Get all my stuff ready here. All right. Who has been in the
first grade this year? Stand up. Stand up if you're
in the first grade this year. Now, Ms. Carla is going to take
you and everybody younger than you to your class right now.
So Ms. Carla. We're going to make a
single follow and then we're going to stay in line, okay? Very slow. OK. All right. This is Bible
School 2013. Now, we're going to have a good
time. We're going to be with friends and those that love us
and care about us. We're going to sing some songs.
We're going to do some crafts and have some fun. But we're
here for one purpose, and that's to learn about the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, all that anybody has ever
known about the Lord Jesus Christ It's in this book, right? And I want to say something to
you young ones here and then to you older ones too. But you
young folks may think that you're too little or too young to learn
about the Lord Jesus Christ. But I mean, he's so majestic
and so almighty and so wonderful. He's so everything that you may
think, in my little head, in my little brain, in my little
body, maybe I can't learn about it. Well, let me read you a scripture
that will prove that that's not the case. You're not too young.
God's word says about a little bitty boy named Timothy. It says, from a child up, and
that word child, when you look it up, It's a little bitty guy,
sort of like y'all up here in front. Scripture says, from a
child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to
make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus. Now, how do you suppose that
Timothy learned what he learned? You know how? The Bible says
his mother and his grandmother, they taught him the Word. And
you're here today and there's going to be some ladies and some
of us guys, we want to teach you the word of God so you'll
recognize the Lord Jesus Christ if you ever see him. And that's
why your parents brought you here, because they love you and
they care about you and they don't think you're too little
to learn this, okay? Now let's talk to you older ones
back there a little bit, okay? I realize that, and let me say
this, The young people that are here, I've known most of you
for a long time. And I think quite highly of you.
I think that you're intelligent. I think you're pretty kind to
one another. I think you care about paying
attention to your folks. You're well-minded. I think a
lot of other. And you behave yourself. And
your folks are proud of you, I think. But, you know, as you
get older and older and you get bigger and bigger, you maybe
begin to think, well, maybe I'm a little too big, a little too
cool, a little too smart. Y'all are learning about being
cool, right? Huh? Being with it and, you know,
you get that peer pressure thing that gets going on with you.
And I understand that. You know how I understand that?
I used to think I was the coolest kid that ever was. I found out
I was wrong. A lot of your parents thought
they were pretty cool. Y'all probably don't believe
this. Do you know I used to know Pastor Todd when he was about
your age? He tried pretty hard to be cool.
He wasn't too good at it either, but no. But, you know, we understand
that pressure on you to not think this is cool, to not want to
do this, in part, not to learn, But let me tell you something
about the word cool. You know it's in the Bible two
times. You probably didn't know that. It's once in the Old Testament. And you know when it occurs?
After Adam sinned, it says God came walking in the garden and
cooled them. Oh, and what he found out in
that they were trying to be cool. They disobeyed God. We know where
that is. All of us have seen it. The second time the word cool
was in the Bible, there was a fellow who was really cool. This guy,
it says, dressed in the finest clothes. He had purple silk robes
he wore. He was a rich man. He was very
rich. He was so rich and so cool that
there was a beggar. and Lazarus who had nothing.
And Lazarus, you know all he wanted from the cool guy? The
crumbs from that rich man's table. You guys ever been in a situation
where all you wanted was that really cool person just to act
like they knew you? And to just throw you a crumb
and speak to you? We all remember that when somebody
who's maybe not as cool as you, or not as popular as you, Don't
be afraid to give him a crumb. Give him more to pack. Put your
arm around him. Be friends with him. But Lazarus,
he couldn't even get a crumb from this cruel rich man. Well,
they both died. And you know what happened then?
They went different places. Lazarus went to be with the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the school got him to a different
place. And do you know he only had one
request? And you know what it was? He said, Abraham, send Lazarus,
the one who I was too cool to have anything to do with. He
said, you send Lazarus, please, and have him dip his finger in
the water and cool my tongue, because I'm so unhappy. Now, you can try to be cool,
and it may seem like that's an important thing to you right
now. But it's not going to lead where you want it to. You can
be the coolest, richest, in the whole world and it will get you
nothing. On the other hand, if you have
the Lord Jesus Christ, if you find out who He is, you'll have
everything there is in this world and the world to come that's
worth having. Now, this is the record that
God has given to us, eternal life, and this life is in His
Son. He that hath the Son has life.
He that hath not the Son hath not life. So you're not too old,
you're not too young. We can all learn of the Lord
Jesus Christ this way. And I want to start by giving
you an illustration about who God is. And I can't explain who God is
to you. Nobody can. But I can look in
His Word and tell you some of the things He's told His people. who he is. And the first one
I want to make a point, it requires an illustration and this is a,
now this is a math thing and I'm sorry if you don't like math,
but let's see if you can get through this. Okay, you have
some of them down here going like this. But let's see if you
can, let's see if you can figure this out. First, raise your hand
if you know how many I'm holding up. If you know what I'm, raise
your hand if you know what that is. What is it, Emma? What's this? How many are there
here? How many? Oh, there's one magazine, right?
You guys are good at math. I didn't realize you were this
good. How many songbooks have I got?
How many, sweetheart? You. One. One. You got one songbook, right?
That was crazy. Oh, I'm sorry. You were looking
down here too, weren't you? OK. Sorry, that wasn't quite fair.
All right. How many rulers do I have? Everybody. One. Good. You're getting the
hang of this. That's great. Okay. Let's try this. How many
of these do I have? Everybody. One. Good. You got
it. Okay. How many of these do I
have? One. Okay. One M&M candy thing.
Okay. How many of this? One. Okay, now, we're going to
take a big step here. And y'all tell me, how many is
this? Three. Three oranges, right? Okay, you guys know the difference
between three and one, right? Okay, here's the last one. Tell
me what this is. Everybody together, you got this.
One. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Wait a minute. Now wait a minute. Oh, somebody
noticed something different. Now pay attention. Look. I don't
have one here. Oh, I do have one here, don't
I? But look what I've got. I have three. Pay attention now. I have three. And I have one. Now, learn something
here. You know who this is? Look, I
have the Father, I have the Son, and I have the Holy Spirit. There
are three, aren't there? Let me tell you, there are one. Now, let me read you what the
Bible has to say about this, and I'll tell you why it's important.
I'm reading from 1 John 5, you don't have to look it up, just
listen to me. For these three that bear record
in heaven, the Father, the Word, which is the Son, and the Holy
Ghost, and these three are one. That's the first thing I want
you to understand about God. Now, some of you didn't see. Now, I can't explain that, but
let me try to help you with this. They are one. One with the Son is one and the
Holy Spirit is one. Here's how they're one. They're
all alike in this. They're all holy. They're all
wise. They're all righteous. They're
all powerful. They're all mighty. They're all
true. They're all kind. They're all
merciful. They're all loving. They're all
perfect in all those things. In that way, they're all alike.
You see that? They're one. They're one like
that. Always. And they are all together. They are all together lovely. Now, to you and I, this doesn't
look like much, does it? Just some cardboard. But if you
ever see who God is, oh, He'll be beautiful in every way you
see. They're all alike that way, they're all the same, and yet
they each do things in a unique way that's unique to them. Now
that doesn't make them different, okay? It doesn't make them different,
it just makes each of them glorious in their own way. While they're
all together lovely and glorious as one, they're all together
lovely and glorious as three. Why are there three in one? Because
that's the way God determined they would be. That's the easiest
answer there is. But let me give you another,
a little quick illustration that shows you why they're that way. Little Macy, you all know who
Little Macy is, right? Let's say Little Macy ran in
here and said, there's an elephant on the parking lot, there's an
elephant on the parking lot, we can all go for a ride. Now, I suspect most of you don't
think there's an elephant on the parking lot, much less that
you can go for a ride with the elephant. But now, listen to
me. What if after Macy ran and said
that, Pastor Todd stood up, Miss Pam stood up, and I stood up
and said, kids, there's an elephant in the parking lot. And anybody
who wants to go for a ride, you can go for a ride in the parking
lot. Now, Macy was telling the truth,
but probably most of you didn't believe it. But once there were
three witnesses who all stood up and said, Macy's telling the
truth, Now you can believe it. And this is why God is three
in one. One of the reasons. When Pastor
Kotz stands up, you know, he probably feels like Macy sometimes.
He's up there trying to tell you something important and true,
and we don't listen very good. We're not paying attention, and
lots of folks don't believe him. He's on television to thousands
of people, and a lot of them don't believe what he's saying.
But I tell you, who does believe him? You know who believes? God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit come to us. And then you go, oh, I believe
there's an elephant in the parking lot. When God the Spirit, God
the Father, and God the Son come to someone who's listening to
a man preach the word, they go, mm, I believe. And that's all we want for you
is you one day believe who the Lord Jesus Christ is.