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Enjoying a Fear-Not Christmas
25:00 Listen to The Greatest Gifts You’ll Ever Get — pt 1 (Christmas, Holidays, John 3:16, purpose, giving, perspective, Change, Transform, Love) The Greatest Gifts You’ll Ever Get — pt 1 (Christmas, Holidays, John 3:16, purpose, giving, perspective, Change, Transform, Love) Dec 22 · 25 min ...more
The Greatest Gifts You’ll Ever Get — pt 1 (Christmas, Holidays, John 3:16, purpose, giving, perspective, Change, Transform, Love)
December 22, 2025 · 25 min
Once you’ve received Jesus—the biggest gift you’ll ever receive—God gives you other gifts. Discover how gifts like God’s unconditional love and his Spirit will change your life in practical ways.
Series Enjoying a Fear-Not Christmas December 22, 2025 · 25 min · Enjoying a Fear-Not Christmas
Once you’ve received Jesus—the biggest gift you’ll ever receive—God gives you other gifts. Discover how gifts like God’s unconditional love and his Spirit will change your life in practical ways. ...more Show the full description Show less Once you’ve received Jesus—the biggest gift you’ll ever receive—God gives you other gifts. Discover how gifts like God’s unconditional love and his Spirit will change your life in practical ways.
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Pastor Rick Warren shares the hope and encouragement you need to hear everyday. Listen in as he shares biblical truths to help you live the purpose driven life
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In this video 0:00 The Purpose of Christmas: God's Greatest Gift4:31 The First Gift: A New Identity in Christ15:09 The Second Gift: A New Ability Through the Holy Spirit18:56 The Third Gift: A New Community and Hope in Trials
The Purpose of Christmas: God's Greatest Gift 0:00 Hi, I'm Rick Warren and Merry Christmas. Christmas is gonna be here very soon. And Jesus said in Luke 14 23, Go out into the highways in the countryside and urge everybody you find to come in so that my house will be0:12 full. Who are you thinking of to bring to your church? Whoever it is, I wanna challenge you to be a light at Christmas and invite them to services at your church.0:26 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 gonna begin the first part of a message called0:38 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 to0:50 Rick.0:50 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 3 verse 16, and it says this,1:02 God so loved the world that he gave his only Son That whoever believes in Him should not perish but1:14 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 so1:26 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. And1:38 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
1:49 follow the logic of the Bible. Romans chapter 8 says this on your outline. Since God did not spare his own son, But he gave him up for
2:01 us all then can we not expect that with him God will freely give us all his gifts Now notice
2:13 the logic here. If God loves you enough to send Jesus Christ to come and die on 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
2:23 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.
2:35 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
2:46 box inside that. You open up, there's a box inside that. And inside 1 gift is a bunch of other little gifts. At Christmas God's gift to you is Jesus Christ. That's the big gift.
2:58 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
3:10 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
3:22 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 there are over 50 over 50 in fact the word gift and gifts is used 66 times in
3:34 the New Testament It's 1 of the major themes of the Bible Today, I want us to just look at 4, 4 of the Christmas gifts God wants to give you when you receive the
3:45 big gift of Jesus Christ. Spirit of Christmas is what? Giving. Yeah. The spirit of Christmas is giving.
3:57 Well, I don't wanna shock you, but that's wrong. It's wrong. The spirit of Christmas is not giving. Yes. Giving is a is a subset. It's an application. But the
4:09 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
4:21 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. 4 things God wants to give you this Christmas. Number 1, when I accept Jesus
The First Gift: A New Identity in Christ
4:33 Christ, the big gift, God so loved me that he gave his son, when he when I accept the big gift, God gives me, number 1, a new identity. He gives me a
4:44 new identity. Some of you will be able to relate to this letter. Pastor Rick, I feel that for my entire life, I have been defined
4:56 by other people. First, my mom constantly berated me to be something or someone she wanted me to be, but I had no interest in being. Sometimes my dad would
5:08 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.
5:20 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 or didn't even like to do. And I wore a mask and pretended a
5:32 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 to
5:44 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
5:56 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.
6:08 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
6:21 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 problems.
6:31 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
6:44 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
6:56 Let me ask you a very personal question. Where do you get your identity on who you think you are? Where do you on what do you base who you think you are? Most people get their identity from 1 of
7:08 3 things, from their work, from their relationships, or from things. From work. You you say to more people, who are you? What are you? And they'll they'll say, I'm an an accountant. I'm a plumber. I'm a truck driver. I'm
7:19 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
7:31 I'm a husband. I'm a I'm an uncle. I'm a 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.
7:43 These are the things that I collect and I find my identity in my hobby. Let me give you some very important advice as a pastor who loves you and who cares about you.
7:56 Never, never, ever, ever base your identity on something you can lose. Never. If you build your
8:08 identity around your husband and he dies and you live for 30 years longer. What's your identity? If you build your
8:19 identity on your career or on your job and you lose your job You get fired you get laid out. What's your identity? If you build your identity on your
8:31 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
8:43 beauty fades. Anybody 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
8:56 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
9:07 you, you're going to lose your identity. It's not your true identity. What am I saying? The only thing that cannot be taken away from you is this, God's
9:19 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
9:31 by God unconditionally, and nobody can take that from you. Here's what the Bible says, second Corinthians chapter 5. When someone accepts Christ, that's the
9:43 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.
9:55 He's not the same anymore. A new life has begun. Jesus called it being born again. He said it's like getting a fresh start. It's like starting over. It's like not turn over a new leaf. You get a whole new
10:07 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 ID. And what does it mean? Does that mean that now you're perfect?
10:19 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
10:31 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 1 of the biggest mistakes people make is they let their failures define them.
10:43 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
10:54 using tens of thousands of churches. At celebrate recovery, we say this, people will come in they'll stand up and they'll say, Hi, my name is Bill and I am a child of God who struggles
11:06 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
11:18 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
11:30 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
11:42 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
11:54 used to be. And so when we take a person and we put them under the water just like Jesus was Baptism is a symbol of a burial and a resurrection. I've died to my old way of living
12:06 and I'm a new person. 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. I still make mistakes, I still blow it but I got a new identity. I am forgiven and loved by God.
12:18 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
12:30 yourself the way God sees you. You got to stop listening to the lies 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
12:42 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
12:54 listening to the lies. 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, you're not the most athletic,
13:06 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 99.9 percent of us don't matter. That's what the
13:18 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
13:30 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
13:41 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.
13:53 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
14:05 says. Here's what Jesus said in John chapter 8. He said, if you follow my words, you will know the truth, and the truth will what?
14:17 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
14:29 you listen to me, says Jesus, if you follow my words then you're going to know the truth, and then the truth will set you free. You're not going to learn truth from television, you're not going to learn truth from
14:40 magazines, you're going to 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
14:52 that comes in the big package of Jesus Christ. So the first thing I need for transformation is the truth, a new identity. But then I need more than that. I need power to change, and
15:04 that's the second gift God has 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
The Second Gift: A New Ability Through the Holy Spirit
15:16 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
15:28 New Year's gold and they last about a week, maybe a month, may at the most 3 months. Why? Because willpower doesn't work. You eventually get tired of doing what you're trying to do and you give
15:40 up. You don't need willpower, you need God power. And God says I'm gonna 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 gonna put
15:52 my spirit inside you. Look at this verse. The Bible says in Romans chapter 5. God has poured out his love. Notice it's all about love. God has poured out his love into our
16:04 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 gonna
16:15 help you I'm not only gonna be around you. I'm not only gonna be with you I'm not gonna be working on you. I'm gonna be working in you I'm gonna put my spirit inside of you That's what happens when
16:27 you receive the gift of God's Christmas gift Jesus Christ I'm gonna put God's spirit in you the next verse says this in the Bible now Now that you have God's spirit in you now God works
16:39 in you. Not 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
16:51 you and with me? We know the right things to do. We know the changes that we wanna 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
17:03 does has a desire to improve their lives. We have the desire. We don't have the ability. And yet God says, I'm gonna give you the desire and the ability to do my purpose for your life. And how am I
17:15 gonna 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
17:27 ability you need, and God gives you the power to keep going. It's about God power, not willpower. What you need is grace, not guilt. Guilt does not work.
17:39 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
17:51 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. And the more I'm filled with God's love, the more power I have
18:03 to change. Look at the next verse, second Timothy 1 7. For God does not give us a spirit of fear, but instead he fills us with power and love and self discipline. Circle those 3 things, power
18:14 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 3
18:26 ingredients You have to have to transform your life If you wanna change your life this next year, you're gonna need truth. That's a new identity about you. You're gonna need
18:38 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, loving support. And so that's the third gift God gives you. God
18:50 says, I wanna give you a new identity, a new ability, and number 3, I wanna give you a new community. This is the third gift wrapped up in the big box of Jesus, a new
The Third Gift: A New Community and Hope in Trials
19:01 community. God says, I'm gonna 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
19:13 to know God and you were meant to have a family around you to support you. We always change better in a group than we do on our own. That's why most diets and most personal self help plans don't work because it's all
19:25 about you and you don't have any spiritual family to support you. The Bible says God created the entire universe because he wanted a family. Look at this verse, Ephesians chapter 1. The Bible says because of
19:37 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
19:49 his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. Now I want you to circle the word adopt. You're not automatically in God's family. You have to be adopted into it.
20:01 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.
20:16 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
20:28 that. Thank you. And now Rick's gonna share a letter from 1 of our listeners who says Daily Hope is making a real difference in their life.
20:36 Today, I wanna 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've thought about emailing you, but I didn't. I'm not sure why.
20:49 But today I listened to your daily hope message on facing giants in life and work, and I I knew that I needed to say thank you. My story started when my husband of almost 24 years
21:00 died suddenly at our home of a blood clot. He was just 49 years old. My daughter was the 1 who called 9 1 1, and life just seemed to stop. We
21:12 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
21:24 spoken, not knowing how significant they would become. My own son had been struggling with what we now think was undiagnosed bipolar disorder. He'd been struggling for about 3 years, and
21:36 11 weeks after my husband died, he took his life. Life stopped again. I have an incredible family and a group of friends,
21:48 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
22:00 was your series How to Get Through What You're Going Through when you lost your son. You and Kaye truly understood how I felt and how I still feel. We're part of a club
22:12 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
22:24 out of ashes. So I wanna thank you and Kaye from the bottom of my heart for sharing your story and not wasting your pain. Even though we've never met,
22:36 I feel as though we're friends while we are. And I ask God daily to help me use my pain to help others. I still struggle some days with guilt and
22:48 grief, but I know that God is faithful with me every step of the journey. With a thankful heart, Debbie. Well Debbie, my dear sister,
23:00 this touched me obviously, your message, and as somebody who's walked in your shoes having lost a son, I can tell you without a doubt that God is faithful. And I just wanna
23:12 say that I'm so proud of you that God does not want us to waste our hurts. Never waste a hurt. You're gonna go through the pain, so you may as well use it to help other people. And in
23:24 second Corinthians 1, 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
23:36 everything we do at Daily Hope. Friends, if you can give a gift to help Daily Hope, you can help people like Debbie who's walking through the grief of having
23:48 lost a husband and a son, but found new hope through this broadcast which shares the message of Jesus. You who gave helped Debbie find healing. And
24:00 you who gave have helped thousands and thousands of other people find hope and healing in Christ because of your gift. So thank you for your gifts today. God bless you.
24:10 If you'd like to help support pastor Rick's Daily Hope, generous friends of this ministry have provided a 100000 dollar matching grant. And that means that every dollar you give to
24:22 help share the transforming love of Jesus through Daily Hope will be doubled up to 100000 dollars. Just go to daily hope radio dot com or call
24:34 806 hundred 5004. That's daily hope radio dot com or call 806 hundred 5004. And thank you so much for your
24:45 support. Be sure to join us next time as we look into God's word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by pastor Rick's daily hope and your generous financial support.
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