We're just two weeks from Christmas. Presents are still being purchased, wrapped and shipped. Christmas

cards are still need to be signed and mailed. Loose ends on travel details are getting sorted out.

Family event planning is just now getting finalized maybe for you, or maybe there's still

loose ends there too. Perhaps you're multitasking right now and gift wrapping while you listen to this episode.

Thanks for listening.

We are all feeling the holiday pressures right now.

Of course, Pastor John has been geared up for one of the busiest holidays in the world.

And an expensive one, too.

The average American adult will drop about $1,000 just on gifts during this season, leading to a

question of great relevance this month, like in this email from a podcast listener named James.

Pastor John, hello, and thank you for the podcast. Often I hear that we are to love God for who

he is, not for what he does for us, to love the giver more than the gifts. How can we know that we are

doing this, especially during this Christmas season, when I examine my own heart, so much of what I

know about God seems to be in relation to what he has done for me, like the sending of a son in the

incarnation? How do I interact with him on the basis of him and not simply on the

basis of the gifts that he's given me? Well, first, I think it is absolutely crucial in pursuing

that interaction with God in that way to get really clear in our mind and in our heart that there is a huge and important

difference between enjoying a person who gives gifts and enjoying the gifts instead of the person

or more than the person. And I think we need to clarify this and get it

fixed in our minds, both from experience and from scripture. Let me give an example of what I mean

from experience. What if you give an engagement ring? So you've been in love for two years maybe,

and now you're going to move this thing decisively forward. You give a ring, I'm assuming

...