When people new to our church experience VBS at Liberty for the first time most are just “blown away”. It’s not unusual to have the adults as fired up as the kids are about it. There are some churches that spend all of VBS “hushing” the kids and trying to keep them quite – uh hummmm…. we don’t do that. We turn up the volume and have a blast with them. Our attendance normally increases every night as kids go back home and tell other kids – “You’ve gotta experience this!!”

How important is this “experience”? Consider these statistics from 2007:

• 2,876,877 children, teens, and adults participated in a Southern Baptist Vacation Bible School.
• Of those participants,  267,771 identified themselves as unchurched – many more are most likely unchurched in practice.
• Of those who identified themselves as unchurched, 37,888 enrolled in Sunday School following VBS. Think about this – 37,888 sounds like a lot of people, but when you consider that each person represents a home with additional siblings, parents, and other relatives living in the home, that number can quickly becomes 1,000,000.
• One of the most amazing statistics is one of every sixteen 1st – 6th graders was enrolled in an SBC VBS in 2007.
• VBS 2007 accounted for 88,097 professions of faith during the week of or immediately following VBS, resulting in 26% of all 2007 SBC baptisms.

Wow!!!

You are doing a good work church. Yesterday I had everyone stand up who was saved as a teen or earlier – easily 80% of the church was standing. That’s how important VBS is.

So, roll up your sleeves ~ put on your cowboy boots ~ drink a 5 Hour Energy ~ and lets tell some kids about Jesus!!

Immediately, two Bible passages came to mind….

Acts 2:2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

John 3:8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.

I can’t tell you for sure if we are having revival in our midst – but I can tell you that it sure feels like revival and that 2 of the obvious signs of revival are happening….

1) Souls are being saved. The last night of February we baptized 18 people [the largest 1 time baptismal service in our history]. During revival, we had 4 more saved. This past Sunday, we had 15 saved [including my daughter] and 1 join for baptism. If all of those are baptized in March, we will have baptized nearly 40 people in 2 months! To put that in perspective, the most Liberty has every baptized in a YEAR is 52!! Keep inviting the lost and sharing your faith!

2) Giving is at record amounts. The last 2 weeks total offering [Tithes, Missions, KTFB, Revival] may be the largest 2 week offering in our history. If it isn’t, it is real close. I just finished reading in the OT [I'll let you look it up in your quiet time] where giving was a sign of revival. They had to stop the offering because the people were giving  faster than it could be used! Now, we aren’t going to stop the offering - I am a Baptist preacher and we are in a building program – but it is just another sign that revival is happening in our midst. Keep giving and lets see how fast we can get relocated so we can see more saved! Keep giving so we can see how many ways we can touch our community with the love of Christ.

The last sign of revival is confession of sin and forsaking of sin. Maybe today you want to start praying and asking God if there is something between you and Him that is keeping you from being in a close, vibrant, growing relationship with Him? If /when He shows you something – get rid of it and let’s watch as revival continues in our midst!!

Cause if this Ain’t revival….I don’t know what is!

What makes the way we do church different than everyone else?

LBC is making a real impact in our community and we are constantly showing and sharing the love of Christ. In the last couple of months – Here is a small sample of what we have done:

• We raised over $1,500 to help Dawnville Elementary buy food to send home with children they think are going hungry
• We handed out book bags and school supplies to communities and schools in the hundreds
• We took up over $7,000 [so far] for our world missions offering that will help support missionaries all around the world
• We bought “snacks” for Cedar Ridge Elementary to help them feed hungry kids – $ cost and value in the hundreds
• We have bought – and are buying – coats for children that Cedar Ridge can give out to kids who are cold
• Many of our SS classes adopted families and bought Christmas who would not have anything otherwise
• Our Men’s Ministry took up an impromptu offering and bought Christmas for families who wouldn’t have had it otherwise
• You pledged over $18,000 for FAITH missions for next year
• We took up shoe-boxes for Operation Christmas Child
• We covered communities on Halloween and handed out candy and church information. We gave candy out to hundreds of children
• We wrapped Christmas presents at Walnut Square Mall for 4 Saturdays for FREE – yes FREE! We wrapped around 1,000 gifts

There is more – I just can’t think of it all. And that’s in just the last few months!

That is what separates us from everyone else – we’re not just talking about Christ – we are trying to act like Him as well.

Liberty  – you are doing a great job! You are the Best!

Why do Athiest feel the need to ‘evangelize’? It strikes me as humurous that they would spend thousands of dollars and countless hours fighting something they don’t believe exists!!

A group in NY City is promoting their atheism with their dollars and time. You can read about it here: http://bit.ly/INBsv

Shouldn’t we as Christians be much more motivated than the atheist? After all, we believe God is real and that there are dire consequences for NOT believeing and trusting in Him!!

So, lets do the world a favor and be more vocal and more zealous and more committed to telling people about Jesus than the atheist are in telling people He doesn’t exist.

Go to work ~ school ~ community ~ family and share the love of Christ and the gospel message!!

Psalm 14:1

Only fools say in their hearts,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, and their actions are evil;
not one of them does good!

They were worshiping too loud – causing a disturbance – making too much noise – GOOD FOR THEM!!

Wouldn’t it be awesome if people complained that YOUR/OUR church made too much noise? I don’t mean just audible noise – I mean the “news” kind of noise. The kind of “noise” that told about how:

• God was at work in the church
• Lives were being changed
• Sin was being confessed & forsook
• Exciting worship was being engaged
• The community was being changed
• People were leaving false religions and turning to Christ
• The Gospel was being preached on every street corner
• Too much Jesus was going on

Let’s do it! Let’s go out into the world and make a lot of “noise” about Jesus!!

Go to work ~ school ~ community ~and make much ado about Jesus!!

Acts 17:6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.

And its not just the numerical growth that is great, but Spiritual growth is taking place as well. Next week I will baptize over 1/2 dozen teenagers and college kids who have been saved recently. I am texted & Facebooked regularly by college and high school kids who ask me Bible questions and Christian living questions. Right now, we have college kids who are fasting from food, media, and television in order to draw closer to the Lord. Every week when I preach it is a huge encouragement to look down at the first 5 or 6 rows in the middle section and see our youth sitting there listening to every word or raising their hands in worship!!

With all of this going on here, I am reminded of something – God often sends revival through youth. One of the greatest revivals the world has ever experienced was the Great Welsh revival of the early 1900′s. Evan Roberts, who was just a young man, went about the countryside preaching a 4 point sermon:

1. Confess all known sin
2. Deal with and get rid of anything ‘doubtful’ thing in your life
3. Be ready to obey the Holy Spirit instantly
4. Confess Christ publicly

Evan was full of the Spirit of God and for 2 years (until he collapsed from exhaustion) he saw hundreds come to Christ. People were changed in so many ways. The crime rate dropped, drunkards were reformed, pubs reported losses in trade. Bad language disappeared and never returned to the lips of many – it was reported that the pit ponies failed to understand their born again colliers who seemed to speak the new language of Zion – without curse and blasphemy – even football and rugby became uninteresting in the light of new joy and direction received by the Converts.

So, pray for your youth at Liberty. Pray for revival at Liberty. If you know someone who has a teenager invite them to church.

One of the greatest things they can do is to get that teenager involved in a youth group that is on fire for Jesus!

Right now – @ Liberty – they are on fire!!

I have spent the day preparing for Sunday’s sermons and I wanted to give you a heads up. I am planning on preaching on “B the 1….to go to Heaven”. I think it is really going to be a powerful Sunday.  In order for that to be true, I need you to do a couple of things:

1. Pray. PRay. PRAy! PRAY!!!

2. Invite people to be here. It is going to be a great Sunday to invite unsaved friends and family. They WILL hear the gospel!