Rick Warren - The Miracle's of Christmas—Part One of One

Hey, everyone, welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Well, we

hope you have a joyful Christmas, and today is the

perfect time to reflect on the true meaning of the season,

God's gift of peace.

Love and hope through Jesus Christ. Now let's join Rick

as he brings a very special message called the Miracles

of Christmas.

What's so miraculous about Christmas? I mean, it's just the

birth of a baby, isn't it. Well, actually, there are

four big miracles that happen at Christmas. The first miracle

is who came at Christmas. The second miracle is how

he came at Christmas. The third miracle is who he

came to and the fourth miracle is why he came.

Let's look at these four aspects of the Christmas story.

You know, Christmas is actually the celebration of an invasion.

Two thousand and fifteen years ago. God invaded Earth and

it split history into AD and to b C. And

it's never been the same since. So what's the first

miracle of Christmas. The first miracle is that very issue,

God came to Earth. God came to Earth. He said, Well,

I thought it was just a birthday of Jesus well,

Jesus is God. Let me show you some verses from

the Bible. Colossians chapter one says, this Christ is the

exact likeness of the unseen God. He existed before God

made anything at all, and in fact, Christ himself is

our creator, who made everything in heaven and on earth.

You know, some people think, well, I believe Jesus was

a good man. The problem is he couldn't have been

a good man, because no good man would claim to

be God. You see, if I stood here today and

I said Hi, I'm Rick Warren and I'm a good teacher,

you might say, yeah, okay, I might believe that. I

might even say hi, I'm a man of God. He said, well,

I don't know about that, but maybe. But if I

stood up here and I said, hi, my name is

Rick Warren, I'm the son of God. I'm God in

human in form, now you've got a decision to make.

I'm either telling the truth or I'm crazy or I'm

a liar. You cannot be a good man and claim

to be God. Jesus was either who he was, or

we should just close up everything and go home and

forget Christmas and all the big celebration that's going on.

And notice what Jesus said about himself in this verse

John ten, verse thirty. Jesus said, we are the same

father and son, he and me, and I am in him.

If you want to know what God looks like, you

look at Jesus. Now. The second miracle was not the

fact that just God came to earth in human form,

but it was how God came to earth. And what

it was is he became a man. That's even more

mind boggling. The Bible says it like this in Philippians

chapter two. Christ gave up his place as God and

made himself nothing. He was born to be a man,

and he became like a servant. This is God. And

when he was living as a man, he humbled himself.

Of all the ways God could have come to earth,

he came as a baby. God entered the world the

same way you and I entered the world. Everybody in

the world ned the world by being born into it

by birth. Now why did God come to earth as

a baby. I'll tell you why. Because He came to

save us, not to scare us. And nobody is afraid

of a baby. When people look at a little baby,

then they can they're not afraid. In fact, it's tenderizing,

it's loving, it's compassionate. You see, I can't relate to

some impersonal force in the world, but I can relate

to God in human form. See. If God had wanted

to communicate the birds, he would have become a bird.

If he'd wanted to communicate to cats, he could have

become a cat. He wanted to communicate the cows, he

would have become a cow. But God wanted to communicate

to humans, so he became one of us. This is

the second miracle of how God came to earth. God

became a man. Now, Jesus was a real man. He

was real man, and he was real God. He was

not a half and half. He was one hundred percent

God and he was one hundred percent man. He's no myth.

Did you know that in the Encyclopedia Britannica there are

more pages on the man Jesus Christ than any other

subject in Encyclopedia Britannica. The Bible says, in the amplified translation,

he became like men and was born a human being.

How was Jesus like you? How is Jesus like me? Well, first,

as I said, he was born like us. No flashy insurance. Second,

he grew up like us. The Bible says, he grew

in wisdom that's intellectual growth, in stature of physical growth,

favor with God that's spiritual growth, and favor with man

that's social growth. Same four ways you grow. The Bible says,

he was born like us, he grew like us. He

was tempted like us. Us did you know that? The

Bible says, Jesus has been tempted in every way you have,

and yet he never sinned. And that's why he's not

offended when you talk to him about your temptations. He understands,

he knows what it's like. He can relate to your struggles.

He experienced the same needs and the same drives and

the same pressures, but he never sinned. And then not

only that, Jesus suffered like us. Jesus understands pain. God

understands pain. Why because he went through it. He felt pain.

He felt disappointment, he felt loneliness, he felt betrayal, he

felt grief, He felt the nails going through his hands

and being stabbed in the side. He felt what it

was like when he got tired. And so when you're tired.

God understands how you feel because he's been there. Here's

the point, Jesus can relate to everything you're going through

or will go through in the future because he's been

there too. You see, God wants you to know him.

And because he wants you to know him, he wants

you to know that he knows everything about you. He

knows every moment in your life. He knows everything that's

ever happened, from the moment you took your first breath.

In fact, he saw you in your mother's womb. He

thought you up. The Bible says God planned your days

even before you took your first breath. Listen, you were

designed for a relationship with God. If you want to

know why you're alive right now, God made you to

love you. He made you to have a relationship with him.

You were not put here on this earth by accident.

You were put here for a purpose, and the first

purpose of your life is to get to know your creator.

Have you done that? If you haven't got to know

your Creator in a personal relationship, you've missed the very

first purpose of your life. God did not put you

here on earth just to mark things off your to

do list. Now, this is the second miracle of all,

not only that God came to earth, but that God

came to earth as a human being so we could

relate to him. We could we could see him, we

could feel him, and he could understand exactly all that

we're going through his creation. Now here's the third miracle.

Jesus came to ordinary people. He didn't come for a

select few. He didn't come for the elite. He didn't

come for only the brightest and the best and the

most righteous. No, no, no, no, he came for all

of us. That's a miracle that God came to earth

for all of us. He didn't come for religious people.

Did you hear that he didn't come for religious people.

He came for all people. He came for people who

don't even care about religion. That's a miracle. In fact,

the Bible says that Jesus said, I didn't come for

the righteous. I came for the unrighteous. So if you've

ever done anything wrong, if you've ever sinned, if you've

ever had any regrets in your life, if you've ever

messed up, Jesus came for you. He said, I came

for not the perfect people, And By the way, there

aren't any perfect people, but Jesus came to ordinary common people.

He shows us even in his original birth's where is

he born. He's born in a barn, not in a palace. Okay,

not on a bed of gold. And you know we sentimentalized.

He said he was born in a manger. Do you

know what a manger is. A manger is simply the

Old English word for a cow feed trough. You put

the grain, you put the hay in there in the

cow eats the grain and slobbers all over it. That's

where he was born. He's born in a bond. His

first visitors were not royalty shepherds, who were at the

low end of the totem pole in social class. In

those days. No political figures showed up at his birth.

In fact, no religious figures showed up at jesus birth.

There were some wise men from the east and philosophers

who came. You know, today we treat the shepherds like heroes,

but in those days they were really zeros. They were

the least respected people because they smelled like sheep. They're

at the bottom of the social ladder, they're the outcast

of society. They're considered dirty, they're considered uncouth, they're treated

with contempt by the people in proper society. And yet

that's who Jesus has the angels announce his birth due

the improper people of society. The point is this, Jesus

came for everyone. Let me give you some Bible verses

John one fourteen. Christ became a human being and lived

here on earth among us. He lived among us. The

message paraphrase, I love This says Jesus became flesh and

blood and moved into the neighborhood. Now here's the good news.

Because we could not reach up to God, he reached

down to us. That's the whole message of Christianity. He

came down to our level. He became a human being.

He came to reach to you. And now anyone, anyone

can have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Do you have

that relationship? The Bible says in Luke two seven, Mary

gave birth and wrapped him in cloths and placed him

in a manger that feed trough because there was no

room for them in the inn. And Luke two sixteen says,

the shepherds ran to the village and found their way

to where the baby lay. Now, just like those shepherds

in the very first Christmas, you can come to Jesus.

You can see his glory. He is inviting you this Christmas,

just like he invited the shepherds the first Christmas. He

invites you this Christmas to come and see him, to

come and know him, to come and learn to feel

his love and to be loved by him, and to

learn to love him back. Now later on, wise men

from the east, we know, probably from Babylon area in Iraq,

came to worship Jesus and bring gifts. The Bible tells

us that they brought gold representing his kingdomship, and franknsense

and mrr Now frank and sense and merge. You know

what they are. They're spices that in ancient days were

used to prepare a body for burial. They would use

frankensense and mr it's kind of an incense, and they

would wrap strips of cloth kind of like a mummy,

and they would bury them in burial clothes. These gifts

gold representing his kingdom and frank and sinson Mrrer representing

his death, were actually for telling what Jesus came to do.

He didn't just come to live on earth. He came

to die for us. Now, the greatest miracle is not

how Jesus came, or even who he came to. But

the greatest miracle is why he came. And this is

the fourth miracle, is that he came for our benefit.

He came for our minuit. The Bible says that the

first angels announced that that first Christmas for us to

you is born this day a savior who is Christ

the Lord. Believe me, if you didn't need to need

a savior, God wouldn't have wasted the time sending him

at Christmas. He came for our benefit. What benefit? Well,

let me just share with you some of the words

of Jesus himself. First, Jesus came to tell us the truth.

Jesus came to tell us the truth that you say,

what kind of truth? The truth about life, the truth

about ourselves, the truth about God, the truth about death,

the truth about good and evil, the truth about your past,

the truth about your presence, and the truth about your future.

You see, if you base your life on faulty information,

then you've got an unstable foundation for your life. You've

got to base your life on the bedrock of truth.

Jesus said, the truth will set you free. And here's

the truth. I want you to listen very closely. Here's

the truth. You matter to God. It doesn't matter who

you are, what you've done, how long you've done it,

or who you did it with. You matter to God.

That is the truth that God came to tell us.

In John eighteen, verse thirty seven, this is in the Bible,

Jesus says this. I was born for this purpose. I

came to bring the truth to the world. So Jesus

came for our benefit. If you build your life on lies,

you're going to have an unstable life, unstable emotions, unstable relationships,

unstable finances. But if you build your life on the truth,

then you'll have a solid rock foundation. So many people

will lie to you today. In fact, you even lie

to yourself. You know, your emotions lie to you. Your

mind lies to you all the time. Not everything you

tell yourself is true. We lie to ourselves all the time.

But God will never tell you a lie. Jesus will

always tell you the truth. Second thing Jesus came to

do is came not only to give us the truth.

He came to give us life, to give us life

in all its fullness. John ten Verse ten says this,

I came to give you life, life in all its fullness. Now,

let me ask you a really personal question this Christmas morning.

Are you living life to all its fullness? I mean, really,

just be honest with yourself. You say, oh, yeah, there's

nothing better than the way I'm living right now? Are

you living life to its fullness? See? Most people really

aren't even living. They're just existing. They just get up

in the morning and go to work and come home,

watch TV and go to bed and maybe relax or

go to a party on the weekend. They it just

the same routine over and over. They're not really living.

You can be so busy making a living you forget

to make a life. So many people regret the past,

they worry about the future, so you end up wasting today.

Jesus that I came to give you life. The greatest

tragedy is not death. The greatest tragedy is to go

through life not knowing your purpose. God has a purpose

for your life, and it begins by getting to know him.

You will never know the purpose of your life without

getting to know your creator, because you can't tell yourself

what your purpose is only your creator, your inventor, your God,

can tell you your purpose. Jesus said, I came to give

you life in all its fullness. Now, the kind of

life that Jesus wants to give you has three different dimensions.

It's three dimensional life. My past can be forgiven, my

present has a new purpose for it, and it can

be managed. And my future is secured. God put a

God shaped vacuum inside you, and nothing will fill that

hole in your heart except God. Augustine said, Lord, you

have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless

until they find our rest in you. You can try

to fill that hole in your heart with money. It

doesn't work. You can try to fill it with sex,

it doesn't work. Status, it doesn't work. Salary it doesn't work. Passion, possession, position, pleasure.

None of those things work. What you need is God's

purpose for your life. And that purpose is not found

in a principle or in a pill. It's found in

a person, the person of Jesus Christ. Now, he said,

I came to give you truth. I came to give

you life, and I came to give you here's a

big one forgiveness and salvation, for unto you is born

this day as Savior, who is Christ the Lord. You see,

what do I need to be saved from? Oh, we

need to be saved from a lot of things. We

need to be saved from a sin, But we also

need to be saved from ourselves. We need to be

saved from the habits that mess up our lives and

the hurts and the hang ups. We need to be

saved from the lies we believe about ourselves that hinder

ourselves and liberate. Don't liberate us that, in fact, they

limit us in self impost prison. You see, if our

greatest need had been education, God with a sonate teacher.

And if our greatest need had been money, then God

would have sent a banker. And if our greatest need

had been just physical health, God with a sent a doctor.

And if our greatest need had been you know how

to succeed in life, God could have sent a consultant

or a coach. But our greatest need is salvation and forgiveness,

So we sent a savior. Now let me tell you this,

You can't save yourself. In fact, God can't save you

until you stop trying to save yourself. Many years ago,

when I was a young man. I was a lifeguard

for three years, and one of the things that we've

learned we're taught in Red Cross lifeguarding and I for

three years as a lifeguard. When somebody starts to drown,

you swim out to them in the ocean and they're

flailing around, and you don't dare try to grab on

to them while they're flailing around, because they may pull

you under themselves. What you do is you wait until

they give up. And when they finally just give up

and they start to sink, then it's actually quite easy

to save them. You simply put your arm over their

chest and under their arm, and you use your other

arm to row back to shore. So I'm back to short.

But you can't save somebody as long as they're trying

to save themselves. Have you been trying to save yourself?

Have you been trying to save your marriage? Have you

been trying to save your reputation or your career or

your investments? You know what, why don't you just relax

this Christmas and accept the savior that God sent to you.

You may have been pretending you didn't need God, but

you really do. And then the deepest heart of your hearts.

You know that's true. Jesus said this in John chapter twelve.

I've come to save the world and not to judge it.

Some of you think if you come to Jesus, he's

just going to criticize you, condemn you, put you down,

and give you a stern lecture, tell you all the

things you're doing wrong. Listen to this verse again, John

twelve forty eight. I have come to save the world

and not to judge it. If you ever thought about

why we give gifts at Christmas, you may have already

opened all your Christmas gifts before service today, and maybe

that you haven't opened yet. Why do we give Christmas gifts? Well,

the reason why is because God started the idea. God

gave the original Christmas gift. He gave himself. He came

to earth in the form of a human being, Jesus Christ,

and he gave himself to you. And he died on

the cross for all of your sins so you don't

have to pay for them. He was hung up on

the cross. He was hung up for your hang ups.

You can stop nailing yourself to the cross for all

the things you feel ashamed of or regret, because Jesus

Christ already paid for all your sins. Now, imagine if

we had a Christmas service where people give you a

Christmas gift and a year later you still haven't opened it.

That would be offensive to the giver and it would

be no use to you. And yet many many people

celebrate Christmas after Christmas, after Christmas after Christmas and never

open the gift. They never unwrap the gift. God's gift

to you is the truth. God's gift to you is salvation.

God's gift to you is forgiveness. God's gift to you

is a life, eternal life, purpose in life, abundant life,

a fulfilled life. These are the gifts God has for you.

Will you open and receive that gift today? The Bible

says this in Romans three twenty three. All of us

need to be made right with God by his grace,

which is a free gift. That's God's gift to you.

That's God's Christmas gift. All of us need to be

made right with God by his grace, which is a

free gift. We need to be made free from sin

through Jesus Christ. If you haven't done that, I want

to invite you to receive God's Christmas gift today, and

in this service I'm going to ask it we all

just bow our heads right now. Okay, just bow your head.

You don't have to close your eyes, and I'm going

to pray a simple Christmas prayer. I invite you to

follow me in it right now, and if you'll sincerely

mean it with all your heart, God will hear you,

and this will be the starting point of a brand

new relationship with God that gives you a new life,

eternal life, and abundant life. Let's pray. Bow your head

and I just say something like this. Dear God, Dear God,

thank you for the miracle of Christmas. Thank you that

you came to earth in the form of Jesus Christ.

And thank you that you didn't just come for a

few people, for the elite, for the super good, or

the super rich, but you came for everybody, including me.

And thank you that you came not to scold us,

but to save us. Dear God, today I admit I

cannot save myself. I can't even solve all my own problems.

I need a savior. I need you in my life

and I need you to give me the truth. I

need you to give me the power to make changes

that I want to change, that you want to see

change in my life. And I need the power to

be forgiven by what you did for me on the Cross.

So today, as much as I know how this Christmas,

Jesus Christ, I ask you to come into my life.

I don't understand it all, but as much as I

know how, I want to follow you. I want to

learn to love you and trust you, and I want

this to be the new direction for the rest of

my life. And I humbly ask this that you invite

me into your family and accept me in Jesus name.

I pray Amen.

Hey, if you've just prayed along with Rick to accept

Jesus in your life, Rick would love to hear from you.

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