Rick Warren - The Greatest Gifts You’ll Ever Get—Part One

Hi, I'm Rick Warren, and Merry Christmas. Christmas is going

to be here very soon. And Jesus said in Luke

fourteen twenty three, go out into the highways in the

countryside and urge everybody you find to come in so

that my house will be full. Who are you thinking

of to bring to your church? Whoever it is. I

want to challenge you to be a light at Christmas

and invite them to services at your church.

Hey, everyone, welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. This is

the Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren. We're so glad

you're here with us today. Rick is going to begin

the first part of a message called the Greatest Gifts

You'll Ever Get. This is a powerful Christmas message about

how God's love, grace, and purpose will bring you lasting

hope and joy. Now let's get right to Rick.

Now. The whole purpose of Christmas is summed up in

the most famous verse in the Bible. It's a verse

that we've all heard many times. John chapter three, verse sixteen,

and it says, this God so loved the world that

he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him

should not perish, but have everlasting life. That's the whole

purpose of Christmas. God so loved the world. By the way,

it all starts with love that he gave. You can

give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. God

so loved the world that he gave the very first

Christmas gift. The whole reason that we give gifts at

Christmas is because God started this whole tradition by giving

the first Christmas gift. And the first Christmas gift was

God's gift of his son to you. It's the first gift.

It's the most expensive gift you'll ever get, and it's

the greatest gift you're ever going to receive. Now follow

the logic of the Bible. Romans Chapter eight says this

on your outline. Since God did not spare his own son,

but he gave him up for us all, then can

we not expect that with him, God will freely give

us all his gifts. Notice the logic here. If God

loves you enough to send Jesus Christ to coming down

the cross for you, he loves you enough to take

care of all your other needs, pay your bills, help

you with your health relationships. He says, if God so

loved us so much that he gave his only son,

Can we not expect him to give us freely all

his other gifts? Circle the phrase with him? Notice with him.

With God's gift of Jesus, you get many other gifts

at the same time. Have you ever received a gift

inside of a gift? Sure you have, you know. You

get a box, you open it up, there's a box inside.

You open it up. There's a box inside that. You

open up, there's a box inside that, and inside one

gift is a bunch of other little gifts. At Christmas,

God's gift to you is Jesus Christ. That's the big gift.

That's the big box that God gives you. God so

loved you that he gave his only son to die

for you. That's the big gift. But inside the big

box are many other smaller gifts. All of God's gifts

are wrapped in Jesus. And when you get Jesus, you

get all the other gifts that He wants to give you.

I once did a study of this, and I made

a list of all the gifts that God wants to

give you because of Jesus. And in the New Testament

they're over fifty over fifty. In fact, the word gift

in gifts is you sixty six times in the New Testament.

It's one of the major themes of the Bible today.

I want us to just look at four four of

the Christmas gifts God wants to give you when you

receive the big gift of Jesus Christ. Now you've heard

people say the phrase the spirit of Christmas is what giving. Yeah,

the spirit of Christmas is giving. Well, I don't want

to shock you, but that's wrong. It's wrong. The Spirit

of Christmas is not giving. Yes, giving is a subset,

it's an application, but the spirit of Christmas is not

actually giving. The Spirit of Christmas is actually receiving God's

gift to you. You don't have anything to give until

you've been given what God gave to you, the very

first Christmas gift. Christmas is all about receiving God's gifts

to you. So let's get right into it. Four things

God wants to give you this Christmas. Number one, when

I accept Jesus Christ, the big gift. God so loved

me that he gave his son. When I accept the

big gift, God gives me number one a new identity.

He gives me a new identity. Some of you will

be able to relate to this letter, paster Rick. I

feel that for my entire life I have been defined

by other people. First, my mom constantlyted me to be

something or someone she wanted me to be, but I

had no interest in being. Sometimes my dad would join in,

and the pressure to perform and to please and to

gain their approval was overwhelming. I never felt validated growing

up for who I really was. Then in school, I

always felt pressured by my friends to fit in and

to be cool and to do things I didn't want

to do. It I didn't even like to do, and I

wore a mask and pretended a lot most of my

time through school. Then when I started dating, and later

when I married my spouse, I felt their constant pressure

to please them and the stuff my own feelings and

my needs and to be who I wanted to be.

I've worried so much my entire life about gaining the

approval of others. I don't know who I am or

what I'm supposed to be. That's an identity problem. That's

an identity problem. Do you know what the fastest growing

crime in the world is today? Identity theft? That's not

very encouraging. But the truth is we've all had our

identity stolen who you were made to be. Sometimes your

identity is stolen by your parents, and they want you

to be what they want you to be, not who

God made you to be. Sometimes your identity is stolen

by your friends, by your peers, by partners, by professionals.

Sometimes your identity stolen by problem. Sometimes your identity is

stolen by society, by culture, by the media that says

you're supposed to act this way and look this way,

and talk this way and smell this way, and if

you don't do that, you're not cool, and you end

up being pressured to conform to culture rather than being

who God designed you to be. And you don't even

know your true identity. Let me ask you a very

personal question. Where do you get your identity on? Who

you think you are? Where you on? What do you

base who you think you are? Most people get their

identity from one of three things. From their work, from

their relationships, or from things from work. They say to

my people, who are you? What are you? They'll say,

I'm an accountant, I'm a plumber, I'm a truck driver,

I'm a homemaker, whatever. No, that's what you do. That's

not who you are. That's not your identity. Some people

try to get their identity from relationships. I'm a mother,

I'm a dad, I'm a father, I'm a husband, I'm

an uncle, I'm a grandparent, I'm a boss. Some people

try to find their identity through what they have. This

is my house, this is my bank account. These are

the things that I collect, and I find my identity

and my hobby. Let me give you some very important

advice as a pastor who loves you and who cares

about you. Never, never, ever, ever base your identity on

something you can lose. Never. If you build your identity

around your husband and he dies and you live for

thirty years longer, what's your identity? If you build your

identity on your career, are on your job, and you

lose your job, you get fired, you get laid off.

What's your identity? If you build your identity on your

home and your things and it goes into foreclosure, Or

you build your identity on your wealth and your stock

portfolio goes upside down, or you build your identity on

how good looking you are. Beauty fades. Anybody, don't want

to give a testimony on that. I know guys who

in high school built their entire identity on their athletic ability.

They're called jocks, and now they're just jokes because they've

lost that ability. They can't catch that ball the way

they used to catch it. If you build your identity

on something that can be taken from you, you're going

to lose your idea. It's not your true identity. What

am I saying. The only thing that cannot be taken

away from you is this God's unconditional love for you.

And so if you want to have your true identity

and your new identity and your permanent identity, you must

receive it from God and build it on the fact

that you are loved by God unconditionally, and nobody can

take that from you. Here's what the Bible says tewod Corinthians,

chapter five. When someone accepts Christ, that's the big gift.

I accept the big gift. God so loved the world

that he gave his son. When someone accepts Christ, he

becomes a brand new person inside circle. That brand new person,

new identity. He's not the same anymore. A new life

has begun. Jesus called it being born again. He says,

it's like getting a fresh start, it's like starting over.

It's like not turn over new leaf. You get a

whole new life, he says. When you accept the big

gift of Christmas, God's love for you, God's son, he says,

you get a whole new idea. And what does it mean.

Does that mean that now you're perfect, That now you

never sin, that now you never struggle? Of course not.

That doesn't mean that at all. It just means you're

not identified with your sin, You're not identified with your struggle,

you're not identified with your past. You have a new identity.

I'm a child of God. It's new, it's true, and

it's permanent. You see. One of the biggest mistakes people

make is they let their failures define them. They let

their fears define them, They let their faults define them.

They let their sins and their struggles define them. This

is why I love Celebrate Recovery. Our recovery program started

here at Saddleback and now using tens of thousands of churches.

At Celebrate Recovery, we say this, people will I'm in.

They'll stand up and they'll say Hi, my name's Bill,

and I am a child of God who struggles with alcohol.

You are not your sin. You are not your struggle.

You are not your weakness. Your illness is not your identity.

Your chemistry is not your character, your sin is not yourself.

You are a child of God. That's a new identity.

And God says that gives you a whole different position

to come from. He says, when you accept God's Christmas

gift Jesus, God so loved the world that he gave

his son, he says, the first thing you get is

a new identity. By the way, do you know what

the ceremony is called when we publicly identify that we

have a new identity, Do you know what that ceremony

is called? Baptism? Baptism says, I got a new id

I'm not the same woman I used to be. I'm

not the same man I used to be. And so

when we take a person and we put them under

the water, just like Jesus was, is a symbol of

a burial and a resurrection. I've died to my old

way of living and I'm a new person. I got

a new idea. I'm not the same woman I used

to be. I'm not the same man I used to be.

I still make mistakes, I still blow it, but I

got a new identity. I am forgiven and loved by God.

Have you been baptized? If you haven't, I would encourage

you to do so. Now. The starting point of a

new identity is this. You got to stop seeing yourself

the way everybody else sees you, and you got to

start seeing yourself the way God sees you. You got to

stop listening to the lives of the world, and you've

got to start listening to the truth of God, what

God says about you. You see, you don't know your

true identity. Your parents don't even know your true identity.

The only person who knows your true identity is God,

who made you the creator. He knows what he made

you to be. And you got to stop listening to

the lives the world says this to you. If you're

not the most beautiful, you don't matter. If you're not

the most educated, you don't matter. If you're not the

most talented, if you're not the most athletic, you don't matter.

If you don't get straight a's, you don't matter. If

you're not the most famous, you don't matter, which means

ninety nine point nine percent of us don't matter. That's

what the world says, because there aren't enough superstars in

the world. And all growing up you heard lies, people

saying you're never gonna amount to anything. Who do you

think you are? Why would you try that? Why can't

you be like your brother? You're worthless, you're too old,

you're too young, you're too fat, you're too ugly, you

don't have the talent, and on and on and on.

You've heard these voices over and over and over. You

need to get your ID from God. God says you

are valuable. God says you are lovable. God says you

are forgivable for the things you've done wrong. God says

you are capable. He's given you talents. God says you

are usable. God says you are blessable. You need to

listen to what God says. Here's what Jesus said in

John chapter eight. He said, if you follow my words,

you will know the truth, and the truth will what

set you free. Everybody in America knows the last part

of that phrase, the truth will set you free. Almost

nobody in America knows the first part of the sentence,

which says, if you listen to me, says Jesus. If

you follow my words, then you're gonna know the truth,

and then the truth will sauch you free truth. You're

not gonna learn truth from television. You're not gonna learn

truth from magazines. You're gonna learn truth from your friends.

They don't know the truth about you. God knows the

truth about you, but you're not gonna know it until

you get a new idea, and that comes in the

big package of Jesus Christ. So the first thing I

need for transformation is the truth new identity. But then

I need more than that. I need power to change.

And that's the second gift God asked for you. And

that is God gives me a new ability, not just

a new identity. God gives me a new ability. He

gives me a new power, a new energy, a new strength,

a new capacity. See, I'm not just depending on willpower

anymore to change. You have tried to change things in

your life so many times and it doesn't work. And

you have set New Year's gold and they last about

a week, maybe a month, may at the most three months.

Why because willpower doesn't work. You eventually get tired of

doing what you're trying to do and you give up.

You don't need willpower, you need God power. And God says,

I'm going to give you a new ability, and it's

a new ability inside of you. I'm going to not

just be around you. I'm going to put my spirit

inside you. Look at this verse. The Bible says in

Romans chapter five, God has poured out his love. I've

noticed it's all about love. God has poured out his

love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit.

Who is God's gift to you. Circle God's gift to you.

God's Spirit is his second gift. He says, I'm not

only going to help you. I'm not only going to

be around you. I'm not only going to be with you.

I'm not going to be working on you. I'm going

to be working in you. I'm going to put my

spirit inside of you. That's what happens when you receive

the gift of God's Christmas gift Jesus Christ. I'm going

to put God's spirit in you. The next verse is

this in the Bible. Now now that you have God's

Spirit in you, Now, God works in you now, just

with you, for you and around you, in you by

giving you both the desire and the ability to fulfill

His good purpose for you. You know what the problem

is with you and with me. We know the right

things to do. We know the changes we want to

make in our lives. We know how we'd like to

be different at the end of this year. We have

the desire to improve our lives. Everybody does has a

desire to improve their lives. We have the desire, we

don't have the ability. And yet God says, I'm going

to give you the desire and the ability to do

my purpose for your life. And how am I going

to get it? By putting my spirit inside of you.

God gives you the power to start over when you've

blown it. God gives you the power to make changes

you can't change. God gives you the ability you need,

and God gives you the power to keep going. It's

about god power, not will power. What you need is grace,

not guilt. Guilt does not work. Anytime you try to

change your life by guilt, it ain't gonna last because

guilt doesn't last. So don't ever try to motivate yourself

to change simply out of guilt. It doesn't work. You

don't need guilt in your life. You need God's grace.

That's the power to change. You don't need law and legalism,

you need love. Love is what changes us. More on

filled with God's love, the more power I have to change.

Look at the next verse two Timothy one seven. For

God does not give us a spirit of fear, but

instead he fills us with power and love and self discipline.

Circle those three things, power, love, and self discipline. Would

you like more power yes? More love yes, more self

discipline yes. Then you need to get God's spirit in

your life inside you. God says, I don't fill you

with a spirit of fear. I give you the three

ingredients you have to have to transform your life. If

you want to change your life this next year, you're

gonna need truth. That's a new identity about you. You're

gonna need power. That's a new ability that God gives you,

and you're gonna need The third thing is you're gonna

need support. That's love. You're gonna need love, love and support.

And so that's the third gift God gives you. God says,

I want to give you a new identity, a new ability,

a number three. I want to give you a new community.

This is the third gift wrapped up in the big

box of Jesus, a new community. God says, I'm going

to give you a family, a spiritual family to support

you in doing the right thing. You see, you weren't

meant to go through life all alone. You never were.

You were meant to know God, and you were meant

to have a family around you that supports you. We

always change better in a group than we do on

our own. So why most diets and most personal self

health plans don't work Because it's all about you and

you don't have any spiritual family to support you. The

Bible says God created an entire universe because he wanted

a family. Look at this verse Ephesians, chapter one. The

Bible says, because of his love. Remember, it all comes

back to God's love. God so loved that he gave

because of his love. God's unchanging plan has always been

to adopt us into his own family by bringing us

to himself through Jesus Christ. Now, once you circle the

word adopt, you're not automatically in God's family. You have

to be adopted into it. And how does he adopt us?

Circle through Jesus Christ. That's how he adopts us through

Jesus Christ, God says, I don't want you to just

believe in me, I want you to belong to my family.

Thanks so much for listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.

You know your prayers and financial support have a huge

impact on millions of people here and around the world,

so we really appreciate that. Thank you. And now Rick's

going to share a letter from one of our listeners

who says Daily Hope is making a real difference in

their life.

Today, I want to share with you a letter from

Debbie that really truly touched my heart. She wrote, Pastor Rick,

I'm not sure how many times I thought about emailing you,

but I didn't. I'm not sure why, but today I

listened to your Daily Hope message on facing giants and

life and work, and I knew that I needed to

say thank you. My story started with my husband of

almost torny four years died suddenly at our home of

a blood clot He was just forty nine years old,

and my daughter was the one who called nine one one,

and life just seemed to stop. We were in shock

after that death. At the funeral, my brother told me

about your message series. How to get through what you're

going through. So I listened and I held on to

those words and what Kay had spoken, not knowing how

significant they would become. My old son had been struggling

with what we now think was undiagnosed bipolar disorder. He'd

been struggling for about three years, and eleven weeks after

my husband died, he took his life. Life stopped again.

I have an incredible family and a group of friends,

and they, along with my faith, got me and my

daughter through things I never thought I could live through.

But the resource that I kept turning to and listening

to over and over again was your series How to

Get Through what You're going through When you lost your son,

You and Kay truly understood how I felt and how

I still feel. We're part of a club that nobody

wants to be a member of. Rick, I've learned so

many things through this journey of grief, but the most

important is that God keeps his promises and he does

bring beauty out of ashes. So I want to thank

you and Kay from the bottom of my heart for

sharing your story and not wasting your pain. Even though

we've never met, I feel as though we're friends where

we are, and I ask God daily to help me

use my pain to help others. I still struggle some

days with guilt and grief, but I know that God

is faithful with me every step of the journey. With

a thankful heart. Debbi, Well, Debbie, my dear sir. This

touched me obviously your message and as somebody who's walked

in your shoes having lost the sun, I can tell

you without a doubt that God is faithful. And I

just want to say that I'm so proud of you

that God does not want us to waste our hurts.

Never waste a hurt. You're going to go through the pain,

so you may as well use it to help other people.

And in Second Corinthians one, the Bible says God takes

us through problems and comforts us, so we can then

comfort others with the same comfort we've been given. And

that's the motivation behind everything we do at Daily Hope. Friends,

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