(1) As I have already indicated this morning, a phone call from our national offices in Anderson late Thursday afternoon informing me that our scheduled missionary speakers were headed to his home state of Kansas, created a plan ‘B.’ Now I have had to go to plan ‘B’ before.
Many years ago, when I was a youth minister, I received an early Sunday morning call around 2 AM from the Senior Minister. He informed me that he was at the hospital with a pregnant woman and that I would need to preach later that morning.
When he told me this I was very, very tempted to say, ‘Does your wife know about this?’ But I refrained (and wisely so) from saying it because I did not have the full presence of mind (nor the courage) to say it! (It was his wife however.)
So around 7 or 8 AM, I headed to my office, typed out a sermon in 90 minutes, and got to announce the arrival of a new member that morning as well. (I think that she will be 19 this coming September.)
And several years before this event took place I was on a first date with a girl (before Susan) with whom I seriously entertained the thought of marriage. Now our first date was… to a revival service at her parents’ church out on the Illinois prairie near the town where I had gone to college and, at that point, worked in. There was no pianist present for the service. But I was there… and she knew that I played the piano and let them know very quickly that I played… which I did.
Well, having realized that I needed to prepare a sermon, I simply asked the Lord, “What do you want me to say this Sunday?” It is a question that I ask often. This question is the long version of a shorter; one word prayer often prayed by a pastor who struggles with sermon preparation… ‘HELP!’
I was already processing my September series and I thought that I might give an overview to that one. Then I entertained the notion that I would preach the next sermon in our summer sermon series.
But, as VBS drew to a close on Thursday night, I realized that what the kids had been taught during the week were some very important key concepts that are central to the Christian faith that are important for all of us to not just know but experience. Then I realized in a very important way that (2) Jesus Isn’t Just For Kids!
(3-8) One of the great things about kids is that their perspective can often give us adults a new perspective on things that we take fore granted or they can give us an entirely new view of something unique and different. (Wait for slides to cycle through.)
I am reminded of this in a heart-touching story about four year old Shane and the aging and sickly family dog, 10 year old Belker, as told by the vet who put the dog to sleep in the presence of Shane and his family. The parents had decided to tell Shane and let him be a part of that very hard process.
The vet said, ‘Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away. The little boy seemed to accept Belker’s transition without any difficulty or confusion.
We sat together for a while after Belker’s death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives. Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, "I know why." Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me - I’d never heard a more comforting explanation.
He said, "Everybody is born so that they can learn how to live a good life - like loving everybody and being nice, right?" The four-year-old continued, "Well, animals already know how to do that, so they don’t have to stay as long."
This past week during our ‘Fiesta’ VBS we used a:
(9) …Blanket to represent a mat upon which a very sick man was brought by very persistent friends to Jesus for healing as we also need to remember that Jesus is our friend!
In Luke 5:17-25 we read about these persistent men who knew that their friend desperately needed help and that Jesus could help them and him.
Now this friendship is demonstrated in the midst of a tense situation between Jesus and the religious leaders of that day. They had written Jesus off as a ‘blasphemous’ or ‘irreverent’ person who thought He was God.
Someone once said that ‘a friend was someone who was coming in as everybody else was leaving.’ This is, in a sense, true in this situation.
The friends cannot get their desperately ill and needy friend close to Jesus because of the crowd who do not care about this man. Furthermore, this man could not have made it as far as he did if it were not for his friends. However, his friends cared about him and they cared enough to take him to the roof of the location where Jesus was (most roofs in the Middle East are flat and not peaked as we have) and took off some of the roofing tiles and lowered him to Jesus.
I have friends in my life who have often gone to Jesus on my behalf in prayer. I have friends who have lifted me up and encouraged me through a word or act of encouragement. I think that you have, too.
I have also been a friend and given words or done acts of encouragement to those who are important to me. I have lifted friends, (and I think especially this year of one who has been a friend for nearly 30 years who went through a very difficult situation,) in prayer to God when I could not be physically with them during difficult times. I think that you have, too.
But, as we read in verse 20 it was the faith of the friends that Jesus noticed and rewarded by physically healing the body of and spiritually forgiving the sins of the crippled friend.
Maybe you have trouble thinking of Jesus as a friend. But the ‘treasure verse’ for that first night of VBS were the words of Jesus saying to his first followers, ‘Now you are my friends!’
Here is the entire verse, ‘I no longer call you servants, because a master doesn’t confide in his servants. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.’
Said in the final hours before His arrest and crucifixion, Jesus is noting that because of their relationship with Him, those first followers, those disciples, are no longer servants but friends who have been privy to important truths from God the Father. And they would become the leaders of the church and faith in a short period of time as well.
The same holds true for us. When we confess our sins to God and accept His forgiveness we become both new children of God and His friends.
(10) Question! How would you describe your friendship with Jesus at this point in your life?
(11) We also used a sheet to represent the burial linens that was used to wrap Lazarus up before he was placed in the tomb from which Jesus would raise him from the dead. We read this miraculous story in John 11 and it taught the kids that Jesus is our life!
Lazarus is dead for four days before Jesus shows up in his village. His sisters, Mary and Martha, were close friends of Jesus’ and they are grief stricken. John also records the interesting statement that Mary and Martha had sent Jesus a note about Lazarus condition but that Jesus did not come to them until after Lazarus died.
We don’t hear everyday about people that are dead for four days being raised from the dead do we? At least, physically raised from the dead. We know of people who have been resuscitated with a short period of dying. But coming back to life after four days?
Yet, there are people, every day, who are being raised back to life… spiritually. They have come to Jesus (and Jesus has come to them) and they have let Jesus bring them back to life.
Each night during VBS, the kids had a visit from Freddie during the welcome and opening segment of our evening together. On this particular night, Freddie talked about his passion for shopping and that ‘shopping was his life!’
For some people, shopping is their life, too. For others, work is their life; then there is a special relationship for some; and for others something else is their life. But, to live the best kind of life there is… we need to remember that Jesus is our life.
(12) Another question to reflect on this morning, ‘How is Jesus your life these days?’
(I call the adult staffers forward)
(13) On the third night, we used fishing net that disciples remind us that that Jesus is our leader as recorded by Matthew in his gospel account in chapter 4 and verses 18-22:
‘One day as Jesus was walking along the shore beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—fishing with a net, for they were commercial fishermen. Jesus called out to them, “Come, be my disciples, and I will show you how to fish for people!” And they left their nets at once and went with him.
A little farther up the shore he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, mending their nets. And he called them to come, too. They immediately followed him, leaving the boat and their father behind.’
This night was also the night that several of the adult staff got to express their acting abilities with the following skit about Jesus. (Skit is done.)
A rather humorous look at the story isn’t it? But think with me for a moment about the response of Zebedee, ‘Hey what’ll I tell your mother?’
It is easy to romanticize this passage and think how great and easy it was for the disciples to give up their jobs and follow Jesus because they were following Jesus. And it is great and wonderful to follow Jesus but, at times, it is a challenge to follow Him because so many things compete for our loyalty and support.
(14) Jesus calls us to follow Him as well which leads me to ask, ‘How well are you following Jesus?’
(15) The fourth night was a very important night as we used a cactus with its sharp needles to remind us of the nails that were used to hang Jesus on the cross because Jesus is our Savior!
And because He did, we have the opportunity to live forever with Him because that is God’s great desire for each of us here this morning. I like what is written in Ephesians 1:5, ‘His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure.’
Two years ago many of us were moved to tears and deep reflection as we watched ‘The Passion of the Christ,’ and the awful and sobering account of Jesus’ suffering. Debate took place as to graphicness of the violence in the movie and a milder form of the movie was released a year later.
But Jesus was horrifically sacrificed for you and me. There is nothing ‘neat’ about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
But He did it because He loved humanity and wanted them back. The Bible makes it clear that because of our sinful choices and decisions, we are alienated from God. But the Bible also makes it clear that God wanted us back and made it possible for us to come home to Jesus!
(16) Where is Jesus in your life right now?
(17) Finally on the final night we used a flashlight to illustrate the point that Jesus is our helper!
The Bible character that was presented to the kids was Ananias, who God used to help Saul, who would become Paul after his dramatic conversion experience, get back on his feet. Now we notice in Acts 9:13 that Ananias had some hesitation about helping Paul. “I’ve heard about the terrible things this man has done to the believers in Jerusalem! And we hear that he is authorized by the leading priests to arrest every believer in Damascus” we hear him say to God.
Helping others is at times, a challenge. People take advantage of others. ‘Thank you,’ is not frequently heard. Helping gets to be a chore after a while. No matter how young or old we are, if we love God and have experienced His love and forgiveness then part of our expressing that faith is by serving others.
But, throughout the Bible God calls us to help others in need because in doing so, as Jesus would say ‘you did it to me.’
(18) How are you expressing your love for God to others?
(19) These five points are important to our faith and life with God. They are evidence of a living and current faith.
And they are proof that… (20) Jesus is not just for kids. Amen.
Sources: Skit from Group Publishing VBS program ‘Fiesta,’ day 3 of Fiesta Finale. © 2006
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