Praising God for His Works

Psalm 150, verse 1. Hallelujah. Praise God in

Psalms 150:1

His sanctuary. Praise Him in His mighty heavens.

Praise Him for His powerful acts. Praise Him

for His abundant greatness. Praise Him with trumpet

blasts. Praise Him with harp and lyre. Praise

Him with tambourine and dance. Praise Him with

flute and strings. Praise Him with resounding

cymbals. Praise him with clashing cymbals. Let

everything that breathes praise the Lord. Hallelujah.

Let's pray. God, we thank you for this psalm

of praise. God, you are worthy of our praise.

Sometimes we may need to be reminded of that,

God, and the stresses and the burdens and the

worries of this world. Sometimes we just need

to be reminded of your greatness, dear Lord.

Sometimes you remind us in mighty ways, and sometimes,

God, it's in the smallest of things that you

help us to know that you are there for us and

care for us and provide for us. And so, God,

I pray that we know that you're a God we can

seek when we are in need, but that, God, we do

not forget to praise you for all the blessings

that you have blessed us with. I pray that your

Holy Spirit would be among us today, that you

would just help our hearts to praise you today.

Maybe we come in here with worries and distractions

and stresses and pains, but I pray in these few

minutes that your Holy Spirit would be among

us and that we would rejoice in you in this place.

And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

Beautiful psalm of praise. Just excitement. Just

reading this psalm. It starts with a hallelujah.

It ends with a hallelujah. And there's a lot

of praise in between. There's an excitement.

I don't know who this psalmist is. I don't know

when this psalmist was written. But there's an

excitement in the writer of this psalm. a follower

of God who is praising God for his goodness,

for his power, for his mercy, for everything

that God is. The psalmist here is praising God

in his greatness. Now, I don't know when this

psalm was written. It very well might have been

written at the Vacation Bible School, for all

I know. I don't know. But I think that that's

kind of the heart. I think of everybody that

had part in this Vacation Bible School. I think

that it was a lot of praise this week. There

was a lot of rejoicing in the Lord this week.

There was a lot of excitement this week. It is

probably my favorite week of the year because

there is nothing more beautiful than to see a

church full of children who are laughing and

playing and learning about the Lord. And that

alone is worthy of our praise to the Lord today.

then we would praise the Lord that we have the

privilege and the opportunity to do Vacation

Bible School every year. It is a lot of work,

a lot of effort, but it makes a difference. You

know, I remember when I was really young going

to Bible school. Some of you probably do too.

Bible school these days looks a little different

than it did when I was a kid. Even back that

long ago, I remember when I was really young.

bible school here at enterprise we didn't have

any decorations that i recall and our snacks

we had two of those little circle cookies with

like flowers you put them on your finger and

you get a little cup of cup of juice or kool

-aid or whatever about that big and that was

snack time and now we're full -blown meals and

and i mean everything is just decorated to the

t i'm not i'm not complaining i think that's

a that's a beautiful thing but but i thank the

lord that we get to have the Bible school here

every year. I praise God that we're doing that

again. When I was really young, we had Bible

school here, and then we went for a long time,

and we didn't have Bible school here. And I remember

the lady that really got it kicked back off to

kind of get us back in that flow. And some of

you will know her, and some of you won't know

her, but her name was Miss Margaret Garrison.

I'm going to reminisce for a few minutes, if

y 'all will just humor me this morning. Ms. Margaret

Garrison decided, I believe this was 2001, she

decided that we needed to have Vacation Bible

School at Enterprise. Now, Enterprise really

has always kind of had the same problem, and

that is we just don't have a lot of kids. And

at that time, we had very few kids, maybe less

than now. And she decided that we needed to have

VBS, which I thought was quite silly. Now, I

was a teenager at the time. I was 19, I think,

at the time. And she decided that we needed to

have VBS. And she, for whatever reason, God only

knows, she said, I want you to help me. She asked

me if I'd help her. Now, what in the world a

19 -year -old boy has got any business trying

to do Bible school? I don't know. But she said,

well, you be my assistant director. I didn't

have a clue what it meant to do assistant director.

I didn't even know anything about Bible school.

Here was our setup back in those days. We had

this little projector screen that we would pop

up and we would stand right here. And then right

down here on the front, we had an overhead projector.

A lot of you gun folks don't even have a clue

what that is. It's a big light that projects

into a mirror that projects onto a screen. And

we had these clear, these little clear plastic

sheets of paper, kind of is what they were. And

you took your marker and you wrote on there what

you wanted to show on the screen. And Lifeway

would send us... some little you know black outlines

of pictures and the verses and the pledges and

so we'd say one pledge and we'd flop that plastic

off and flop the next one on there and uh and

that was our opening assembly and it wasn't much

to it it was it was really rough but i think

we had about maybe maybe 12 kids that year I

can tell you the theme that year was truth trackers.

That was the theme that year, truth trackers.

And we had maybe a dozen kids, and it was pretty

lackluster. I'm going to be honest with you.

It was pretty low energy, but God was good to

us, and we did it again the next year. It was

Amazon Outfitters. I won't go through the last

20 years of Bible school, but that's what it

was, Amazon Outfitters. I still remember the

song, Amazon Outfitters. And I don't remember

what comes after that, but I remember that hook.

And so it's amazing how these songs stick with

you. And that's part of what's good about VBS,

is the stuff that sticks with us. But we continued

to do it, and Miss Margaret didn't do it anymore

after that, and then my mom took over, and somehow

I still got to be assistant director. But I was

so proud, because I'm kind of technological,

I was so proud when I discovered that the association

building, had a real video projector that churches

could use. And I said, this is fantastic. And

so we would borrow that projector, and that thing

was horrible. It was the worst picture ever.

It was so fuzzy. And we were still using VHS

tapes at that time. You kids don't even know

what that is either. And it was just so crazy.

And so we moved. We switched our screen to this

side, and I put this projector up. And I had

all these cords just running way back to the

sound system that we had and duct tape to the

floor. And I thought, we are really doing it

now, y 'all. We are having it. vbs and and we

continue to grow and get more and more kids and

and this went on for several years and we we

we we finally kind of figured it out i think

by like 2007 2008 we kind of got it we kind of

began to figure out what was working and how

to reach kids, and how to make it exciting. And

my mom started getting decorations from other

churches, which was the best idea ever. We'd

just get their leftovers, and we started decorating

more and more. And then by the 2010s, God had

blessed us tremendously. We had some real high

-tech equipment. We even bought our own projector

here at the church. And, man, we were high -quality,

high -tech. It was great. We worked our way up

to about 60 kids there in 2012, 13, 14. In that

age range, we had a church full of kids. And

then our help kind of began to decline a little

bit. And some of our teenagers that had been

helping grew up, moved away, went to college.

And 2016 was the last year we did VBS. And so

we had a bit of a break for about seven years.

And last year, I praise the Lord for this, Dana

said, I think we need to have VBS again. Of course,

we had the same problem we had when Miss Margaret

had that idea in 2001. We didn't have many kids,

but as the movie says, if you build it, they

will come. And so Dana worked really hard and

really took the decorations to the next level

and did a great job promoting last year. And

we got all our old stuff back out and started

getting things set up. And praise the Lord, God

blessed us with a bunch of kids. And then we

had it this year. And it really is fantastic.

Because last year I think we had six kids that

trusted Jesus Christ as their Lord, put their

faith in Jesus. This year we had three young

men that trusted in Jesus and accepted him as

their Savior, put their faith in him. And that's

what it's all about. That's what we do it for.

I look back at my life, and maybe it's just me,

I don't know, but I would like to hope that some

of the other teachers and some of the kids that

get to take part in something like this remember

the things that they are taught. These kids,

look, we talk about the decorations and the videos

and the dancing and all those things and all

are fun, but make no mistake. These kids are

learning these Bible stories. They know. Their

teachers are so good. I was so impressed with

the quality of answers, the best quality of answers

that we've ever gotten at a family night, Friday

night. When I asked those kids questions and

would call on different ones, they didn't just

give a couple of words. They gave real, deep,

well thought out. good answers to these questions.

They understand these stories. They have learned

about Jesus. And they know important truths that

we need to know and be reminded of. That Jesus

cares for us. That he has not forgotten about

us. That we go through storms in life and Jesus

shows up for us in our storms. That even if we're

in sin and not doing like we should, Jesus loves

us and wants to forgive us of that. Jesus wants

to use us to serve him. And what a beautiful,

beautiful truth that we see all throughout the

Bible of God's love for us. And that's worth

rejoicing in. That's worth praising God over.

And all this week, we came into this building

and we praised God every day. Friday night, we

left this building praising God for a good week.

Now all this week, Every year we like to try

to pick something that maybe the kids can kind

of relate to to use our offering for. And this

year we decided that we were going to give all

of our VBS money to... Food for the Hungry. Some

of you may know it. It's a Christian organization

that focuses on getting food and water and even

educating kids in poor areas. And not just trying

to help the kids, but trying to help the families

to be able to have means to support themselves.

And it's a really cool thing. You can look it

up after church if you'd like. But we decided

we were going to give all of our offerings this

week to Food for the Hungry. We were going to

have a competition. This is something we had

never done before, but we decided to have a competition

between the boys and the girls to see who could

take up the most offering this week. And it was

not even close. The girls just totally outgave

the boys all week long. I mean, it was a landslide.

I mean, every night when the kids would bring

the buckets of money back after offering, I mean,

the girls were just like, it was heavy, and the

boys, it was just... It just wasn't much in there.

And so we kept on taking up our money all week

long. And going into Friday night, we had about

$600 that we had taken up throughout the week,

which I think is the most that we had ever taken.

Praise the Lord. It was fantastic. And so we

get to the family night. And, of course, you

got all the parents and all the grandparents

here. And I'm telling them. I'm telling the grandparents

as they come in, and apparently I'll help the

boys out now. The boys are way behind. Try to

help them out so it'll be a little closer. I

want it to at least be respectable. You know,

I don't want the little boys to get beat by a

lot. And so we took up our offering, and while

we were continuing our little program, they went

back in the back, and they counted it, and they

came back out, and they told me the numbers,

and I was in shock. That just... Just Friday

night alone, the boys took up $729. And just

one night, just the boys. For our whole week

of offering, we took up $1 ,645 .22. Now that's

worth praising God over. These are the kind of

things that we need to say, Hallelujah! Sometimes

I think we just need to let loose a little bit.

Maybe I need to start coming in here on Sunday

mornings like we do at VBS and I need to say,

how y 'all doing this morning? And maybe y 'all

would say, we're doing good, yeah! But probably

y 'all would just look at me like, he's kind

of crazy. But maybe we need some of that excitement

like a child. Maybe we lose that some as we grow

up. We kind of go through the motions. Maybe

we need a little more of that excitement. Maybe

we need more of Psalm 150 in our life. Maybe

we need a few more hallelujahs in our life. God

is worthy of our praise. He's done so much good

stuff in our lives. And if we would just stop

and realize that there may be more that he does

and blesses us with than we ever have imagined.

And he's worthy of our praise. And so when I

got the word on that offer and I said, this is

unbelievable. This is unbelievable. Think of

all the kids that are going to benefit from this

money that was given this week. I mean, this

is going to feed a lot of kids for a while. That's

unbelievable. So I thank you all that helped

and put money in, and all the kids and grandparents.

It was fantastic, but that's only part of the

offering story. The competition was not just

to see who could make the most money, but the

competition was this. If the boys ended up taking

the most money, they would get to pick a female

Bible school worker that was going to have to

kiss a pig. And if the girls took up the most

money, they were going to get to pick a boy Bible

school worker that was going to have to kiss

a pig. So I was really thrilled whenever that

money come through and the boys really showed

out Friday night because I figured they were

going to pick me. But they didn't. They didn't

get a chance because the boys won. And so the

boys got to pick one of the adult workers to

kiss a pig. And it was a tie between Miss Donna

and Miss Macy. And so there you go right there.

Macy and Donna got the privilege to kiss the

pig. Thank you to Susan and Al for providing

the pig. The pig was well cleaned. It was a cute

little pig. But it was a good laugh and a lot

of good fun. And we had a good time. I had a

good time, and I think I can speak for everybody

else. And I think we had a lot of fun, but I

think we learned about the Lord. And I think

that these things that these kids learn and us

adults learn in Bible school, I think they stick

with you. I thought about this this week. This

is kind of silly. But there's this little key

chain, and some of you may remember these from

2011. Big Apple Adventure. B -B -B, B -B -B,

Big Apple Adventure. Y 'all may not remember

that song. I remember all these songs. I don't

know why. But our thing that year was New York

City. And we had these little taxi cabs. And

it's a little flashlight. It's a keychain flashlight.

And would you believe that since 2011, this thing

still lights up. Every time I use this spare

key, I always push it. I'm always amazed. That

14 years later, that this light is still shining.

And I thought about that this week. You know,

I think VBS probably has that impact on the lives

of some of these kids. That years and years down

the road, that something they learn about the

Lord, that their light is still shining. At least

I hope that's the case. I hope that's the case

for all of us. That even though things like DBS

come and go, every time we come together to worship

the Lord and look at His Word, hopefully there's

something that sticks with us. There's something

that's in our heart. There's something that the

Lord can recall to us. There's something that

He reminds us of that we can depend on Him in

our times of trouble and that we can praise Him

for being a good God and for taking care of us.

And so this week, we spent a lot of time in the

classes the students did learning about Jesus.

And that's what we come here for. That's what

we come to celebrate. We can come here today

and celebrate because Jesus Christ gave his life

on a cross and was raised again so that we could

be forgiven of our sins. And that's our mission,

brothers and sisters in Christ, is to get that

message, to get the gospel, to get the good news,

to spread it around the world. And a good place

to start with that is in the lives of a child.

Because the scripture says, bring up a child

in the way they should go, and when they are

old, they will not depart from it. It's a lot

of hard work getting ready for VBS. And every

year leading up to it, there's always a little

bit of dread. It's like, oh, I have to do all

that. But then the closer that it gets, the more

exciting that it gets. And all it takes is one

night. All it takes is one little kid to run

up to you and give you a hug. And it changes

everything. And then you get that for five nights.

And you get the same little kids every night

to come up to you as happy as can be. They're

praising the Lord when it's time to praise the

Lord. They're learning their scriptures. They're

learning their mottos. There was one little girl.

She'd come up to me multiple times a night. Little

bitty girl. And she'd say, magnify God. That

was our motto. Part of our motto. Magnify God.

She'd come up to me with the biggest smile on

her face. Magnify God. Do we have that excitement

for the Lord in our life? Maybe we do or maybe

we don't. But we should. We should be just like

the psalmist of Psalm 150. There's a lot of good

that God has done in our life. A lot that he

blesses us with. And VBS this week is just one

thing. That God is worthy of our praise. So I

don't know when the last time you gave the Lord

a good hallelujah was. But perhaps you need to

give the Lord a good hallelujah in your life

today. Let's pray. God we come to you. We thank

you for your good word. We thank you for this

good week dear Lord. We're just celebrating today

your greatness. Just like this psalm says, God,

we just are praising you because you did such

great and mighty works this week through the

workers and through the students and just everything

that took place, dear Lord. I just thank you

for being good to us. I thank you for this church.

I thank you for the people and their dedication.

I thank you for the hard work. And I thank you

for these children who came this week. I pray,

God, that you just would bless them, that you

would help them to... remember and to just recall

the things that they learned this week, that

they would recall the stories about Jesus, that

they would recall the love of the people in this

place for all them this week. I pray that you

would just protect these children and encourage

them and their families and their parents, dear

Lord. And God, we just thank you. We just praise

you today, God. I pray that you just would continue

to bless us and take care of us as a church.

Use us to be a a light for this world, dear Lord.

And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.