Speaker 1: Jesus frequently took a very common word like student, pupil, disciple, apprentice,
Speaker 1: and he adds new meaning to it. He infuses it,
Speaker 1: He injects new meaning into it. And so I want
Speaker 1: us to look at Jesus definition of what it means
Speaker 1: to be a disciple, because about ten times in scripture,
Speaker 1: Jesus says, if you do this, then you're my disciple.
Speaker 1: If you do this, then you can follow me. Look
Speaker 1: at this verse on the screen. If you continue and
Speaker 1: what I say lives in you continues in you, then
Speaker 1: you can ask anything you want and it'll be yours.
Speaker 1: That's quite a promise. In prayer said, if you're living
Speaker 1: in me and my words living in you, you can
Speaker 1: ask for whatever you want, it'll be yours. You give
Speaker 1: glory to my father when you produce a lot of fruit,
Speaker 1: and therefore show that you're my disciples. Now, he says,
Speaker 1: you got to continue. It's a process, it's a strategy,
Speaker 1: it's a journey. If you're going to continue to grow
Speaker 1: the rest of your life, and that's what I'm trying
Speaker 1: to help you do, You're going to need a couple things. First.
Speaker 1: You need a plan, You need a track to run on.
Speaker 1: You need a pathway, you need some guidelines, you need
Speaker 1: a trail, you need a process. Jesus had a plan
Speaker 1: for helping his disciples grow from immaturity to spiritual maturity.
Speaker 1: And he starts off where they were, not where they
Speaker 1: ought to be. He starts off where they are. He
Speaker 1: loves them, and he takes them through each step to growth.
Speaker 1: Now when they're growing, he loves them at every stage.
Speaker 1: Listen to this. Jesus loves you. God loves you at
Speaker 1: every stage of your maturity. But he does want you
Speaker 1: to grow, and you need a pathway. Jesus had a plan,
Speaker 1: and that pathway was teaching his disciples first to know
Speaker 1: him and then to love him, and then to grow
Speaker 1: in him, and then to serve him and then to
Speaker 1: share him. It's like a baby. A baby has to
Speaker 1: learn to breathe, then it learns to eat, Then it
Speaker 1: learns to walk, and then it learns to talk. We
Speaker 1: all grow at different stages and greats, but every one
Speaker 1: of us went through those exact same physical stages, and
Speaker 1: there are spiritual stages in spiritual growth too. If you
Speaker 1: want to grow, you must develop good habits. Would you
Speaker 1: write that down? Spiritual growth is a matter of good habits,
Speaker 1: and in the Christian life, you are the sum total
Speaker 1: of your habits. You see, character is a matter of habit.
Speaker 1: It's something that you do habitually. For instance, you can't
Speaker 1: say you have the character quality of honesty unless it's
Speaker 1: your habit to always tell the truth. If you tell
Speaker 1: the truth seventy percent of the time, you're not honest.
Speaker 1: It's not a habit. It's not a character. You got
Speaker 1: to be honest. It has to be a habit. In
Speaker 1: your line, if I say to my wife, honey, I
Speaker 1: have the character quality of faithfulness to you, and I
Speaker 1: will be faithful to you twenty eight days a month,
Speaker 1: Well that doesn't work. Partial faithfulness is unfaithfulness, right, Does
Speaker 1: that make sense? You're not being faithful at all if
Speaker 1: you're faithful ninety percent of the time. No, I'm not
Speaker 1: faithful to my wife unless I am one hundred percent
Speaker 1: faithful to her all the time. Now, that's true in
Speaker 1: every area. It's developing good habits. Now throughout the centuries,
Speaker 1: for two thousand years of the church, Christians have used
Speaker 1: these habits. Sometimes they're called spiritual disciplines. Sometimes they're called
Speaker 1: devotional practices. I don't care what you call them. We
Speaker 1: call them habits at saddleback, stuff that you learn, like
Speaker 1: how to have a daily time with God, a quiet time.
Speaker 1: How to pray, that's a habit. How to read the Bible,
Speaker 1: that's a habit. How to be in a small group fellowship,
Speaker 1: that's a habit. How to tithe your money, that's a habit.
Speaker 1: The habit of solitude, silence, being quiet before God, the
Speaker 1: habit of fasting, the habit of journaling. There are hundreds
Speaker 1: of good habits. Some are more important than others, but
Speaker 1: they are the building blocks for growing the spiritual maturity.
Speaker 1: And notice the results of spiritual maturity. It says that
Speaker 1: when you have these habits, and when you grow and
Speaker 1: you do what Jesus tells you to do, it says
Speaker 1: you will produce fruit, a lot of fruit. Jesus said,
Speaker 1: by their fruit you will know them. This is what
Speaker 1: we call radical discipleship. Radical devotion is I love God
Speaker 1: with all my heart and soul and mind and strength.
Speaker 1: Radical fellowship is I'm as committed to you as I
Speaker 1: am the Jesus Christ. Radical discipleship is when I I
Speaker 1: develop the habits to become more and more like Jesus.
Speaker 1: Every year of my life Number five, the fifth qualification.
Speaker 1: To be a disciple of Jesus, I must serve others unselfishly.
Speaker 1: I've got to learn to serve others. And service is
Speaker 1: a very very important part of your spiritual growth and
Speaker 1: your spiritual development, because God says it's not all taken in,
Speaker 1: it's giving back. The Bible says, if you want to
Speaker 1: be the most important person, you must take the last
Speaker 1: place and be the servant to everyone else. See the
Speaker 1: world's value system says get everybody to serve you, and
Speaker 1: Jesus says, no, no, the real leaders Leadership is not
Speaker 1: dependent upon how many people serve you, but how many
Speaker 1: people you serve. He says, the best leaders are those
Speaker 1: who are helping other people, not using the people to
Speaker 1: serve themselves. The world says, live for yourself. God says,
Speaker 1: give your life away. Now, why is this so important?
Speaker 1: Let me give you a little advice. The key to
Speaker 1: happiness in life is to find significance. Happiness does not
Speaker 1: last unless you find significance in life. And everybody wants
Speaker 1: their life to be significant. The problem is we look
Speaker 1: in all the wrong places for significance. Success does not
Speaker 1: give significance because You can always find somebody who's more
Speaker 1: successful than you and you start feeling bad. You can
Speaker 1: be successful and it won't give you significance. A salary
Speaker 1: doesn't give you significance. You can make a lot of money.
Speaker 1: There's nothing wrong with making money. But you can make
Speaker 1: a lot of money, but it won't give you significance.
Speaker 1: I probably know a dozen billionaires. I can give their
Speaker 1: names and you'd know who they were, and they would
Speaker 1: tell you that money does several things. It makes life easier,
Speaker 1: it removes some worries, it can make you more comfortable.
Speaker 1: But money will never give you significance. And that's the
Speaker 1: key to happiness. And we get tired of things, and
Speaker 1: so that's why we have to redecorate. So significance doesn't
Speaker 1: come from salary. It doesn't come from success. It doesn't
Speaker 1: come from status, the little symbols on your car, on
Speaker 1: your shirt. It doesn't come from sex. It comes from service.
Speaker 1: Because God wired the universe that the only way your
Speaker 1: life takes on significance is you give it away. Why
Speaker 1: God wants you to learn to be like him unselfish.
Speaker 1: The most miserable people in life are self centered. It's
Speaker 1: all about me. I'm living for me, my pleasure, my needs,
Speaker 1: my comfort. It's all about me, and that's the way
Speaker 1: to be a miserable person. The happiest people in life
Speaker 1: are those who give their lives away. They're serving others.
Speaker 1: Whether they got money or not, it doesn't matter. Their
Speaker 1: significance gives them their satisfaction, their meaning, their purpose, their
Speaker 1: value in life. So he says, give your life away.
Speaker 1: And who's our model for this, Jesus. Look at the
Speaker 1: next verse. Jesus said, for even I, the son of Man,
Speaker 1: came here not to be served, but to serve others
Speaker 1: and give my life as a ransom for many you
Speaker 1: might circle to serve and to give. He said, I
Speaker 1: came to serve and I came to give. That defines
Speaker 1: the Christian life. And the more you learn to serve,
Speaker 1: and the more you learn to give, the happier you're
Speaker 1: going to be, the more fulfilled you're going to be.
Speaker 1: Because when you do that, God says, I've found somebody
Speaker 1: who gets it. I'm going to pour blessing into their lives. Now,
Speaker 1: why is serving so important to spiritual growth? Because you
Speaker 1: can't just take in, You've got to exercise, and spiritual
Speaker 1: exercise is when you do something unselfish when you serve others,
Speaker 1: when you minister to others, you can't just sit soak
Speaker 1: and sour. You can't just keep taking in. If your
Speaker 1: whole Christian life involves just going to church, listening, sitting down,
Speaker 1: taking notes and going home, it ain't gonna work. Impression
Speaker 1: without expression leads to depression. You have to exercise. Ministry
Speaker 1: is movement. As I said, you got to move it,
Speaker 1: move it. And if you do that, then you're gonna grow.
Speaker 1: You know, if all you did was eat the right food,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't grow. You have to exercise too. It's not
Speaker 1: enough you got. You know, sometimes people they just are
Speaker 1: spiritual feeders and all they do is listen, and they
Speaker 1: come to church and they listen, and then they turn
Speaker 1: on the Christian radio and they listen, and they go
Speaker 1: to a Bible study and they listen, and you just
Speaker 1: start getting better and better, and you're eating more and
Speaker 1: more spiritual food and bigger and bigger, til you're so
Speaker 1: big we have to roll you down the aisle. And
Speaker 1: that's where we get the term holy. If you don't
Speaker 1: move it, move it. If you don't have any exercise
Speaker 1: in your life, you will not grow spiritually. You got
Speaker 1: to develop some muscle how by serving, Jesus said, if
Speaker 1: you want to follow me, you got to learn to
Speaker 1: be the servant of all. One of the things that
Speaker 1: God wants us to do, and he says it over
Speaker 1: and over scripture is to practice gratitude. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you've ever noticed that the more grateful a person is,
Speaker 1: the happier they are. That's the power of gratitude. Now
Speaker 1: I've put together a brand new Bible study called the
Speaker 1: Power of Gratitude, and in it you'll find scriptures and
Speaker 1: teaching and exercises that will help you develop the habit
Speaker 1: of gratitude. You'll discover how to state in God's will,
Speaker 1: how to defeat discouragement, how to conquer complaining, how to
Speaker 1: reduce stress, and how to experience God's blessing through gratitude. So, today,
Speaker 1: when you partner with me by giving a gift, a
Speaker 1: financial gift to daily hope, to help us take the
Speaker 1: certain hope of Jesus to people all around the world,
Speaker 1: I'm going to have my team sends you the Power
Speaker 1: of Gratitude Bible Study. I just want to say, thanks
Speaker 1: to you. I'm going to be grateful for you. You
Speaker 1: know your support is essential for us taking the daily
Speaker 1: hope message of Jesus all around the world. Now, there's
Speaker 1: another thing that this first teaches, and that is you're
Speaker 1: never going to grow spiritually until you learn to sacrifice.
Speaker 1: Spiritual growth requires sacrifice. Why Because it's all about love,
Speaker 1: and the essence of love is giving. It's the essence
Speaker 1: of love. If you've never had the sacrifice for anything,
Speaker 1: you don't know the deeper levels of love. You know
Speaker 1: shallow love, But the deeper levels of love are the
Speaker 1: levels of sacrifice, losing your life to find it. And
Speaker 1: Jesus said it like this, and Matthew sixteen, if anyone
Speaker 1: wants to be my disciple, he must deny himself, take
Speaker 1: up his cross, and follow me. Notice three three definitions
Speaker 1: of sacrifice. First, he must deny himself. What does that mean.
Speaker 1: It means I say, God, I'm putting my agenda on
Speaker 1: the shelf, and I'm going with your agenda. It's not
Speaker 1: my plan, it's your plan. It's not my purpose for
Speaker 1: my life, it's your purpose for my life. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: deny myself my plans for my life. I'm gonna say, God,
Speaker 1: what did you put me on this earth to do.
Speaker 1: I want to go with your plan. That's denying yourself,
Speaker 1: that's sacrifice. Then it says take up your cross. What
Speaker 1: does that mean? Take up your cross literally means be
Speaker 1: willing to sacrifice for good and for God, even if
Speaker 1: it means dying, because the cross was an instrument of death.
Speaker 1: Only God can turn a negative into a positive. The
Speaker 1: cross is a symbol of torture. Now today we don't
Speaker 1: understand what means to take up your cross because we
Speaker 1: think of these cute little crosses we were on necklaces,
Speaker 1: you know, around our neck, and it's just a nice
Speaker 1: little pretty piece of jewelry. But the cross was a
Speaker 1: symbol of torture. It was a device for capital punishment,
Speaker 1: extremely cruel and excruciatingly painful, invented by the Romans. Today,
Speaker 1: the equivalent would be wearing an electric chair on a
Speaker 1: chain around your neck. What do you wear an electric
Speaker 1: chain before? Because it'd be wearing a symbol of torture.
Speaker 1: But God took that and turned it into a positive.
Speaker 1: Do you know what a cross is? It is a
Speaker 1: minus sign crossed out. It's a negative turned in to
Speaker 1: a plus. And that's what the cross does in your life.
Speaker 1: He takes God takes the negatives in your life, the minuses,
Speaker 1: and he makes up for it with what Jesus did
Speaker 1: for you, and he turns your negative life into a
Speaker 1: positive life into a plus. Now, he says, take up
Speaker 1: your cross. That means be willing to die for Christ.
Speaker 1: You haven't been asked to do that in America, but
Speaker 1: all around the world, one hundred and thirty seven thousand
Speaker 1: Christians did that this last year in the world. Gave
Speaker 1: their lives, gave their lives, they took up their cross
Speaker 1: because they were killed simply for believing in Jesus. Now
Speaker 1: there's one more thing, okay, Jesus saying, if I'm going
Speaker 1: to be a disciple, I've got to spend time with him.
Speaker 1: I've got to love him supremely. I've got to love
Speaker 1: all everybody else in the church. I've got to obey
Speaker 1: him continually. I've got to serve others unselfishly. Here's number six.
Speaker 1: To be a disciple, I must pass on the good news.
Speaker 1: I must pass on the good news. When I hear it,
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to tell somebody else about it. Matthew four,
Speaker 1: Verse twenty. Jesus called out come be my disciples, and
Speaker 1: I will show you how to fish for people. And
Speaker 1: they left their nets at once and went with him.
Speaker 1: And what's he talking about here? One day Jesus is
Speaker 1: walking down the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee. Peter, James, John,
Speaker 1: and Andrew are brothers and cousins and their professional fishermen.
Speaker 1: In those days, you didn't fish with a rod and reel.
Speaker 1: You fish with a net, so you throw the net out.
Speaker 1: They're on the shoreline mending their nets. Jesus is walking
Speaker 1: mind and it looks at him and he says, well,
Speaker 1: he's walking back. Come be my disciple, and I'll show
Speaker 1: you how to fish for people. What's he mean by that?
Speaker 1: I'll show you how to change lives. I'll show you
Speaker 1: how to get people into heaven. I'll show you how
Speaker 1: to bring people to me. I'll show you how to
Speaker 1: share the good news. You will be a fisher of men,
Speaker 1: he says, follow me and I will teach you. I'll
Speaker 1: make you fishers of men. Now, the corollary of that is,
Speaker 1: if you're not fishing, you're not following. Is anybody going
Speaker 1: to be in heaven because of you? If you're not fishing,
Speaker 1: you're not following. If you're not telling it to somebody else,
Speaker 1: you are not being a disciple. You see, God expects
Speaker 1: you to pass it on. If I knew the cure
Speaker 1: for cancer and kept it a secret, they should put
Speaker 1: me in prison. That should It should be criminal to
Speaker 1: know the best news and not share it. If I
Speaker 1: knew the cure for AIDS and I didn't share it
Speaker 1: with anybody, that's criminal. I know something better than that.
Speaker 1: You do too, How to have your past forgiving purpose
Speaker 1: for living home in heaven and God calls us to
Speaker 1: share it. Look at this verse on the screen. Paul
Speaker 1: is talking to Timothy. Timothy was the disciple, the apprentice
Speaker 1: of Paul, and Paul says, Timothy, take the teachings that
Speaker 1: you heard from me, in the presence of any witnesses,
Speaker 1: and entrust them to reliable people who these reliable people
Speaker 1: will be able to teach others. Also to leave that
Speaker 1: verse on the screen from minute four generations. In this verse,
Speaker 1: Paul says, I got the good news, Timothy, and I
Speaker 1: passed it on to you. Now, Timothy, you're to pass
Speaker 1: it on to other people who are reliable enough to
Speaker 1: pass it on to a fourth generation. You're gonna go
Speaker 1: to heaven because somebody told you, and somebody told the
Speaker 1: somebody who told you, and somebody told the somebody who
Speaker 1: told somebody who told you. Is the chain gonna break
Speaker 1: with you? Is anybody going to be in heaven? Because
Speaker 1: you Christianity is always one generation away from annihilation, one
Speaker 1: generation away. If you don't tell somebody who's going to
Speaker 1: be there. Jesus says, to be a disciple, you must
Speaker 1: pass it on. Look at the next Matthew twenty eight. Therefore,
Speaker 1: he says, go and make disciples. Once you're one, he says,
Speaker 1: you're to go make others. You're a disciple. Now, go
Speaker 1: and make other disciples of all the nations. In Greek,
Speaker 1: that's ta ethne. We get the word ethnic from it,
Speaker 1: from the Greek word ethne ethnic food and ethnic language,
Speaker 1: things like that. Go and make disciples of all Ethnics,
Speaker 1: all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,
Speaker 1: Son and Holy Spirit. There's a trinity. If you haven't
Speaker 1: been baptized or baptizing today, and teach these new disciples
Speaker 1: to do the same thing you do. To obey all
Speaker 1: the commands I've given you. And be sure of this.
Speaker 1: I am with you always, even to the end. Of
Speaker 1: the age. I want somebody to be in heaven because
Speaker 1: of you. And if you start praying about your friends
Speaker 1: who don't know the Lord, God will make it so
Speaker 1: easy they'll come to Christ and you can reach one person.
Speaker 1: For Jesus, that's what it means to be a disciple.
Speaker 1: We pass it on somebody else. What happens. Look at
Speaker 1: this verse on the screen. If I do these six
Speaker 1: things that Jesus says to do and I become a disciple,
Speaker 1: here's what happens. Jesus said, if you try to keep
Speaker 1: your life for yourself, you're going to lose it. But
Speaker 1: if you give up your life for my sake and
Speaker 1: for the sake of the good News, you will find
Speaker 1: true life. But let's close with the prayer. Why don't
Speaker 1: you pray this in your heart, Dear God. I don't
Speaker 1: want to be a baby believer. I don't want to
Speaker 1: be spiritually immature. I want to grow up. I want
Speaker 1: to be a man of God. I want to be
Speaker 1: a woman of God. I want to spend more time
Speaker 1: with you, Jesus. I want to learn to talk to
Speaker 1: you like you're my best friend. I want to learn
Speaker 1: to love you supremely with all my heart and soul
Speaker 1: and mind and strength. I want to learn to love
Speaker 1: other disciples. I want to learn to love other Christians,
Speaker 1: the body of Christ. I want to be a part
Speaker 1: of this church family. I want to be in a
Speaker 1: small group where I can practice love. I want to
Speaker 1: do what you tell me to do. I want to
Speaker 1: continue in your teaching so that I can be set
Speaker 1: free from all of the hang ups that hold me back,
Speaker 1: the worry, the fear, the anxiety, all the many things.
Speaker 1: I want to develop some spiritual muscle this year. I
Speaker 1: want to learn to serve you unselfishly, and I want
Speaker 1: to pass on the good news. Help me to find
Speaker 1: one person that I can bring to you can become
Speaker 1: a part of your family and be in heaven because
Speaker 1: I shared with you. Lord, I can't do this on
Speaker 1: my own that I ask you to do this. I
Speaker 1: make these six things my new Year's resolution, and with
Speaker 1: your help, I will keep them in Jesus' name. Amen. Today,
Speaker 1: I'd like to read a testimony that really blessed me.
Speaker 1: It shows how even when you make mistakes, God's faithful
Speaker 1: to forgive you, and that He's always working in your
Speaker 1: life to bring about everything together for good in your life.
Speaker 1: Not everything is good in your life, but God works
Speaker 1: at all for good in your life. Now, this is
Speaker 1: from a man who says he's a recovering addict, and
Speaker 1: this is part of his story that starts when he
Speaker 1: listened to a Daily Hope podcast. Here's what he wrote
Speaker 1: past Rick. A couple months ago, I started a twelve
Speaker 1: step program. In working the steps and in turning my
Speaker 1: addiction over to God, I searched out many sources for
Speaker 1: daily inspirational, daily devotionals, daily meditations to help me reconnect
Speaker 1: with the Lord as a support for the progress in
Speaker 1: my recovery. Now, in what just seemed to be a
Speaker 1: random chance, seemed to be I just came across your
Speaker 1: Daily Hope podcast and I blindly just picked a message
Speaker 1: from early July. I'm sure some of a lot of
Speaker 1: other people have done that too. Well. The very first
Speaker 1: one I listened to was on Roman seven, which is
Speaker 1: all about why do I do the wrong things that
Speaker 1: I don't want to do when I know what's wrong?
Speaker 1: And what makes me do that? I can't believe that
Speaker 1: was the first one you listened to. Well, knock me
Speaker 1: over with a feather. It was a bolt of lightning
Speaker 1: that I needed to hear, and it was followed by
Speaker 1: tears of joy because the very next podcast, of course,
Speaker 1: was Roman's eight, which is the solution to my dilemma.
Speaker 1: That's right, folks. Roman seven explains the mess we're in.
Speaker 1: Roman's eight explains how to get out of it. He says, Rick,
Speaker 1: it was like a smack on the head by divine intervention.
Speaker 1: So I joined a small group and I haven't missed
Speaker 1: a week since and I love it. And I have
Speaker 1: a weekly Bible study with a close friend who graciously
Speaker 1: offered to help me. And I subscribe to your daily
Speaker 1: devotional email, and I've continued to listen to your podcast
Speaker 1: when I go for my morning walk. He says, the
Speaker 1: spiritual growth that I've achieved in a relatively short period
Speaker 1: of time is really nothing short of remarkable. It's a
Speaker 1: miracle and it's a blessing, and it's helped me turn
Speaker 1: my life around. I now understand why God allowed me
Speaker 1: to suffer through all my addiction, and that the path
Speaker 1: of recovery is through Jesus Christ. From the bottom of
Speaker 1: my heart, Rick, thank you for all you do through him.
Speaker 1: Well wow, wow, wow. This testimony is a powerful reminder
Speaker 1: of how God can take everything in our lives, the mistakes,
Speaker 1: the sins, the failures, the hurts, the bad decisions, even
Speaker 1: destructive habits, and guess what God can even bring good
Speaker 1: out of them. The Bible says in all things God
Speaker 1: works for the good of those who love him. It
Speaker 1: doesn't say all things good, because not all things are good.
Speaker 1: But in all things God is working for the good
Speaker 1: of those who love him. That's Romans eight twenty eight.
Speaker 1: Now this story is a beautiful example of Romans eight
Speaker 1: twenty eight and that truth. Listen very closely. No matter
Speaker 1: what we've done, I'll say it again, no matter what
Speaker 1: we've done, we're never outside of God's master plan for
Speaker 1: our lives. Your life is not random. In this case,
Speaker 1: God led somebody to Daily Hope podcasts just at the
Speaker 1: right moment tear exactly what he needed. Now, God could
Speaker 1: have used any method, He could have used any person,
Speaker 1: He could have used any podcasts, but God, in this
Speaker 1: instance chose to use Daily Hope. You know, friends, it's
Speaker 1: because of your support, your prayers, and your giving that
Speaker 1: we're able to make Daily Hope Bible teaching available to
Speaker 1: over thirty five thirty five million people every month. So
Speaker 1: thank you, Thanks a lot. I mean this from the
Speaker 1: bottom my heart. Thank you for your support. This man,
Speaker 1: who is a recovering addict was helped because you. You
Speaker 1: cared enough to support this ministry. So let me just
Speaker 1: say it again. I don't ever get tired of saying it.
Speaker 1: Thank you from the bottom of my heart. One of
Speaker 1: the things that God wants us to do, and he
Speaker 1: says it over and over scripture, is to practice gratitude.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've ever noticed that the more
Speaker 1: grateful a person is, the happier they are. That's the
Speaker 1: power of gratitude. Now I've put together a brand new
Speaker 1: Bible study called the Power of Gratitude, and in it
Speaker 1: you'll find scriptures and teaching and exercises that will help
Speaker 1: you develop the habit of gratitude. You'll discover how to
Speaker 1: state in God's will, how to defeat discouragement, how to
Speaker 1: conquer complaining, how to reduce stress, and how to experience
Speaker 1: God's blessing through gratitude. So, today, when you partner with
Speaker 1: me by giving a gift, a financial gift to daily hope,
Speaker 1: to help us take the certain hope of Jesus to
Speaker 1: people all around the world, I'm going to have my
Speaker 1: team send you the Power of Gratitude Bible study. I
Speaker 1: just want to say thanks to you. I'm want to
Speaker 1: be grateful for you. You know your support is essential
Speaker 1: for us taking the daily hope message of Jesus all
Speaker 1: around the world.