Introducing Our Children to Jesus

00:01 Like for the children to pay special attention this morning, got a question for you. 00:08 Brought these candles along this morning to represent something. 00:18 We're going to call these Mom and Dad and the Child. That child represents all the children. Now, which one do you think represents Dad? Okay. 00:35 The biggest. 00:35 The biggest, the biggest. How many of you think that Dad is represented by the biggest? Okay. Some of you do. Adults can weigh in on this too. Okay. Anybody else have a thought? We kind of think of dads as being the biggest, strongest out there, 00:55 kind of, you know, stretching up, letting the light shine. We oftentimes think about this this being the children over here, maybe Mom somewhere in the middle because she's not as big, she's not as tall. I'd like to suggest to you this morning that these candles represent three stages in life, and that this represents Dad. 01:18 Not because he's in a fat in a fat 01:23 candle holder, but because he has less time to shine for Jesus as of right now. And this represents Mom, although Moms and Dads kind of tend to live the same same amount of time, but Moms tend to live a little bit longer than Dads because of life expectancy and so on. So she maybe has a little bit longer time to shine for Jesus. 01:44 But I'd like to suggest to you this morning that the tall candle represents the children because they have the longest time to burn for Jesus. They have the longest time to let their light shine. And so we think about that song this morning, this little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine. 02:04 This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine all around the neighborhood. Let it shine till Jesus comes. You see, some of us dads and grandpas have less time to shine than than the children do. And so you children have your whole life to shine for Jesus. 02:20 And really, that's why we have a week like Bible school, is because we want to encourage the children to let their light shine for the Lord. And with your copies of the scriptures this morning, I would like to have you turn in your Bibles to John chapter 1. And I want to talk to you this morning kind of as a as a as a Bible school pep talk, 02:41 you might say. We're surrounded by Bible school here this morning. You can see it. You see it when you walk in the door. You see it when you walk in the sanctuary. You see it as you watch me this morning in in in all I'm not sure what all these things are going to represent. 02:56 But I guess we're out in the woods somewhere, out in nature somewhere, going to throw the Word of God out there and let it zoom around, zoomerang and boomerang back. But whatever all happens this week, it's it's about the children and remembering that children have a special place in God's in God's view, in God's world. 03:16 They have a special place in the church because they are the ones who, when that light gets lit, have the longest time, have all their life in front of them to shine for Jesus. And this morning from John chapter 1, verse 20, verse 35 to 51, I want to talk to you about introducing our children to Jesus. 03:37 Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples and looking at Jesus as he walked, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God." And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and, seeing them following, said to them, "What do you seek?" They said to him, "Rabbi," which is to say, 03:57 when translated, "Teacher, where are you staying?" He said to them, "Come and see." They came and saw where he was staying and remained with him that day. Now it was about the tenth hour. That's about four o'clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. 04:17 He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah," which is translated, "The Christ." And he brought him to Jesus. Now, when Jesus looked at him, he said, "You are Simon, the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas," which is translated, "A stone." And following the following day, 04:36 Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and he found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." Now, Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, "We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." And Nathaniel said to him, 04:56 "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and saw him and said of him, "Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no deceit." Nathaniel said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered and said to him, 05:16 "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." Nathaniel answered and said to him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel." Jesus answered and said unto him, "Because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,' do you believe? You will see greater things than these." And he said to him, 05:37 "Most assuredly I say to you, hereafter, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." Really, what we're telling the children this weekend and this coming week is, "Come and see. Come and see. 05:57 Come and see what Jesus has to offer. Come and see who Jesus is. Come and see the plan that God has for your life." Now, Satan is spending an awful lot of time and energy and money on children. Why? 06:11 Because he also knows that if those children's light are snuffed out, they have the longest time period of time to live for him and to to to be children of darkness. 06:24 They have the time to to go further and further out into sin and to become his his his prey and under the clutches of sin and Satan and darkness. And so he knows that if you can get the children, the Communists said that if you can get the children, they'll be Communists. The Catholics said that if you can get the children, 06:44 they'll be Catholics. The Islam, the Muslims said if you can get the children, they'll be Muslims. And somehow we have to remember that we need to get the children for Jesus, for Jesus. That is a challenge for us in our families. It's a challenge for us in our children's education. It's a challenge for us in our church. 07:04 You see, Satan is spending a lot of time. He's spending a lot of time in advertising, trying to pull children into into his web. He's spending time in anti-Christian propaganda in the schools, teaching them all sorts of lies in in in schools. He's teaching them sexual perversions in schools and through the media. 07:26 He's teaching them despair. Never before have we had a generation that is so full of despair. 07:32 We talked about that last Sunday, despair and discouragement and fear and abandonment and and and and young people committing suicide and going on rampages like like they have in the in the violent school shootings and so on. 07:49 He's spending a lot of time out in the public square trying to get children to question who they are and what they are. He tells the boys that they're girls, and he tells the girls that they're boys, and he tells the old people that that there's nothing they can do about it, and the young people that there's no hope for tomorrow. And he just lies, lies, lies into that. 08:10 You enter the drugs and the violence all around us, and and and and yet God is is spending time and energy and money and investment in the lives of children. 08:23 And he's doing that through his people, through the church, through through Christian parents, through Christian schools, and through Christian churches who who really need to capture the the hearts of our children with the gospel. We this week have the opportunity to make an impact on the community around us. 08:42 We have an opportunity to make an impact on our on the children, to offer them hope that this world, even though it's a dark place, there's light that's shining out of darkness and that God wants to bring them out of the the realm of darkness into his marvelous light, to offer hope, 09:01 to give the value of life and the treasure of eternal life. I think this is going to have something to do with life this week, returning to the value of life. How that's going to relate to a boomerang is going to be interesting. But to return to the value of life. 09:16 But the value of life is only truly valuable when it is seen in context of eternal life and and the the hope for eternity, to expose their the children not only of our church but of our community if God brings them through these doors, 09:35 to expose them to the timeless truths of the Word of God, to let them know that God has spoken. His Word is true. But most of all in it all is to introduce children to Jesus Christ, to Jesus Christ. That's the goal. That's the goal of our text. 09:55 That's the goal of our Bible school, not to just capture their minds that they might understand the the the stories and the truth, but to capture their hearts, that they might give their hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ, that they would love Jesus with all their heart and soul and mind and strength, 10:13 that they would recognize that there's a clear-cut distinction between the world and where it's going and the gospel and where it will take us and the church where it's going. And so we want to impact children with the gospel so that they will receive the Lord Jesus Christ. And I realize that the age of three, four, five, six, 10:31 seven, eight, nine, we may not understand all that that means, but we can understand what it means to love Jesus and to have a heart for God and the ways of God and the Word of God and the truths of God and the life that God offers us and a Christian worldview, how to approach life as a Christian and as a disciple of Jesus Christ. 10:52 And so here in verse 35, we have John. We have the day that John stood with his two disciples and made the declaration. So we have John here. Previous to this, he's being approached by the Pharisees saying, "Are you him? 11:07 Are you the one we're looking for?" John said, "No." He said, "Not me." He said, "Are you the prophet?" "No." "Are you the Christ?" "No." "Are you the one who should come?" "No. I'm the voice of one crying in the wilderness." And by the way, look over there at him. He's the one who who the Spirit descended and landed upon and remained upon him. 11:25 And God told me that when I see that the Spirit descending and landing and remaining on on Jesus, that would be the indication that he's the Messiah. And so I want you to look over there. Behold the Lamb of God. And that was the message that John the Baptist gave them. Behold, 11:43 verse 29, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He said it again in verse 36, the declaration. This is the Lamb of God. 11:55 And looking at Jesus as he walked, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God." Now, that had special resonance in their in their minds because because they knew Jesus. They knew the Old Testament sacrificial system. They knew that a Lamb had to be offered for sin. 12:13 But we nevertheless still proclaim him this morning as the Lamb of God. That's our role. 12:20 Our role is the role of declaration, declaring, "This is Jesus whom you seek." He John said, "He must increase and I must decrease." If John didn't introduce them to Jesus, how would they know? And if your children aren't introduced to Jesus by you, 12:41 how will they know? And if the neighborhood isn't introduced to Jesus, how will they know? If the neighbors aren't introduced to Jesus, how will they know? They say, "Well, everybody knows about it." No, they don't. No, they don't. Not everybody knows about Jesus. Oh, they know him as a swear word. They know him as a cuss word. They know him as a prophet. Maybe some of them know him as a prophet, 13:02 and maybe some of them know him on a crucifix in the front of the church, but they don't know Jesus. And so here we have the opportunity to say, "Come and see. Come and see." Verse 39. Well, I get ahead of myself. So we have the day that this happened in verse 35. We have the declaration in verse 36. 13:23 We have the decision in verse 37. The disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. That's where the heart is captured. The heart is captured. There's something going on here with Jesus that I want to know about, that I want to follow, that I want to see, 13:41 that I want to I want to enter into what this is all about. And so they they followed him. Then verse 38, they had you see the desire, the desire. They were seeking something about this Jesus. Our children, too, need to need to know what kind of a what kind of a man, 14:01 what kind of a God, what kind of a God-man, what kind of a friend, what kind of a Savior, what kind of a Lord is this Jesus. They want to be captivated by something. They want to looking for love. They're looking for significance. They're looking for attention. They're looking for meaning, purpose, and values. 14:20 They may not be able to articulate that till they get a little bit older than 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. But that's what they're looking for. Give me something to believe in, Mom and Dad. Give me something to follow. Give me some meaning and purpose in this existence. Oh, we find people today that are being told, "You're just a you're just a blob. 14:41 You're just an evolutionary animal. And when you die, that's it." And so why die? Why not die young? Why not take your own life? What's the value of life? And and and and Christian young people raised in Christian homes are also catching up with some of that despair. So we want to give them to Jesus. We want them to we want them to show them Jesus, 15:03 not as just a historical figure, but as one who walks with me and talks with me and tells me that I am his own and the joy we share as we tarry there none other has ever known. So we have the decision. We have the desire. Someone asked their mother one day, a little girl asked her mom one day, 15:23 "Mother, how old do I have to be to be a Christian?" Well, how would you answer that question? How old do I need to be to be a Christian? 15:31 And so the mother said, "Well, how old will you have to be before you love me?" "Well, Mama, I always love you." "Well," then the mother asked, "How old do you have to be before you can trust me and wholly trust me that I'll take care of you?" "Well, I always did that." "Well, 15:51 how old do you have to be before you can do what I want you to do?" "Well, I do that now. I can do that now without getting any older." Then the mother said, "Then love him, trust him, and obey him. And you're and that's and at whatever age, you're old enough to follow Jesus. 16:11 You're old enough to love Jesus." Now, that's true. There comes a time when we recognize our sinfulness and our depravity, or we must recognize our sinfulness. We're not just about making good children. We're not just about making children behave, although that's important. We're talking to them about trusting Jesus, 16:31 loving Jesus, repenting of sin, and wherever they understand that level of sin, that level of understanding. And we're talking to them about following and obeying Jesus. You can do that at any age. Where there's desire, there must be a declaration and a decision. 16:52 I remember being in a in a juvenile facility in Ontario, Canada, a number of years ago. And we gave a program. At the end of that program, I did what you're not supposed to do in Canadian prisons, in many Canadian prisons. I gave an invitation. Wow, did I hear about it by the liberal chaplain at the end of the service? She said, 17:12 "You do not give invitations here. These young people aren't old enough to handle that." I said, "What? 17:20 You mean they can handle everything the world has to offer, all the all the sex and violence and drugs and babies, illegitimate babies and all that stuff and crime and violence and broken homes and everything and debauchery that the world has to offer? And they can't handle a clear presentation of the gospel? Something's wrong." And it was with the chaplain, 17:42 the desire. You're old enough to begin to learn to know the meaning of life, the reality of sin, the good news that Jesus Christ is the lifeboat to a drowning man. Word pictures. Word pictures can be helpful for children. We're drowning. We need a lifeboat. 18:02 We're sick. We need a doctor. Jesus is our heavenly doctor. We're dead. Take him to a funeral. We're dead. Just like that corpse there, children, we're dead in trespasses and sins. 18:15 And Jesus is going to give that body life one day, and Jesus can give our spirit life, taking the illustrations of life around us and driving home the point that it's Jesus that is the point of life. The point of life is not a better job. The point of life is not a richer bank account. 18:35 The point of life is not a nicer house or a or a nicer car. The point of life is Jesus and instilling that value not only by conversation but by observation as they see us live our lives to the glory of God. 18:52 Doesn't take children long to understand that they only have one way to go to heaven. Doesn't take them long to understand that we build character into our lives to avoid the pitfalls and traps of Satan. Doesn't take us long to teach them that Jesus is the protector, the provider, the purpose of life, the promise of eternal life, 19:12 and cultivate that desire for a relationship with Jesus. That's what's happening here in our text. There's a desire to follow him. There's a decision. There's a declaration. And then there's a directive. Verse 39, "Come and see. 19:32 Come and see. You want to enter into my into my world?" Jesus is saying, "Come. Come and see." And they came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day from about four o'clock in the afternoon to who knows when. They listened. They interacted. The call to relationship and to fellowship. 19:52 Sometimes Jesus calls us into his world, and sometimes we call him into ours. Sometimes he calls. He says he calls, and he says, "Zacchaeus, I'm coming to your house today. You're not coming to my house today. I'm coming to your house." And so Zacchaeus invited him in. 20:11 Christ has a plan for every child that will pass through these doors. Do you believe that? Everyone, every child, every boy, every girl, every little one, every mom and dad that bring their children to Bible school, Jesus has a plan. He has a desire. 20:30 He wants to fellowship with them. He's, in essence, standing at the door of the church house saying, "Come and see what what what I can do for you, who I am. Come and see what my life is about and what your life can be about with me." Christ has a plan. 20:49 "Come and see. Come and see." Isaiah 35, verses 3 through 6, "Strengthen the weak hands. Make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful-hearted, 'Be strong. Do not fear. He will come and save you.' Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. 21:09 The lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the tongue of the dumb sing. For water shall burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. Come and see it all. Come and see it happen. Come and experience it." Verse 40 and 41, we have the downline. This is the people that are that are down the line. 21:29 Somebody telling somebody telling somebody to tell somebody. One of those two who heard John speak and followed him, who went to Jesus' house that day, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. And he found his brother, Simon, and said, "We have found him. We've found the Messiah. 21:47 We've found the Christ." They told and they told and they told. We tell parents. We tell siblings. We tell friends. We tell coworkers. It's amazing how people tell stories, tell stories about different things, about each other. 22:06 They tell stories about gossip. They tell that's a bad story kind of storytelling. But it's amazing the information hideaway in our communities. Do we tell people about Jesus? Do we tell them what he has done? Do we tell them what he's doing? Do we tell them we have found him? 22:26 You get these children on fire for Jesus. By the way, Matthew chapter... I'm not sure what chapter it was, where the children, after the triumphal entry, were singing and praising Jesus in the temple. Beautiful picture. Beautiful picture. 22:45 I look forward to tonight, this weekend, or this week, to see these seats filled with children praising Jesus. Praising Jesus. That's important. It's important to give them the songs to sing, Brother Aaron, or whoever's in charge of the music, and to teach those songs and sing those songs and graft that word into our hearts. 23:07 One of the beautiful things is that these children take those songs home and sing them around the house. Well, that sets a tone in a Christian home, but it also makes a statement in a non-Christian home. I hope we have community children here this week. Let's pray for that. Let's pray for that. "We have found him." Verse 42. Verse 42, 23:27 "He brought him to Jesus, brought Peter to Jesus. And when Jesus looked at him, he said, 'You are Simon, the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas,' which is translated 'a stone.'" You see, Jesus introduced himself to Peter and introduced Peter to him, to him as it were. 23:47 He said, "Peter, I know who you are. 23:49 I've got a plan for your life, and you are going to be a witness to me. You're going to be my witness." Now, you see, you can't tell somebody about something that you haven't experienced. So we have to take a little time this morning to ask us as teachers and and and leaders and and and and recreational leaders and everybody, 24:09 do I have the relationship with Jesus that I can actually say, "Come. Come and see." This is what Jesus has done for me. This is what Jesus means to me. This is my relationship with Jesus. Do we have that kind of relationship? Peter was not equipped to go and be a disciple until he met Jesus. As neither are we. Neither are we. 24:28 You can't share what you've never witnessed. When we were in Oregon, um we had gone out to the coast one day. It was when uh Alicia and Maria were there. And uh so we had had taken a van and drove out to see the ocean and and walk on the beach and eat some seafood. And and on the way back, we were about 10 miles out of Newport. 24:50 And uh if you know anything about the coastal highways there, uh they're very curvy, um and uh they're very uh very dangerous at times. And we come upon an accident, come over a hill, come upon an accident where there was a two truck, pickup trucks that were involved. And there had been a fatality. 25:10 And uh so we were about, oh, I don't know, six or eight cars in line. It must have just happened. And uh so we, we Alicia and Delora said, "Well, since we're nurses, maybe we should go see if we can help." There were no emergency medical people there in place yet. And so they walked about an eighth of a mile down the hill and offered some consolation to one of the victims, 25:32 one of the the persons that had been in one of the vehicles. But long story short, um we got through. I decided to go down through the when they directed traffic. And so we got to the other side, and I walked down there, prayed with one of the ladies whose fiancé had been killed in the in the pickup truck. 25:51 And uh but anyway, we didn't know when we could leave. The emergency vehicles arrived, and and uh the police were there, and the ambulances came came uh came in. And and uh I didn't know if we should leave or not. So I had asked one of the officers if we can leave or if we need to stay. 26:09 He said, "Well, hang around a little bit." And and uh so then another officer came, and he was obviously in charge. And so when I had an opportunity to ask him, I said, "Now now uh you've got everything under control here. We were we were walking around, helping here. And uh or do you need us some more? Are we free to leave?" I didn't want to leave the scene of an accident, you know? 26:28 And uh and so he said, "Well, did you see what happened?" I said, "No, we came upon it after it happened." "Oh, then you're free to go." See, we were no value to them as witnesses because we didn't see it happen. We just saw the effects of it. And so that's how it is with Peter here. Peter now could become a witness because he saw it happen. 26:49 He experienced it. You have no value as a witness if you haven't seen it and experienced it. And so as you're involved this week, make sure you are also connected to Jesus and have a testimony. Verse 44, "Well, 27:08 then they found Philip in Galilee." Jesus wanted to go to Galilee. "They found Philip and said, 'He said, 'Follow me.'" And Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Now, it's interesting here, this Bethsaida is the house of a hunter or a house of a fisher. That's the meaning of the word Bethsaida. 27:28 And Jesus is hunting for men and calling fishers of men. Found that interesting. And so he he he meets Philip and Bethsaida there, and Philip knew Peter and Andrew, and they're all kind of telling each other about what's happening. And Philip then found Nethanial in verse 45 and said, 27:48 "This is we found him who Moses in the law and the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph." The son of Joseph. What? And Nethanial's, you got to have one in every group, you know? You got to have one in every group, a doubter, you know? What's the big deal? You know, 28:07 another one, another fly-by-night guy coming through claiming to be the Messiah. No, no, no, no, no, no. This is real. This is really the Messiah. Oh, yeah, I've heard that before. He could go down the list of all the people that had claimed to be Messiah through the years. And and and well, just just come. Come and see. How can any good thing come out of Nazareth? 28:28 There's that doubt again. There's a lot of ideas about God and about Jesus. But something happened when Nethanial met Jesus. And you see that in verse in verse 47, "Jesus saw Nethanial coming toward him and said of him, 'Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no deceit.'" And Nethanial falls to his knees, as it were. 28:51 The difference is that this doubter became convinced when he met the Lord. Isn't it neat the way that the Lord meets us in ways that we need to be met? He had a message for Peter. He had one for Andrew. He had a little different path to to to Christ for Andrew. 29:10 Had a little different path for Philip. Had a little bit different path for Nethanial. But they all got there. They got there to Jesus, to Jesus. Now, there's not many ways to heaven, but there's many ways to get to Jesus. And one of those is through Vacation Bible School. The difference is that Jesus knew him personally and yet loved him genuinely. 29:32 And this became a life-changing experience. Those who met Jesus had life-changing experiences. John chapter 7, verse 49 or 46, "Never a man spoke like this man, for he spoke as one having authority and not as the scribes. He is the deliverer." In verse 49, "Nethanial answered and said to him, 'Rabbi, you are the Son of God. 29:54 You are the King of Israel. And you are the deliverer. You are the real deal.'" And Jesus took him then one more point here to his destiny, to his destiny. He said, "You've found me. You've noticed me. You know me now. 30:14 But this is just the tip of the iceberg because this is all about a destiny, the final word at the final hour to the final destination. You've not seen anything yet, Nethanial. There's going to be a time when when you see heaven open and angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man." Well, 30:35 I don't know what all that means except that Jesus is saying he's the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy and he's the only way to the Father, the only way that anything gets into heaven, and the only way that heaven gets anything to earth is through Jesus. I want to give you, in the few minutes that remain, four needful things for going into Bible School. 30:55 Number one, we need willing voices. Willing voices. Willing voices. The voice of John the Baptist here. Not too loud so as to drown out Christ, but not too soft so as to obscure him with vagueness or without conviction. 31:15 We need willing voices. Willing voices that'll tell it like it is, but tell it with grace and simplicity and give out the invitation. Not so that, well, I'll tell you what. I saw something on the internet just recently of some pastors who who who do not exemplify the Spirit of Christ. Basically, they were telling their people, 31:35 two people in their audience, "If you are a certain political persuasion, you might as well get out of here because you can't be in that persuasion and serve Jesus. You are you are not welcome here." Oh, wow. I can't imagine Jesus saying, "Because you're a Democrat, you have no part with me." I can't imagine Jesus saying, "Because you're not a Republican, 31:54 you have no part with me." Or, "Because you are a Republican, you have no part with me." No, we need to say we need to say what Jesus says and say it with grace, say it with invitation. Not too loud as to drown out Christ, but not too soft as to make him vague or communicate a lack of conviction. And we need voices like Andrew and Peter or Philip, 32:16 Andrew and Philip, with enthusiasm and conviction, with the contacts that we have. God's not telling you and me to save the world. He's telling us to save somebody near us. Let them and and and and whoever's near. Now, some people he does tell to go. He tells us to go into all the world, but we start in Jerusalem, 32:37 Judea, Samaria, under the uttermost parts of the earth. Take advantage of the contacts that we have. And then, of course, we need the voice of Jesus. We need the voice of Jesus. 32:50 "Unless the Father draw them, they cannot come." If you look at the approach of Scripture, people sharing people sharing with others about Christ, there's a number of different methods. There's the one-on-one method. Nicodemus and Jesus had a one-on-one communication. There's the Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, one-on-one communication. 33:11 That's legitimate. And then there's the small group method, small group method. Paul in the prison, Philip in prison. There's a kind of small group there, captive audience. He he says, " uh uh This is what this is all about, this earthquake, these these praises. It's about Jesus." John the Baptist and the Pharisees. 33:33 Again, a small group interaction. Cornelius' house where Peter was called to go down and share in a house church, telling people in a small group, legitimate form of communication. And then there's visitation ministry, visitation ministry. Jairus' daughter, Jesus went and visited in that home and raised that girl to life. 33:52 And Jesus was in the house, and it was noise abroad that he was in the house. And they came and they opened up the roof so they could get down the lame man too because of the press, it says. And that was not the media, but the press of crowd. The crowd was in the way. And then there's mass evangelism in the Scriptures, in the New Testament. 34:10 Matthew 6 or 3 says that all or that Jerusalem and all Judea went out to hear John the Baptist, and he preached to them. And of course, on on Mars Hill, Acts 17, Paul was at the Areopagus telling them about Jesus in a in an open air campaign, all kinds of different methods to tell people of Jesus. 34:31 But the bottom line is, "Come and see. Here he is." Which leads us to the next thing that we need in a week of Bible School, and that is a clear vision of Christ. We need a clear vision of Christ. Now, there's all kinds of things that we know. We know that Christ is the Creator. And so our Bible School curriculum answers in Genesis, 34:53 spends a lot of time in Genesis, spends a lot of time with Christ as the Creator. That's all good. That's all good. But don't forget to get to Jesus, you see. Don't forget to get to Jesus. We can tell him the creation. We can have we can have lost six-day creationists. Amen? You can have a lost six-day creation. 35:11 He can believe the Bible from from from Genesis 1 to Genesis 50 and still be lost. So don't forget to get to Jesus. 35:23 A clear vision of Jesus is our message. Verse 36, "He is the Lamb of God." Verse 38, "He is the Rabbi, Master, Teacher." Verse 41, "He is the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One." Verse 45, "He is the focal point of all of the Scriptures." Verse 45, "He is Jesus, 35:42 the Man, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus, the Son of Joseph." In verse 49, "He is the Son of God." In verse 49, "He is the King of Israel." Do you get the point that we're not telling people to come and look at something that is insignificant? We're not telling people to come and look at a six-day creation. We're telling people to come and look at Jesus. 36:03 And it just so happens that a six-day creation is part and parcel of what he has done, who he is, what he says. And that's all the thing and that's what we believe. But let's go to the heart of the issue and get people to Jesus. 36:19 The third thing that we need is a clear invitation. Come. Come. Come. I went through the Scriptures just recently and looked at the times when Jesus said, "Come." Now, there's a lot of comes in the Bible. God is always saying, "Come, 36:38 come, come." Then he's telling us and showing us how to come. But Jesus said, "Come and see." Verse 39. In Matthew 11, he says, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." In Luke 14, he said, "Come, for all things for the wedding are made ready." In John 7:37, 37:00 "If anyone thirsts, let him come and drink of the water of life." Matthew 14, "Come to me on the water." He told Peter, "Don't just drink the water, but come to me on the water. Express your faith. Step out of the boat." Matthew 19, "Come and follow me." Mark 6, 37:21 "Come and rest awhile." Matthew 25, "Come, ye blessed of my Father. Enter into the joy of the Lord. Suffer the little children to come." He told the Samaritan woman, "Come hither. Bring your husband and come." He told Lazarus, "Come forth." And he told the disciples to come and dine. He's always saying, "Come, come, come, come. 37:44 Oh, come, come, come, come." The song says. The fourth thing that we need on a week like this is prayer. What we don't read in John chapter 1, we read in Luke 6, that is, Jesus was calling his disciples. He was praying for those that God would send him. 38:07 John 6:12 says, "Now it came to pass in those days that he went out to a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose twelve whom he also named apostles." So we don't see him praying here, 38:26 but we know that all of this was undergird by prayer. Let us pray for our Bible School. Let us pray for each other. Let us pray for the lost. Let us pray for our children. 38:43 I'd like to suggest that if you bring children and you stay for the first the first uh part of the service here in the assembly, that maybe those of us that aren't teaching can just kind of huddle up here in the front each evening after they go to their classes. Let's just let's just have a huddle, okay? Let's just have a holy huddle right up here at the altar. 39:05 And let's pray. Let's pray for those who are here. Let's pray for the teachers. Pray for the curriculum. Pray for the message. Pray for the Spirit to work. Pray pray for little hearts to be enraptured with Jesus, to love Jesus in the in whatever way that they came that they can. Let's pray. 39:25 In a moment, we're going to pray. We're going to ask all of you that are involved in Bible School in just a moment to stand. And we're going to pray for you. We're going to pray for you. We're going to pray for the children that come. We're going to pray for the children that invite children to come. But I want to just give you one last closing illustration. 39:45 I love the faith of a child. There's a missionary lady who had a little Hindu orphan. She named him Shadi. Shadi lived with her, and she raised him. She taught him about Jesus. 39:58 And one night, as they knelt for prayer, she said, "Now you pray a little prayer of your own." I love the prayers of children. I love to hear my children. I loved when they were little to hear my children pray. I still love to hear them pray. But I loved when they were children to hear them pray. I loved to hear my grandchildren pray. 40:19 They just blurt it out, whatever it is. It's on their heart. And so this little guy, Shadi, he prayed. And what do you think that prayer was? "Dear Jesus, make me like what you were when you were six years old." This is a sweet, simple little prayer. 40:40 Sweet, simple little prayer. I don't know what happened to that Shadi. Whatever happened to him. Did he go on to be a great man of God? Did he go on? I have no idea. But I ran across his little prayer and think, "That's the simple faith of a child. Jesus, I just want to follow you. I just want to love you. I want you to teach me. I want to be what you want me to be. 41:00 Make me what you were when you were six. Make me what you were when you were ten, when you were twelve, when you were thirteen, when you were fifteen. Make me what you want me to be." And we have an opportunity, brothers and sisters, opportunity to reach children this week. Do not think that that is insignificant. 41:18 I want you to think about that light. "Oh yeah, Dad, he's soon going to be extinguished. Mom, she's burning down, burning out, burning over, whatever, burned through." But all those children, I got to tell you this yet. A couple of years ago, 41:38 we went to JOT in New York City, the Jewish Outreach Training. And we were there with the Laura, and we had street ministry. We were doing street ministry with Jewish people. And one day, we went out and we set up a keyboard, and we did some singing out there on the street. 41:59 And over here was a 42:03 was a table that Wayne and Marie and their children, a couple of other children, had put up and had Christian literature on it, World Missionary Press tracks and Bibles. I think these were Russian Jews, and they had Russian Bibles and so on. And the children over there giving out literature. Guess who got all the attention? 42:22 Those children reached more people with the gospel than the whole group of us adults standing there singing. I mean, they could do what we could never do because who can refuse a Bible from a child? Who can refuse a tract from a child? 42:40 Now, we don't use them to manipulate. That's the wrong motive. But they have a tremendous place when their lights shine. Let it shine. Let it shine. 42:55 If you're involved in Bible School this week in a direct way, you are going to be working with children. You are going to be part of the staff throughout the week. Would you stand this morning, please? Tremendous. 43:13 Tremendous. I love to see these front two rows. See, they're not children, but their lights, their candles are still pretty tall. They're still pretty tall. Now, if you are going to be involved in support ministry this week, you're baking cookies, you're a prayer warrior, 43:34 you are a transportation provider, and you're going to be involved in support ministries, would you stand, please? Okay. 43:45 A few more. Now, the rest of us, let us pray for these workers. Dear Father, I pray for these workers. I pray for the committee who has organized this event. Lord, they have spent hours, 44:05 and previous committees before have spent hours to get us to this place where Bible School can be a a a well-functioning event. Father, I just pray for every committee member. I pray for every teacher. I pray for everyone that's standing this morning. 44:25 Lord, that every hand would would would contribute, every heart would be in tune, every voice would be an invitation, every interaction would be positive. 44:42 And even, Lord, if you send us children that are not real easy to love, maybe difficult, maybe cause problems here or there, 44:52 that our demeanor and our our our our words and our our attitudes towards them would be ones of love and concern and grace and kindness. Lord, I pray for those who are involved in support ministries, behind the scenes, 45:12 transportation, cookie baking, refreshments, providing refreshments. So many things, Lord, that need to be done behind the scenes. 45:21 Lord, we pray that your blessing would be upon each and every one, that your protection would be upon them, Lord, that you will make things go well for their week as they invest in time and resources and attention with the work of this event. And then, 45:40 Father, we also pray that you will protect them spiritually from the enemy, from the attacks of the enemy. 45:48 And Lord, we just pray that your blessing would just rain down on Bible School, that it would pour down on Bible School, Vacation Bible School, that it would be a tremendous week of of of seeing young people and children come to love Jesus. 46:08 And Lord, we would even ask for those who are at the age of accountability, who know what sin is and what salvation means, we would ask for souls to be saved this week. We specifically ask for those souls to be saved. 46:29 And so, Lord, help us to be mindful of your presence, to be totally dependent upon you, to give you full sway in all that we do and complete influence by your Spirit. And that your name would be glorified. In Jesus' name. Amen.