What Church (Vbs) Is All About

WHAT CHURCH (VBS) IS ALL ABOUT

James 1:19-22

INTRO.- What is church all about? And what about SS and VBS?

I want to begin by sharing some stories I found which are about church, Sunday School and VBS.

ILL.- A Sunday School teacher asked her students, “Do you believe that story about Lot’s wife looking back and turning into a pillar of salt?”

One little boy said, “Sure I do. Just yesterday my mother looked back and turned into a telephone pole.”

ILL.- The assignment in VBS was to make stickers for the window panes in the classroom. The teacher

asked, “What did you learn from the work you did today?”

One boy said, “That if you get too much water on the stickers they won’t stick.”

ILL.- A mother asked her son, “What did you learn in VBS today? “That God created the world in eleven days.” “But that’s wrong.” “In that case, I didn’t learn anything.”

ILL.- Another SS teacher asked, “What do we learn from the story of Jonah and the whale?”

A little girl said, “We learn that people make whales sick.”

ILL.- A youngster went home after VBS and said to his father, “Today we heard a wonderful story from the Bible. The teacher said the Jews were chased out of Egypt by Egyptian tanks.”

“When they came to the Red sea, the Jews saw the Egyptian tanks coming after them so they built a

bridge and went over safely. But when the Egyptians kept coming, they blew it up with an atomic bomb and the Egyptians were destroyed.”

His father said, “Did the teacher really tell you the story that way?”

He replied, “No, but if I told you how he did tell the story, you’d never believe it.”

ILL.- One lady said, “In VBS my 5-year-old son Robby learned that God created Adam from the dust. One evening during his bedtime prayers, Robby said, ‘Thank you, God, for making my Dad look so cool. HE DOESN’T LOOK LIKE HE WAS MADE FROM DIRT.’”

ILL.- A VBS teacher said, “From the opening of our VBS we ask for volunteers to pray. One morning, a

first-grader enthusiastically waved his hand. Running to the front, he took a big breath as everyone bowed their heads for prayer and suddenly his voice boomed through the microphone: I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA....”

ILL.- Another lady said, “In our church’s VBS one of the 4-year-old boys rushed to his father at the close

of the evening activities and proudly announced that he had learned his Bible verse for the day, Psalms

46:1.”

“That’s great,” his father said, “Let me hear it.”

The little boy said, “GOD IS OUR REFUGE AND STRENGTH, AND OUR PRESIDENT’S IN TROUBLE.”

ILL.- Another lady said, “When I picked up my two boys from their last day of VBS, I asked if they would like to attend next summer.”

“Yes,” they said, “but next year it should be only four days.”

“I was puzzled so I asked why only four days.”

“My five-year-old said, ‘BECAUSE IT’S HARD TO BE GOOD 5 DAYS IN A ROW.’”

PROP.- I want to talk about what is important about church, Sunday School and VBS.

1- Loving

2- Listening

3- Living

I. LOVING

Jesus said in Matthew 22:37 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” With all your heart, soul and mind. I’d say that’s a lot of love, wouldn’t you?

ILL.- My daughter Holly is now 26-years-old and is expecting her first baby. And she was my first baby.

And a happy baby at that. When Holly was small she attended elementary school in Iberia, MO, where we lived. She rode the schoolbus almost every day. And I remember one day going down to the bus stop as she got off. She came running on that bus, yelling, “Daddy, Daddy, I missed you! I love you!”

Do I ever miss that time! But that time is long gone and I can’t bring it back. But Holly was a very

loving daughter.

ILL.- My son Shane is 20-years-old and lives in Cape Girardeau, MO and works for the Memco Barge Company. He’s visited here several times, the last being Easter. When I first moved to Southern Illinois I remember taking Shane calling with me. We called in the home of a shut-in couple and as we were about to leave I said, “Goodbye” and suddenly I felt 4-year-old Shane yanking on my hand. He said, “Dad, aren’t we going to pray for them?”

Shane reminded me of my spiritual responsibility. AND THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT YOU YOUNG PEOPLE SHOULD DO TO OR FOR YOUR PARENTS!

Whenever you see that your parents are not praying around the dinner table or not praying at all, or