I say any whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child. He shall not enter there in. He took them up in his arms, put his hands on them. And bless them. You must strive every week or every day this week to be a blessing to these kids. Our goal is that every day. It will go home excited about what they learned about God in his word. Make a big deal this week about the right things. Three times. The Bible tells us heaven and earth shall pass away. But my words shall not pass away. We're going to have. Great crafts. We're going to have games on the season as she was coming in, as she was doing games again this year. Last year she did games. The best games I've ever seen on vacation Bible School. We don't have great games. We don't have skits, we don't have prizes. All of these things are fun. That's not the main reason why we're here. It's his word. All these things will pass away. His word will remain. Keep the focus on God and his word this week. Then finally stay prayed up. You know, many times before Jesus entered into a. A taxing ministry opportunity. He got a loan and he prayed. And if Jesus needed to pray before He ministered. So do we. Spend time praying before each day starts. Maybe just with your group, you would get your other helpers together and you would pray. Pray every day. Pray throughout the day. If you're not here, pray for us that are here. Maybe you'll be at work. Maybe you can set an alarm on your phone if you're tech savvy enough at 1030 that it'll go off and it'll say, Pray for VBS. Pray that we would have energy this week. We would stay energized. Pray that we'd stay healthy. You know, I wouldn't have anyone come down with something and say, I got to pull out. I can't finish the week. Pray for safety. The parking lots on the playgrounds and the gym all throughout the building. Pray for the Holy Spirit to be at work. Kids will get saved, kids will get disabled, lives would be changed because of what will happen here over the next few days. I'm excited about vibes. Aren't you? I think this could be the best vibes that we've had. This could be. We asked God to make it. So I spent some time in prayer and I may ask you to come. And for the mat if you want to just. Yeah. You can come to and. And if you want, you can come here to the altar to pray. I would encourage you to pray there at your seat. At least you know we're not going to stand. But as the as Miss Alicia plays brother, that's going to sing. Let's all take a few moments and pray. Vacation Bible School this week that God's will would be done. We would have a great week together at VBS.

Speaker 2: I hear the same you say that I strengthen the it is small child of weakness swatch in brain find in me the in all then oh Jesus paid it oh oh to him I oh said left to cribs and stayed. He watched it wide as.

Speaker 1: You done very much. Join us in standing and singing this next verse.

Speaker 2: Lord. Now, indeed I and I. And the loan can change the leopard spots and melt the heart of stone. Jesus made it o o to him. I o said after Crimson Stain. He watched it wide as Oh man.

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