[Music]
Today I'm going to be addressing the
children. And I want you to listen very
very carefully. Very carefully. Each one
of the children I want you to listen. Do
you know that we're in what's called the
holiday seasons or Christmas. But much
of everything you know about Christmas,
it's not really true.
there is an emphasis or people think
certain things are important at
Christmas that are not important and
certain things even about the Christmas
story that are important that are really
not that important. Today I'm going to
talk to you about something that you
usually will never hear
about during
Christmas, but it's a it's what
Christmas is really all
about. Are you ready?
God's
anger. God's anger. Now, I want you for
just a moment, just now, I want you to
listen. Okay, this is what
happens. It says in Mark 4:35, "On that
day, when evening came, he said to them,
Jesus, let's let us go over to the other
side." Leaving the crowd, they took him
along with them in the boat, just as he
was, and other boats were with him. And
there arose a fierce gale of wind. You
know what a fierce gale of wind is? It's
a wind that could just blow you down. A
a wind that could blow down a house, a
wind that would cause the sea to rise up
and just swallow any boat. Swallow it
down. It says, "A fierce gale of wind
and the waves were breaking over the
boat." so much that the boat was already
filling up with water. So these sailors
knew that the boat was going to sink
down and they were going to die. Okay.
Jesus himself was in the stern asleep on
the cushion. Now remember that he was
was he awake or asleep?
Awake or asleep? He was asleep on the
cushion. That's very important. I want
you to remember that. And they woke him
and said to him, "Teacher, do you not
care that we are perishing?" And he got
up and rebuked the wind and said to the
wind, "Hush, be still." And the wind
died down and it became perfectly calm.
And you know what? After you hear this
story, what do preachers usually tell
you? Well, they usually tell you, they
spend the rest of their time talking
about the power of Jesus Christ to calm
the storm. that he could speak to the
storm and calm it. Okay? So, he gets up.
He's asleep on the cushion. He rises up.
He says, "Be still." And the storm was
over. Now, this was a storm that was so
great that even the best sailors
couldn't sail through it. The boat was
going to sink down completely. The boat
was already filling with water. So,
everybody in the boat knew they could do
nothing to help themselves. And Jesus
was asleep.
on the cushion and he rises up and he
rebukes the wind and everyone says this
story is about the power of Jesus Christ
over nature. Well, it
is. But that's not the most important
thing about this story. Now, I want to
read to you another story.
It says that
Jonah rose up to flee to Tarses from the
presence of the Lord. So he went down to
Japa, found a ship which was going to
Tarsus, paid the fair, and went down
into it to go with him to Tarses from
the presence of the Lord. So here's a
man. He's running away from God. He's
disobeying God. Do you understand? Now
let's go on. And the Lord hurled a great
wind on the sea, and there was a great
storm on the sea, so that the ship was
about to break up. It says like like if
you were to make a snowball and hurl it
with all your
might, God made a storm. And with all
his might, he hurled it down on the sea.
He did it. God caused it. It didn't just
happen. It wasn't just the fact that
nature is out of control. God did this.
God made a storm and he hurled it down
on the sea. Do you see that? This is
very important. Is that frightening?
When I was a little boy one time, I went
out shark fishing with my uncle and I
was about 9 years old and I'll never
forget a big storm came up and I was
already afraid because we were fishing
for sharks. But I noticed that when the
waves came up, there was the big waves
like this and then a trough and we would
be down in the trough and the waves
would be up there and then we'd come up
again and go down and I was very afraid.
There was nothing I could do to save
myself. Okay, that's where this boat
was. It was full of really strong
sailors, but God made a storm and he
hurled it down on the water.
Now, all the sailors are kind of
wondering, why is God doing this?
Why? And so, here's what happened. They
go to Jonah. To make a long story short,
they go to Jonah and they and where do
they find Jonah? They find him asleep in
the
boat. Now, remember we talked about the
story about Jesus? Where did they find
him? Asleep in the boat. And here now
Jonah is asleep in the boat. Do you see
that? And they say, "Jonah, why is this
big storm happening?" And he says,
"Because I'm in disobedience against
God." Well, what can we do to calm the
storm? This is what they
did. They picked up Jonah and threw him
into the
sea. Now, why did they do that? Because
Jonah told him to. He said in verse 12,
"Pick me up and throw me into the sea.
then the sea will become calm for you.
And then again it says, "So they picked
up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and
the sea stopped its raging." Now it says
that God sent a he made a storm and he
threw it down on the water. Here it says
that the storm was raging and the boat
was going to break apart and no one
could do anything. Do you see
that? What was that storm? That storm
was God's
anger. Now, why is God angry? Because of
our
sin. Furious because of our sin. He
hates sin. Why does he hate sin? Because
he's
good. He's good. And because he is so
good and so loving, he hates sin. And
because of our sin, the anger of God
comes down like a raging storm. And
there's nothing that we can do, nothing
that we can do to stop it. Now, when
that raging storm came, Jonah said,
"Pick me up and throw me into the
water." Didn't he? And what happened?
The storm stopped. So Jonah was a guilty
man full of sin. And he said, "If you'll
take me, pick me up, and throw me into
the water, then the storm will stop."
Jesus was not a guilty man. Jesus was
innocent. Jesus never sinned. And in
order to stop the storm that was coming
against you and me for our sin, we
didn't have to throw him in to the sea.
He threw himself into the sea. When
Jesus was on the
cross, it was like him. Let's imagine
for a moment that we're in a
boat and all of us are terrified because
the waves are so high the boat's going
to break apart. But Jesus is asleep. Why
is he asleep? Because he's done nothing
wrong. He's never sinned. That wrath,
that anger of God that's coming up all
around us and tearing our boat apart, it
has nothing to do with him. He never
broke God's law. He never sinned. He's
just
asleep. God's not against him. He's the
perfect son of God who always obeyed.
But we're in that boat and you and I, we
deserve to die. We deserve to be
swallowed up by that ocean. But Jesus
comes forth right at the moment that
we're about to die. And he throws
himself into that
ocean. Even though he didn't deserve to
die, he throws himself into that. And
when he did, when he paid for our sins
with his life, Then God's anger was
calmed and now God can freely love us.
Do you see that? Just think about this
for a moment. You're to be swallowed up
into the ocean and sucked down to die
forever. And Jesus says,
"Stop." And he takes off running and he
jumps right out of the boat and throws
his own body into that sea. And when he
does, the sea becomes calm. Now,
children, what are you going to do when
you see that there's somebody out there
that loves you that
much that threw their own body into the
sea?
Are you going to just be able to stop
thinking about that?
No. Shouldn't you live for that person?
Shouldn't you love that person?
Shouldn't you believe in that
person? That's why Jesus is more
important than anything else.
Do you realize that this
morning? This morning
alone, I've sinned enough to go to
hell. This morning
alone. But Jesus threw himself into the
sea. He stopped the wrath of God that
was coming against me and you by his own
death in our place, even though he did
not deserve to die.
You want to know what Christmas is all
about? It's about a baby in a
manger who would grow
up living a sinless life and go to a
cross and die in your
place. It's about a great king who would
throw himself into the sea even though
he did not deserve it in order to save
the people in the
boat. Several years ago when I was in in
the in Ukraine, they told me a story and
it's it's all over the place. I don't
know if it's an urban legend, but it's
about a Russian prince and his slave and
they were in a u dog sled in Siberia and
they were both taking off in a pack of
wolves. And wolves aren't like what you
think. They're not just like dogs. A
wolf's head can be that
big. And this pack of wolves came after
them. And pretty soon they realized,
"We're not going to be able to outrun
this pack of wolves. We're gonna die."
And so the
servant threw himself off of the dog
sled and the wolves ate the
servant and the king was saved. And
someone said, "That's a picture of the
cross." And another man said, "No, it's
not. If it had been a picture of the
cross, it would have been the king who
threw himself off the dog sled in order
to save the slave. Do you see that? See,
that's why we love Jesus, children. I
don't like religion. I'm not all about
rules and all kinds of things like that.
It's all about loyalty to one person.
That's what it's about. Loyalty to one
person. Do you see that? To Jesus
Christ. To the one who made you and the
one who died for you. It's about being
loyal to him. All right. God bless
you. Please visit our website at
heartcrymissionary.com. There you will
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purpose, beliefs, and methodologies, and
extensive information about the
missionaries we are privileged to serve.