VBS 2026 Wrap Up
Notes
Transcript
talk about some highlights of VBS; 18 kids; 8 first time volunteers from our church; 4 from outside the church
save our Sunday morning for our wrap up; not gonna preach the whole text but want to read it and highlight some of it
A Psalm of David.
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
first session, talked about how David was a shepherd and he understood that God was his shepherd because of how God took care of him
talk about shepherds and how they took care of sheep;
34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock,
35 I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him.
David was fierce when it came to protecting sheep; if one was lost, he would find him and bring him back in
that is what Jesus does; Jesus is the good shepherd
Second session was about how God leads us
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
one of the duties of a shepherd is to lead the sheep; we all need leading; try to do things our way and it doesn’t work out the way God intends
God will lead us if we submit ourselves to him
the wrong path is what leads us to sin; sin is what separates us from God; we need a shepherd to bring us into the flock
be very specific that Jesus is the one who brings us into God’s flock(gospel presentation)
3rd session is about God being with us even when things don’t look good
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
God is with us so we must not fear; David understood this all too well; talk about his encounter with Goliath and facing certain death; talk about Saul trying to kill him because David was going to take the throne
We may not have people trying to take our lives or be standing in front of a literal giant, but God is with us and that should give us hope
home for hope for all
God is the one who is with us and will comfort us
brings us to the final verses of Psalm 23:5-6
I want us to spend the rest of our time here; gonna be a short sermon, long lesson compared to what I have given the kids
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
break it into 2 parts; How God provides and how God keeps his promises
God Provides
God Provides
Great joy about being a husband and father is providing for my family; we all rely on others to a certain degree; we rely on parents to feed us as children; we rely on teachers to teach us properly; we rely on our government to enforce justice as authority is given by God; we rely on the church to help take care of us spiritually
David understood what it meat to rely on God; he trusts God with justice
We had talked about how Saul wanted to prevent David from taking the throne; the throne was reserved for a certain lineage usually; So Saul’s offspring would have had a claim to the throne
after David took the throne, we have someone show up on the scene; Mephibosheth comes into the picture and he is Saul’s grandson
I have done the research and I have not been able to find anyone in my families lineage that has given me the claim to a throne; if there is, it is probably a porcelain one
most kings would have wanted to finish off the lineage of the former royal family so that they didn’t have to worry about it; not David
1 And David said, “Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”
he wanted to show kindness; even though they might possibly be enemies, David understood that God was the one who was gonna fight that battle
a mindset like this is life changing; leads to the mentality of “my cup overflows”
in the last week, if you were to weigh the times that you thought about your cup overflowing compared to the times you worried or thought down on yourself, which one would win?
all comes down to trusting in God and know that God provides
God Keeps His Promises
God Keeps His Promises
anyone ever broke a promise? human nature; one of many differences between man and God is that he always keeps his promises; think back to the great flood and the covenant that God made to never flood the earth and sealed it for us with the rainbow; he has kept that promise
how often do we make assumptions about people based on our wishful thinking instead of their character and track record; when we trust God, it isn’t about what we want or what we can get out of it, but about who God is and that he will always keep his promises
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
goodness and mercy; not our measurement, but Gods; and it will follow us the rest of our days because of who God is
live in a church world that has succumbed to the health, wealth, and prosperity culture; the gospel of the american dream is what it really is; our hope should not be in those things
everything around us can and probably will let us down, me included; I am still growing and am far from perfect
what if our sights are not set on the goals of the world around us but on the promise that we can dwell in the house of the Lord forever
conclusion - how do we do that
Jesus made a way for us; he is the shepherd-king, he finds his sheep and rescues them, he protects them, he went to the cross for them and died for them, he rose from the grave for them, and one day he will come and get them and they will dwell in the eternal house of the Lord
end with a call to repent and believe
finish with a song of worship - Psalm 23
