Serengeti Trek Series

INTRODUCTION

SLIDE #2

• We had a great week of Vacation Bible School this week. VBS can be a very challenging and stressful time, but I want to congratulate our staff for the hard work they put in to make the week a good week. I want to thank the children for being so good this week, it made the week a lot more fun.

• Today I would like to take you on the journey of the Serengeti Trek. The title to the VBS we used this week was Serengeti Trek. During the week we took the children on a journey to help to lead them to Jesus.

• Each day we had a bible point, a bible verse for the day, and bible story to go with the point along with many other activities to focus the children on the point for the day.

• The points for the week were simple 2-3 word statements to help them to remember some important things about God.

• Children need to be taught about and shown the love of God at an early age. There are many adults who do not know much of anything about God. Today we are going to focus our time on the five Bible Points we studied this week with the children!

• Each one of these points is important for all of us to grasp. If we fail to understand or follow though with any of them, it will affect our relationship with God in a negative way. SLIDE #3

SERMON

I. KNOW GOD. PSALM 135:5

• This is one of the first things we need to do in order to have a relationship with God; we must get to know Him!

• CLICK #3 The story we used for this is the Old Testament Story of Gideon and what God did through him to defeat the dreaded Midianites. This is found in Judges 7:1-22

• The Israelites were being persecuted by the Midianites and God has chosen Gideon to lead Israel to victory. Gideon, however; was not too sure he was up to the task. Gideon asked for signs, which God gave to him and God lead Gideon’s army of 300 men to defeat an army of several thousand men.

• Gideon was afraid to do what God wanted him to do because Gideon did not really know God.

• The Psalmist proclaimed that He knew the GREATNESS of the Lord in Psalm 135:5.

• There are many people who know of God, but do not know God.

• When we do not KNOW God, we will not have any confidence in God, we will not trust Him to get us through the things in life we struggle with, we will not trust Him to lead us down the path He wants us to travel.

• As we get to know God, we can then trust Him and when we know God, it will show in our lives.

• CLICK #3 We used Zach the Zebra to remind the children about Knowing God.

• Zebras have stripes, and the lesson taught us that each Zebra’s stripes are a little bit different so the Zebras can know one another.

• Each of us has unique stripes also. These stripes show others whether or not we really know God.

• IF we know God, it will show up in our attitudes we display, the way we treat others and what we do with ourselves.

• Children need to be taught about and shown the love of God at an early age. There are many adults who do not know much of anything about God.

• The great thing about God is that the more you know Him, the more confidence you will have in Him, the more you will trust Him to guide you in your life.

• Knowing God leads into the next Bible Point of the week. SLIDE #4

II. TALK TO GOD. EPHESIANS 6:18

• As we get to know God, we then will start to learn to talk to God. How many of us have been around a person we did not know, and as a result, we did not speak with them. Then one day, we started to get to know them and the next thing you know, we are speaking to them all the time.

• CLICK #4 For this bible point we used the story of Daniel in the lions den found in Daniel 6:1-28.

• In this story, Daniel was about to thrown into the lions den because he broke the newly formed law concerning prayer.

• The law was the brainchild of those who were jealous of Daniel.

• CLICK #4 Ephesians 6:18 tells us to pray at all times.

• When we get to know God, we realize He can do many wonderful things.