Christmas Lables

December 22nd, 2024
by Alisa Ozuna

Introduction
- As we prepare for Christmas, we often spend time wrapping gifts and putting Christmas labels on them and writing the names of the person who is going to receive each gift. We do this so we don’t forget who the gift is for and so the person receiving it knows who it came from.
- Today I want us to think about the Christmas labels that could be on the gifts that God has given us by sending Jesus to this world to be born a baby and to then die on a cross for us. By Jesus coming we have the best gift of all, but we have to accept it, salvation.
Our first Christmas label here says it is for ‘slaves to sin’.
- Let’s read John 8:34 in the New Century Version of the Bible.
  1. Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, everyone who lives in sin, is a slave to sin.
- This gift is to be “redeemed.” We all need this gift and Romans 3:23-24 tell us it is a free gift.
23 Everyone has sinned and fallen short of God’s glorious standard, 24 and all need to be made right with God by his grace, which is a free gift. They need to be made free from sin through Jesus Christ.

The next Christmas label says it is for ‘the condemned.’
- The gift God give us here is to be blessed.
- Romans 8:1
  - So now, those who are in Christ Jesus are not judged guilty.
- Ephesians 1:3
  - Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ, God has given us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly world.
The next Christmas label says it is for ‘the orphan’.
- When we have not accepted God’s salvation, we are orphans, meaning we are not a part of God’s family.
- The gift is to now be called a child of God, no longer an orphan but a child of the most-high.
- John 1:12-13
  - 12 But to all who did accept him and believe in him he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They did not become His children in any human way—by any human parents or human desire. They were born of God.
- 1 John 3:1
  - The Father has loved us so much that we are called children of God. And we really are his children.
The next Christmas label says it is for ‘the alone.’
- This label is for all the people that the world convinces that they are alone, and no one cares for them. But turning to our God will bring them a beautiful gift.
- The gift God give us here is to be known and called.
- Psalm 139:1

Romans 8:28-29
- 28 We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love him. They are the people he called, because that was his plan. 29 God knew them before he made the world, and he chose them to be like his Son so that Jesus would be the firstborn of many brothers and sisters.

Conclusion
1. God has so many gifts for us, but we must be willing to receive them and ask Him for them but first of all we must as for salvation; to be saved.
2. When we are saved, God will replace all the labels the world puts on us into the ones he has chosen for us.
3. We will go from being…
  1. Slaves to sin to redeemed
  2. Condemned to blessed
  3. An orphan to a child of God
  4. Alone to being known and called
All of these beautiful gifts from God would not be possible without Jesus coming to earth as a baby, knowing that his future was to sacrifice himself on the cross for our salvation. He knew that there was going to be physical pain in that journey. He knew that there was going to be spiritual pain in that journey when God had to look away from his only son when he took the sins of the world

upon himself. But he did it all for us and it started on Christmas as a precious baby boy being born in a humble little stable. Jesus was willing to start that journey as a baby for us; for you and me.