Hide and Go Seek | KidsQuest Pastor Nolan Carpenter

come on can we give that handclap to the lord one more time tonight come on would you lift your hands up in the air let's ask god's presence to come in this house god we thank you for what we've felt so far lord we thank you for god the lives that have been touched so far this evening lord we ask that you would god continue to do a work in this house lord even if it would be in a different way god or a different touch to someone else god i pray that you would do it lord i believe in this service that has been ordained of god and i pray that you would do a work in this house lord that only eternity will reveal lord and maybe god the results of this vision tonight will take a generation to come to pass but god i pray that you have blessed you the mighty name of jesus and would everyone clapped their hands in this place god we thank you lord we thank you jesus we thank you for that is perfect thank you so much you may be seated here we are here we are we hear some great words from god behind this pulpit and tonight we're hearing about the gospel according to the balloons so it should be very very interesting before we get started this evening just to just two announcements to make um in your hearing tonight fac marriage retreat who's excited for marriage retreat i am excited for marriage retreat it's so exciting it's me and my wife are so excited when we were in a uh a meeting planning uh the pastoral team was planning marriage retreat uh the only available date was on our birthdays so we we let the church have that and we're going to be celebrating our birthdays at marriage retreat we're excited for that it's um excuse me april 16th through the 18th at gatlinburg convention center and we have a few rooms left and so please go please go to firstapostolic.org events to register that's going to be an awesome time and i promise you don't want to get down to the last moment and then find out we are out of rooms and that has happened before so please do not make that mistake please don't make that mistake tonight go after church after i'm done and you're on your way to to watch a bunch of old sweaty guys throw a pigskin around that's what you want to do make sure you sign up for marriage marriage retreat before that all right little leagues uh which starts this tuesday if you are uh k5 through 5th grade i want you to make some noise right now yes yes this is for you this announcement is for you if you are turning five this year okay or you are in k5 through the fifth grade uh you are welcome to play in the apostolic christian academy uh little leagues program this will be beginning uh this tuesday february the 9th at 3 15 please call the office uh to sign up for that that's going to be an awesome time we always enjoy watching the little ones run around hopefully dribble a few times but play the game of basketball so that the the deadline for that to sign up is uh monday tomorrow so please sign up by then again that starts february the 9th which is tuesday at 3 15. so i need a couple of helpers tonight do i have anybody that's in kid's quest that wants to help what about uh what about [name redacted] come up here real quick come up here real quick now your parents signed a waiver for you before uh before service and i want you to hold this balloon for me from the top if you don't care okay and um well good so let's try something out okay this is real this is real fun all right let's try to see if this works well see if the ladder works first oh glory to god in the name of jesus oh goodness oh let's see just hold let's see if it works oh that scare you scared me okay all right so man sometimes hold another one we're gonna do another one sometimes we go through life and everything's fun and games you you remember your high school years everything your middle school years and you get to college and you know you're having you know having fun and then life just has a way of coming and you're having a bunch of fun everything just seems to happen all at once let's see if we got any more do we have any more we can use here and then you know jobs come and bills come due and you know the ups and downs of life it's not when the fire comes but it's not if the fire it's not if the fire well it is if the fire comes there it is it's not if the fire comes but it's when the fire comes you let's hold this one right here but you begin to attend church and you begin to still have the the heat of the fire around your life and you still you you keep on attending this church and it's apostolic and it's it took you a long time to even learn how to say the words apostolic and uh you can't even really spell it but you can you can barely pronounce it and so you just keep on attending this church and then they start preaching about the holy ghost and they call it the holy spirit why would i want a spirit why would i want some ghost inside of me well then you begin to learn about the holy ghost you begin to learn that the spirit of god can be inside of you and as you are filled with the holy ghost so let's hold that up real high real high just higher a little harder just so as you are filled with the holy ghost those let me hold this the same fire the same fire that comes the same fire that comes the same fires of well that did not work all right give me another look see if the other one works the same fires that come and it's not if they come but it's when they cut well that was a failure [name redacted] good job buddy thank you for helping me out what was supposed to happen it wasn't supposed to bust but oh well we'll move on to the next we'll move on to the next illustration that that works so well we'll try another one and uh so when the fire comes you are filled with the spirit of god and of course we can withstand the fire of of satan when we have the spirit of god in our lives now man and woman once lived in a place of perfection the garden of eden they lived in a place where god really could could be with them on a personal level they they walked together they talk together in the cool of the day the bible says that everything was just perfect everything was just the way that god intended it to be everything was absolutely perfect but then god one day the god that had made statements up to that time the god that would make statements like let there be light and there was light the god that would always declare something and it would happen that same god that would always make declarations had to ask a question the gods up to that point that would make statements he would make declarations but then one day god had to ask a question this is out of his nature it's out questions weren't even in his vocabulary up to this point he asked adam where are you what was what was the difference between the god that would make statements and he would say let there be light to the god asking where his very creation was the difference was was a word that god didn't comprehend that god didn't go along with and god couldn't have fellowship with someone who was a part of sin this sin is very very very permanent doesn't matter how much how much you do how much you try how hard you try to wipe your own sin away man tried to do this the entire old testament he would try his their best to try to get rid of this this uh stain of sin but with no success and i hope this illustration goes a lot better than the last one because they're going to use this for school tomorrow so hopefully this one works so the god that wanted to have relationship with uh with man the the god that wanted to to to go back to where it was in the garden but he wanted to go back with that perfect relationship with man that god that wanted that relationship with man and who made this sin so big i'll ask that question someone later but that god that wanted that relationship with man had a perfect plan he came in a womb of a virgin girl yes he did give us examples of how to live our lives how to deal with our flesh yes he did give us those examples he did miracle signs and wonders which we sang about we praised about tonight but the reason that god came to this earth was to fulfill was to fulfill a plan it was to get man right back to where it all began in that perfect relationship with god himself so god the perfect savior it had to be perfect what it took had to be perfect so it had to be god and it had to be of blood so it had to be of man the perfect god slipped out of his robe in eternity slipped out of his robe in heaven and came lived a life of flesh and blood just like us and as he's going upon that hill of calvary and he has that cross upon his back knowing that's what it takes for the sacrifice to be complete in all he he did this all for one reason to cover up one word and that is sin he wanted to cover our sins he wanted to be the payment for our sins he knew in order for him in order for man to be in that perfect relationship with god once again he had to go he had to go through with the sacrifice even though man they try he tried to do it on their own he tried rituals and sacrifices in the old testament it took jesus christ coming to earth to be the perfect payment for our sins and again i am going to have a conversation with whoever wrote this after service it's a major sinner right here even though even though man would try to do it on their own something that was permanent something that they couldn't get rid of on their own man now has a time to see if he could go back in relationship with jesus christ and as oh we've got some sin left so i have to cover it up again as they begin as man begins to come back in relationship with him as man begins to come back in relationship with god and as the blood begins to cover our sins my worst things that i have ever done that worse sins the worst moments of my life the more that i come to god the more that it erases in my life the more that i come to the altar the more i get victory over death hell and the grave and it's all because the perfect savior the perfect god the perfect redeemer would come down and he would take away our sins very slowly but surely he would take away our sins would you put your hands together for god who died on the cross tonight i'll give that one a b i'll give that one a b-plus and i'll give that one a b-plus all right one more and i think this one will go good i think this one will go good i need a another kid i need another kid talking about a big kid how about a big kid yeah an older bro i would bring up brother roger clavin but i don't think i don't have i don't have that type of faith quite yet so i don't i'm teasing how about pastor carpenter how about that yeah yeah that would be that would be good that would be good that would be good all right all right so what this is is we're going to attempt to make a cake okay all right so what i want us to do is let's go ahead and fill that bowl up what we're taking i should have brought an apron for how everything's going so far but i should uh i'll take your jacket right here film me too okay so this is what the perfect this is what the perfect plan looks like this is what we would hope this would look like now there's a process to for this to become this and so there's a process to it would you mind to open it that up and let's go ahead and start all right of let's go ahead and try to oh let's not open that too quick oh oh oh okay slowly but surely i can oh bye i'll i can bite it open here let's see let's see oh there it is all right so again this is what this is supposed to look like so we'll see we'll see if it works here so as we begin to empty this in here all right the next ingredient would be i think the eggs i don't really know let's see if one's not yeah we'll go with the eggs here we'll go with how many how how how many we need our wives up here i guess three eggs three eggs okay okay hey whoa put the eggs in there you got a bucket put them just put them in there okay three three of them thank you go ahead and give a hand together for our pastor tonight of course we know i don't think this would taste quite too good i think it teaches us something simple tonight that you know obviously to have childlike faith is is something that we can learn from tonight but the process of making this cake requires these eggs to be broken that's what it's that's what it's all about in order to get the the picture-perfect plan for what god has for our lives it takes some times of us going through the broken season and us not knowing what's going on and everything we seem to do just makes us feel broken so if you feel broken in this house be very very very encouraged that god has something in your life god has a picture-perfect plan and in the brokenness when you don't know what's going on and in the brokenness when you feel like life is falling all apart god has a perfect plan for you i'm glad that one went a lot better so amen have he's happy in the lord would you say amen amen i do understand what is going on outside of the church tonight but i do feel and understand what's going on on the inside of the church tonight i'm thankful to be here when the world is when the world is having a party tonight i'm glad there's a bunch of pentecostals having a party of their own celebrating our savior celebrating the day of pentecost and i think that's what it's all i think that's what it's all about second kings 11 and 1. if you would stand for the reading of the word of god tonight ii kings 11 and one second kings 11 and 1 says and when athanai athaliah the mother of a hazy eye saw that her son was dead she arose and destroyed all the seed royal but jehoshaphat the daughter of king joram sister of haziah took joash the son of a hazy eye and stole him from among the king's sons which were slain and they hid him even in him and his nurse in the bed chamber from athaliah so that he was not slain and he was with her hid in the house of the lord six years and athaliah did reign over the land i believe that god has spoken to me tonight for our kids ministry the vision for our kids ministry and i want to preach on and cast the vision for our kids about hide and go seek hide and go seek hide and let's go seek you put your bibles down we're going to pray one more time then we're going to get into the word of the lord god we thank you for this day we thank you for the opportunity uh we thank you for just allowing us to come into your presence tonight and we ask that you would just touch us you would speak to us god and at the end lord i believe god there's going to be revival of our kids tonight god and we give you all the praise all the glory and all the honor and someone said in jesus name in jesus name you may be seated in mark 10 13 jesus is teaching about how important children are and it mark 10 and 13 says and they brought young children to him that he should touch them and his disciples rebuked those and that brought them but when jesus saw it he was much displeased and he said unto them suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the kingdom of god verily i say unto you whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of god as a little child he should not enter therein and he took them up in the in his arms put his hands upon them and blessed them our children are important our children are valuable our children are priceless and jesus says that in order in order to receive the kingdom of god you must you must be like a child if you don't like children if you don't like children you don't like children's me being around you children make you nervous children just kind of make you frantic well i did a little bit of research this after afternoon i begin to think that if you don't like children you might not like heaven and you think how in the world can you make that statement well in in the last 50 years this blew my mind this afternoon in the last 50 years more than 1.5 billion that's with a b billion babies have been aborted worldwide that is in the last 50 years that 1.5 billion babies have been aborted i don't know how many people in the last 50 years have and will make it to heaven but i do know this that there are 50 billion children there are 1.5 billion children that have made it to heaven in the last 50 years because jeremiah 1 5 says before i formed you in the womb i knew you in those in those evil plans of abortion i'm so glad that god looks down at a baby that is not yet born and he says if someone does not love you i love you enough to pick you up i love you enough to take you right out of that womb and you can be with me through eternity so if we if we don't like children we may not we may not really like heaven so we need to check ourselves about how we deal with our children it's an honor to work with the kids it really is it's an honor it's the honor of our lives me and my the me and my wife it's our honor to work with your kids it's it's our honor to have fun with them in kid's quest and be able to teach them about the word of god and it's very humbling when we hear of someone moving to our church simply because of our kids ministries our school and our daycare our kids quest program our sunday school departments it it is such a it's a burden it's it's not a burden it's it's very humbling it's very it's a deep responsibility that we feel that someone would uproot their lives for their children and i am very thankful tonight that if you have done that i i thank you tonight for placing such important value on your children i think only eternity will reveal that you have uprooted your life to move to a city called maryville not for our economy not for the beautiful mountains but simply because you wanted your children to be in such a good place i think you deserve a hand tonight for doing that if that was you there is a story in second kings 11 about a wicked woman named athaliah when she realizes that her son that her son was dead an evil idea comes to her mind her plan is to kill the entire royal family we don't know how many sons and how many family members this would entail but when she begins to execute her plans it grows a gross sight to see the bodies of royal children of the royal seed began to pile up and i hope to paint a a nasty picture of what the world wants to do to our children son after son would be executed and sign and the royal seed looked so bright until this moment that a wicked grandmother wanted to have power wickedness wanted to continue reigning on the throne this would be a continuance of a legacy that was started with athaliah's parents ahab and jezebel we are living in the same day and age as a story and athaliah wants our children why does she want our children it's because our children are no ordinary children they are special they are called they have a god-given purpose they are a chosen generation and a royal priesthood and if the world would have its way that would execute the royal seed so dominance would continue to reign but i'm here to declare tonight flat footed with my shoulders back that the devil cannot touch the kids of first apostolic church because we're going to put in them the word of god we're going to pray for them we're going to fast for them we're going to train them up as a child then we're going to train them up and when they are all they will not depart from this place it would be it would be everything if it's the only thing that i would do in life i pray that the devil cannot have the kids of first apostolic church the future in this story looks so dark as lifeless royal boys begin to stack upon each other athaliah's plan had seemed to work she has seemed to have victory in this evil scheme to destroy the royal seed and as she exited exits the room as she exits the scene a woman came up by the name of jehoshaba and i hope i get that name right every time i pronounce it jehoshaba she examined the pile of bodies she looked at the lifeless pile of bodies these probably boys these sons of this royal seed that was was piled on each other it was such a gross sight to see but in the midst of a lifeless pile of bodies she begins to see some movement she begins to notice that maybe there was a faint screen just a just a faint scream in the in the distance and as she begins to notice she seems she sees some life in the midst of that pile of bodies was it a grown was it a grown man to fight athaliah was it a grown warrior that could go immediately and fight the battle against athaliah and finally redeem the righteousness on the throne no it was a little baby by the name of joash jehoshaphat knew that this is the future she looked at this baby and she thought to herself this is the future but he can't do it right now i have got to put something in him i have got to teach him i've got to care for him so he took jehoshaphat took joash to the house of the lord and hid him in the bed chamber this was a place in the house of the lord where they stored extra furniture this was a place where they stored maybe extra tables that weren't being used and extra chairs and one could surmise what was all in there but for the next six years jehoshaba would play the most awesome game of hide and seek the most awesome game and i need [name redacted] where's [name redacted] at i want i want him to come up here real quick and hopefully he he's good for uncle nolan the most awesome game of hide and seek so jehoshaphat takes the baby you're gonna come here buddy you gonna come here in front of everybody yeah all right jehoshaba would take she would take the baby she would take this is a big baby here this is going to get this is going to be a very quick message i promise you jehoshaphat would take the baby of joash and what people saw as just kind of an inconvenience what people saw as jehoshapha had to keep hit this this kid hid when people saw just a normal a normal baby jehoshaba looked at it as this is the future of our kingdom this is the future that god has for this place this would be the man that will lead a kingdom this would be the man that will go to war and will fight for the children of israel this will be the future king she would be responsible for the care for the well-being even the spiritual growth of not only a child but for the future king of judah every moment of every day she was taking care of the future sure it would be difficult at times did you mess your diaper blank's there sure it would be difficult at times as this baby will not change himself and lord willing when me and flannery have babies i hope mine does but this baby won't change itself this baby won't feed itself but she knew who the baby was this is the future this is the future king that i'm holding in my hands let me preach to every sunday school teacher every day care worker every school teacher sometimes the work that you're in it might get messy but you're gonna have to reach down in a pile of lifeless lifeless boys and pull out a baby it's going to be dirty it's going to be nasty but when you realize that you are affecting the future generation when you realize that you have a man of god in your classroom you might have a missionary that you're teaching in sunday school you realize that god has called you to train up a child to train up something to be something great in the kingdom of god and when you look at it as when you look at it as you're affecting the future generation it doesn't seem so messy it doesn't seem so tiring it doesn't seem so nasty that you have to change a little baby but you realize that you are training up the future king sure it's going to be exhausting it's going to wear you down those kids are going to fall asleep during your messages in sunday school that kid that you've told to stop slapping their neighbor seven times i got news for you he's gonna slap him at eighth in the night time i know by experience it's gonna be exhausting it's going to wear you down but just know the children that you are reaching the kids that you're influencing are going to be the future of this movement they're going to be the future of this church and the surprising thing is that you read of jehoshapha just one time when she saves the little baby of joash she is only mentioned one time in scripture but all what she did was so important she was used of god in saving the righteous royal seed i wonder anybody i'm just going to hold you i'm just going to hold you the whole whole time during this sermon i wonder what would happen in our kids ministries if we didn't look at it as a job i wonder if we didn't look at it as a bother i wonder if we we didn't just go through the no the motions but we're realizing what we're holding and what we're training we realize that what we have in our classrooms and what we have in our kids quest services they are the future missionaries the future leaders the future bible study teachers future scientists future doctors future pastors and most importantly future world changers and that's something that you're holding that's something that you're affecting that's something that you're pouring into every day you realize that you are god called when you realize the potential of what you're holding or what you have in the classroom you have to look at them through the eyes of what they can be sure it's easy sometimes and i've i've done it a couple years so i i i've i've started to learn this it's easy sometimes to just to just come in it's normal it's kid's quest service i hope these kids will pay attention to brother nolan i've been studying uh it's it's difficult and sometimes it's it's hard to just focus and and it's hard to give it your all but when you step back and you see a kid come to the altar and you know they don't come with any parents their grandparents bring them it puts something in your heart it makes what you're doing so worth it that you realize that you're affecting someone that does not have the right home life that has not been as blessed as i have been and when i can look at that child in the eyes that they don't even know if they're going home to their parents tonight i can give them everything i've got i want to pour into them the word of god i want to pour into them and tell them that even though you don't feel loved jesus loves you jesus died for you because i'm not looking at you with all your messed up hair and you don't even have a pretty dress and a pretty bow but i'm looking at you through the eyes of what you can be i'm looking at you as a person that can be something great in the kingdom of god come on can we just pray for just a moment come on touch i pray right now you would touch our kid's quest staff god you would touch our sunday school teachers god you would touch our our school teachers lord that every day they would realize what they're holding every day they would realize what they're influencing god every day they would realize that a world changer is in their midst so you may be seated jehoshaphat takes this child for six years this child that is now becoming very very heavy thank you jesus this child has now grown up for the [name redacted] come help me buddy [name redacted] come help me this this child that was once a baby that would have to would have to you know you'd have to take care of him a little bit now has become a young man has now now he's got a little girlfriend in the house the lord i hear and now he is just tucked away and he's hid in the house of the lord so we have to hide them really good i want you to bend down right there and i'm going to tell you that's good i'm going to tell you i didn't know you could fit underneath there that's pretty cool i'll tell you when to come out because we don't want atheliah to see you until it's time until it's time to take the throne so they they thought it was time to to go forth with the plan jehoiada which is jehoiachiba's wife jehoiaba da and jehoshaba sounds like kenny and penny to me so that's pretty cool jehoiada the man of god began to call the rulers he calls the guards he calls the captains the captains of the guards and he he makes a promise with them he may he says i'm going to make a covenant with you i need you to give me your word all right so i need some older guys jonathan you'll come help me i ain't going to pour water on your head like brother hammond did brother luke would you help me but noah come help me a little cade you're a strong guy you work out like twice a day here at the school come help me tyler arwood i need some older guys to come help me cody cogdell you look like you're 30 years old come up here real quick all right he's got those carpenter hands he's got those rough hands all right guys um so let's spread out over here let's spread out where cody's walking up here you guys all come around here you're the captains and the guards of the army and uh and uh i need you to give me your word all right i know i've i've i've been good to you guys so i need you to trust me with this you guys are you're you guys are it you can make or break this plan that i have okay um for the last uh for the last several years we've been me and my wife jehoshaba has uh we've been kind of making a plan we've um we've been making a plan and uh i need to show you something all right but i need you to give me your word that you won't share a word of it do i have affirmative all right all right okay okay a verbal please all right all right it's like an aircraft carrier you know you need a verbal answer all right so as he gets the the captains of the guard he gets those captains and those those people that's over the army to to kind of agree he calls for the little baby not so much little baby anymore but the young man joe ash [name redacted] come here buddy and he as he begins to as he begins to walk him around the corner something that has been tucked away something that has been hid for so long something that a little woman has been pouring into in the back room she's been teaching them the word of god she's been teaching them hero israel the lord our god is one lord and all that little baby was doing it was crying and screaming but she kept saying hero israel the lord our god is one lord even even though she didn't feel like he was really listening he would one day grow up to a young man and his name was joash this little man right here resembled the king he resembled the king he had the figure of a king he had the the figure of his father that would one used to sit on the throne and the captains in the guard and to their amazement they look at this little boy and then they realize that this is the king's son and they realize that this is the future king of judah and so what happens is what happens is the man of god says all right i want you to guard the house i want you to guard i want you to guard the gates i want you to guard the house of the lord because we're about to anoint this boy to be king because it's absolutely time it he's been poured into he's been he's been taught he's been trained and he is ready to be king over judah and so what happens is they they begin to guard the place and and [name redacted] just go ahead and stand right there in the midst of them those look at them look at them over each shoulder those are your body guards you see these guys nobody's messing with you this is the little king this is the future king that we have on our hands here and so as they they go and they get the anointing oil they go and they get the crown because this guy right here is the king over judah they begin to anoint him and they begin to put the crown of they begin to put the crown on his head and they hand him i love this part they hand him the testimony which is the scrolls of the word of god and now brother dale has helped me done some help me uh uh with this next thing if we can throw it on the screen this is not the final uh this is not the final version of it but we are every kid's quest student is going to have a kid's quest bible with our kids quest logo and we are going to give every single kid in the weeks to come and i don't know when but it'll be soon we're going to give every kid's quest kid a bible and so as they did with joash they gave him the testimony and as they began to do this the ritual the the commencement of your big day the people began to shout the people began to scream the people began to say god saved the king they began to clap and rejoice because they were so happy that they have a righteous person a righteous young man on the throne and about that time everything's going wild everything's everybody's so happy because we have a new king then athaliah that old evil woman gets wind of it she begins to walk in saying who's this is usually quiet around here it's not this loud usually in the house of the lord because that's the way i've done some things and that's the way i've done it for the past little bit what's going on and she turns her head and she sees what she could never even dreamed of she sees a boy that resembles her her son resembles your daddy resembles the king of judah the old king that was dead she killed every one of your uncles she killed every one of your aunts everybody in your family she thought she took care of because she thought she could destroy the royal seed but in the plan in the plan he was tucked away in the plan they were in a back room and i can even i could go as far as to say is he was in a sunday school room for six years being taught and being trained and at the perfect time they wheeled him out and they said here is our king at elias said trees and treason and the men said the man of god says go don't take care of her in the house of the lord but take her round back and it's time to kill the evil wickedness that that tried to destroy the next generation i want to tell someone here tonight that your young boys and your young girls they have a future even though the world is trying to pull on them they're trying to get them to come if it would be their will they would be dead in misery and in sin but thanks be to god there's some sunday school teachers to try to train thanks me to god there's some daycare workers that not they're not looking at it as this is just this is just a paycheck that i'm getting through the daycare but they realize that they're affecting the next generation would you put your hands together for our king joe asked affecting the next generation one i wonder if sister jehoshaba i wonder if she thought to herself i'm doing this all because of a little baby a child i'm only mentioning scripture just one time i would think that i am literally saving i am saving the line of david on the throne i'm doing one of the most important jobs in in scripture i'm saving the royal seed but my name is only mentioned one time in scripture i'm only mentioned one time was i not important i'm just i'm just maybe what if she thought these thoughts what what if she would actually went through and said you know what it's it's not worth it my sunday school class it's not it's not worth it those kids aren't paying attention to me every day they all they do is make fun of when i say something wrong and when i get tongue tied they make fun and then and this one's talking to this one while i've always i've studied to teach them something but old sister jehoshaphat what if what what would it mean for the future to come if i would keep on pouring into the next generation and when sister jehoshaphat received her reward is found in second kings 12 and 1 and 2. second kings 12 and 1 and 2 says in the seventh year of j hugh joe joe hash began to reign and 40 years reigned he in jerusalem and his mother's name was zebia and of beersheba and joash we can call him what his child his he was called as a child joash did that which was right in the sight of the lord joe ash the one that was chained that was trained by jehoshaba the one that was trained by a woman for six years in a sunday school room in the church she received her reward when the bible records this about joash and he did which was right which was right in the sight of the lord sunday school teachers you may you may you may not receive your name in the hall of fame somewhere teachers i know they have something on the news every week teacher of the month teacher of the year you may never receive the teacher of the year award in the county you may never receive what you truly deserve but that is so temporary of a reward your reward is going to be in heaven sister uh sister richmond your reward in heaven is going to be walking up to kids that you forgot about and they come up to you sister richmond said hey you were my fifth grade teacher i remember you taught me arithmetic you taught me how to add brother torell well your reward in heaven is going to be little boys and little girls that come up to you and say hey you used to be my sunday school teacher we cannot look for rewards on this earth but we look for an eternal reward when we realize that we are affecting the next generation if it could just be one of my kids quest students that i make a difference in in their life it will be worth it it'll be worth it all right school teachers we receive our reward when our student receives the holy ghost in our rush hour we sunday school teachers receive our reward we received it this morning when the kids during worship began to flood the altars and begin to just lift their hands you know where they learned that yeah they learned it from their moms and dads but it was also a sunday school teacher that was in their pew while they were watching kids just beginning to lift their hands and begin to lift their voice and praise the king of kings and the lord of lords and those kids are looking up at the teachers while they're supposed to be watching them the kids are watching the teachers and they just can't help to do what follows my little nephew [name redacted] if you begin to worship you begin to lift your hands he looks up at you and goes don't tell me they're not watching don't tell me they're not listening don't tell me they're not paying attention they want to be they want to be taught they want to be trained because there is greatness inside of our children god spoke to me for our kids and said while you have them in hiding while you have them hid don't just babysit rather train and equip we don't need to babysit them we need to train and equip them we need to train them in the word of god we need to equip them with the word of god and then when the fire comes in life and then when the hard times comes in life they have what it takes to go through that fire god spoke to me and said do not babysit the kids but rather train and equip them of course we we've already said that we're going to give a bible to every kid's quest student because i do believe that that we should give them bibles when they're youngs that we we need to give them bibles when they're young and not when they get in the prison cell just like our system does they give them a bible when they when they get to prison but i have the idea let's give them a bible while they're young let's train and equip them while they are young we are training and equipping them through our sunday school department under brother jason amburn we are training and equip them uh through apostolic christian academy school and daycare we are training and equipping them through our unlimited program under the direction of olivia curack which takes special needs children and teaches them the word of god in a special way that's an awesome program to be a part of and to help out in the unlimited program we are training and equipping them through the ministry of kids quest and can we give all these departments all these department leaders and department workers can we give them a hand clap for what they do with affecting the next generation amen amen something also that is going to happen this year lord willing and help me pray for this next this next um announcement that i will make but here in the next few months and it'll probably be towards the the end of the year me and my wife have been working on a kids quest prayer book and this will every day they will begin they will open this book and for 10 10 maximum of 15 minutes it's just going to list them and give them things to pray or pray about and really guide them through their prayer time that's going to be a kid's quest prayer book that's a vision for 20 21 the reason we are doing that because we want to train and equip the next generation and once once we have done our job with the hiding then it is time for them to seek now it's their turn to seek if we properly do what it takes while we have the kids hid from the world then when they become aged to seek things if we have trained and equipped them properly into hiding then they will they will do matthew 6 and 33 they will seek the kingdom of god first and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto them that if we do what it takes during the hiding then when it's their turn to seek in luke 12 and 31 they will seek ye the kingdom of god and all these things will be added unto them if we do what it takes while they're in hiding first chronicles 16 11 then they will seek the lord and his strength and they will seek his face continually we must do our job while we can while we have the kids under our wings under our care and while they're in hiding from the world that wants to devour them we must train and equip them and a story that hits closer to home with the musicians would come the singers would get ready to sing it's a story that i love to hear stories like this i love to be reminded of of something that just hits so close to home and i hope he doesn't mind the personal reference but it was a story of a young man in a school a young man that definitely didn't want to be here be there a young man that he would do absolutely anything that it took to escape the apostolic christian school of knoxville this kid that would do things during class just to get in trouble in hopes that they would just boot them out do the easy thing get rid of the nuisance in the school get rid of the get rid of the guy that doesn't want to be here but i'm so thankful that a teacher at apostolic christian school a bunch of teachers bound together they locked arms with one another and they said kenny carpenter i don't care how bad you get i don't care how much you don't want to be here you are going to be in this school and god is going to do something to you and god is going to do something through you they weren't looking at they weren't looking at this just bad student in their class but they were looking through the eyes of jehoshaba they were looking at something like a baby a nuisance they were looking at something that just was taking time they weren't looking at at what was before them but they were looking through the eyes of what that student would become and can i tell you that the reality the reality of it all if us if a teacher would have gave up on a student by the name of kenny carpenter this church probably wouldn't be here this a lot of souls that are sitting on these pews tonight is the result of yes a man being called of god yes a man being anointed of god yes he married a wife that is anointed and used all over the world but where did it start it started as a teacher it started when a teacher didn't give up on a student it started what a teacher said you know what boy i don't care how bad you get i am not giving up on you i know the world has gave up on you i know a lot of people have turned their backs on you but i'm not giving up on you if everybody would stand in this house school school teachers day care teachers or tomorrow if when your students walk through the doors of your classroom even though that is your job to be there and to be present i wonder if you can look every one of them in the eye and tell them god has got something for you god has got a plan for you god has something special for you even though today i'm probably going to have to change your diaper kid god has got something for you pastor has asked and if my wife and sister carpenter and whoever else would help just display the pens all over this altar if what we would like to do if you have a child at the age of 12 and under if you have a child at the ages of 12 and under if you would come with you and your spouse or maybe just you and the child would you come up to the altar right now we'd like to pray over them we'd like to write their name down and put this put their names in a vase if you would just go and start making your way forward with your child and let's write if you don't have your child with you maybe you don't know where they are in the auditorium maybe you just if you have a child under the ages of 12 would you come to the front right now and let's begin to write their names down and we're going to put them in a vase that is going to be prayed over we're going to put their names in a vase that is is going to be carried by by seasoned saints of god and they are going to carry that that vase around and begin to pray for your students i do wish that every uh every teacher every daycare teacher every uh kid's quest staff member every sunday school teacher if we could come around the altars tonight and we could really rededicate our lives to the ministry of our children because while we have them in hiding it's the most important job we have to train them we have to equip them with the word of god i don't take my job lightly i don't take my ministry lightly but yet i realize that i'm affecting the future i'm affecting the next generation even though it's just a bunch of kids in the class i may have future missionaries i may have future preachers i may have future doctors in my classroom if and it's all depending on how and what we do while they're in hiding come on all across this place could we raise our hands in this house and come on let's ask god to touch these students let's ask god to touch these kids tonight god i thank you lord for the the kids quest ministry god i thank you for the sunday school teachers lord i thank you god for the school teachers lord i thank you o god for the sunday school teachers in the department o god i pray that you have touched the kids quest ministries o god i pray that every student lord if there is one that needs a gift of the holy ghost god i pray that you had given to him lord but god while we have him in hiding god i pray that we would god i pray that we would god instill something in them god we would god equip them with the word of god i pray that we would instill righteousness and holiness and the love of truth god god the love of righteousness and the love of holiness god in their lives god fill it in a god fill the void in their heart with the holy ghost of god i pray that you would do it lord i pray that you would work in their lives god i pray o god as the students walk into school tomorrow i pray for the teachers lord to realize the potential that they have in their classroom lord god i pray for sister johnson lord god brother solomon o god i pray for sister jean or lord sister ham and lord god everyone who's over the school in the daycare god i pray that you would do a work lord god give us a revival of school parents god god give us a revival of daycare parents lord because god we're training we are equipping lord the next generation god we're equipping oh god we have the future in our hands and god we thank you for him lord god we thank you for it come on one more time let's lift our hands on the cross as they begin to sing and let's praise god for what he's going to do in our future so you came and changed my life you thought i was worth keeping so you sacrificed your life so i could be free so i could be home so i can tell everyone i you know i was worth slowly i know so you came and changed everyone i know changed me and i will practice forever foreign come on one more time let's grab our kids afterwards after we have their names in the vase come on if you have your kids with you in the altar come on one more time this last prayer of the evening on our kids vision service come on grab your kids maybe you see someone in the altar let's grab their hands and let's begin to pray and let's guess god that he would form a hedge of protection around our students and our children come on help me if you don't have any kids with you today come on just lift your hands or towards the altar tonight this final prayer of the evening god god i ask that you have touched the next generation lord god while they're in hiding oh god that while we have them under our wings lord hidden from the attacks of the devil got hidden got from the attacks of the world god i pray that you had touched them god i pray that you would use them begin to speak to them god that doesn't matter what age they are god begin to deal with them lord god begin to talk to them oh god god let us train and let us equip them lord with the things that they need in order to one day god be used in the ministry one day to be world changers lord and we give you all the praise and we give you all the honor can we clap our hands in this place thank you jesus thank you lord thank you lord