WEBVTT

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Pastor Rick Warren often says you were
made by God and for God, and

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until you understand that, life will
never make sense. Welcome to Pastor Rick's

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Daily Hope. Today. In our
series called God's Vision for the Rest of

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your Life, Rick continues in his
effort to help you discover the unique purpose

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and vision that the Lord has for
your life. Now, before we get

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started, we want to let you
know that a very generous friend has given

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one hundred thousand dollars matching grant to
Daily Hope. That means that all this

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month, every dollar you give to
help Daily Hope share the hope of Jesus

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around the world will be matched up
to one hundred thousand dollars. You can

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find out more by going to Pastorick
dot com or by texting the word daily

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to eight hundred six hundred five thousand
and four. That's Pastorick dot com,

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or the word daily to a eight
hundred six hundred five thousand and four.

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Right now, here's Pastor Rick Warren
with part two of a message called Embracing

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the Vision the purpose driven Life.
Now, how do you know when you're

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disconnected from God? How do you
know when you don't really know God?

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You know about him, but you
don't really know him well. There's a

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warning light that comes on in your
life when you are disconnected from God.

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It's called stress. Stress. Are
any of you familiar with this term?

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Stress? Worry is the warning light
that at that moment in your life,

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you're disconnected from God. Whenever I'm
worrying, it says, I'm acting like

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I'm God. I'm acting like it
all depends on me. I'm pretending I'm

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the general manager of the universe,
that I've got to make it all happen.

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God isn't going to help me.
I'm out here on my own,

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and that causes stress. And the
reason you're tired all the time, and

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the reason you're fatigued, and the
reason you're stressed out is because you're trying

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to live your life disconnected from God. It's like having a radio transistor radio

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with a battery pulled out. There's
no power, but you plug in the

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battery and get connected to God.
You're gonna hear all kinds of great things.

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This is God's plan for your life. He wants you to know and

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love him. See the Bible says
in Matthew six, people who don't know

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God are always worrying why because they
think it's all on their own. You

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see, God has wired you with
a God shaped hole in the middle of

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you so that you need Him in
your life. Well, there's this emptiness

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inside of us now. The problem
is we try to fill it with a

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lot of other things instead of God. And you can try to fill that

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God shaped hole with passion or position, or possessions or pleasure or popularity,

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or you can try to fill that
hole in your heart with sex or status

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or salary. But none of those
things are going to fill the whole that

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only God can fill in your life. You were made by God and for

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God, and until you understand that, there's going to be a hole in

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your heart that leaves you empty.
Here's the second purpose of life. The

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Bible says, God formed me for
his family. God formed me for his

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family. In other words, God
wanted a family. He wanted more than

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creatures. He didn't want just angels
and animals and plants. He wanted a

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family. And the Bible says,
the whole reason you exist is God wanted

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you to become a part of his
family, which makes you unique. And

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that family is going to last forever. The Bible says this, God's unchanging

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plan has always been to adopt us
into his own family. This is amazing

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by bringing us to himself through Jesus
Christ, and this gave him great pleasure.

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In other words, again, he
did it for his own enjoyment.

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God wanted a family and he wanted
you to be a part of it.

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Now, your spiritual family, God's
family is going to even outlast your physical

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family. Physical families don't last.
They grow up, they move away,

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they die, there's divorce, there's
death. Physical families don't last. But

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the spiritual family of God is going
to go on and on and on for

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eternity. And the Bible says that
God never meant for you to go through

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life alone. In fact, God
hates loneliness. When God created man,

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he put him in the garden of
Eden, a perfect environment, and the

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first thing God said was it is
not good for man to be alone.

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Now he's not talking about whether you
get married or not. That is irrelevant.

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He's talking about the fact whether you
marry or not is not the issue.

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The issue is God wants to put
you in a spiritual family, and

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that family is the family of God. Now, when you were born physically,

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you automatically became a part of the
human family. You didn't have a

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choice. The moment you were born, you became a part of the human

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family. But becoming a part of
God's family is a choice. You have

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to choose to become a part of
it. You're not automatically a part of

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God's family. It is your choice. The Bible says this in One Peter.

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God has given us the privilege of
being born again, so that we

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are now members of God's own family. What is born again mean? It

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means I make the choice to say
I don't want to just be a part

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of the human family. I want
to be a part of God's family,

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and I'm going to follow him in
his ways. It means I get a

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fresh start in life. Everything I've
ever done wrong, everything I've ever regretted,

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all the shame, all the things
I wish hadn't happened in my past.

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God says, wiped out, forgiven, completely, start over. We're

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gonna give you a fresh, clean
slate. It's like starting over, new

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life, fresh start. That's all
it means. Born again, like reincarnation.

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It just means you get a fresh
start on life. Now. What

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is God's family. We'll look at
the next verse. That family is the

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Church of the Living God, the
support and foundation of the truth. Now

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this is very important. The church
is not an institution. The church is

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not a bureaucracy. The church is
not an organization. It's not a social

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club. The church is God's family. And I don't know why some churches

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don't get this, but they don't. It's not about rules and regulations and

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rituals and religion. It's about relationships. The church is about those who've decided

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to become a part of God's family
forever and ever, and it's all about

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love. It's about relationships. Now, notice it says that family is the

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support and foundation of the truth.
So underlying support and foundation. Now you

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know what happens when a building has
no support and foundation. It collapses.

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We in California understand this above everybody
else because we have a thing called earthquakes.

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And if you don't have a good
support and foundation in a building,

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it's going to collapse when the earthquake
comes. God says, your life is

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the same way. Thank you so
much for listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.

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We've got some incredible news to share
with you. A very generous friend

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has given a one hundred thousand dollars
matching grant to this ministry all this month,

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every dollar you give to help Daily
Hope share the certain Hope of Jesus

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around the world will be matched up
to one hundred thousand dollars, So twenty

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five dollars becomes fifty dollars, fifty
becomes one hundred and five hundred becomes a

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thousand. Whatever you give will be
doubled by the matching grant up to one

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hundred thousand dollars, but only till
midnight December thirty first, so please please

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contact us today go to Pastorick dot
com or just call eight hundred six hundred

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five thousand and four. If you
want to make your time in prayer the

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best it can be, then you're
going to want to get a copy of

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the brand new twenty twenty one Daily
Hope Prayer Journal. This year's theme,

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God's Great Adventure for You, will
help you tap into God's power and presence

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when you learn how to pray with
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people and situations, as well as
space to express your gratitude and personal prayer

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requests to God. Each page is
beautifully designed and filled with inspiring Bible verses,

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photos and artwork. The God's Great
Adventure for You Prayer Journal is a

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spiritual growth tool designed to help you
enjoy a vibrant prayer life, connect with

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God, and establish a consistent daily
prayer time. When you give a gift

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to help daily Hope take the certain
Hope of Jesus to people around the world,

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will send you the all new twenty
twenty one Daily Hope Prayer Journal to

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say thanks. Quantities are limited,
so don't wait. Call eight hundred at

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get your Prayer Journal and have your gift

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matched up to one hundred thousand dollars. Or you can visit Pastorick dot com.

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That's eight hundred at six hundred five
zero zero four or Pastorick dot com.

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You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope
once again, here's Pastor Rick Warren.

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You're gonna have some earthquakes in your
life, personal earthquakes, financial earthquakes.

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You're gonna have health earthquakes. You
may have marriage earthquakes. If you

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get married, you're gonna have relational
earthquakes. You're gonna have career earthquakes.

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And when these tough times come along
in life, if you don't have a

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spiritual family, you're gonna to collapse. You cannot fulfill God's purposes by yourself.

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God wired us to need each other. We need each other in the

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family of God. That's why in
our church we have two thousand, six

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hundred small groups. The church isn't
this group right here, it's the group

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that meets in little groups all over
southern California, two thousand, six hundred

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locations, in small groups, in
homes in eighty three different cities. And

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when you have a problem and you're
in a small group, they help you.

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When you're in the hospital, they
take care of your needs. When

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you need a meal brought to you
because you're sick, they bring meal to

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you. In this church, we
take care of each other. And honestly,

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I feel sorry for people who don't
have a spiritual family to take care

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of them when they're in a crisis. Now, let's look at the next

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verse. Let's read it aloud together. One Peter says this love your spiritual

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family. Are you doing that.
Do you love your spiritual family so well?

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I don't even have one. Well, we invite you to be a

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part of Saddleback. There's lots of
good spiritual families in this area. Just

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choose one. Now, why is
this important love your spiritual family? Because

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when you get to heaven, two
of the things you're going to do in

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heaven. One is love God and
two is love the other people. That's

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called worship and fellowship. And what
does God wants you to do while you're

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here on earth, same thing?
Practice. He wants you to not only

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love God, he wants you to
learn to love other people. Why.

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Because God is love, he wants
you to practice. So write this down

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on the next page. The second
purpose of life is to learn to love

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others. The first purpose of life
is to learn to love God. The

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second purpose of life is to learn
to love other people. Because God wants

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you to be like he is.
He loves you and he loves others.

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That's why you need a church home. It's the laboratory for learning to love

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God's family. Now, I hear
people say all the time, You know,

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Rick, I don't need a church. I can go out in nature

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by myself. And I could worship
God by myself in nature, Well,

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of course you can. Who do
you think comitted nature God did? That's

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why you feel so close to him
in nature. Of course, you can

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worship God on your own nature,
but you can't love other people in nature

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by yourself. That's why you need
a family. And God wants us to

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learn real love, which means to
learn to love real people, not just

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ideal people. So he puts some
people around us that are a little bit

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unlovable. I call him heavenly sandpaper, you know, anybody like that to

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kind of just rub you the wrong
way. God wants to teach you real

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love. To dwell above with those
we love, oh that will be a

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glory. But to dwell below with
those we know, that's another story.

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You see, every family has an
Uncle Wilbur, just a little bit out

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of kilter, you know, a
little bit off. You know, it's

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coming to Eastern and you're going,
oh, no, Uncle Wilbur's going to

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be there. They're in every small
group, they're in every family, they're

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in every church, and God intentionally
puts them there so we can learn to

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love. You know, the light's
on, but nobody's home a few fries

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short of a happy meal. You
know, the elevator doesn't go all the

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way to the top. They don't
get all the social clues. And in

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every one of our twenty six hundred
small groups, there's at least one person

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like this that just needs egr extra
grace required. Okay, Now, if

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you don't immediately think of who I'm
talking about, I hate tell you this,

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but you're it. Okay. I
mean, if that person didn't come

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to mind, who is it in
my family that's like that. I hate

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to tell you. It's you.
But we need you and you need us

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because God wants us to learn real
love. It's easy to love the lovely

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people, but God puts us around
people that are a little difficult to love

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because you cannot fulfill God's purposes on
your own. Nobody has it all together.

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I don't. You don't. That's
why we need each other. Look

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at this next verse. The Bible
says we belong to each other, and

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each of us needs all the others. Let's review. Let's review number one.

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You were planned for God's pleasures.
So the first purpose of life is

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to get to know and love God. Back. Second, God formed you

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for his family So the second purpose
of life is getting us spiritual family and

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start learning to love other people.
Love God, love other people. Number

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three, the Bible says, God
created me to become like Christ. God

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created me to become like Christ.
Now this takes a little explaining, but

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once you understand it, life will
make so much more sense. The bottom

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line is this, God wants you
to grow up spiritually. When you grow

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up physically, that's automatic. You
grew up automatically and you're an adult.

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But God wants you to grow up
spiritually too. And I know people are

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twenty thirty, forty fifty, sixty
years old physically and spiritually, they're still

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babies. God says, I want
you to grow up while you're on Earth.

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Grow up spiritually. This is the
kindergarten, the preschool, the dress

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ursul grow up to be like my
son Jesus. Christ is the model of

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spiritual maturity. That's why Jesus came
to earth. One of the reasons that

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came to earth is to model what
maturity is like. Now, notice these

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verses. The Bible says, from
the very beginning, God decided that those

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who came to him, in other
words, those who chose to become a

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part of his family. And all
along he knew who would should become like

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his son. And look of the
next verse. We look at the sun

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and we see God's original purpose in
everything created. Now, this is God's

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Plan A, not Plan B.
From the very begin he said, let

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us make man in our image.
God's goal has always been to make you

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like himself. Now, don't misunderstand
me, not to become a god,

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but to become godly, to have
godly character. You're never going to be

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a god. Okay. There are
some cults out there that teach you,

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oh, you're divine, you're a
god. You're no God. If you

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were a god, you'd have all
your problems solved by Now you're not God,

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all right, You're just not God. And so what God wants you

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to do is he wants you to
become godly in character like integrity and generosity

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and humility and all the characteristics of
God. Now, God is far more

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interested in what you are than what
you do. Why, because you're not

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taking your career to heaven, you
are taking your character. Aren't you glad

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you're not taking your career to heaven. Yeah, you're not gonna have to

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do that one in heaven. But
God says, I don't care really what

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you do. There might be a
dozen different jobs. He said, God,

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what job do you want me to
do? God says, your choice,

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whatever you feel like doing, because
I'm more interested in what you become

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while you're doing the job rather than
what you do. God isn't interested so

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much in what you do as he
is in what you become while you're doing

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it. Does that make sense?
He wants you, He's more interested in

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you than your job. So any
job can be used to grow up spiritually.

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Now, the number one question I'm
asked as a pastor is Rick,

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why is this happening to me?
And I'll tell you why. It's to

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help you to grow up spiritually.
Everything in life is designed to help you

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grow up spiritually. The good,
the bad, the ugly, the stuff

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you bring on yourself, the stuff
that other people do to you. God

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is not the author of evil.
God never does evil. But God can

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bring good even out of bad.
That's the cool thing about God. See,

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anybody can bring good out of good, anybody can do that, but

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God's specializes in bringing good out of
bad. That's what Easter is all about.

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He turns crucifixions into resurrections. He
takes a terrible thing, the death

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of his son, and uses it
to save the whole world. God brings

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good out of bad, and there's
nothing in your life that you can't learn

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from if you'll just respond with the
right attitude, and instead of saying God,

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why is this happening to me?
Say God, what do you want

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me to learn? What do you
want me to learn from this? Every

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situation in life will either make you
bitter or better, and it's your choice.

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It's how you choose to respond to
it. So the problem you're going

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through right now, you can just
think of it. Right now, think

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of the problem you're going through.
Every problem has a purpose. Every problem

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has a purpose, and the purpose
is to help you grow up spiritually,

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to not be a spiritually immature person, but to grow up. And the

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model of perfection is Jesus Christ.
Notice the next verse, let's read it

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aloud from Philippians. In your lives, you must think and act like Christ

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Jesus. So the question then becomes, if God's third purpose for my life

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is for me to grow up spiritually
and become like Jesus, what is Jesus

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like? Well, The Bible calls
it the fruit of the Spirit, and

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it says the fruit of the Spirit
is love, joy, peace, patience,

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gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self control. These are the

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qualities that God wants to build in
your life. He wants you to live

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a life that's overflowing with love,
overflowing with joy, overflowing with peace,

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and patience and all those things.
Now, how does God then produce those

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qualities in my life? How does
God grow character in you and help you

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grow up spiritually? How does he
make you like Jesus? I mean,

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are you just walking down the street
one day? No alson zap? God

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zaps you with love, and for
the rest of your life you love everybody.

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I don't think though. As I
said, God teaches you these qualities

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by putting you in the exact opposite
situation. He teaches you love by putting

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you around unlovely people. It's easy
to love people who are cool, people

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who are like you, people who
get along with But He'll put you around

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some unlovely people. How about joy? Joy is not happiness. Happiness depends

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on happenings circumstances. I can go
to Disneyland and I'm happy. I come

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out, I realize how much money
I spent. I'm not happy anymore.

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Joy is internal and God will teach
you joy in the middle of grief.

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How about peace? Oh, it's
easy to be peaceful when you're out fishing

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by the lake. Hey, it
doesn't get any better than this. No,

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God teaches you real peace in the
middle of chaos when everything in your

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life is falling apart, and you
say God, I need your and He

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puts you full of peace. How
does God teach us patience? Department of

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Motor Vehicles. Oh, you've been
there. Thank you so much for listening

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00:21:15.200 --> 00:21:18.480
to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. We've
got some incredible news to share with you.

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A very generous friend has given a
one hundred thousand dollars matching grant to

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00:21:25.200 --> 00:21:29.759
this ministry. That means that all
this month, every dollar you give to

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00:21:29.839 --> 00:21:33.799
help Daily Hope share the certain Hope
of Jesus around the world will be matched

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00:21:33.960 --> 00:21:38.680
up to one hundred thousand dollars.
Here's Pastor Rick to tell you more.

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Did you know that today there's still
almost three thousand groups of people around the

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world that have no Bible, no
believer in Christ, and no body of

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Christ, no church. Over three
thousand of those small tribes. One of

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the reasons I started Daily Hope was
to help bring this awareness to the world

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and and raise the funds to get
a Bible, a believer, and a

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00:22:03.559 --> 00:22:07.319
body of Christ in these last three
thousand tribes. I call it the final

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Frontier. These people not only need
to hear about the love of Jesus,

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they need to grow up. They
need to be discipled in their faith.

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Now, I admit this is a
big vision, but it's an important vision.

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It's a global vision, it's a
timely vision. But every vision requires

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provision. And honestly, we wouldn't
be able to even go after these tribes

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without your help. And that's why
I can't fully express how much I appreciate

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00:22:33.599 --> 00:22:37.920
your support for Daily Hope. When
you give to this ministry, you're not

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00:22:37.960 --> 00:22:42.880
only supporting this broadcast, but you're
supporting our efforts to go to the final

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00:22:42.960 --> 00:22:48.319
frontier, the final three thousand tribes
that have no Bible, no believer,

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00:22:48.559 --> 00:22:51.759
and no body of Christ. Now, the reason I'm telling you this is

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I'm excited to share we have a
generous couple who's offered a one hundred thousand

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00:22:56.319 --> 00:23:02.680
dollars matching grant gift to Daily Hope. What does that mean? It means

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00:23:02.759 --> 00:23:07.920
any gift you give between now and
the end of December will be doubled to

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00:23:07.160 --> 00:23:11.279
match that amount. So I want
to ask you to please prayerfully consider how

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00:23:11.319 --> 00:23:18.039
you could give today help us reach
the final frontier of these tribes that have

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never heard the name of Christ in
the coming year. Friends, even if

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00:23:21.599 --> 00:23:26.000
you can't help us financially, I
want to ask you to pray, pray

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00:23:26.039 --> 00:23:30.440
for us, and pray these specific
prayer requests that I will faithfully teach God's

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word in a way that blesses you
and penetrates the hearts of people who don't

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know Christ. Pray for the Daily
Hope team that God will encourage them as

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they create all of our discipleship tools
and materials which we want you to have

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to help you. And most of
all, pray for these unreached tribes and

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groups of people who've never heard the
name of Jesus. I'm praying for you

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during this Christmas season. Thank you
so much for your generosity, Thank you

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00:24:02.599 --> 00:24:04.599
for your prayers, Thank you for
your support. You make it possible.

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00:24:04.960 --> 00:24:10.400
Remember, as Rick just shared,
whatever you give today will be doubled by

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00:24:10.440 --> 00:24:15.720
the matching grant up to one hundred
thousand dollars, but only till midnight,

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00:24:15.799 --> 00:24:21.599
December thirty first. Anything not matched
will be lost, so please contact us

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00:24:21.599 --> 00:24:26.880
today. You can give right now
by going to Pastorick dot com or by

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00:24:26.960 --> 00:24:32.359
calling eight hundred six hundred five thousand
and four. We'll say thanks by sending

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00:24:32.400 --> 00:24:37.039
you the brand new Daily Hope Prayer
Journal that's Pastorick dot com or call eight

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00:24:37.119 --> 00:24:42.000
hundred six hundred five thousand and four. Be sure to join us again next

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00:24:42.000 --> 00:24:48.160
time as we look into God's word
for our daily hope. This program is

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00:24:48.200 --> 00:24:52.119
sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and
your generous financial support