A Note from Michael Gossett
MERRY CHRISTMAS – God Sees You!
Parental advisory: Santa spoilers ahead!
My family loves listening to Christmas music. We love singing the classics at church, singing them in our car and hearing them throughout the city. The Coots and Gillespie classic, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, however, is something to warn people about! “You better watch out, you better not cry, better not pout…. He’s making a list and checking it twice; Gonna find out who’s naughty and nice.” Without the holly jolly music, it reads a little strange, doesn’t it? It gets worse! “… He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake, he knows if you’ve been bad or good so be good for goodness sake!” These are wild lyrics! Have you ever considered the psychological implications that this song could bring? Based on tradition, Santa is a large old man who dresses up in a red suit, sneaks into people’s homes, and steals milk and cookies. This scenario successfully happening in Texas is very unlikely. The first sign of an intruder would not be a positive experience, especially in East Texas. However, what is most worrisome to me is whether Santa can really see me day and night. This is an unsettling thought. I would not want the judge who determines whether I am worthy of Christmas presents seeing everything, right? I would not want Santa seeing the influence of my selfish heart and how that so often displays itself. I would not want Santa seeing when I am short with people around me. Why? Because who could last a year under this type of scrutiny? The answer is no one.
Praise be to God that this psychological nightmare about Santa in that song is American fiction at its best. However, there is the ONE who does see everything. The God of the universe who will never slumber or sleep (Psalm 121). But is the Lord staying awake so He can see every right and wrong that we do, and this becomes the determinant for any blessing that we receive? Can you see how fictitious characters, concepts, and even our most fun traditions all have opportunities to be misleading to our understanding of who God really is? Common sayings, great ideas, pithy and creative thoughts that circulate around social media have a way of shaping a culture, especially a culture who is increasingly unaware of what God’s Word really says. The Bible must be our ultimate authority by which we view everything else. Even the great traditions that have good intentions along with advice from friends and family members with good intentions must be viewed through God’s Word.
God’s Word teaches us about God’s ability to see. “So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, ‘You are a God of seeing,’ for she said, ‘Truly here I have seen him who looks after me’” (Genesis 16:13). This is really an astonishing moment in Scripture, especially for our understanding of who God is. Don’t you love the imagery of her description of God? El Roi, the God who sees. This is a way of using symbolism to help our understanding of who God really is. Roi in the original Hebrew can be translated as shepherd, or as seeing, looking, or gazing. In other words, God is not watching you as Santa (not literally) does. Santa is watching you for judgment (once again, not literally), but God really (yes literally) does watch you because of His love and care for you. He watches as the shepherd watches over the herd of sheep. God watches over you in the sense of a Father looks after his own children. This is beautiful in how we can picture a shepherd who never sleeps, never takes His eyes (anthropomorphically speaking) off of us. This is not tradition, this is not something to be afraid of, this is something that provides great courage, great comfort, great joy, great peace, and great hope for those in His pasture.
Christmas time can be filled with great laughter, great joy, great chaos, and for some, great sorrow. I want you to be reminded this Christmas that God sees you. God sees your hurt, your loneliness, your sorrow, and has come so that these things do not have to be your reality. He is close to the broken hearted because He sees the brokenhearted. God is not hardened or calloused toward you. He loves you so much that He sent Jesus for you this Christmas.
This Sunday at Green Acres – IT’S CHRISTMAS EVE!
I am excited to worship with you! And I am especially excited that the Lord’s Day has fallen on Christmas Eve this year! What a unique opportunity to start the Christmas celebration with morning worship together! You can join us at the Tyler Campus at 9:30 or 11:00 for worship, our Flint Campus at 9:30 and 11:00 for worship and our Español Campus at 11:00 for worship in CrossWalk. Christmas Eve services will only be at 9:30 and 11:00 with no Connect Groups. This is true of Christmas Eve and will be the same for New Year’s Eve. We will observe the Lord’s Supper this Sunday together, as well as participate in a candlelight time to remember that Jesus is the light of the world who has come.
God has been so gracious to our Green Acres family this past year. Your generosity has been used to impact kids, students, adults, families, marriages, singles, college students, and even those who are incarcerated. We are now reaching hundreds of Spanish speaking families every week and that number continues to grow because you have been generous with your support this year. I want to share with you a few things to consider as we bring 2023 to a close.
- While we significantly underspent for 2023, we are still around $600,000 behind budget year to date. That gives us a $1.38 million challenge in the last two weekends of the year if we are to make the 2023 general giving budget goal of $15,330,000. This is similar, though slightly more, than the challenge we faced last year when GABC ended the year with a budget surplus.
- World Mission Offering is going strong, but we are still not quite there. We are currently about 75% of the $1,000,000 goal!
- As you know, all end of year giving needs to be postmarked by December 31st, which is a Sunday this year. That means that Saturday, December 30th is that last day to mail your financial contributions for 2023.
Would you pray with us that we would meet and exceed budget and WMO going into 2024? Would you ask the Lord how you might participate in that with us?
Thank you for your love, your support, your generosity, but most of all, your commitment to the Gospel.
Cannot wait to see you this Sunday!
You are loved and prayed for!
Michael Gossett