Ghosts of Christmas Past

Christmas, for many it’s the most wonderful time of the year. For others, it’s a painful reminder of the past.

What if THIS CHRISTMAS, you say good-bye to the Ghosts of Christmas Past and allow God to restore the Joy of Christmas?

For the next few weeks we are going to uncover a few Ghosts of Christmas Past that have a tendency to steal the Joy of Christmas.

Labels: Your family is one of the first groups of people who tell you who they think you are.

The baby, the black-sheep, the clumsy one, the funny one, the happy one, the pleaser.

Our family’s also label us as adults: still single, divorced again, the one with the addiction, the jobless one, the kid who never left home.

Labels start out innocent but sometimes they hurt and leave scars. Some people carry the baggage of labels for the rest of their lives.

Labels are often times painful reminders of our past.

Labels will keep us from coming home and from enjoying Christmas.

Jesus understands labels.

Matthew 13:54-57 NIV Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” they asked. ⁵⁵ “Isnʼt this the carpenterʼs son? Isnʼt his motherʼs name Mary, and arenʼt his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? ⁵⁶ Arenʼt all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” ⁵⁷ And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home.”

Jesus time on earth most likely began with labels!

Matthew 1:18-25 NLT This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Joseph, her fiancé, was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.

²⁰ As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. ²¹ And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

²² All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet: ²³ “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’” ²⁴ When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. ²⁵ But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.

Luke 1:26-38 NLT In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, ²⁷ to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. ²⁸ Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”

²⁹ Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. ³⁰ “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! ³¹ You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. ³² He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. ³³ And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”

³⁴ Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”

³⁵ The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. ³⁶ What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. ³⁷ For the word of God will never fail.”

³⁸ Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.

Imagine the labels Mary and Joseph carried!

Let’s talk about labels.

1. Who Am I?

Many answer this question based of off the labels others have put on them.

We’ve lost sight of who we are. – We are children of God.

We've allowed the enemy to rob us of our identity as children of God.

John 10:10 NLT The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

A lie believed as TRUTH will affect you as though it were TRUE.

A. I Am What People Say.

 “Who Am I?” –

Many have believed the lie of the enemy for so long that they no longer know the answer.

Maybe today your answer to the question, “Who Am I” would simply be to say, “I’m not good enough.”

“A loser; A failure; Divorced; Addicted; Fat; Far from God;

Un-loveable; a lost cause;” and the list could go on and on.

So many of us believe this lie and it affects us as if it were true because we base our worth on the wrong things.

The Lie: “Who Am I? I am what people say.”

You have believed the lie that your identity is based on what people say about you.

It is totally unbiblical to base your identity on what others say about you. This causes you to be a man pleaser instead of a God pleaser.

“What others think about you is none of your business.” – Sam Chand

Ephesians 2:10 NCV God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing.

We can’t discover our identity by listening to what people say about us. Our identity must be discovered through our relationship with Christ.

B. I Am What I Do.

Some people wrongly determine their identity by what they do.

Your answer to “Who Am I?” is… “I am what I do.”

What I’m saying is, there are some people who think there identity is largely based on their role. You think your identity is found in what you accomplish.

Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 NLT Anything I wanted, I would take. I denied myself no pleasure. I even found great pleasure in hard work, a reward for all my labors. ¹¹ But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless—like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.

When we believe the lie that our identity comes from our roles, we are finding our identity in: What we have accomplished – What we have – What people think about us.

Remember this and never forget it: You are not what you did. You are not what you do, and you are not what you are going to do.

You are who God says you are.

2. God Says I Am…

You are who God’s Word says you are. We have to let that truth settle in our hearts. We are not our performance, or what we accomplish, or what we accumulate, or what others think of us. We are who God says we are.

Please remember, you are not who others say you are, and you are not the sum total of your past experiences. You are who God says you are.

A. You are a new creation.

2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

B. You are a child of the King. You’re a prince or a princess.

Who are you? You are who God says you are.

Galatians 4:4-7 NLT But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. ⁵ God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. ⁶ And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” ⁷ Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.

C. You are Forgiven.

1 John 2:1-2 NLT My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. ² He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.

D. You are Loved.

Jeremiah 31:3 NIV The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.”

Romans 5:8 NIV But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

John 3:16 NIV For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

“Do we wake up every morning amazed that we are loved by God?”

– Phillip Yancy, Prayer, pg. 43

3. Change the Tag.

During World War II Triage was the policy by which doctors color-tagged the wounded indicating the degree of medical assistance that was needed.

Red - Those who will die, even with medical attention, hopeless

Blue - Those who will live with medical care, immediate attention

Yellow - Those who will live with or without of medical attention.

A soldier was brought in for medical care and quickly given a red tag indicating his situation was hopeless.

The doctor concluded that since his legs were so badly blown apart that life would be excruciating.

A nurse standing nearby noticed the soldier was still conscious so she began to talk softly with him so that he would not face death alone.

Their conversation had gone on for about an hour.

After spending an hour talking with the soldier, the nurse felt a bond with him and she decided she couldn’t simply let him die.

But what could she do to save his life?

She decided to change his tag from red to blue.

The blue tag would mean he would get medical care needed to prevent him from dying from his wounds.

Jesus is the Master Care Giver.

When we have been wounded by the enemy’s attacks, we can trust Jesus to change our tag and provide the hope and healing we need.

John 10:10 NLT The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

Biblical examples of people who didn’t labels define them and determine how they lived.

Watch how Jesus changed the tags of these individuals.

David – His family saw a shepherd boy, God saw a King.

Peter – His community saw him as an uneducated fisherman, Jesus saw him as a world changer.

Esther – an orphan nobody who God used to save a Nation.

Ruth – a widow with no future who didn’t even know God, yet became the great-grandmother of King David, and in the lineage of Christ.

Rahab – labeled as a prostitute, helped birth the nation of Israel at the battle of Jericho, and became a part of the lineage of Christ.

Moses and David – both murders, both forgiven, both used by God to lead Israel.

Jesus – seen as a nobody carpenter’s son from Nazareth, yet His real identity is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God.

So this Christmas, it’s your decision.

Will you keep struggling under the labels you been given or will you allow Jesus to change the label?

Bury the Ghosts of Christmas Past with their labels and decide you’re going to live with the Joy of knowing who God says you are.