PLEASE DON’T MISS CHRISTMAS
Luke 2:1-17
You may be asking a question, what in the world does this preacher mean? How can anyone “miss Christmas.” We all know what day it is, on December 25th of every year, so how in the world, unless one’s mind cannot comprehend what day it is (and there are more and more every day with dementia, and in its other forms), but it is not those to whom I am saying these words.
Let’s assume that you have children, because I think it is those who can easily miss Christmas the most easily. What do you do prior to Christmas day? You purchase toys, telling the children on Christmas Eve that Santa is coming, so they need to go to bed early that night. That night they listen, only to get up anywhere from 2:30-9:30, to see what Santa has left for them. To your children, you have put all the credit on the presents, and on Santa Clause. However, what if you did not have the God-given ability and health to do that which you do? What would happen, if all of a sudden your health took a downturn, even to the point that you could never work again. Then how would you get presents for your children. I say that it’s going to come from the One Whom Christmas is really about.
I remember well one year when a landlord that we had was battling cancer. One day when going to him to pay him the rent, he told me he had great news. I asked him, what is it? He said, and I quote, “I beat cancer.” Upon hearing those words come out of the mouth of a professed Christian disturbed me greatly. I went back to our vehicle, told my wife what he had said about his beating cancer, and she too was shocked. I told her that he would be on the ground within a week. Guess what happened within the next week? They were having his funeral service in the very Church he had attended for many years. Claiming credit for what God had done was deadly in his case.
You may be asking why I mentioned that. When we teach our children about Christmas, and if we leave out Jesus, Who is the very reason we celebrate, then what are we really celebrating. There are many signs that are put up that say Merry ____mas. I will not put it here, not just because I take offense to it, but also because my God does also. Without Christ there is no Christmas. Even almost all television stations say “Happy Holiday’s”, just so they can leave out Christ, because they may offend some group.
We need to teach our children what Christmas really is. Who it is about, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. I wish I could say that all will accept the greatest GIFT, but all will not. Some will reject Jesus, leave Him out of Christmas, and will miss Christmas altogether.
Why do I say they will miss Christmas? Because without Jesus in one’s life, being a child of the living God, then once that day, December 25th, is over, then so will be the celebration of Christmas, though they really didn’t celebrate it, they celebrated its commercialism. But for we who are the children of God, Christmas is not just about one day a year. We enjoy Christmas every day of every year, because we have been given, and accepted, the greatest GIFT that will ever be given, that given by Jesus Christ. Beginning with His coming, then living a perfect life, dying on a cruel Roman cross, and then being resurrected the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). The very fact that He came to die for sinners such as myself gives me a reason to celebrate, not just on one day of a year, but every day.
Remember the story I told you about the man who said he “beat cancer.” He died. If you die without Christ, then you will end up in a place, immediately the moment you take your last breath, called hell (Matthew 25:41). God did not prepare it for you. He prepared it for the devil and his angels. However, people will go there. Some ignorantly say, “God sends people to hell”. I can honestly say that Biblically speaking, God has sent no human being to hell. Only those that have told God by rejecting HIS GIFT, that of HIS SON JESUS CHRIST, that they want no part of God’s salvation. Therefore, whenever a lost soul dies, they immediately go to hell (Luke 16:19-31). God did not send that person to hell, He is a Gentleman, and will not force anyone to accept the GIFT OF HIS SON, so He is simply honoring the choice one has made during their lifetime. If you end up in hell, and want to know why you are there, I am sure that you will relive it in your mind what could have been, but instead you will burn alive without dying, wanting water but there is none, being in more pain than is imaginable on this earth, hearing the screams of others who are there, but seeing no one, wanting to lose your mind so that you can’t know what’s going on, but can’t. You will vomit over and over again because of the bodies being burned but not dying, and because of the smoke, hardly be able to get a breath. Having a constant headache, but nothing to take for it, and crying out for help, but no one can help you then, because it’s too late, you have sealed your own fate. And it’s not just till you die, for death will never come. This torment will last forever, without end. Is that really what you want for your future. And remember that not one of us knows the day of our death, so we need to take action now before it’s too late. God leaves this choice up to you.
One last word. Those little children that God blessed you with, will most likely follow in your footsteps. If your footsteps are leading you to a place called hell, then it’s doing the same for your children. Yes, they will have to accept or reject Jesus on their own, but they will always remember what they were taught. I have a question for you parents, do you want to know that your children died and went to hell because of your life you lived before them? If not, then I caution you to think seriously about them also, because they have been and will continue to look up to you. I pray for your sake, and theirs, that you don’t “miss Christmas”, and that you don’t lead your children to do the same.