Number one, sin enslaves us, sin brings death, and sin shuts heaven out from us. Start with number one. Sin enslaves us. What do we mean by that? Well, humanity is under the power of sin. Sin is much more than something we do. It's a power that has a hold over humanity. And you're like what do you mean? Well, have you ever recognized the tension between what you want to do and what you actually do? You know what the right thing to do is, but you end up doing the wrong thing, and so there's a tension and you can't figure out why. Or even within the thoughts. You know how you want to think, but you end up thinking the opposite way. And so here we have this tension between what we want to do and actually what we do. The ideal life and what we actually live. And so sin has its hold over humanity and pulls it away from the ideal. Humanity is enslaved to sin. Second thing is that humanity is under the dominion of sin that brings death. See, isn't there something within us that wants to live a happy, meaningful, and fulfilling life, but not just a happy, meaningful, fulfilling life but a life that lasts this way forever? I mean, isn't that ideally what we want from our existence? We want a happy meaningful life forever, but here's the reality. Every person that's born into the world is going to die, and the reason that we're going to die is because of the power of sin.

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So sin enslaves us, sin brings death, and sin shuts heaven out from us. There's nothing that we can do under our own effort to merit eternal life. Romans 3:23 says all have sinned. All have fallen short of the glory of God. And what's the result of that? So what, we've fallen. We've fallen short of the glory of God. Well, Romans 6:23 tells us the consequence. The wages of sin is death. You see, humanity is in a conundrum. So we're enslaved to sin, death has dominion over us, and heaven is shut out from us. I mean, this is bad news, and unless we understand the bad news, the good new of Christmas means nothing. Saint Augustine when speaking about Christmas said, "Wake up, O human being! "For it was for you that God was made man. "Rise up and realize it was all for you. "Eternal death would have awaited you "had He not been born in time.

 "Never would you be freed from your sinful flesh "had He not taken to Himself the likeness of sinful flesh. "Everlasting would be your misery "had He not performed this act of mercy. "You would not have come to life again "had He not come to die your death. "You would have perished had He not come." To understand the joy of Christmas, we have to understand the seriousness and sadness of sin. The good news without the bad news is no news at all. So why do we celebrate Christmas? Because God in His goodness and His kindness has initiated a search and rescue mission to save us from the clutches of sin for his eternal embrace. Saint John speaking about Christmas said, "And the Word became flesh in order "to make us earthly beings into heavenly ones, "in order to make us sinners into saints; "in order to raise us up from corruption into incorruption, "from earth to heaven; "from enslavement to sin and the devil "into the glorious freedom of children of God." Why do we celebrate Christmas? To rejoice in the moment that God broke into humanity taking upon our nature, to save us from sin, to save us for Sonship, to abolish death, to give us life, to transfer us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son. Why do we celebrate Christmas? It's not because of Santa Claus, reindeer, and a flying sleigh. Why do we celebrate Christmas? First and foremost, to rejoice in the day that Jesus was born.