So Mary's little things were really good. So, oops. So, Christmas Eve. Here we are, I'm going to sing Emmanuel.
So here we are again, Christmas Eve. I can't believe how quickly it goes around. It is 365 days, just like it was when I was a kid. But those days took forever to go by.
And now, 365 days goes by in what seems like a week. When I think back on the past year of where things were, where I was, and all of that last year, and where things are today, and where I am today, there are two things that I hope. I hope that I am still well, and all of that. But I hope I'm spiritually well and growing.
Hopefully, I'm better in my walk with the Lord. This Christmas than last Christmas. And if you don't know the Lord, I hope that this Christmas you will come to know Him. I came to Christ the week of Christmas back in 1981.
And I have to say, Christmas went from something that I used to dread coming around every year because of all of the stuff that went on around me, and in my family and outside my family. And to being the most joyous time of my life. So let's look to the Lord for one more time to pray. Father, thank you for the Lord Jesus our Savior.
Thank you that He loves us, that He gave Himself for us. So we come tonight, and we celebrate the time when you sent your Son to come from heaven, from the highest place, to be born in a cattle's feeding trough. We can't imagine that in our day. We complain about healthcare, we complain about accommodations and living conditions in our land today, but our Savior was born.
We're cattle feet. And Father, we thank You that He was born and came to this earth that He may die for sinners. And that He rose again and never lives for us. May we know the hope of the Savior tonight.
I pray for help in going through this short message, but I pray that it is your message to our hearts. I ask it in Jesus' name, amen. A number of years ago, 11 actually, there was a mind disaster in Chile. Now, I have this fascination with minds.
I have been in many different minds in my life. I've been in all the coal mines in Atlanta, Canada, when they were functioning. I've been in the salt mine a couple times. I've been in a lead mine and I've been in a copper mine.
And I have to say, they always say, well, yeah, you're here, you know, this is your first time down here. You don't get used to it. You don't get used to it. You don't get used to being down under five miles out under the ocean, under 500 feet of rock and whatever amount of water is up above that and the bumps and the booms and the cracks and the rocks falling and all of this stuff.
You don't get used to that. Now, there are some people who do get used to it, and they're called miners. So these, what did that ever come out small? Oh, there we go.
I put unknown animation in here. So here's what happened. August the 5th, 2010. Now that might seem to you like a lifetime ago, but it's just 11 years ago.
A copper mine in Chile, there was a single incident and a collapse of a tunnel and a trapped 33 miners. And I don't know if you are old enough to remember this, but I certainly remember it. And it was in the news every single day. And it was on the TV news every single night and it went on and on and on for weeks.
There were things that happened that caused all kinds of problems. Like for instance, the ladders that would have been used to climb out through the ventilation shafts went missing. Who knows where they went? Some guy was doing his roof maybe, I don't know.
But the ladders that they would use to climb out, they were gone. And they were stuck, 33 miners. They all lived, but they were stuck. And for 17 days, 17, okay, you send somebody a text message and they don't back in 17 minutes?
How long is that, man? Like what's, I gotta call 911, there's something wrong with them. 17 days, they heard nothing, not a thing. And then 17 days in, they hear, rrrr, rrrr, rrrr, rrrr, rrrr, as things are starting to grind through.
They're trying to reach through to see if they're still alive. Nobody had a clue. The Chilean group up above found out that there was people still alive down there, so they put a plan in place to rescue them. And it was going to take four to five months.
And they were going to get them out. They promised them, we'll get you out for Christmas. It's August. We'll get you out for Christmas.
You're in darkness. You have no food. You have no water. You have no light.
You can't see a thing. We'll get you out in five months. How bleak. How dark, trapped.
It's interesting because many of the miners were very, they were now religious men. It may not have been before that, but they asked, can you please, now that you have the whole open, that one at the bottom there with the guy in the orange suit, that was the hole where they sent their supplies down. Can you imagine? That's where you got your food, your water, whatever they could get down to you.
Can you send us some bibles? Can you send us some crucifixes? Can you send us some rosaries? Can you send us some statues of the Virgin Mary?
Can you send us some statues of saints that we may have these things down here to help us? Even the pope got involved in blessed some crucifixes and rosaries and sent it off to them so that they could go down there. And with this pile of religious artifacts, they were not one meter closer to the surface again. They were not one meter closer to being saved.
So the plan was put together to rescue these hopeless men and it would be through a special capsule. That was the only way out and then we take them up one at a time. Actually, they got them out ahead of schedule. 69 days later, 33 men were brought to the surface and they were all saved from a sure death.
It's an amazing story, an amazing story. And as I thought about this, I thought we are so much like those miners. We are so much like these miners. The whole world has found itself in this whole same situation as the miners, lost and trapped in absolute darkness and without hope.
That is where the world has found itself. We are all trapped. Romans chapter three verse 23 says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. No, there's the story.
I should mark what I'm supposed to be doing here. We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The Bible says we are not able to save ourselves by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast. These men could do nothing to get themselves out.
It was hopeless. Religion was not going to save them. They had crucifixes. They had Bibles.
They had charms and whatever else down there. And not one thing was able to get them any closer to the surface. None of this was going to save them. They couldn't come together and say, okay, let's come up with a plan and get ourselves out of here.
It was hopeless. They could not do it. It was impossible. It was so far, so deep.
The Bible also says that when we were utterly helpless, Christ came just at the right time to die for sinners. So there is hope. Our situation is just like theirs. We desperately need to be rescued.
Religion won't save us. We can't come together to save ourselves. A rescue was the only answer for these men. They could have sent them a note and say, hey, here's a map on how to get out.
Good luck. But they wouldn't been successful. It was the way it was blocked. It was impossible.
So a single incident caused all of this. Carelessness, neglect. They had been warned this is going to happen. The passage ways are going to collapse at some time.
In fact, they had other disasters. But nobody paid attention to any of the warnings and they just went ahead. You know what traps us and what has us stuck in darkness? All comes from a single incident.
A single incident that's recorded in the Bible in Genesis chapter three, where a man decided, I'm not going to pay attention to the instructions. I'm not going to take heed to what has been told to me. And I'm going to just do my own thing. And Adam sinned.
And Adam sinned has been passed on to all of us. The Bible says, as I already mentioned, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. First Corinthians chapter 15 verse 22 says, in Adam, all die. All die.
Death, darkness, blackness, hopelessness, has all come through the sin of Adam to all of us. Our situation has an inevitable outcome. For the miners it was death. If they could not be rescued, they were going to die.
It would be an awful, hopeless, and painful death that were separated from those who loved them and they were not going to ever see them again. They were hungry. They were thirsty. I didn't put this animation in and I have no idea why it's in here.
I think like how did you do this at the back? I'm clicking on every single thing here. Romans chapter six verse 23 says, The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The wages of sin is death.
That is the outcome. The ultimate outcome of your sin, my sin, and Adam sin is death. We will die. We will die physically.
We will die spiritually. And we ultimately will die a second death and be separated in hell forever from the God of heaven and all the goodness that comes from him. I mentioned back when they had the whole drill through the ground, even while they were lost, even while they were hopeless, even while they were in darkness, what was needed to keep them going? What was needed to keep them alive?
The goodness from above came down through this hole, but they were still lost. It's just like sinners today. We still experienced the goodness of God. If you were alive and well in walking through this land, even if you're not well, if you were alive, you were experiencing the goodness of God in your life.
Hell is the separation from God forever. None of what we have will be ours. The situation was hopeless. Finally, a rescue plan from above.
I'm sure these men were overjoyed to hear a rescue plan is in the works. A rescue plan that's going to take months. We'll get out for Christmas. Wow, helpless.
They couldn't plan their own rescue. You see, as much as they might have tried, they could have found some rocks and decided there's a smooth one and let's curve our rescue plan into that. And we'll figure out how we're going to get out. We'll just curve it into the rocks here.
And we'll work out our own plan to get out of here. Who needs the rescue plan from above? Those guys up there, they don't know what they're doing. They're just a bunch of engineers.
So that'll purpose. So if they did that, how foolish. They were not going to get out. They could not rescue themselves.
They could not build a plan themselves. A rescue plan that we have was planned and designed by God. God has a rescue plan from above for you and me. You can't plan your own rescue.
All your efforts will fail. Religion doesn't work. No matter what your religion is. Good works.
Look, you know what? My neighbors are coming by and we've gone by their place, bringing treats and all of that stuff. And you know what? A really bad snowstorm comes.
A guy with a plow. He'll plow up my driveway. Good works. Awesome.
I'll take my snowblower and I'll blow up the driveway across the street. When they're away, I'll pick up the stuff out of their driveway and all that stuff. Not one of those things will ever get me to heaven. Not one inch closer to God.
Good works are good to do. But they will never get you closer to God. If that's your motivation behind doing them. Religion will not get you closer to God.
See religion, the problem with religion is me trying to come to God on my terms. And it doesn't matter whether I'm Protestant, whether I'm Catholic, whether I'm Buddhist, whether I'm Muslim, whatever I am, or an atheist. It does not matter. I cannot come to God on my terms.
It has to be on his terms. You see, in Galatians, we read this wonderful verse. God has come up with a rescue plan for us. And Jesus Christ is that rescue plan.
Galatians chapter 4, verses 4 and 5, I put them on the wall behind us. But when the right time came, God sent his son, born of a woman, subject to the law, God sent him to buy freedom for us, who were slaves to the law, that he could adopt us as his very own children. The rescue plan from above. Galatians chapter 1, verse 3 and 4, grace to you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins so that he might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.
We are in an evil age. We are in an evil world. And we need to be rescued. The only rescue was found in Jesus Christ.
Romans chapter 5, verse 6, the NLT says, in the new living translation, when we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. You see, Christmas is about God's rescue we're coming to this earth to save us from hopelessness. That's what Christmas is about. Christmas isn't about love and goodwill and all of these wonderful things.
Christmas is about changing your life through the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, I listened to one of my favorite preachers today. I just happened to listen to this little clip and he said, you know the problem with people at Christmas time, they want to embrace Jesus and say, this is wonderful. You know what?
Yeah, you're right. I do need something in my life. I need more Jesus in my life. And they're saying, in effect, I need a facelift when they really need a heart transplant.
You can do a facelift on me, but if my heart is not working, I'll just have a beautiful face for a casket. You see, we need a heart transplant. And our rescue has come that he may change us, the rescue us. Matthew chapter one, verse 21, one of the greatest verses in the Bible.
And she will bring forth a son and you should call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. You see, the rescue plan that came from God, the rescue plan that came from above was a perfect rescue plan. Everything was provided. This is the capsule that they developed and came up with.
There were people from Nassau. There were people from Canada. There were people from different mining companies. There were all kinds of engineers.
There were all kinds of very brilliant people. And they came up with this. And I looked at it and I thought, well, that's pretty neat. It's got a monitor with a biometric belt.
So it monitors your vital signs as you're going up this thing. It's got special dark sunglasses so that when you come out into the light of day after being down there for months, that you don't go blind. It's got an oxygen mask. It's got water resistant sweat permeable coveralls.
It sounds like something for the gym. But it's got copper fiber underwear to minimize fungus. I don't know how long you're gonna be in this capsule, but anyway, you're not gonna have any fungus when you get to the top. It had wraps to prevent thrombosis in your legs because you're going from so far down to coming up.
It had connections to the winching system. It had stabilization wheels. It was a rescue capsule. And you see, here's the thing that I got out of that.
Jesus Christ is the perfect rescuer. He is the perfect rescue vessel for us. Everything in him is perfect. First of all, our rescue was planned by our creator God.
Secondly, Jesus Christ, our rescuer, he is perfectly sinless, never committed to sin in his life, never uttered a bad word, never lost it after somebody, never said one thing but met another. He never stole from anybody. He never had a bad thought. Only a person like that can rescue sinners.
Otherwise, it's just sinners are two people trying to clean each other up in a mud bottle. And you can't do it. He paid the penalty for my sin in full. When he was on the cross, his last words, it is finished.
The payment is done. No cost to me and great cost to him. There's not a detail left out. And the fact that it worked is proof in an empty tomb.
When he died three days later, he rose from the dead. Jesus died for your sin. He died for my sin. And we can be rescued and saved through him.
It's the only way. There was only one way out of that mind. You had to get into that capsule. If you did not, you would die.
There was only one way. Jesus Christ himself said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. If that wasn't enough, and no one comes to the Father, but through me. The rescue was for individuals.
You notice that little capsule? They each had to get in. One at a time. It wasn't to take a whole group together.
It wasn't for the whole world. It wasn't for any more than one individual at a time. That's the way you need to come to God. It's for you.
You see, that's the greatest moment of my life when it dawned on me that he came and he died. But he died for me. If I was the only human being on the face of this earth, he would have come and he would have died for me. And when that dawned on me, I was saved.
I realized that he died for me. I was rescued. God sent his son to rescue you, personally. John chapter 3, verse 16 says, for God's love, the world that he gave is only begotten son that whoever believes in him, whoever, as an individual, believes in him, should not perish but have everlasting life.
The greatest hope I could give you a Christmas, the greatest gift you could get at Christmas is eternal life through Jesus Christ. In relation to chapter 2, verse 20, he says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
He died for you as an individual. Your rescue from above is very personal. Your rescue requires that you trust. You see, the first miner that chose to go into the door, completely depending on the rescue machine, that was designed and operated by the humans above that he couldn't even see, that the wire capsule was lowered a second time to the very spot where the miners were.
Another miner had to make a personal choice. Will I or will I not get into this? They each had to make a decision and a choice. Am I going to do this?
Well, the choice you would think would be obvious to each of them. Not to enter the capsule, certain death, in the darkness forever. They can't save themselves and they know it. Their efforts would never get them to the surface.
Salvation requires that we just fully trust the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved by him. In Romans chapter four verse five, and I'm wrapping up here, one of the greatest verses I believe in the Bible. It says, but to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith or her faith is counted as righteousness. If you want to be saved, you just simply trust.
The payment has been made. Jesus died for you. The rescue plan has been fulfilled and you can be saved today, tonight, before you even leave here or think on these things and do business with God. John chapter 10 verse nine, just like this little pod had a door.
They had to come up and they'd walk to the door and I'm sure they'd have to open it. And they'd look and the door is now open. Will I go in or will I stay out to my own peril? Jesus himself said, I am the door.
If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. I trust tonight that as it is Christmas, and we think on what it really does mean, that you understand that Christmas is not about trees. I love trees, they're beautiful. I love lights.
I love houses that are brightly decorated. I love all that stuff. I love turkey. I think I ate half of it yesterday while I was carving it up because my wife was over at the hospital with her brother.
And I was just there with the knife and I thought, oh, turkey. I hope there's enough left for the company tomorrow. But you know, I love all that stuff. I love all that stuff.
But Christmas is more than that. Christmas is one thing. It's God's rescue plan for sinners. That's what it is.
You were lost. I was lost. This world was lost and we're in total darkness and we have been rescued on the greatest rescue plan of all time. Father, thank you this morning that while we were hopeless, that Christ came and died for the ungodly.
We thank you for sending your son. We thank you for this time this evening, to sing these songs into heavy times of thoughts directed towards him in thanksgiving for what he has done. Thank you for providing the Savior, Christ the Lord. In his name, amen.