From VBS to the Cross: A Message That Never Gets Old

Coming off VBS, I was reminded this week as I shared the Gospel with various children of my own conversion. As a 9-year-old little boy, who heard the Gospel message that goes like this:

• God made everything, and He made it good. That includes people, and He made us because He wanted us and loves us. (Genesis 1)

• But we (you and I), because of our desire to do what we want and live how we want, didn’t follow the way God told us to live. That’s called sin. (Romans 3)

• And sin isn’t just a one-time action, but it is our nature – we are sinners at heart, doing what we want instead of what God wants, and deciding right and wrong for ourselves as if we were God. And because of our choice to sin, we are unworthy of God’s standard, which is perfect obedience. The Bible says the result of our sin is punishment, and that punishment is eternal death – separated from God now, and forever, when we physically die from this earth. (Romans 6)

• But because God still wanted us and loves us, He didn’t ever want that outcome. So even though we disobeyed him, He sent Jesus to help us and to make it so we could be with Him and have eternal life instead. (John 3)

• And Jesus did that by dying on a cross. And through that act, He took our punishment for us, for everyone, everywhere  – He died so we didn’t have to die eternally. And then He rose from the grave, fully alive. And by this, He shows He can give us new life too.

• And He was able to do that because, unlike us, as a man, He never sinned – so His life was still perfect and worthy of God’s standards. But as God, Jesus could also spread that pardon to all people and grant them new life because of his power and sacrifice.

• Where right now, we can live with Him on this earth, being strengthened to overcome our sin and follow Him, and we can be sure that when we physically die, we will eternally live with him.

• But for that to happen, we must believe those things are true, we must stop doing the sin we know of in our life, and commit the rest of our life to follow Him by his Word and turn to Him anytime we find ourselves in sin – and if we will believe and commit to this, we will be saved. And we never have to make this decision again, because He sustains our faith once we turn to Him, giving us life now and forever.

Well, that summer, I believed that message was true, and I committed to following Him the rest of my life. I thank God for the Gospel today, and for people like Charlie and Carol and others doing what they could to share it. Here in the life of Starnes Cove, we continue this important work of what we call evangelism. But I would ask, beyond the work of Starnes Cove, do you believe these things are true? Do you believe the Gospel – if not, let's talk soon. Reach out when you come from the events listed in here, or anytime, and let me introduce you to the God-Man that changed my life.

See you around, 

Pastor William