Almost Missed It

(Adaptation of message by Kenny White River Hills Christian Church East Campus 12/23/2011)

This time of year so many things are going on...buying presents, planning parties, helping others, making sure no one is forgotten, seeing family and friends that you haven't seen in a long time. None of these things are bad (I'm not going into a rant about that). Even if all of them are going on at the same time (which for most of us they are) it is still not a bad thing. However if you let it get in front of the true meaning of the season then it is bad.

Now you are probably like "Oh great, another guilt trip at Christmas just what I need." or maybe its "Heard this one last year, and the year before, and like a dozen years before this one." I hope you'll keep reading though cause my goal is to make this one a little different from what you usually hear. See most often we are told not to forget about Jesus and honestly we do pretty good with that. We think of the little baby in a manger, with shepherds and kings worshiping him. (won't even go into how that is actually wrong lol). Truthfully if you do that you are on the right track but I think Christians can do better than what we all ready do.

See often times we almost miss it. We are doing our holiday thing and then its Christmas eve and its off to church only to rush home to finish our Christmas parties or wrapping or whatever we still have to do. We come so close to just missing the mark. Oh we might get on the target but do we really hit where we should? Are we focused on the bulls-eye? In the story of  Jesus' birth, the inn keeper/head of house just missed it. He could have played a major part in the Christmas story but now he is just a man who turned them away. (See Luke 2:7) Many people today just miss it as well, but like I said even if we get it, all to often we almost miss it.

Another part of the story illustrates this almost missed idea (at least in my mind). The shepherds were tending sheep on a quiet night. Now if you have never been out on a hill at night away from everything. It is very quiet and very dark. These shepherds were just sitting around their fire more than likely when all the sudden a bright light appeared and a shinning figure was standing in the sky. The Bible said that when they saw this they were terrified (see Luke 2:9) Now what do most people do when they are terrified? I believe the answer is RUN! I have no doubt that this is what came across their mind. If they had done that they would have missed the birth of Jesus. Whatever the reason they stayed; whether they were frozen in fear, held captive by the beauty, or worried about the livelihood if they left their flock, I think its safe to say they almost missed it.

Now its easy to say "Well I don't miss it; I help with the church Christmas pageant, volunteer at the local homeless shelter and spend time with my family, and read the Christmas story every night before bed for a week before Christmas. I don't miss it at all." I'll agree you sure don't miss the spirit of the holidays but that's just it. Outside of it being church functions some, aren't you just doing what everyone else does this time of year.

Here's my point. Whether you almost miss it, just miss it, or you completely miss the target, this time of year is to remind us of Jesus' birth but it shouldn't stop there. Jesus grew up, he didn't stay a baby; we don't pray to a "eight pound, six ounce, Newborn Baby Jesus." So shouldn't we look past that even at Christmas time. I mean shouldn't we really be trying to live like Jesus, not just at Christmas when we remember him as a baby (almost missing it) or going to church during this time of year because "its what you do" (just missing it).  Every day of our lives we should be trying to hit the bulls-eye with our lives. It won't all ways happen, we're bound to miss the mark sometime. I mean the Greek word translated as sin, literally means missing the mark and Romans tells us that all people will miss the mark. (see Romans 3:23)

My hope though is that we use Christmas to evaluate how close we are coming to the bulls-eye all year round, not just during this season.

Merry Christmas everyone and may you hit the bulls-eye more in the coming year.