Fantastic. Fantastic. Kids Zone kids, if you are on this front area, y'all start walking down just a little bit. Let's let these little ones go down first and their teachers are going to start to catch them. And then my Kids Zone kids, if y'all will follow your leaders back, they will get you down to Kids Zone.

Hey, you know what? One of the things we were a little bit worried about today was the people that didn't have any power. And I started to think, I wonder how many people will come. But guess what? These people can't drive and y'all brought them.

So thank you for bringing all of these kids today to celebrate with us for Bible School.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. We do appreciate you so much because if it weren't for you, we would not be able to do what we do. We could not do what we do if you don't have the kids here. So thank you for doing that. I also want to thank you so much as a church for supporting our kids ministry.

It's not just during the Bible school week, but it is 52 weeks a year, 365 days a year, that we work on children's ministry here. And you guys support us with that and I appreciate it. And you see that there are so many kids that are here. They are learning about who Jesus is. They are getting established and realizing that they need a savior.

And that's what our job is. That's what our job through Bible school, through regular kids ministry is, is that we share the gospel and the forgiveness of Jesus with these children. Thank you. Thank you for doing that. I appreciate it.

Because we have a church that supports from kids ministry all the way through senior adults. It is an amazing group of people that we have here and support system all across for all ages. But I thank you most of all for what you do for our kids. And as I go through the community, I mean, I see people at the grocery store, everywhere I go, people are saying, how many people did you have in Bible school? And as people were being picked up in the afternoon, they were saying, how many kids did y'all have today?

And so it is something that all of us want to know about. So I'm good at telling you what that is because I've got it right here and I have a little bit of a cheat note. Cause I. So I don't forget something. But we had 586 people register for Bible school, which is amazing.

And 452 of those were children. So that was absolutely a phenomenal amount of kids. Yes, it's worth celebrating. And on a daily basis, we did not have under 500 here. Our lowest number was five for the week.

And so we have lots of people here all week. We had 134 of those people that were registered were people who took care of Bible school, who, from the very beginning stages of this decoration, and all of that team all the way through to the last person who put a kid in the car as we were leaving on Friday. There were 134 of you who took time out of your week and sacrificed so much to make this happen. And. And so we applaud you, Ebenezer, for doing that and for taking care of our kids.

Speaking of this army of people, you know, Caleb said, it starts a long time ago. We've already started. We already have a little bit of an image about what next week, I mean, next year could look like. And at the end today, we're going to give you a little sneak preview about what that is that's coming. But once we start designing and figuring all of this out, we need people that, that will support us and will say, hey, I'm going to do this or I'll do that.

I meet months ago with the decorating people and I say, hey, we need this. And I have people like Russell Moore who said, I can build that butterfly and it can move and that's what I needed. So I said, thank you. And Brad Howard, who says, I can carve these birds. And a team of people, including all the way from senior adults down to some teenagers who were cutting and cutting and cutting and making all of this paper that we needed and, and all these patterns to put these flowers together.

We've had people working for months to get this to happen. And I do think it's interesting to mention we did purchase about 10 or maybe 15 of these bees, big and little, but other than these bees, everything that you see on this stage was handmade by an Ebenezer person. We didn't just go out and buy a bunch of flowers. We made these. And so it's really cool how we come together to make this happen.

And we love doing this. Not only is this amazing for us to see and hang out with, but imagine what the kids were like as they came through the door and saw all of this. And that's what it's all about. And then they can go home and share that with their families and the excitement that's building here. And then as the week went on and as we every day focused our whole attention on the gospel and how Jesus was for them.

Not only are they going to be sharing about how cool this was, but they can share that with their family as well. And so that's why we do what we do. We want to. I've got to tell you this, There was a sixth grade girl who I saw at the Dollar Tree last week while we were decorating. I had paint clothes on all over me.

And she was like, she doesn't go to our church. But she was like, what are you doing? I said, I'm decorating for Bible school. And she said, well, I see that paint all over your clothes. And she said, I'm coming, like I always do.

And I said, well, I'm so happy. And this is what she said. You better show out like you usually do and make it look good. So when she came Monday, I said, did we show out and make it look good? And she said, yes, you did.

So anyway, it's cool. So even, even sixth graders are sitting wondering what is going to happen up here. But blessed with a team. We had 20 something people working to make this happen. Just what you see visually here, those 134 people, we have people doing incredible stuff from behind the scenes to teaching kids about Jesus.

And so today I wanted to bring Will Lowe up. Will had the biggest class at Bible school, and some of you would have ran away from it because it was fifth grade boys, but I had like, what, five people helping you? We had a lot of people in there and I knew he could handle all of that. And so I wanted Will to share a little bit about how he feels about Bible school. Yes.

So Mr. David, Mr. Tony and Zach, if you're in the room, can you stand up for me, please? If y'all are here. So let's give a round of applause to these gentlemen as well.

Mr. Tony. Thank you, Mr. Tony. Without those guys, yes, it would have been way more difficult.

But going back, it's a privilege to be able to sit up here and talk about teaching fifth grade boys. Whoever you had, they came in and we'd say they were aggressively excited when they came in the doors. They were definitely aggressive and excited all at the same time. I did not grow up with vacation Bible school. I did not grow up with a firm foundation of what Jesus can do, how he can change lives, how it can change hearts, how it can change families.

And so this is huge for me to be able to sit up here and say, hey, I was able to pour into fifth grade boys. And yes, we had 28 fifth grade boys 32 signed up, 28 on an average daily. And so how do you do that? And so that's the question that became of how do we do that every day with hey, this fifth grade boy may be over here needing and talking to about respect, but how do you born to these guys as well? And how do they hear the gospel through all of that?

And so with Mr. Tony, Mr. David and Zach helping me out, we were able to do that, which was an awesome journey. Fantastic. I must say this to him.

I think it was Thursday or Friday morning when they got here because they have a family and a brand new baby. And they were like, the baby has been, Ashley said the baby's been up since 4:30. So they were wide awake. They were ready to take those boys. But what I did wonder is in the middle of all of that, did you get any rest?

Short answer, no. So if you're a parent in here, you know the answer to that even before I said it. But my wife is a rock star and if you know her, you know that is an understatement to me. Say that she's a rock star and so she made it look easy and I'm just there to support her. But the short answer, no.

Thank you so much. I appreciate you.

I did say that to just remind all of us that it takes everyone to serve and sometimes you might think you have too much going on to serve. These people don't have too much going on to serve. They serve here weekly all year long. Even with all of that, and so many of you do as well. If you have not ever served, please find someone and talk to us about serving.

We have service opportunities every week. And of course Bible school is always a place to sign up. I've had two teachers tell me already I want to teach this same class next year. And so even though me as a, as a leader of this team, I have to start thinking about that now. I have teachers that are already engaged in next year's Bible school.

So it's incredible. Thank you so much. As a church who supports us through all of that, one of the biggest things that we need to celebrate today is that on Thursday, Wednesday and Thursday, we really start to do a focus on the gospel and letting the kids know that Jesus is for them and that he came just for them and that he is their only hope for forgiveness of sin. And so, so through those couple of days, the teachers really focus on that and strongly emphasize the importance of the gospel. And so we are celebrating because we have 16 kids who are making the commitment to accept Jesus as their savior.

So this is really amazing.

And I have followed up already with all of those families. Most all of those families are Ebenezer kids, which is really cool for me. And some of them go to other churches, and we do follow up with them. We want their church to know that they're ready to make a commitment to follow Jesus and make him Lord. And so we also have three or four that have already talked to us about getting baptized maybe by the end of June.

And so you'll start to see the fruit of the Bible school journey happening over the next couple years of. Couple of weeks and into the next months, actually. So that is the reason we do what we do. We want kids to understand the gospel and want kids to. To be strong in what they believe.

And so we love what we do. I'm looking around because Randy's joining me. I think that's where I'm joining you, right? That's right. That's right.

And what a week. What a fun morning, too. And seeing all the. The kids up here on stage, excited, waving to fan. I feel like I should wave to my family.

So since they all did that. Yeah, we're in big church. That's right. But, you know, I'm Randy. I'm the missions pastor here.

And an exciting day for me. I mean, one of our pastors actually preached a sermon over in Ireland this morning. One of our other pastors is leading a team. They're getting ready, literally as we speak, to drive across the border into Mexico. They're going to church there in Mexico this morning.

And so we're able to do missions literally all over the world, but that starts right here in Toccoa. And so the kids all week were bringing change and pennies and dollar bills to get somebody slimed. But honestly, they were doing that for the Hope center. And they, like, they showed out on helping the Hope Center. Right?

You are absolutely correct. We were so. We love getting the kids pumped up about that. And this year, Ms. Williams was able to be slimed.

She was Levana's substitute since Levana had had surgery and wasn't here. And so it was cool for all that to happen. The kids raised this week $1072.04 for the hope Center. So that's awesome. Yeah.

And this is what's really cool to me, though. This is cool. Steve was sitting over here Friday when we were announcing the number, and this is what he got. He got his calculator out and started figuring all this, but it will provide over 3,700 meals for families in our town. So over 3,700 meals were paid for this week because of the Bible school offering.

Yeah. That's so cool and so exciting to see us literally doing missions right here in Toccoa, all over the world as we speak this morning. And so, you know, obviously we have already talked about magnifying God, but one of the things that our team did all week is each day they had a different story to share in helping the kids understanding, magnifying God. And so we got started off the first of the week and it to me, like as I was standing out there Monday morning helping kids get out of cars and they kept coming and coming and coming and knowing that the story that day was, was about Jesus and the children and the children coming to Jesus. And so what, Timothy, what were some of the, I guess, qualities that were we shared of coming to Jesus with a childlike faith?

Well, it is. That is an awesome starting for a lesson this week. I thought that was incredible too. And on Monday morning, someone who had not really seen our Bible school was looking around thinking, wow, look at all of these kids. Because it was a sea of children in here.

And it made me think that even back then that we could have had that sea of children hanging out with Jesus that day when he was saying, don't turn them away. I need them over here. And you know, just like us adults, sometimes we need to be reminded that we need Jesus just as much as those children need Jesus. Sometimes we need him a whole lot more with things we have going on. And to have a childlike faith would mean that we would need to trust someone to help us with something that we couldn't do on our own.

And so that day they were really focusing and letting the children know that Jesus was they, Jesus was interested in them. They, Jesus loves them, he wants to be around them and he is there to take care of them. We think about our own parents and how we depend on them to help us. And we've depended on them our whole life. And it is that kind of nature when we think about a childlike faith to feel that way with God and how we can trust him and we can always go to him with whatever we have and we can trust that he's going to take care of us.

Yeah. And so the kind of took from that day and moved into the next day where the story was about Jesus calming the storm. And I love that story because it even talks about how he walked on the storm. He wasn't Walking in the storm. He was walking on the storm.

And so what, I guess, you know, kind of what were we teaching as far as how that faith comes in with the storm? Right. Well, one of the things that we have to make sure we remind ourselves of is that there's always going to be some. Something in front of us that could cause fear. I mean, it doesn't matter if you're a senior adult or a little kid.

There is something that could always show up that would cause fear in your life. And the kids were learning that day that the disciples were real people, they were showing fear. And Jesus took care of their fear. He completely calmed the storm. He took care of them.

They didn't have to worry about that. And so one of the things that day that we also as adults need to be reminded of is that if we run into something and it feels like something that we don't feel very comfortable with and it might make us a little bit fearful, we can always talk to Jesus because he's always going to be there to help us. Amen. And you know, as. As we as adults go through the storms of life, I mean, that may be a lost job, a family member who has gone into heaven before us, maybe, maybe disease, maybe that, you know, doctor telling you what's going on.

I was literally thinking about that this week because I was able to share a story with somebody here. You know, I've been going through a little journey myself of some medical procedures and treatments. And so she was asking me how I was doing. I was like, you know, I'm really okay. And every time I start to think, man, I don't really want to be doing this anymore.

Like, I'm tired of this God. Let's just, let's move this on. He always puts somebody in my path or, or maybe a song in my path. And so I was sharing her with her that a few weeks ago on Sunday morning, I was headed to church, and I was in one of those times where I was like, man, I'm tired of this. Like, I don't.

I don't want to feel bad every day. I want, I want. Let's. Let's be done with this God. And he put a song on the radio at that moment that I have heard thousands of times, but I'd never listened to the chorus.

And so all of a sudden I'm listening to the chorus and. And the singer says, you know, I'm a good God and I've got a good plan. I've got a watering can. And when you look back, you're going to see the flowers in the valley. And it just.

It hit me a little bit different that day. And so I actually, I came in to the office and googled the singer because I was like, what's the story behind this song? And so, you know, I read her story, and she had been suffering from Lyme disease and was really going through a storm in her life. And so again this week, all of a sudden, I'm sharing that with one of our. Our team members.

And I didn't know. I mean, I was just sharing. This is what God's been doing in my life. So later that day, she text me, she said, hey, when you were telling me that this morning, I didn't share with you, but I've got a good friend who is suffering with Lyme disease. I was just able to share that song with her.

We were able to walk through a little bit of the storm together, as we know that Jesus is calming that storm. So not sure where you're at, not sure what maybe storms you're going through, but our kids have had a great lesson this week. Just walking through storms. You know, when I was looking at that, the recap of the week, and I was thinking about us talking about fear and how God can take care of stuff, it reminded me of you because you have just had that show up, and I thought even Randy just had to live with a little bit of fear. You've got to have a little bit of fear when there's some unknown there.

But I wanted to say that you have conquered that so well. And it reminded me that when we trust Jesus with the things in our lives, that we can be peaceful about that and we can feel peace about it. And that's what I see with you. I have seen that you have conquered that, have taken the challenge and trusted Jesus, and you seem very, very peaceful. Yeah, it's super humbling.

And you don't always see me when I'm not here, so there may be times that that doesn't show. I wave to my family. They see that at times, but most. Most days, I mean, I truly believe God's got this. He's in control.

He's ahead of me in that storm. But we went from there to talking about the woman at the well and specifically started talking about living water. And so again, same question. What were we teaching kids about living water this week? Right.

Well, that's where the gospel really started to show up in our week. And we were able to talk to them about how water quenches Our thirst and water sustains us as far as being alive, we have to have water. And so they were able to learn that Jesus was telling the Samaritan woman, hey, I am the living water that you need to quench your spiritual thirst to take care of that spiritual need in your life. That's me. And so, you know, when the Samaritan woman met Jesus that day, she didn't know him, but he knew her.

And so he dropped those hints to her a little bit and she was kind of taken by surprise. I think that a commoner, someone who really had a bad past, that Jesus cared about them and that not only did he care about them, that he would forgive her and that he would love her. And so that's what we were kind of showing the kids that day. We mess up. You know, with kids, sometimes we just have to say, you know, you fought with your brother this time morning, or you did not brush your teeth like your mom asked you to, and those are disobedient or things you shouldn't be doing, but you have things in your life that are not right too.

And just like Jesus took care of the Samaritan woman, he can take care of you and he will love you through your stuff, through the things you do wrong. You know, one of my favorite parts of that story is how and you said this, I mean, Jesus let her know that he knew about her past, he knew what had gone on in her past, but he did not do it in a condemning way. And so thankful for that. But we kind of went from there to the next day to one of my all time favorite Bible stories, because I remember studying it when I was in Bible school. But we talked about Jesus and Nicodemus and meeting Nicodemus.

And specifically in there, Jesus talks about being born again. And Nicodemus had a little bit of a hard time understanding that. But we were able to explain that some this week. Right, right. And we also explained how Nicodemus was a little bit different than the Samaritan woman.

In the Bible, Jesus doesn't call the Samaritan woman's name, but he called Nicodemus name. Jesus knew who Nicodemus was and Nicodemus knew who he was. And he was there to kind of challenge Jesus and figure this out. But Jesus told Nicodemus, you must be born again. I mean, that's what's got to happen.

And so with the kids, that's a little bit of a hard concept for them sometimes. And so we were just kind of reminding the kids, kids that in order to accept Christ's forgiveness, you have to ask for that forgiveness. And it gives you a new life. Just like being born again, just like when you were born the first time, it's like starting over again with a fresh start with Jesus. He's forgiven you of your sins, and then you're going to make Him Lord of your life and follow Him.

Yeah. And so from there, we went into a story where Jesus was teaching about worry. And I guess we specifically talked about why we shouldn't worry about whether we've got clothes or food or housing or all of that kind of stuff, right? And the scripture that week, that day was talking about how God takes care of the flowers and the birds, and if he's going to take care of them, then how. How much better is he going to take care of us as his children, as the people that he created?

And so that day, they were reminded, do not worry about things. Things. If you have things that you feel like you need to worry about, give them to God. Just like the Bible, the Word says, cast your cares, cast your burdens on the Lord, because He's going to sustain you. And so that when I was looking through these notes and thinking about it, I thought when those kids came in the worship room that afternoon and they noticed all of these beautiful flowers and all this stuff, it had to remind some of them, hey, you know what?

God takes care of the flowers and the birds and know he's going to take care of me. And so my hope is that that instilled that in their hearts and that they go home and share that with their families. We have lots of families that need hope. They need to know the hope of Jesus, just like our kids need to know that. Amen.

You know, as I was looking through those notes, every time I see the word worry, it reminds me of when I was first a student pastor. I was a student pastor for about 15 years. And the first church I served, we were a little small country church. We had made a commitment to go. And actually I had made the commitment that we were going to go and spend a lot of money on a mission trip to build a church down in Brazil.

And we were coming up towards the, like, end of, we've got to have all this money. And I was worried. I mean, I was showing worry. I'm like, we're not going to do it. This isn't going to happen.

And I remember it was that morning I'd gotten a magazine. It was a youth ministry magazine. And there was this one page I was telling somebody about it earlier this morning, there was this one page that the headline on the page just said, comments overheard at the group convention. So it was a youth ministry convention. And one of the comments just jumped off the page at me.

It said, worry is a sign of atheism. And, man, it hit me hard. And if you think about that, and you think what? You know, that God, I mean, he's going to take care of the flowers, he's going to take care of the birds. Why wouldn't he take care of me?

And so I. But I was worried. And so all of a sudden I was like, okay, God, I'm sorry. You've got this. I'm not worried about it.

I literally. That was in the morning. I went to lunch, came home after lunch, and my senior pastor came walking in the office, and he looked at me and he was kind of grinning and he was nodding his head. He said, hey, how much do we lack of paying off the Brazil trip? And I, you know, I knew the exact number.

It was a very large number. And I'm rattling it off to him, and he's just the whole time grinning and nodding. And when I finished, I was like, what. Why are you. Why are you smiling at me like that?

What's going on? He said, well, while you were going for lunch, an anonymous donor came in and made a donation for the Brazil trip. It was to the dollar, what we needed to go on that. And so since that time, I'm telling you worry. Now, sometimes I'll use a different word and say I'm a little anxious about something, which is really semantics.

But I really have gotten to where worry just isn't something that encompasses my life, because I truly have seen. I know that God is going to take care of those things. A word that I use is freaking out through some of this set. I'm freaking out, okay? And so I keep freaking out, and I keep talking to Brad Howard.

I see him sitting over there. And through all of that, I have to keep saying to Brad, I'm worried about this. I'm freaking out about this. Do you think this is going to work? Blah, blah, blah.

And this is what he says, it always works, Timothy. But you know what? I had to think about that, and I had to give that over a little bit, too, because I was having some problems the past couple of weeks with making this what I wanted it to be. So anyway, we all face all of that stuff. None of us are going to be perfect.

You know, that's right. And the one thing that we want, our Children to understand is even if we mess up, Jesus is a God that forgives us and his grace, his grace is there for us. So I'm thankful for that, for my own personal self. Amen. And so you see, I mean, each story of the week, each day kind of had a little bit of a focus, but a story that I'm going to ask Crosby to come up and he's just going to kind of pull all that together for us and see how that applies to us on a daily basis.

As you can see just behind us, just the work that goes into this. It's all about the gospel. The reason why we do what we do here and the reason why the volunteers that it takes and all of those things is for the gospel. So that way we can see people's lives changed. And when you think about this, and Caleb had mentioned this earlier, but just imagine all of those kids and how chaotic it is in here.

I mean, it's like herding a bunch of cats, okay? I mean, it's just, it is non stop chaos. As Will Lowe was talking about having fifth grade boys, Listen, I was with them all week, okay? It takes special people to be with fifth grade boys and sixth grade boys, okay? Like Will and their team are the most patient people that I think I've ever met because of those groups.

But you're dealing with these kids and you're meeting them exactly where they're at, and that's what it's all about. And as I was sitting down there, you know, I was thinking about all these teams and everything that's gone on this week. And it just makes me think about, you know, how if you're a believer Christ and have that personal relationship, you're part of God's team and that's the greatest team that you could be a part of. I'm going to ask Caleb to show this picture up here. So this week I have seen a bunch of students that have been talked to by adults and just all of that sharing the gospel with them and what it means.

And for me, in my own family this week, my son Jackson, who is 7 years old, realized that he had to have a personal relationship. And listen, that picture right there, that's what it's all about. That right there. And for me and my family, you know, as a parent, that's something that we pray for. It's something that we say, hey, listen, we want to raise our kids to be in heir against the enemy, but I don't want my son just to think of me being because I'm a pastor just to look at what I do and say, hey, you know what?

Just because my dad's a pastor, that means I'm good. No. This week, he realized that he was a sinner and that his sin put Jesus on the cross and that he had to come to that place where he realized that he needed that forgiveness. And so this week, because of all of this, because of your hard work, my son was able to understand those things and to give his life to Jesus. And that's what it's all about.

And there was a ton of kids here, but that just paints the picture of what we do here at Ebenezer, that our motto is that we are leading the broken to hope in Christ. And that when people walk through that door, that they see Jesus through all our efforts, through all our hard work and what we do, it's about the gospel. And today, if you would just bow your heads with me. As I look at this room, I never take for granted for an opportunity to be able to share the gospel in a room this size. There.

There's. I never. I've never look around and say, oh, yeah, every person in this room believes in Jesus and has a personal relationship with Christ. That's not an expectation. Our expectation is that we have people that walk through those doors every day that don't have that relationship with Jesus.

Maybe that's you in here and you say, hey, you know what? I've heard all these stories. I've. I've heard about the woman at the well or all of these different things, and to see how Jesus is love and to see the relationship and to see all of those pictures that y'all painted today of what it's all about, how he loves us and how he created us and how he sent his son to die for us. So maybe that person in here today and you say, you know what, man?

I don't have a personal relationship with Jesus. I'm not a follower of Jesus. I'm not a part of his team.

If you're in this room, I just want you to pray this after me. And what I want you to realize it's not about the prayer that you're praying, but it's about you communicating to God, saying, hey, listen, I'm lost, and I need to be forgiven of that sin, and I want that personal relationship with you. So if that's you in this room, I just want you to pray this prayer after me. Nobody's looking around you, just you and God.

Dear Lord, I've realized that today My sin separates me from you. And that for the wages of sin is death. And so, God, I ask you through the power of your Holy Spirit to come into my life and save me. God, that I want to have that personal relationship with you. God, that I need to be forgiven of my sin.

And God, that I want to be on your team, that I want to live my life for you and to glorify you in everything.

Make me that new person. Listen, if you're in this room and you just prayed that prayer after me, listen, I'm not going to embarrass you or anything like that, but I just want you to slip up your hand if that's you today, and you say, hey, you know what? Today is the day that I've realized that I'm a sinner and my sin put Jesus on the cross and I need to be forgiven of that sin. Maybe you're in the second group of people and you say, hey, you know what, man? I know people in my family.

I know people that I work with, that I need to be bold and I need to step up and tell them the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I've been worried about what people might think of me. I've been worried about my reputation. I've been worried about all these things. But I realized I need to take that leap of faith and to stand up and to go out and to share the gospel and the good news of Jesus with people around me.

Listen, this altar is going to be open as we enter in this time of invitation. Maybe you just need to come down here and maybe you've got something going on in your life that you're dealing with a family member or maybe personal, that you just need to lay it down at this altar. Lay it at the feet of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Our pastors will be down here as we enter this time. If you need to come down here, can join us.