Greg Laurie - The Snake, The Baby, The Dragon, and The Prince

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TOPICS: Christmas

Greg Laurie: Who knows Jingle Bells?

Child: Me.

Greg Laurie: Let's sing it, you wanna sing it?

Child: Yeah.

Greg Laurie: Ready?

♪ Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way ♪
♪ Oh, what fun it is to ride ♪
♪ in a one horse open sleigh, hey ♪

Greg Laurie: Now let's jump when we go hey. Ready? Ready? Get ready. One, two, three.

♪ Jingle bells, jingle bells ♪
♪ jingle all the way ♪
♪ Oh, what fun it is to ride ♪
♪ in a one horse open sleigh, Hey ♪

Greg Laurie: Oh, that was good. I'm gonna tell you the Christmas story in a different way, okay. The title of my Christmas story is 'The Snake, The Baby, The Dragon, and The Prince.' Let's start with the snake. How many of you like snakes? You like snakes? 'Cause I have a live snake right here. Ah. Oh, those are not live snakes. Okay, let me see it for a sec. So this snake is a really nice snake, but it all began a long time ago in a garden. Now listen, I'm gonna put in some funny parts that don't fit, so if I say something that is not a part of the Christmas story, you have to say, "No, that's not the way it goes". Alright? So listen, a long time ago there was a garden, and in the garden there was Santa Claus and...

Children: No!

Greg Laurie: Well, who was in the garden?

Children: Adam and Eve.

Greg Laurie: You guys are smart, you must go to Sunday school. Adam and Eve. So they're in the garden, it's so cool. God says to Adam and Eve, "You can eat any food you want, you can go anywhere you want, except this one place this tree. Don't go by this tree". And it was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And all of a sudden, guess who shows up the snake. And this snake is a talking snake. "Hey, what's up? Alright".

Children: That's not how it goes.

Greg Laurie: So he says to Adam and Eve, "I have something I wanna say, why don't you eat of this special fruit? Because if you eat it, it'll make you like". It's funny, you're looking at this snake yet I'm talking, but you're looking, "And if you eat it, you'll be like God knowing good and evil. And by the way, I'm serious". Okay, so Adam and Eve are looking at him and he brings out this fruit. What do you think the fruit looked like? What was the fruit in the garden of Eden?

Child: It was a grape.

Child: It was a fruit that was kind of like an apple.

Greg Laurie: It was like an apple. Well, here's the the think. We don't know if it was like an apple. The Bible doesn't say. So do you think it looked like this? What is this? Okay, it might have looked like this. Did it look like this? What is this? It's a baby watermelon. It could've looked like that, we don't know. Did it look like this? What is this? It's a banana. Okay, did it look like this? It might've, we don't know, but maybe here's a really weird looking piece of fruit. Maybe it look like this. What is this? Here's what it looks like on the inside. So what if Satan said, "Why didn't you eat of this fruit? It'll make you really smart". Would you eat this fruit? Yeah, it might be something else. But here's the thing that we know. And here's what we often think it was, right? You wanna see a tray? Watch this. No... Whoa. So Eve ate of that forbidden hamburger, and when she ate...

Children: No!

Greg Laurie: Oh excuse me, I'm sorry. Eve ate the burrito, and she said don't...

Children: No!

Greg Laurie: You're right, that's so silly. No, Eve ate the enchilada, and she...

Children: No!

Greg Laurie: Okay, she ate the forbidden fruit, right? And guess what happened? Sin entered the world. Who knows what sin is? Raise your hand. What is sin Christopher?

Christopher Laurie: It's when you do something bad and disobey God.

Greg Laurie: That's exactly right. She disobeyed God and sin entered into the whole world. And so I've told you about the snake. Now I wanna tell you about the baby. Because God said in the garden, "There's coming one that's gonna be born and he's gonna crush your head Satan". So Satan was gonna get his head crushed. I'm gonna pick someone to crush his head and I'm gonna pick you. Jump on the head of that snake. Jump on it. Oh, that's good, you got him, he's dead. Okay so, okay so God told Satan, "There's coming one is gonna crush your head". God was sending someone to crush Satan's head. And who is that person that's going to come and do that, who?

Child: Jesus.

Greg Laurie: And that brings us to the baby. The baby. The baby that was born in the manger 2000 years ago. And there was Jesus in the manger, and there were these wise men that came, and their names were Huey, Dewey, and Louie...

Children: No!

Greg Laurie: No, you're right. Their names were John, Paul, George and they had a camel named Ringo...

Children: No!

Greg Laurie: What were their names?

Child: We don't know.

Greg Laurie: We don't know is the right answer. We don't know. But the wise men came and the shepherds came, and everybody saw this one who was born named Jesus. So we've talked about the snake, we've talked about the baby, now let's talk about the dragon. So the Bible says Satan is like a dragon. Are dragon's good? No. And that brings us to the prince. Because the baby grow up to be a prince. The Bible says he's the Prince of peace. So Jesus was born in a manger. And then he walked around in our world. And think of this, God became a baby. Have you ever seen 'Boss Baby?' You know how boss baby talks, even though he is a baby. He has a little briefcase and all that. Do you think when Jesus was born, he was laying in the manger he said, "Hello Mary and Joseph, I'm Jesus, I'm here". You don't think he talks?

Child: He was just a regular baby.

Greg Laurie: Wait, tell me what?

Child: He was just a regular baby like us.

Greg Laurie: And so this little baby grew up to be a man, and he did miracles, and he gave us the greatest teachings we've ever heard. And then what happened after that? What happened to Jesus? How did he die? Tell me.

Child: He died on the cross.

Greg Laurie: He died on the cross. Why did he die on the cross? You tell me.

Child: 'Cause of for forgiving us for our sin.

Greg Laurie: Ah, that brings us back to the garden. When the snake came along and said, "Why don't you go ahead and eat of this fruit?" What?

Child: It's a different snake.

Greg Laurie: It's a different snake I know, but it was a snake though, right? Satan came as a snake. So sin entered the world, Jesus died for our sin. So guess what? The prince killed the dragon. Jesus defeated Satan at the cross when he died and rose again from the dead. So listen, why was Jesus born in a manger? Why did he come to this earth? Who knows?

Child: 'Cause there was no places.

Greg Laurie: There was no room for him in the inn. All the hotels were closed, weren't they? Why, why were they closed?

Child: To, wait why were they closed?

Greg Laurie: They didn't have room because they had people staying in them, right?

Child: Yeah, because it was really crowded.

Greg Laurie: Yeah, what do you wanna tell me?

Child: Because it was the census, and the census made everything packed.

Greg Laurie: That's very true. So Mary and Joseph come to Bethlehem and there's no room for them in the inn, so the baby Jesus was born in a car. But it was a cool car because... it wasn't a car? What was it?

Child: A stable.

Greg Laurie: That's right, so that's a story of The Snake, The Baby, The Dragon, and The Prince. So Jesus died on the cross, he rose again from the dead, so he could come and live in our hearts. Jesus was born so we could be born again. To be born again means you put your faith in Jesus Christ, and ask him to come into your heart. Allie, your dad told me a story about how you were talking to a little girl about asking Jesus to come into her heart. Tell me what she said.

Allie Laurie: Well, so she's like one of my close friends. So I was at school and I've been, I talk, she knows I'm a Christian and I've talked about it a couple of times. So then she was interested and she's like, "Can I be a Christian"? And I was like, "Yeah". And so she was like, "Do I just become a Christian, what do I do"? And I was like, "Well I can pray with you if you want". And she said, "Okay". And so I prayed with her.

Greg Laurie: That's amazing. How do you become a Christian? You pray and you ask Jesus to come into your heart, right? Okay, have you guys ever asked Jesus to come into your heart? That's amazing. So, you know, what I wanna do right now? Is I want to pray a prayer that a person would pray if they're asking Jesus into their heart, and I want you kids to pray this prayer out loud after me, would you do that with me? So when there's some kid watching right now and they're saying, and maybe that kid's sad, maybe that kid, maybe their mom and dad aren't together, maybe they're lonely, maybe they're not getting a lot of presents under the Christmas tree, and they're really going through a hard time. Maybe they're afraid. And we wanna say to those kids, "Jesus can come and live in your heart". And how do they do it? You pray with them, right Allie?

Allie Laurie: Yeah.

Greg Laurie: You remember what you prayed with that little girl? Tell me what you prayed with her.

Allie Laurie: Well, I said, "Dear Lord, I'm sorry for my sins. I want you to come into my heart, please bless me and help me go through all my problems, and in Jesus's name, amen."

Greg Laurie: That's a really good prayer. Okay, I'm gonna do this little prayer. So I want you kids that are watching right now to pray this prayer with me, and these kids are gonna pray with you. And if you want Jesus to come into your heart, if you want all of your sins taken away, if you wanna go to heaven someday, if you wanna fill that hole inside of you, pray this prayer with me. Kids, you ready to pray? As I pray, pray this out loud, okay? Ready? Pray this:

Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you're the Savior, who was born in a manger in Bethlehem, and died on a cross for me. I'm sorry for my sin. I turn from my sin, and I choose to follow you Jesus, from this moment forward, in Jesus's name I pray, amen.

Greg Laurie: Kids, you did a great job. You want to sing another song? Who knows "Silent Night"? Ready? Here we go.

♪ Silent night ♪
♪ Holy night ♪
♪ All is calm ♪
♪ All is right ♪
♪ Round young virgin, mother and child ♪
♪ Holy infant, so tender and mild ♪
♪ Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace ♪

Greg Laurie: Let's sing "Jingle Bells" one more time. And remember what we did when we say "Hey"? Ready?

♪ Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way ♪
♪ Oh, what fun it is to ride ♪
♪ in a one horse open sleigh, hey ♪
♪ Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way ♪
♪ Oh, what fun it is to ride ♪
♪ in a one horse open sleigh ♪

Greg Laurie: Alright, now, I'm giving out special gifts. Okay? I choose who gets what. Wait, what are you doing? Dragon fruit, you can have it. This is a pomegranate. Who wants a pomegranate? Okay, who wants an orange? Okay, wait. Wait, there is a banana with a face on it. There is a banana without a face. Banana with the face. Okay, banana. Okay, I have one more snake. Okay.

Child: I'll have the pomegranate.

Greg Laurie: Pomegranate.