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[0:00] Okay, well, I need your help to help me count to four, through our four tests, to see how strong God is. You ready? Okay, so Psalm 29, it's kind of like a song, and it's kind of like a prayer, and King David wrote it.

[0:14] So let's listen to what he has to say. Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name.

[0:25] Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness. And so, King David wrote this psalm, and he's telling the angels and everyone in heaven to say, God, you're strong.

[0:38] Now, how strong are all of you? Can you show me your muscles? All you guys? Yeah? Yeah? All right. Well, guess what? God is even stronger.

[0:49] So, we're going to need, I'm going to need your strong help to help me understand the next part of the passage, right? Okay. King David continues, and he says, The voice of the Lord, and we're going to remember that part.

[1:01] The voice of the Lord is over the waters. The God of glory thunders the Lord over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

[1:14] Now, King David said that the voice of the Lord is over the waters. When you go to the beach, what do you see? Water. Water. Water. And what is the water doing?

[1:26] Waves. Now, are waves noisy or are they quiet? Noisy. Noisy. Now, waves are really noisy, but King David says that God's voice is louder over many waters.

[1:40] So, is God's voice quiet? Or loud? Loud. Loud. That's right. Well, how loud is his voice? We're going to find out. So, you remember how to count to four, right?

[1:52] Yeah. Okay. So, we're going to do four tests together to see how loud God's voice is. Okay? All right. So, verse 5 says, the voice of the Lord breaks the cedars.

[2:04] The Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf and Syrian like a young wild ox. Now, King David says that God's voice breaks the cedars.

[2:17] Does anyone know what a cedar is? What is it? Close. It's a kind of tree.

[2:28] In fact, it looks a lot like a Christmas tree. Do you guys know where we can find a Christmas tree? Right over there. Come on. We're going over here. Everybody, we're going over here.

[2:40] Everybody's going to stand right over here because we're going to do our first test. Now, King David says that God's voice breaks Christmas trees.

[2:53] So, we're going to see how strong God's voice must be and to see how loud we would have to be to break it. Now, remember, we're doing this with our voices.

[3:05] So, we're not going to use our hands or our noses or our hair or anything else. We're going to break the tree with our voices. So, are you guys ready? Yeah. On the count of three, we're going to make as much noise as we possibly can and see if we can break this Christmas tree.

[3:20] You guys ready? All right. One, two, three. Ah! Huh.

[3:32] It didn't break. God's voice is even stronger than all our voices put together, huh? All right. Did you guys have fun with that? Well, that was our first test. We have three more.

[3:42] So, let's go on back, okay? Okay. Yeah. We're all going to stand up here. Up here. Up here. Killian. Buddy, buddy.

[3:54] Come on. Okay. There you go. All right. So, our next test comes in verse seven.

[4:05] The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. Now, test number two is scary. God is so strong that his voice flashes fire. Now, when we tried to break the Christmas tree, I saw you guys have strong voices too, right?

[4:21] So, do you want to try making your voices breathe fire? Well, does anybody here know how to breathe fire? You see, there's a trick to it.

[4:32] You have to say, yell as loud as you can, hot, hot, hot. Now, we can't yell fire, fire, fire, because then someone will call the fire department. So, we're going to yell, hot, hot, hot. And if your voice is strong enough, strong like God's voice, you might just breathe fire.

[4:47] So, you guys ready? All right. So, on the count of three, we're going to yell, hot, hot, hot. You guys ready? One, two, three. Hot, hot, hot.

[5:01] Any fire? Any sparks? Wow. God's voice must be really powerful, huh? Well, that's test number two.

[5:12] Here comes test number three. You guys ready? All right. Verse number eight. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness. The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. I bet you guys are going to like this test.

[5:25] Okay? King David is saying that God is so strong, his voice shakes the ground. What do you guys think?

[5:35] Is that going to be fun? All right. Well, Mr. Jeff is all the way in the back corner there, and we're going to have him help us with this test. He's going to be our judge, okay?

[5:47] So, do you guys want to try to shake the ground with your voices? All right. So, we need to make as much noise as we can right down to the ground. You guys ready?

[5:57] On the count of three. One, two, three. Mr. Jeff, did it shake? No?

[6:08] Hey, do you guys want to cheat? You guys want to cheat? All right. Everybody sit down. Everybody sit down. This time, this time, we're going to yell at the ground, and we're going to kick our feet on the ground. All right.

[6:19] So, everybody make sure your feet aren't kicking anybody else. Make sure nobody's going to kick anybody else. All right. Ready? All right. We're going to cheat just a little bit, right? Okay. One, two, three.

[6:34] Got to yell, too. Got to yell. Ah! Mr. Jeff, did we shake the ground? No, we didn't shake the ground. Wow. God's voice must be really, really strong.

[6:48] Well, let's try test number four. Verse 9 says, The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the forest.

[6:59] You guys know where we're going. And in this temple, all cry glory. So, King David says God's voice is so strong, he makes the deer give birth.

[7:12] What do you guys think of that? What do you guys think of that? Now, for this test, I don't have a deer, but I happen to have a reindeer with me.

[7:22] Okay. This deer's, this is dancer. Everybody say, hi, dancer. Hi, dancer. Okay. And King David tells us that God's voice is so strong that he can make the deer have a baby.

[7:38] Now, what do you guys think? Can you do that? We're going to try. We're going to try it. Okay? All right. So, on the count of three, I want you all to yell as loud as you can, with as much power as you can, baby reindeer.

[7:54] Okay? You guys ready? One, two, three. Baby reindeer. You guys see a baby reindeer?

[8:08] No. Oh, my goodness. God must be really strong. So, let's think. Test number one, can our voices break a Christmas tree? No.

[8:18] No. But God can. He must be really strong. Test number two, can your voices make fire? No. But God can. He must be really strong.

[8:29] Test number three, God's voice can shake the ground. Can yours? No. He must be really strong. Test number four, can you guys make a reindeer?

[8:40] Here, have a baby? No. God must be really strong. Bud, bud. That's why the next thing that King David says is, the Lord sits enthroned over the flood.

[8:57] The Lord sits enthroned as king forever. May the Lord give strength to his people. May the Lord bless his people with peace. See, God is the strongest one there is.

[9:09] Aaron, Aaron, just get him out of here. You see, God chose to leave heaven. He could have stayed, right? He could have stayed here like he is in verses 10 and 11.

[9:21] But he knew that you and I needed his help. We aren't strong enough to get rid of our sins. So God, who is strong enough to break a Christmas tree with his voice, that's test number one, was born a little baby on Christmas Day.

[9:34] Does anybody know what that baby's name was? All right, we've lost you. Jesus was born on Christmas Day, little girls and boys.

[9:49] All right, we really have lost them. All right, and that means that the God whose voice is like fire, that was our test number two, right? He became a powerless baby on our behalf to come and save you and me.

[10:06] And he didn't stay in heaven. He was born a human baby so that one day he could go to the cross. And when he went to the cross and took all of your sins and my sins and all the sins of everyone who would ever trust in him, he took them up on his strong shoulders.

[10:28] And when he was nailed to that cross, so was all our sin. And when he died, it was so that we wouldn't have to die for our own sins. He was strong in our place.

[10:39] And that's good news. But do you, little girls and boys, know what the best news is? Remember, his voice is so strong he can make new life in the reindeer.

[10:53] Well, he's so strong that he can make life from death. And on the third day, he rose from the grave. Jesus didn't stay in heaven where he could have stayed.

[11:03] The strongest one became powerless so that we can live with him forever. Okay, friends, thank you very much for helping me with my four tests.

[11:14] I'm going to return you to your families in your seats. You guys can all head back. Thank you so much for your help. Nice round of applause for everybody. When you get there, can you tell your friends and your family which test was your favorite?

[11:30] And so, friends and family, I hope our little tests have blessed you. I hope you have seen how far surpassing God's glory and his might are. And I hope you saw, maybe with fresh eyes, how astonishing it is that this God, whose voice makes the earth tremble and trees break, became a helpless baby on Christmas.

[12:01] On behalf of ruined sinners like us, not just to live among us, but to use his might to bear the weight of all our sin, to break death and to open a way to him.

[12:14] And so let's remember this Christmas. A mighty king was born in Bethlehem to become weak for those he loved. Friends, let's pray.

[12:26] Lord, you sent your son. Born of a virgin to become a man, is it not great to call him wonderful?

[12:41] He was infinite and an infant. Eternal and yet born of a woman. Supporting the universe and yet needing to be carried in a mother's arms.

[12:54] King of angels. And yet the carpenter's despised son. Jesus, you are wonderful. And that will be your name forever.

[13:08] We pray that in the mighty name of Jesus, who became weak for our sakes. Amen. Amen. Stand in.