REALIZING THE HOLY MOMENTS
TEXT: LUKE 2:8-20
THEME: STOPPING TO ENJOY THE HOLY MOMENTS IN LIFE
In the Star Trek Movie, Insurrection there is a type of people who can slow down time. These people have the ability to stretch time out. So instead of a minute seeming to be a minute, time would slow to provide the opportunity to completely enjoy the moment. This must seem very nerdy to many of you, but I must confess I am a huge fan of Star Trek. But I am a bigger fan of experiencing the moments in life. This is why this scene in the movie touched me. There was a part of me that wanted to slow down life. There was a part that wanted to embrace the moments of my existence. If you are like me, time seems to go too fast. The greatest moments of our life seem to never last long enough. And moments were made to be remembered. Memorizes are precious to us. This is why I truly desire to slow my life down to drink deeply of the precious moments in my life.
Maybe you feel the same way? A lot of you have mentioned how important it is to enjoy our children while they are young. Many of you have said that I need to treasure the time I have with my small kids because as you say they grow up so fast. How many of you here would have loved to stop time for the most important moments in your life? How many of you would love to go back in time and stop for a second to take in the moment that you were experiencing? This is what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about stopping to enjoy the holy moments in life. Would you not be happier if you did this more often? Think about the enjoyment from life if you truly started experiencing life instead of just living it or going through the motions. Instead of allowing life to pass you by, imagine stopping to live life to the fullest. Imagine how great your life would improve if you stopped living it, but started to feel it. With the busy world that we live in, we must develop the ability to stop and smell the roses. This is what life is all about. We must learn to live in the moment. Some moments are bigger than others. There are important times in life that we cannot simply allow to past by. This is why we desire to take pictures. We want a record of the moment. We do not want to forget the times we spent together or the big times in life. Just imagine if you never took pictures of your graduation, or wedding, or baptism. You would never imagine not taking pictures for the family reunion. Our pictures are the markers of the memories. This is why it is important to enjoy the special moments in life.
Fortunately, the Bible teaches us how to drink deeply of these holy moments. Here is an example of a special moment in life or you can say the history of man kind. Luke 2:8-20 “And in the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields, and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. And the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. "And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths, and lying in a manger." And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased." And it came about when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds began saying to one another, "Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us." And they came in haste and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. And when they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.”
The baby Jesus has just been born. These shepherds are out in the fields. Then the text indicates that suddenly an Angel appeared before them, and the glory of the Lord was around them. I am not sure what this picture looks like. Is it bright, is it warm, and who knows. But it is a special moment in life. The Christ child has been born, and these are some of the first people who are invited to see him. The shepherds do not know how to react. The presence of the Lord is around them and they are afraid. This is interesting because every so often you hear about someone saying that a Angel visited them or they felt the glory of the Lord. And the next phrase is how at peace they felt. But these people are scared. It is a scaring thing to be before the Lord. So the Angel has to comfort them with some words. The Angel tells them about the baby Jesus and where to find him. He is in the manger. As the Angel is finishing, suddenly the Heavenly hosts begin to sing and praise the Lord. Once again, I am not sure on this looks. But I have a strong feeling that the singing was marvelous. It was truly a beautiful and magnificent sight. This moment does not happen every day. These common shepherds are giving a message by the Lord. It truly shows that the gospel was for the common man. After this great scene the shepherds desire to go see the Christ child. It tells us that they were quickly to see Jesus. After seeing the promised child on earth, the shepherds head back, but notice that they are praising God. It was truly a great moment in the history of mankind. The Christ child has been born. It was a holy moment on earth. It was a moment where heaven and earth came together. And the shepherds realized this moment.
We do this sometimes, we do not realize the special moments in life. People are certainly thinking about how anyone could miss this moment. No one would miss this blessing. Jesus has just been born, who would not celebrate. But we do miss the special holy moments in life. We do not miss the weddings, the births, but we miss worship, baptisms. We miss the times with our families. This is missed for a variety of reasons. People will come to church around Christmas and Easter and Mother’s day but will not come back for any other time of year. Every Sunday is important. It is a special time to be with the Lord. We will have a baptism and people will get up in leave just to get home. No major reasons, they do not want to stay. These are important events in people’s life.
I remember the morning I was baptized. It was not just to go through the motions. It was to save my soul. I was serious. And I wanted everyone to be there to see this. I wanted people to know that I am giving my life to Christ. This is my calling now. God saw this as a special moment in life. I was saved and the Angels rejoiced. They were rejoicing at the birth of Christ and the baptism of me. I might not been able to hear them, but the Bible says they are rejoicing over a sinner who comes to Christ. And I certainly was a sinner. It was a big deal in my life. After coming out of the water, it was a joy that was unknown to me. I never felt happiness to that level ever before in my life. Baptism is plainly a big moment to God because the Angels are rejoicing.
This time of year we are going to miss a lot of great times and moments. Because it is the time of year we get too busy. We are busy buying gifts for people. We are busy going to every party on the face of the earth. We are hosting. We are so busy doing everything but enjoying the special moments of life. How sad that we will wake up through the Holiday season and not want to continue another day. We are missing the point of the holidays. It is not a rush to do everything. It is an opportunity to slow down and drink in the special moments of life. It should also be a reminder to drink deeply with God. There are a lot of people thinking about Christmas and Christ. Maybe we should start to focus on more of the spiritual. Why is it that we can watch someone be baptized and walk out the back of the door to go home. Can we not even tell them something? Where are we heading to that is so important that we have to get there? Why do we have to leave family time to accomplish some all important task? If work is really that heretic, you are an overfunctioner and living a very unhealthy life. We must slow down, especially this time of year and enjoy the holy moments of life.
Jeremiah Tatum tells this sad story. During the Sunday where there was a time change. Sunday morning an amazingly tragic moment in the history of Bible class took place. A friend of mine, who works for a congregation of about 250, noticed a mother and two children come into the auditorium and sit down during the Bible class hour. They are not usually at Bible class. They had forgotten to set their clocks back, and so they sat down thinking it was time for worship.
When they realized their mistake, do you want to guess what they did? If you thought the worst you were correct. They left! And they came back again in an hour for worship! Don’t you wonder what they did with the hour they could have spent with God’s word? This was a special time to spend studying the word of God. But these people must have felt they were too busy to waste an hour studying the will of God. They missed a great opportunity to show an example to the children.
This week I want you to slow down. If this means some “no’s” that is find if it will allow you to enjoy the special moments in your life. Life can be so busy that we forget to relax and drink deeply of the best times of life. The best times are with God, our families, and friends. It is spending time together. Focus on making memories in the here and now. Feel the blessing from enjoying the holy moment that you are in. Not the to do list of tomorrow.
A monk was being pursued by a ferocious tiger. The monk raced to the edge of a cliff, glanced back, and saw the growling tiger about to spring. The monk spotted a rope dangling over the edge of the cliff. He grabbed it and began shinnying down the side of the cliff out of the clutches of the tiger. Whew! Narrow escape. The monk then looked down and saw a quarry of jagged rocks five hundred feet below. He looked up and saw a the tiger poised atop the cliff with bared claws. Just en, two mice began to nibble at the rope. What to do? The monk saw a strawberry within arm’s reach, growing out of the face of the cliff. He plucked it, ate it, and exclaimed, “Yum! That’s the best strawberry I’ve ever tasted in my entire life.” If he had been preoccupied with the rocks below or the tiger above, he would have missed the strawberry God was giving him in the present moment. Do not focus on the past or the future, but the strawberries of the here and now.
