Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. This is
Speaker 1: the Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren. Hey, We're so
Speaker 1: glad you've joined us. Today we're continuing a powerful series
Speaker 1: called radicalis Developing Spiritual Roots. And in this series, Rick
Speaker 1: will show you how to grow deep in your faith,
Speaker 1: stay grounded in God's word, and become everything He created
Speaker 1: you to be. Okay, and now here's Rick with the
Speaker 1: final part of a message called radical Gratitude.
Speaker 2: Now, the Bible says that as believers, we are to
Speaker 2: live in a way that says live in a way
Speaker 2: that makes the truth about God attractive. You are to
Speaker 2: live in such a way that it makes the truth
Speaker 2: about God attractive. Do you do that? Do people look
Speaker 2: at you and go, man, I'd like to know more
Speaker 2: about the Bible. Do they look at your life and
Speaker 2: you are so winsome in your gratitude that people go, man,
Speaker 2: what gives with that person? She is always she's never complaining,
Speaker 2: but she's always grateful. He's always being positive, he's always
Speaker 2: building people up. I'd like to be like that guy.
Speaker 2: Do you do that? How do you make the truth
Speaker 2: of God more attractive by developing radical gratitude, the roots
Speaker 2: of gratitude. In fact, here's what the Bible says on
Speaker 2: the screen. Filippings two, do everything without complaining or arguing,
Speaker 2: so that let's just stop there for a minute. Okay, okay,
Speaker 2: let's just don't skip over that part. Do everything without arguing. Oh,
Speaker 2: come on, do everything without complaining. Be serious. That's what
Speaker 2: God says to do. Friends, Can I be honest with
Speaker 2: you as your pastor? There are some scriptures in the
Speaker 2: Bible that I don't understand and don't make sense. I
Speaker 2: don't have a problem with those. I just figure I'm
Speaker 2: not smart enough. My brain's too small. God knows what
Speaker 2: he's doing, and one day i'll get to heaven. God
Speaker 2: will explain why he did what he did and it
Speaker 2: didn't make sense to me, but he said do it
Speaker 2: this way. I don't have a problem with the parts
Speaker 2: of the Bible I don't understand. I have a problem
Speaker 2: with the parts I do understand. Like that verse, that's
Speaker 2: not like open to con questions and conjecture. It's not like, well,
Speaker 2: that's your interpretation. When he says do everything without complaining
Speaker 2: and arguing, there's only one interpretation. Don't complain, don't argue.
Speaker 2: As a believer, you are never to complain or to argue.
Speaker 2: Holy guacam only, how in the world you do that? Okay?
Speaker 2: He says, If you do that, you will be so
Speaker 2: unusual in the world because everybody complains and everybody argues.
Speaker 2: You're gonna make the truth of God attracted. It's a witness.
Speaker 2: He says, you will become blameless. You'll be blameless and pure.
Speaker 2: It'll show you're a child of God without fault. He said,
Speaker 2: you'll be faultless if you could do that in a
Speaker 2: crooked and depraved generation, which is cynical and sarcastic and critical,
Speaker 2: in which you shine like stars in the universe. We
Speaker 2: sing that song. We will shine like stars in the
Speaker 2: universe because we're living for your glory. How do you
Speaker 2: live for God's glory? You don't complain and you don't argue,
Speaker 2: but you're grateful in every situation that would change the world,
Speaker 2: that would bring millions of people to Christ. Not our
Speaker 2: protest signs, but our gratitude. And he says that will
Speaker 2: be so. You see, Christians should be known for radical love,
Speaker 2: radical kindness, radical joy, radical gratitude. There's a word for that.
Speaker 2: It's called Christ like. The problem is, we're not doing
Speaker 2: a very good job of this. We really aren't. This
Speaker 2: week I read some pressing statistics and in a world magazine,
Speaker 2: they did a survey nationally how Americans under thirty view evangelicals. Now,
Speaker 2: who's an evangelical? You are? And evangelical is not? An evangelist?
Speaker 2: And evangelical is someone who believes the good news that
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ died on the cross, paid for my sins,
Speaker 2: that by his grace I can go to heaven, my
Speaker 2: past can be forgiven. I get a home in heaven,
Speaker 2: purpose for living. That's an evangelical. You're an evangelical. It
Speaker 2: comes from the word evangel which is the Greek word
Speaker 2: for good news. That's all. It is, somebody who believes
Speaker 2: the good news. So they did a survey how Americans
Speaker 2: under thirty view evangelicals, and here with the results. Eighty
Speaker 2: five percent said they're hypocritical, Seventy eight percent of Americans
Speaker 2: said they're old fashioned, seventy five percent said they are
Speaker 2: too involved in politics, seventy two percent said out of
Speaker 2: touch with reality, seventy percent said insensitive to others, and
Speaker 2: sixty eight percent said boring. We're not doing a very
Speaker 2: good job of representing Jesus. If that's what the world
Speaker 2: thinks of us, we're not doing a very good job.
Speaker 2: Why because we're not radically loving, radically kind, radically compassion.
Speaker 2: We're really no different than anybody else, and we what
Speaker 2: we need is a radical change in the way we
Speaker 2: act to be like Christ, to have those roots. And
Speaker 2: my goal, my desire, my dream, and I want you
Speaker 2: to be a part of this. Is that they take
Speaker 2: this survey ten years from now and they get a
Speaker 2: whole different list, and they go, you know what I
Speaker 2: think of evangelicals. I think of those are the people
Speaker 2: who help you when everybody else walks out of your life.
Speaker 2: Those are the people who give you a second chance,
Speaker 2: like in SA Celebrate Recovery. Those are the people who
Speaker 2: they stand for the truth, but they share it in
Speaker 2: a loving way. You can disagree with somebody and still
Speaker 2: love them. Those are the people who are kind. They
Speaker 2: are generous to a fault. Those are the people who
Speaker 2: give you the shirt off their back. They're the people
Speaker 2: who act like Jesus. They care for the poor and
Speaker 2: the sick, They help educate the next generation. They do
Speaker 2: all the things that the Peace Plan does that's what
Speaker 2: the church needs to be known for, not for boring,
Speaker 2: negative and all these other things. The Bible says this.
Speaker 2: On the screen, there's a verse Proverbs eleven eleven says,
Speaker 2: good people bless and build up their city, but the
Speaker 2: wicked destroy it with their words. How do you destroy
Speaker 2: a city with your words? Negativity, criticism, complaining, griping, all
Speaker 2: of those kind of things, and the Bible says, good
Speaker 2: people build up their city. What if every person in
Speaker 2: our church, in our church family, what if we set
Speaker 2: a goal, like this week, we said I want everybody
Speaker 2: this week to five times a day express gratitude or
Speaker 2: appreciation to people in the city. I'm not talking about
Speaker 2: the other believers. I'm not talking about to your family.
Speaker 2: I'm talking about people in the grocery line. Man. I
Speaker 2: like the way you bagged those groceries, the post office person,
Speaker 2: the clerk. What if every one of us in our
Speaker 2: church said we're going to be radically grateful and five
Speaker 2: times a day in the community this next week, I'm
Speaker 2: going to tell five people, you know, I'm just grateful
Speaker 2: for what you did, thank you for the way you
Speaker 2: did that, thank you for your service, thank you for
Speaker 2: your help. Just expressing thank you. That would equal if
Speaker 2: we did it every day for a week, that would
Speaker 2: equal over one million impressions in our community. Do you
Speaker 2: think that would change the climate an atmosphere. Absolutely, we
Speaker 2: this one church could change the atmosphere of southern California.
Speaker 2: If we everybody five times a day expressed great gratitude
Speaker 2: to somebody in the in the community, not a believer,
Speaker 2: every day for a month, it'd be about thirty million impressions.
Speaker 2: That would radically change the atmosphere in our community. You
Speaker 2: can bless people just by being grateful. You know. One
Speaker 2: of the ways you can says you know, I thank
Speaker 2: God for you. Now you better be genuine, you better
Speaker 2: have a reason for it, think it through. But one
Speaker 2: of the ways you can bless people say you know
Speaker 2: what God has really gifted you? You're good at. I
Speaker 2: don't know how you do this, the way you close deals,
Speaker 2: I don't know how the way you wrap packages, I
Speaker 2: don't know how you do this, the way you you know,
Speaker 2: give my dog a bath. I don't know. Whatever it is,
Speaker 2: whatever you know, you just be grateful. And if you've
Speaker 2: become a radically rateful person, you're going to start building
Speaker 2: roots in your life that's going to make you stand
Speaker 2: through the toughest things of the next decade. Now, the
Speaker 2: way God wired the universe. I love God, He's so cool.
Speaker 2: The way He is wired the universe is that when
Speaker 2: you give out and you help other people by showing
Speaker 2: appreciation and gratitude, God makes sure you always get back
Speaker 2: blessed more in return. And there are four personal benefits
Speaker 2: you get from developing radical gratitude. As you write these down,
Speaker 2: these are the four things that will happen if you
Speaker 2: will show gratitude in every circumstance. Four things will happen
Speaker 2: in your life. Number one. First benefit, it keeps me
Speaker 2: in God's will. You won't have to doubt whether you're
Speaker 2: in God's will or not. If you're giving thanks to
Speaker 2: God in every situation, you are in the center of
Speaker 2: God's will. You don't have to doubt, you don't have
Speaker 2: to wonder, you don't have to question. Giving thanks to
Speaker 2: God is not and to others is not a duty.
Speaker 2: It's a privilege in the alternative of disobedience. This keeps
Speaker 2: you in God's will. Number two, it makes me better,
Speaker 2: not bitter, particularly when times are tough. If you'll learn
Speaker 2: to have the attitude of gratitude in every situation. No
Speaker 2: matter what happens, you say God, I'm going to give
Speaker 2: thanks in this situation. It will make you better, not bitter. Now,
Speaker 2: every one of you have an excuse to be bitter.
Speaker 2: I didn't say a reason. I said you got an
Speaker 2: excuse because we've all been hurt, We've all had difficulties,
Speaker 2: so all things haven't gone the way we wanted them to,
Speaker 2: and you could get bitter. But you don't want to
Speaker 2: be bitter. You want to be better. So you need
Speaker 2: to be grateful instead of bitter that God can bring
Speaker 2: good out of it. Now, let me tell you something.
Speaker 2: Whoever you're holding a grudge against, whoever you still resent,
Speaker 2: whoever you haven't forgiven you, let it go now because
Speaker 2: you don't want to take last decades grudge into tomorrow.
Speaker 2: That's foolish because at the end of the next decade
Speaker 2: you'll just be more bitter person than you are now.
Speaker 2: Whoever has hurt you, whoever has harmed you, you need
Speaker 2: to let it go. You need to forgive them, not
Speaker 2: because they deserve it, You didn't deserve God's forgiveness. Let
Speaker 2: it go so you can get on with a clean slate.
Speaker 2: Do not take yesterday's grudges into tomorrow's decade. I beg
Speaker 2: you as your friend and pastor. Number three. Third benefit
Speaker 2: of radical gratitude is it defeats the devil. So how
Speaker 2: does that work? Well, let me explain it. It defeats
Speaker 2: the devil because the devil loves to mess you up. Now,
Speaker 2: the devil's got your number. And what he likes to
Speaker 2: do is it gets you angry, gets you upset, gets
Speaker 2: you irritated. He likes to get you depressed, discouraged. He
Speaker 2: likes to get you jealous, envious, greedy, lustful. He likes
Speaker 2: to do all these different things. And he knows your buttons,
Speaker 2: and so he has figured you out, and he knows
Speaker 2: that if he can just push this button, you'll get angry,
Speaker 2: you'll get irritated, you'll lose your joy, you'll lose your peace,
Speaker 2: you'll lose your love, you lose your connection with God.
Speaker 2: And so he's he pushes that button. Now, what Satan
Speaker 2: does not like to do, he hates for you to do,
Speaker 2: is to thank God. He can't stand to hear you
Speaker 2: thank God. He can't stand to hear you praise God.
Speaker 2: So when you if he does something in your life
Speaker 2: and you thank God in it, it's it gets him
Speaker 2: off his game because his idea is I'm gonna do this,
Speaker 2: push this button, and it will make him irritated. But
Speaker 2: if I push this button and every time I push
Speaker 2: this button, they just say, well, I'm gonna thank God
Speaker 2: in the situation, he's gonna stop doing it. Does this
Speaker 2: make sense? You see? It's like Pavlow's response. If you
Speaker 2: keep doing something and he keeps getting result from it,
Speaker 2: he'll keep doing it. And if there's somebody in your
Speaker 2: life who irritates you and he knows that, he'll just
Speaker 2: keep bringing that person into your life to irritate you
Speaker 2: and irritate you and irritate you as god im that
Speaker 2: one works. Well, let's do that one again. But if
Speaker 2: every time that person starts to irritate you go, oh God,
Speaker 2: I thank you in this irritation. I'm just so grateful
Speaker 2: for you because I know that even in this, you
Speaker 2: can teach me patience, you can teach me love. I
Speaker 2: can learn that this isn't that big a deal. I
Speaker 2: can learn it's not about me. I can learn to
Speaker 2: be more unselfish. I can give you a hundred reasons
Speaker 2: that if I can learn from this situation. Now, this
Speaker 2: is not our normal response. Okay, friends, I have add
Speaker 2: which means you can be scatterbrained. It also means you
Speaker 2: can be intensely focused. And when I get intensely focused
Speaker 2: on a project and somebody interrupts me, I don't naturally say, oh,
Speaker 2: thank God for this interruption. I'm just not that way.
Speaker 2: Or when somebody irritates me, oh man, I love this irritation.
Speaker 2: Bring it on. But here's the thing. If you can
Speaker 2: learn to thank God in everything in your life, you
Speaker 2: just shut out the devil. He starts irritating you over here,
Speaker 2: and he goes, I'm just not gonna let that bother
Speaker 2: me anymore. I'm just gonna go Lord, instead of being
Speaker 2: irritated to that person, I'm gonna pray for that person.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna thank God for that person. I'm gonna thank
Speaker 2: God for you, and I'm gonna thank God for the
Speaker 2: lesson of learning. Satan has to move to Project B.
Speaker 2: He starts trying to irritate you, get your goat, get
Speaker 2: you to lose your joy. Here, Lord, I'm gonna thank
Speaker 2: you in this situation. So he starts moving over here, Lord,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna thank you in this. If you learn to
Speaker 2: thank God in everything, you develop basically a wall of thanksgiving,
Speaker 2: a wall of praise around you that frustrates the devil
Speaker 2: no end because he can't get at you, because no
Speaker 2: matter what he'd does, you're not getting ticked anymore. You're
Speaker 2: just gonna thank you God. I don't know why this
Speaker 2: is happening. I don't like it, but I'm gonna trust
Speaker 2: you and I thank you, and you praise God in
Speaker 2: every situation, and there's no way for him to get
Speaker 2: at you, and it defeats the devil. Number four. The
Speaker 2: fourth benefit is it causes miracles. Gratitude is the source
Speaker 2: of miracles. It is the cause of miracles. Why because
Speaker 2: thanking faith is thanking God in advance. Now, listen real closely.
Speaker 2: When God does something for me and I thank God
Speaker 2: for it after it's happened, that's called gratitude. When I
Speaker 2: thank God for an answer to prayer before I get it,
Speaker 2: that's called faith. Faith is thanking God in advance. In
Speaker 2: other words, the Bible says in the Book of Mark,
Speaker 2: where Jesus said, when ye pray, believe that ye have,
Speaker 2: I've received it, and ye shall have it What does
Speaker 2: that mean? You said, I gotta believe I got it
Speaker 2: in order to get it. Yep, that's called faith. If
Speaker 2: you wait till after you've got it to thank God,
Speaker 2: that's called gratitude. If you thank God before you get it,
Speaker 2: that's called faith. Faith is thanking God in advance. Now
Speaker 2: let's just take a practical subject. Let's say in the
Speaker 2: next decade, you want to get married. Now, a lot
Speaker 2: of people don't pray for a partner. They whine for
Speaker 2: a partner. Oh God, I need a husband. Oh God,
Speaker 2: I don't you just let him have a heartbeat. I
Speaker 2: don't care, Okay, you know. Shoot, he could look like
Speaker 2: Rick Warren for all I care, you know, and I
Speaker 2: just just just let him be alive God, And you're whining.
Speaker 2: God doesn't answer whines. Okay, he doesn't answer whines. Here's
Speaker 2: how you pray over a long term. Now, First, why
Speaker 2: do you have to keep praying over and over and
Speaker 2: over because God says be persistent in your prayer. Are
Speaker 2: you trying to beat God down, trying to convince him
Speaker 2: that you need a husband. No, God wants to answer
Speaker 2: your prayer more than you want it answered. God is
Speaker 2: waiting on you He's not you waiting on him. He
Speaker 2: wants to make some changes in you, some radical changes
Speaker 2: in you to get you ready for the answer for
Speaker 2: whatever prayer you're asking. And when you're ready, he can
Speaker 2: answer your prayer. So what you do is you ask
Speaker 2: once and then you just keep thanking God in advance. God,
Speaker 2: you know what I need. I need a new job.
Speaker 2: And now you don't just keep saying, by the way, God,
Speaker 2: I need to remind you I need a new job. God,
Speaker 2: I need a job. Hello, God heard it the first time.
Speaker 2: Faith is thanking God at advance. And God, remember asking
Speaker 2: for a job a month ago. Thank you that the
Speaker 2: answer is on its way. I don't see it. I
Speaker 2: don't know where it's coming from, but I thank you
Speaker 2: that it's on the way. You turned off one faucet,
Speaker 2: you can turn on another just as easily. And so God,
Speaker 2: I'm thanking you in advance. That is the source of miracles.
Speaker 2: Faith is thanking God in advance for the answer to
Speaker 2: the prayer before you get it. This is what Jesus
Speaker 2: did in the miracles. One of the stories of Jesus.
Speaker 2: I told you a couple weeks ago about how Jesus
Speaker 2: had a friend named Lazarus who got sick, and his
Speaker 2: sisters Mary and Martha sent a note to JESUSI, Jesus,
Speaker 2: you better come on over and come over and heal him.
Speaker 2: Jesus was one day from their house, one day's walk,
Speaker 2: and as I told you a couple weeks ago, he
Speaker 2: took three days to get there. I don't know what
Speaker 2: he was doing for three days, skipping around and picking
Speaker 2: flowers or telling jokes, but it took him three days
Speaker 2: to get to where his best friend was dying. And
Speaker 2: by the time he gets there, Lazarus is dead, and
Speaker 2: things buried him in a cave. They didn't bury him
Speaker 2: in the ground in those days. The carved caves out
Speaker 2: of the limestone walls and rolled a stone in front
Speaker 2: of it. Now, Jesus wasn't in a hurry. Why anytime
Speaker 2: God is not in a hurry in your life, he
Speaker 2: wants to do something bigger. Jesus didn't want to heal Lazarus.
Speaker 2: He wanted to raise him from the dead. More glory
Speaker 2: for God. Anytime God has taken his time, he wants
Speaker 2: to do something bigger than you have been thinking of.
Speaker 2: So he gets there and they've already buried us. Say Lord,
Speaker 2: it is too late. We already buried the guy. We
Speaker 2: wrapped him up, you know, like in those grave cloths
Speaker 2: like a mummy, and put him in the cave. And
Speaker 2: Jesus says, open up the cave. And then is one
Speaker 2: of my favorite verses in the Bible. I memorized it
Speaker 2: as a little boy. And Mary says, but Lord, he stinketh.
Speaker 2: I thought that was such a cool verse when I
Speaker 2: was a kid, one of the only verses I memorized
Speaker 2: in the Bible. But Lord, he stinketh. Well, duh, he's
Speaker 2: been dead for three days, okay. And they're not embalming.
Speaker 2: And it's in the Mediterranean and it's hot, and Jesus
Speaker 2: walks up and he says, move the stone out of
Speaker 2: the way. And here's what Jesus says. He looks at
Speaker 2: the cave and he says, Lord, he's talking to the Father.
Speaker 2: He says, Father, I thank you that you've already heard me.
Speaker 2: He didn't ask God to raise Lazarus. He didn't beg
Speaker 2: God to raise Lazarus. He said, I thank you Lord
Speaker 2: that you've already heard me. And I'm just saying this
Speaker 2: aloud so the people around me will publicly know that
Speaker 2: I am who you say I am, and that you
Speaker 2: sent me, and so they may know that I am
Speaker 2: the one. And then he says, Lazarus, come forth, come out.
Speaker 2: And today he was say Lazarus, come on down, and
Speaker 2: Lazarus comes walking out. Now I love it that he
Speaker 2: had to say, because if Jesus had just said come out,
Speaker 2: every dead person in Jerusalem going to come out of
Speaker 2: the tombs. Okay, So he had to be specific. Lazarus
Speaker 2: come out, and he comes out. He says, take the
Speaker 2: grave clothes off him, loose him, and let him go.
Speaker 2: The point was he thanked God the Father in advance.
Speaker 2: And when you start doing this, you're moving to a
Speaker 2: new level of maturity. You're moving to deeper spiritual roots.
Speaker 2: Now some of you have lost your joy and you're
Speaker 2: not as close to God as you used to be.
Speaker 2: You need to get your You know how you get
Speaker 2: it back gratitude. Get a new believer around you and
Speaker 2: just get around them and you'll start getting excited again.
Speaker 2: Or go out and watch a baptism and let it
Speaker 2: remind you of when you were baptized. You know, it's
Speaker 2: kind of like going to a wedding. You ever gone
Speaker 2: to a wedding and all of a sudden you like
Speaker 2: fall in love with your wife again. You know. It's
Speaker 2: like you go there and go ah, you know, and
Speaker 2: and it's something you see other people in love, you go,
Speaker 2: I want to be that way. And when you see
Speaker 2: somebody baptize you get around new believer. It gets your
Speaker 2: spark back and remember what you were like before. You know. See,
Speaker 2: the longer your believer, the more you take for granted
Speaker 2: all those answered prayers, all the great things in your life.
Speaker 2: It's happened the first time you had an answer prayer.
Speaker 2: You're going, Wow, But now you get an answer prayer.
Speaker 2: He goes, well, that's typical when you meant to a
Speaker 2: tough time the first time and God really helped you.
Speaker 2: I go, man, that really helped. Now it's happened so
Speaker 2: many times you take it for granted. You need to
Speaker 2: get your roots deeper. Now. I invite you to join
Speaker 2: me on a radical journey, the journey of deeper Christian roots.
Speaker 2: That's power heads. You a'n't going to need Christ in
Speaker 2: your life if you've never opened your life to him.
Speaker 2: You need to say this right now, Jesus Christ. I
Speaker 2: don't understand it all, but I want to put my
Speaker 2: faith in you. I want to trust you to know
Speaker 2: your plan for my life. I ask you to forgive me.
Speaker 2: Thank you for dying for me. I don't understand that,
Speaker 2: but I want to get to know you and love
Speaker 2: you and trust you. Would you pray? Lord, I want
Speaker 2: to honor you this week. I want to start every
Speaker 2: day with gratitude. I don't want my feet to touch
Speaker 2: the ground without saying thank you God and Lord. I
Speaker 2: want to build relationships. I want to get closer to
Speaker 2: some people, help me to be grateful for them, to
Speaker 2: express gratitude to the people I want to be close
Speaker 2: to in my small group and my family and my fellowship.
Speaker 2: And Lord, you know the tough times I'm going through,
Speaker 2: and I'm going to thank you, just like Abacca did.
Speaker 2: Even though everything goes wrong, I will still thank you.
Speaker 2: I want to develop my faith and trust you, believing
Speaker 2: that you know what's best and I don't. I want
Speaker 2: to serve other people this week by raising their value
Speaker 2: by appreciating them. But I want my life to be
Speaker 2: a witness. I don't want Christians to be known for
Speaker 2: the negative. I want you to use me to be
Speaker 2: a positive person this week, expressing gratitude to people in
Speaker 2: our city, wherever I'm working, wherever I'm playing, make a
Speaker 2: difference through me, a radical difference. And I pray this
Speaker 2: prayer in your name. Amen.
Speaker 1: Hey, if you've just prayed along with Rick to accept
Speaker 1: Jesus in your life, Rick would love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: Just email Rick at Pastorick dot com. We'll send you
Speaker 1: free tools to help start your relationship with Jesus. And now,
Speaker 1: this really is one of my favorite parts of the broadcast.
Speaker 1: Letters from our listeners.
Speaker 2: Here's Rick. Friends. Here's an incredible testimony from a woman
Speaker 2: named Amy in Indiana about how she used a Daily
Speaker 2: Hope devotional to lead her own son to Christ. You
Speaker 2: could do this. Here's what she wrote to your pastor Rick.
Speaker 2: I've been carrying a burden this past month for my
Speaker 2: fifteen year old son who had not accepted Christ. But
Speaker 2: last night was the night I finally went into his
Speaker 2: room and I asked him and he told me no,
Speaker 2: that he hadn't accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior.
Speaker 2: So then I asked if he would like to and
Speaker 2: he said yes, Well, I had him read the Prayer
Speaker 2: of a Salvation attached to the Daily Hope devotional and
Speaker 2: then I prayed with him and I prayed for him. Wow, Amy,
Speaker 2: what an incredible, precious moment that you were able to
Speaker 2: lead your son to Jesus. It's the most important thing
Speaker 2: you'll ever do as a parent. And I'm so blessed
Speaker 2: to hear your testimony, and I hope it encourages every
Speaker 2: other parent to be faithful like that. I want to
Speaker 2: just pray for you and your son right now. You're Jesus.
Speaker 2: I want to thank you for caring so much that
Speaker 2: you made a way for us to become a part
Speaker 2: of your family so that we can join you in
Speaker 2: heaven one day. And thank you for giving Amy the
Speaker 2: courage to ask the question. Thank you for giving her
Speaker 2: the courage to talk to her son about you. And
Speaker 2: we're so grateful that he's accepted you into his heart.
Speaker 2: Now we ask you to give him a receptive heart
Speaker 2: and help him to get into God's word on a
Speaker 2: daily basis. We know that's the way he's going to grow.
Speaker 2: So thank you Lord for Amy's obedience and Jesus, right now,
Speaker 2: I'm praying for more and more people to do what
Speaker 2: Amy did, to have the courage to step out and
Speaker 2: share their faith with a friend, a neighbor, a loved
Speaker 2: one who doesn't know you yet. I'm praying that you
Speaker 2: will give them just the right words and just the
Speaker 2: right time to share just the right message of your
Speaker 2: salvation in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, my friends, there is
Speaker 2: nothing more important you can do. Then lead somebody to
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ. Your life can never be considered a failure.
Speaker 2: If somebody's going to be in heaven because of you, youths,
Speaker 2: help them settle their eternal destiny. Fact, that's why Daily
Speaker 2: Hope exists. It's simply one more method to help you
Speaker 2: tell more and more people about the forgiveness and the
Speaker 2: hope and the salvation and the love and the joy
Speaker 2: that's found in Jesus Christ. Through Daily Hope, we can
Speaker 2: work together to help other moms and dads like Amy
Speaker 2: and others reach their sons and their daughters for Jesus Christ. Now,
Speaker 2: I'm always grateful for your prayers, and I'm always grateful
Speaker 2: for your financial support. But you may ask how important
Speaker 2: is your donation to Daily Hope Ministry. Just ask Amy,
Speaker 2: she's got a son who's going to be in heaven
Speaker 2: because you gave. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Everybody, be sure to join us next time as we
Speaker 1: look into God's Word for our daily hope. This program
Speaker 1: is ser by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous
Speaker 1: financial support.
Speaker 2: H