This week our church is hosting its annual Vacation Bible School. Nearly 400 kids attended to learn about Jesus. On Wednesday night, I had the opportunity to address the kids. I was asked to speak about obedience and re-visit the Ten Commandments that I taught the kids how to memorize last year. I started with a video of the kids reciting the Ten Commandments that I made up of shots from the kids on Sunday night.
I then spoke to the kids about two ways to remember the Ten Commandments.The first is the summary of the Ten Commandments in Matthew 22:
36“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38This is the great and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:26-29 (ESV)
The second is like it. I showed the kids how the first four of the Ten Commandments point to mans relationship with God. This makes a vertical relationship. I asked for a volunteer and handed her the upright portion of my cross. Then I explained how the last six commandments point to mans relationship to each other. A horizontal relationship. And then I placed the cross bar on the cross. So I showed them that the cross is the symbol of the Ten Commandments.
Next I explained that following the Ten Commandments is how we can obey God, not to earn salvation, but to show gratitude for Him saving us from our sin.. I explained that God has other ways for us to obey him, like telling others about Christ. I read Matthew 28:19 to them. Jesus’ commands us to “go and make disciples.”
Since the VBS theme was Africa, I showed them a map of Africa and pointed out three countries: Cameroon, Uganda and South Africa where I know people who are doing evangelism – obeying God and telling others about Jesus. Our first stop is South Africa. This is Tim and Bill. Bill runs Sports Fans Ourtreach International. Tim is a partner in The Lost Cause Ministries.
Together they are Evangelizing in South Africa during the World Cup soccer tournament.
This is Belmon. He lives in Cameroon. He rides his motorcycle from place to place. You can see the box of Bibles strapped to the back of his motorcycle.
At each stop he tells people about Jesus.
This is Moses. He lives in Uganda. He makes monthly mission trips around the country preaching the Gospel
and handing out tracts and Bibles.
In Uganda, the people live in small huts.
But, they love to come out to hear Moses preach.
There are a long list of things that are different between the United States and these regions of Africa. But there are also some things that are the same. For instance the Bible says “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Therefore all people need to “repent and believe the Gospel.” So the Gospel message for the United States is the same as it is for the people of Africa. So, I showed the kids these Gospel tracts in Swahili that we have sent to Uganda and Kenya. (Note: these are the tracts that we printed in Swahili, French, Portuguese and English for the Ends of the Earth Project).
I also showed them the English translation.
(Note: if you’d like to order these tracts in English or Swahili or any of the other tracts from the Bezeugen Tract Club in bulk, then you can contact One Million Tracts to have them printed.)
Now, at this, I expected that they might be thinking, “well fine and good, but all those preachers are adults and I’m just a kid.” So I introduced my concluding video. The video shows three kids all 11 years old and under preaching the Gospel in the open air. The first is reading from the book of John, the second is reciting memorized scripture and the third is reading a Gospel tracts.
All three were giving glory to God, obeying Christ and preaching the Gospel. We know God’s word does not return void, but always accomplishes its purpose. We trust in that promise!
So I encouraged the kids to do the same. I suggested that they go home and get out their Bibles, turn to John 3 and read it to mom and dad! I pray that some did.
