Ghost of Christmas Past: Part 3 - "Overcoming Labels" with Craig Groeschel - Life.Church

Overcoming the Labels That Bind

Scripture References

• Proverbs 18:21
• Genesis 35:16-18

Overview

Words form identities. Past hurts, insults, or even our own failures can pin labels on us that feel final. In this final message of “The Ghosts of Christmas Past,” Pastor Craig Groeschel shows how God’s power is greater than any name we (or others) have worn. Drawing from Genesis 35 and personal stories, he urges us to let the Father rename our lives and to call every painful label something different—something true in Christ.

Context

The series tackles things from the past that haunt the present. Week 3 focuses on labels: the names, reputations, or self-descriptions that keep people from living the life God intends.

Main Points

The Power of Words

• Words create, heal, shape, and motivate, but they can also wound and destroy.
• Proverbs 18:21: the tongue holds “the power of life and death.”
• Repetition makes a label believable; many carry phrases spoken over them years ago.
• Story: Craig’s parents continually spoke life: Dad in baseball metaphors, Mom repeating, “God made you special—you can do anything you set your mind to.”
• Negative counterparts—“lazy,” “average,” “never amount to anything”—can be just as formative.

What’s True Now Doesn’t Have to Stay True

• Even if a label contains some present truth, it need not define the future.
• God’s power and grace are stronger than any past or present description.

Rename It: Rachel, Jacob, and Benjamin (Genesis 35)

• Rachel’s difficult labor leads her to name her dying son Ben-Oni (“son of my sorrow”).
• Jacob refuses the fatalistic name and calls him Benjamin (“son of my right hand,” symbol of blessing).
• Principle: “You don’t choose what comes into your life, but you do choose what you call it.”
• Jacob had experience in renaming: God changed his name from Jacob (“deceiver”) to Israel (“my God prevails”), and Jacob renamed places after encounters with God.
• When the enemy or circumstance gives a label, let the Father call it something else.

Perspective Turns Liabilities into Assets

• Story: Craig, once known as a “party guy,” feared his past disqualified him for ministry.
  • His pastor reframed it: that history lets you relate and testify to Christ’s power—an asset, not a liability.
• Story: Ordination board labeled him “unqualified.” Craig embraced “different” as a strength and grew into the title “Pastor.”
• Reframing works the same for every believer: insecurity → “confident in Christ,” laziness → “motivated by divine purpose,” failure → “experienced and growing.”

Practical Renaming

• Identify every defeating label and consciously replace it with God’s truth.
• Examples Pastor Craig gave:
  • “I’m miserable” → “The joy of the Lord is my strength.”
  • “This season is terrible” → “God is shaping me; spring is coming.”
  • “I’m alone” → “God is near; His presence comforts me.”
• Repeating God’s description helps you “grow into” the new name.

Key Truths

• Words carry life or death; repeated words become labels.
• A present reality is not a permanent identity.
• The Father has authority to rename what the world or the enemy has named.
• You cannot control every circumstance, but you can choose your perspective and your labels.
• In Christ, the old is gone and the new has come; every believer receives a new name and a new nature.

Response

• Identify the hurtful labels you’ve accepted.
• Take each label to Jesus and ask Him to rename it.
• Speak God’s truth over yourself daily until you “grow into” the new name.
• Reframe present hardships as places where God is birthing future blessing.
• Use past failures as testimony points to God’s transforming grace in conversations this week.

Closing

Hurtful names from the past do not have the final word. Like Jacob renaming Ben-Oni to Benjamin, we can let our Father redefine our identities and our seasons.

“What’s true about you now doesn’t have to be true about you later.”

God turns “son of my sorrow” into “son of my right hand.” Choose today to wear only the names He gives.

Prayer

Father, by the power of Jesus, break every negative label that has bound us. Replace lies with Your truth, turn what the enemy meant for evil into good, and renew our minds so we see ourselves as You see us. Make us fully new in Christ.