Speaker 1: Hi, this is Rick Warren, Bible teacher of the Daily
Speaker 1: Hope Broadcast. Did you know that because of Easter, your
Speaker 1: past can be forgiven, you get a purpose for living,
Speaker 1: and you can have a home in heaven. That's good news.
Speaker 1: Where else can you get that kind of news? Nowhere else?
Speaker 2: And did you know.
Speaker 1: That at Easter, studies have shown people are more open
Speaker 1: to an invitation to go to church than at any
Speaker 1: other time of the year. Don't go to church by yourself,
Speaker 1: but bring somebody who doesn't know Jesus Christ, a family member,
Speaker 1: a friend, a coworker, a neighbor, a relative. And if
Speaker 1: you bring them to that church service and they come
Speaker 1: to know Christ, You're going to be making a friend
Speaker 1: for eternity. It'll be the most important investment you can
Speaker 1: ever make in their lives. And by the way, if
Speaker 1: they come to Christ, would you let me know about it.
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear that story that you brought somebody
Speaker 1: to Easter and they found Jesus. You can write to
Speaker 1: me Rick at Pastorrick dot com. That's rickat Pastorrick dot com.
Speaker 1: I would love to hear from you. God bless you
Speaker 1: and Happy Easter.
Speaker 3: Hello and welcome to Pastor Rick Warren's Daily Hope. Well,
Speaker 3: this weekend, across every continent and in thousands of languages,
Speaker 3: millions of people will join together to celebrate the resurrection
Speaker 3: of Jesus Christ, the cornerstone of our faith.
Speaker 4: But you know it doesn't stop there.
Speaker 3: Not only was Jesus resurrected, he is still alive.
Speaker 2: So what do you say?
Speaker 3: We dive right in as Pastor Rick begins Part one
Speaker 3: of a very special Easter message titled What it Means
Speaker 3: to Believe in Jesus.
Speaker 1: Easter is a celebration of what Jesus Christ came to do.
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ split history into AD and BC because of
Speaker 1: this event Easter. It is the most significant event in history.
Speaker 1: In fact, every time you write your own birthday, your
Speaker 1: birthday is in relationship to Jesus Christ. Because God, God
Speaker 1: invaded Earth. He came to Earth in the form of
Speaker 1: a human being, died on the cross for our sins
Speaker 1: so we could go to heaven, rose again three days
Speaker 1: later to prove that he was who he said he was.
Speaker 1: And today billions of people around the world are celebrating Easter. Now,
Speaker 1: the issue I want to talk about this morning is
Speaker 1: why did he do it. They're on your outline, on
Speaker 1: your message notes. The first verse is the most famous
Speaker 1: verse in the Bible. It's called John three sixteen from
Speaker 1: chapter three of John, verse sixteen. In fact, let's read
Speaker 1: it all aloud together, would you read.
Speaker 2: It with me?
Speaker 1: For God so loved the world that he gave his
Speaker 1: only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not
Speaker 1: perish but have everlasting life. Now circle the phrase believes
Speaker 1: in him. He says, whoever believes in him, that's Jesus Christ,
Speaker 1: will not perish, but have everlasting life. That means go
Speaker 1: to heaven.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: The latest Gallup poll tells us that I don't know.
Speaker 1: Eighty six eighty seven eighty eight percent of Americans say
Speaker 1: I believe in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: I believe he was who he said he was.
Speaker 1: But not everybody who claims to be a believer in
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ is a true believer.
Speaker 2: In fact, Jesus said this. Notice on your outline.
Speaker 1: He said, not everybody who calls me their lord will
Speaker 1: get into the Kingdom of Heaven. Only the ones who
Speaker 1: obey my father in Heaven will get in. Now what's
Speaker 1: he saying there? He's saying that you can't tell a
Speaker 1: true believer by their words. Just because they walk the
Speaker 1: walk talk the talk, doesn't mean they walk the walk.
Speaker 1: He's saying, you know, you could meet people who you know,
Speaker 1: talk like heaven and live like hell.
Speaker 2: You've all met people like that.
Speaker 1: I was one of those before I really committed my
Speaker 1: life to Christ.
Speaker 2: Maybe you did so too.
Speaker 1: But he's saying, you got to look not at what
Speaker 1: people say, not at what people think, not at what
Speaker 1: people feel, but you got to look at what they
Speaker 1: do to see what they really believe. Behavior determines your beliefs.
Speaker 1: In fact, he says, if you're really a true believer,
Speaker 1: it's going to change your life. It's going to change
Speaker 1: the way you act. Look at the next verse. If
Speaker 1: people say they have faith but they do nothing, then
Speaker 1: their faith is worth nothing. Can faith like that save them?
Speaker 1: And the answer is no, it can't. Now, you know,
Speaker 1: I've got three kinds of friends in my life, and
Speaker 1: I love them all, but I categorize them in three
Speaker 1: different ways. Some are saints and some are stumblers, and
Speaker 1: some are seekers. The saints in my life are those
Speaker 1: people who believe in Jesus and act like it. Now,
Speaker 1: they're not perfect when I say saint, I don't mean perfect.
Speaker 1: None of us are perfect. We're all far from perfect.
Speaker 1: But they're consistent, they believe in Jesus and they're trying
Speaker 1: to live the way he said. They're trying to be unselfish.
Speaker 1: They're loving, they're kind, they help others, they're not living
Speaker 1: for themselves. I call them saints. Then I've got people
Speaker 1: in my life, friends in my life, and I love
Speaker 1: them just as much, and I call them stumblers. And
Speaker 1: they're people who think they think they know Jesus, believe
Speaker 1: in Jesus, but they don't really act like him, and
Speaker 1: they don't act like it at all. In fact, they're
Speaker 1: really living a self centered life. They're living for themselves
Speaker 1: and doing a lot of things that are different than
Speaker 1: what Jesus would tell us to do. Then I got
Speaker 1: a third group of friends in my life that I love,
Speaker 1: and I call them seekers. And they're the people who
Speaker 1: just haven't made a decision. They're intellectually honest and they're going, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm checking it out. I'm interested. Tell me more about
Speaker 1: what it means to be a believer. My guess is
Speaker 1: that every one of us today are in one of
Speaker 1: those three categories. We either know Christ and act like it,
Speaker 1: or we think we know Christ and don't act like it,
Speaker 1: or we're just checking it out. As your friend this Easter,
Speaker 1: I want to help you settle this issue because it
Speaker 1: has some profound implications. Whoever believes in Him shall not
Speaker 1: perish but have ever lasting life.
Speaker 2: I want you in heaven. I want you to have it.
Speaker 1: So I want to settle this issue of what it
Speaker 1: means to really believe in Jesus.
Speaker 2: Faith is kind of like a diamond.
Speaker 1: It's multifaceted, has a lot of different angles to it.
Speaker 1: And today we're going to look at five different angles
Speaker 1: of what it means to really believe, what it means
Speaker 1: to have faith. Now these aren't in any particular order.
Speaker 1: I just put them in a little acrostic faih to
Speaker 1: spell faith as kind of a memory device. And if
Speaker 1: you're taking notes on your outline, the f stands for
Speaker 1: follow his example. That's the first thing that it means
Speaker 1: to believe in Jesus. I follow his example. Everybody has
Speaker 1: an example that they follow. You say, well, I don't
Speaker 1: know who my example is. Then you've got a problem
Speaker 1: because I've noticed this. If you don't decide what's.
Speaker 2: Your model in life? Other people will decide it for you.
Speaker 1: The media, culture peers pressure, you know, parents, other people
Speaker 1: will try to tell.
Speaker 2: You how you should live your life.
Speaker 1: And God says, wait a minute, I don't want anybody
Speaker 1: else telling you how to live your life.
Speaker 2: I'm God.
Speaker 1: I'm the one who should be telling you how to
Speaker 1: live your life. Don't be pressured into some mold of
Speaker 1: what other people think you ought to be. God says,
Speaker 1: I made you to be you. And he says, the
Speaker 1: only perfect example, by the way, anyway, is Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: You know, I had a number of friends who, once
Speaker 1: they hit forty, went through a real period of shock
Speaker 1: because they discovered around that age that the model that
Speaker 1: they had chosen for their life was an inconsistent and
Speaker 1: ineffective model. And at forty years of age, they were
Speaker 1: ending up divorced, discouraged, depressed, friendless, lonely, and out of
Speaker 1: whack with life. Why because they were looking for the
Speaker 1: wrong model, following the wrong model. I actually had a
Speaker 1: friend I mentioned his name, you'd know who he was,
Speaker 1: who said, you know, Rick, I was climbing the ladder
Speaker 1: of success. And when I got to the top, and
Speaker 1: he did that I discovered it was the latter was
Speaker 1: hanging against the wrong wall, leaning against the wrong wall,
Speaker 1: he said, I was heading And I invested all that
Speaker 1: time in the wrong thing. Now I have to admit
Speaker 1: to you that when I was a young man, I
Speaker 1: really wasn't interested in following Jesus Christ. And the reason
Speaker 1: why is I bought into the stereotype of what Jesus is.
Speaker 1: You know, if you've looked at any pictures of Jesus,
Speaker 1: they always.
Speaker 2: Look so wimpy, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's like this guy's looks like this pale, weak,
Speaker 1: wimpy guy with little rouge on his cheeks, and you know,
Speaker 1: and little his hair and curls, and he walks around,
Speaker 1: you know, with a robe on, skipping the hills of Jerusalem,
Speaker 1: talking about peace and love.
Speaker 2: And I'm going boring.
Speaker 1: And as a young man, the last thing I wanted
Speaker 1: to do was follow Jesus Christ because I thought he
Speaker 1: was some kind of whimp. Well, listen, if that's really
Speaker 1: the way Jesus was, how in the world did he
Speaker 1: get burly fishermen to drop their nets and follow him?
Speaker 1: How did he bring a revolution against the Roman Empire?
Speaker 2: If he was some wimpy guy. He wasn't.
Speaker 1: He was the most countercultural, radical revolutionariy you've ever imagined.
Speaker 1: And it takes courage to follow him. Now, Jesus says this,
Speaker 1: they're on your outline. He says, you will be blessed.
Speaker 1: Whenever you what follow my example, you will be blessed.
Speaker 1: You know, everywhere Jesus Christ went he told people to
Speaker 1: follow fact twenty one times in the Bible. He says,
Speaker 1: follow me, you follow me, you follow me, you follow me,
Speaker 1: you follow me twenty one times. He was always saying
Speaker 1: follow me. Now, I like that because he's not saying
Speaker 1: follow a principle. He's not saying follow a program. He's
Speaker 1: saying follow a person me. He's not saying follow a religion.
Speaker 1: He doesn't say follow a code of ethics. He says
Speaker 1: follow me. If you don't get anything else I say
Speaker 1: to you this morning, I want you to get this.
Speaker 1: God wants a relationship with you, and following me implies
Speaker 1: a relationship. It says you're gonna know me personally. God
Speaker 1: isn't interested in religion. He's interested in a relationship. And
Speaker 1: that's what he sent Jesus to establish between you and him. Now,
Speaker 1: when you begin a relationship with Jesus. What happens, well,
Speaker 1: you get all kinds of benefits in your life. I
Speaker 1: don't have time to go into all of them, but
Speaker 1: let me just mention two very good benefits that happen
Speaker 1: if you start following Jesus. One of them is stability,
Speaker 1: and the other one is clarity. Clarity and stability. You
Speaker 1: might write those down clarity and stability. There are two
Speaker 1: benefits of following Christ. First, I get clarity. What that
Speaker 1: means is things get clearer in my life. I see
Speaker 1: things a whole lot better. I see my relationships better,
Speaker 1: my problems better, my future better. Everything gets clearer. All
Speaker 1: of a sudden, I'm not so confused anymore. I'm not
Speaker 1: so distracted anymore. I've gotten more direction in my life.
Speaker 1: I've got more focus in my life. And the first
Speaker 1: benefit is when I start following Jesus, I'm not confused anymore.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, I've got direction and focus and clarity.
Speaker 2: Jesus said this.
Speaker 1: I am the light of the world, and if you
Speaker 1: follow me, you won't be stumbling through the darkness because
Speaker 1: you'll have the light that leads to life. Do you
Speaker 1: ever feel like you're just stumbling around in life. You
Speaker 1: ever feel like you're going nowhere, you feel like you're
Speaker 1: lacking direction.
Speaker 2: Have you ever said to yourself.
Speaker 1: I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing
Speaker 1: with my life. That's in a symptom of one thing.
Speaker 1: You're not following Jesus. Because when you follow God's plan
Speaker 1: and God's purpose for your life, he makes it very clear.
Speaker 1: The confusion goes away, and you get direction and focus
Speaker 1: in your life.
Speaker 2: You get clarity, things seem clearer.
Speaker 1: The second thing that happens when I follow Jesus Christ
Speaker 1: is I get stability. In other words, I get a
Speaker 1: solid foundation on which to build my life. Now Here
Speaker 1: in California, we know the value of a solid foundation
Speaker 1: because we have a thing called earthquakes, and we know
Speaker 1: you got to have a solid foundation or you're gonna
Speaker 1: crack up when the earthquakes come. Jesus told a story
Speaker 1: about this once. He said, two guys went out and
Speaker 1: build their houses. And one built his house on a
Speaker 1: foundation of sand, and one built this house on a
Speaker 1: foundation of a solid rock. And when the winds came,
Speaker 1: and the floods came, and the rains and the storms,
Speaker 1: and the katrinas of life came through the guy who
Speaker 1: built this house on the sand. It collapsed, it fell apart,
Speaker 1: it crumbled, he said. But the guy who built his
Speaker 1: house on the solid rock, it stood stable. And the
Speaker 1: storm came against it, but it held strong. It had
Speaker 1: a center. You got to have a center for your life, because, friend,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have storms in your life.
Speaker 2: You've already had some.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have financial storms in your life, gonna have
Speaker 1: some relational storms in your life. If you get married,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have some marriage storms. Uh, You're gonna have
Speaker 1: some health storms. You're gonna get sick, people who you
Speaker 1: love are gonna die. You're gonna have some emotional storms
Speaker 1: in your life that just throw you up in the air.
Speaker 1: And what's gonna be your stability when that happens. If
Speaker 1: you don't have a solid foundation, when the rogue winds
Speaker 1: that come, the katrinas of life come, you're gonna crack up.
Speaker 1: You're gonna crash, You're gonna crumble, You're gonna fall apart.
Speaker 1: And I see people like it all the time, who
Speaker 1: just fall apart when the stress is on and they
Speaker 1: worry and they fret and they get anxious because they
Speaker 1: don't have a solid foundation.
Speaker 2: Jesus said this, All who.
Speaker 1: Listen to my instruction and follow them are wise like
Speaker 1: a man who builds his house on solid rock. Now
Speaker 1: the a in faith stands for except his grace. That's
Speaker 1: the second thing of what it means to be a
Speaker 1: real believer, not a phony believer, but a real believer
Speaker 1: in Jesus. I follow his example. I accept his grace.
Speaker 1: Now what does that mean? Well, the Bible says this,
Speaker 1: there on your outline, Romans chapter five. Those who accept
Speaker 1: God's full grace and the great gift of being made
Speaker 1: right with him. In other words, God wipes away all
Speaker 1: the things you've ever done wrong. He forgives you will
Speaker 1: surely have true life and rule through Jesus Christ. Now
Speaker 1: what is grace, Well, Grace means when God does something
Speaker 1: for you, or anybody does something for you that you
Speaker 1: don't deserve. When they do it simply out of their love,
Speaker 1: not out of your deserving it, that's called grace. Grace
Speaker 1: is when God gives you what you need, not what
Speaker 1: you deserve. God doesn't give us what we deserve. If
Speaker 1: I got what I deserved, I wouldn't be standing here.
Speaker 1: I'd be dead, right, now, so would you. God doesn't
Speaker 1: give you what you deserve. He gives you what you
Speaker 1: need even before you know you need it. One of
Speaker 1: the things that I need most is I need forgiveness
Speaker 1: because I blow it all the time, so do you.
Speaker 1: And God says I will forgive you before you even
Speaker 1: know you need it. I will forgive you before you
Speaker 1: even ask, before you even know what you've done wrong.
Speaker 1: You might write the word forgiveness down because that's a
Speaker 1: synonym for grace. It means God says, I give you
Speaker 1: forgiveness for what you've done. Now, we don't understand this
Speaker 1: because we don't do this very often with each other.
Speaker 1: We don't show each other grace. Here's something I read
Speaker 1: in the La Times. David Hagler is an umpire for
Speaker 1: a men's baseball team, a community men's baseball league, and
Speaker 1: he said I was driving too fast one day when
Speaker 1: a policeman pulled me over and gave me a speeding ticket.
Speaker 1: I tried hard to talk him out of it by
Speaker 1: telling him how worried I was about my insurance and
Speaker 1: what a careful.
Speaker 2: Driver I normally was.
Speaker 1: He said I begged him for some grace, but it
Speaker 1: was no deal, and the officer said, if if I
Speaker 1: didn't like the ticket, I could go to court. Well,
Speaker 1: the very first game of the next Community Men's League
Speaker 1: baseball season, I'm umpiring behind home plate, and coincidentally, the
Speaker 1: first batter.
Speaker 2: Up was that same policeman.
Speaker 1: Now I immediately recognized him, but more important, he recognized me,
Speaker 1: and he nervously asked, how did that thing with your
Speaker 1: ticket go? I told him you better swing at everything. See,
Speaker 1: we don't show each other grace. No, now we're not.
Speaker 1: You know you didn't let me off the hook. I'm
Speaker 1: not letting you off the hook. The fact is God
Speaker 1: shows you grace every single second of your life, because
Speaker 1: everything you have from God is a flat out gift.
Speaker 1: Everything you have, your freedom, your life, your mind, your friends,
Speaker 1: your health, your body, the air you breathe, everything you've
Speaker 1: got is a flat out gift from God. If God
Speaker 1: hadn't wanted to create you, you wouldn't even be alive.
Speaker 1: The only reason in your life is God made you
Speaker 1: to love you. And if God didn't want you to
Speaker 1: be alive, you wouldn't be taking your next breath. The
Speaker 1: air you breathe is a gift from God. Everything you
Speaker 1: have you didn't earn a single bit of it. It's
Speaker 1: all by grace, He said, what about the money that
Speaker 1: I earned? Where do you think you got the ability
Speaker 1: to earn it? Everything you have is a flat out
Speaker 1: gift from God. You can't It wasn't from yourself. God
Speaker 1: gave you those abilities. God shows us grace all the time,
Speaker 1: and when it comes to blowing it making mistakes, God says,
Speaker 1: I will forgive you of everything you've ever done wrong,
Speaker 1: even though you don't deserve it, if you just trust
Speaker 1: in Christ.
Speaker 2: Look of the next verse.
Speaker 1: Now, God says he will accept and acquit us. In
Speaker 1: other words, declare us not guilty for all the things
Speaker 1: you've done wrong if we trust Jesus Christ to take
Speaker 1: away our sins, and we can all be saved in
Speaker 1: the same way, all of us by coming to Christ,
Speaker 1: no matter who we are or what we have been.
Speaker 2: Like Now, I like that last part.
Speaker 1: First, It says, no matter who we are, regardless of
Speaker 1: your ethnic background, regardless of your economic background, regardless of
Speaker 1: your religious background, it doesn't matter. You can still come
Speaker 1: to Christ. Shoot, it doesn't matter if you're Catholic or
Speaker 1: Methodist or Presbyterian, or a Protestant or Buddhist.
Speaker 2: Or Baptist, or.
Speaker 1: Mormon or Muslim or Jewish or Hindu, or no religion
Speaker 1: at all. This isn't about religion, so it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: who you are or where you come from. He says,
Speaker 1: I want to help you out. I want to forgive you.
Speaker 1: I'm going to show you my grace. That's what God
Speaker 1: sent Jesus to do. He wants that relationship.
Speaker 2: And he said, does no matter.
Speaker 1: What you've done, well, that's good news because none of
Speaker 1: us are perfect. We've all blown it, we've all made mistakes.
Speaker 1: God says, We're just gonna wipe that out. We're going
Speaker 1: to raise the guilt. We're gonna wipe the slate clean.
Speaker 1: And what we're gonna do is we're gonna give you
Speaker 1: a second chance. I am so glad that God gives
Speaker 1: us a second chance. He's not a three stricture out
Speaker 1: kind of guy. He gives us a second chance. That's grace.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: When I was I was in junior high I took
Speaker 1: a shop class in woodworking and one of the assignments says,
Speaker 1: we were supposed to make a table. And actually, at
Speaker 1: this time we were living my family was living out
Speaker 1: in the country, and I was actually building this table
Speaker 1: in a barn, and I just screwed it up royally.
Speaker 1: I mean I messed it up. I was planing it
Speaker 1: all wrong, and it was uneven. I varnished and stained it,
Speaker 1: and it did look terrible, and it was uneven and this,
Speaker 1: you know, it wouldn't even it was wobbly. It was
Speaker 1: just a total disaster as a table and as a
Speaker 1: junior high boy. I got so discouraged. I just kind
Speaker 1: of crumpled into a pile there on the ground and
Speaker 1: just start crying. I was so disappointed in what a
Speaker 1: mess I had made of things. About five minutes later,
Speaker 1: my dad came into the barn and he looked at
Speaker 1: the table, and he said, is that the best you
Speaker 1: can do?
Speaker 2: Loser?
Speaker 1: No, he didn't say that, gotcha.
Speaker 2: Now, he didn't say that. He didn't. What he said
Speaker 2: was I got.
Speaker 1: What he said was, is it's okay, Ricky. He said,
Speaker 1: we'll do it over. You can start over, and this
Speaker 1: time I'll help you.
Speaker 2: Friends. That's grace. Grace is when.
Speaker 1: God says to you, Hey, you know what, You've messed
Speaker 1: up a few things, you blew a few relationships, You've
Speaker 1: made some really poor decisions. You've really messed up some
Speaker 1: choices in life. He didn't do it all right, But
Speaker 1: you know what, he didn't say okay, loser. No, he
Speaker 1: comes and says, it's okay, we'll start over, and this
Speaker 1: time I'll help you that grace.
Speaker 2: Now, how do you get grace for your life?
Speaker 1: You can't earn it, you can't work for it, you
Speaker 1: can't deserve it, you can't buy it, you can't get
Speaker 1: credit for it. There's only one way you can accept
Speaker 1: God's grace. Admit you need it. You swallow your pride,
Speaker 1: your ego, and you realize I need God, and you say, God,
Speaker 1: I need your grace.
Speaker 2: I'm not perfect. Heaven's perfect.
Speaker 1: There's no chance I'm gonna make it into heaven because
Speaker 1: I'm not perfect.
Speaker 2: And I need your grace. God.
Speaker 1: I need your forgiveness and I need you in my life.
Speaker 1: That's called humility. The Bible says this, unless you accept
Speaker 1: God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never
Speaker 1: get in What does a child do? Child doesn't come
Speaker 1: in boisterously prideful. They you say help, Daddy, I need help,
Speaker 1: and you just come and say God, I need your help.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: This is why we celebrate Easter. It's why Easter is
Speaker 1: a party. Easter is about the grace of God. Now,
Speaker 1: the third thing that it means to really believe in
Speaker 1: Jesus the eye in faith is I invest my life
Speaker 1: in Him. I invest my life for Him.
Speaker 4: Hey, thanks so much for being with us today and
Speaker 4: listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. You know your prayers
Speaker 4: and financial support are having a huge impact on millions
Speaker 4: of people here and around the world. So thank you,
Speaker 4: Thank you so much. And now Rick's going to share
Speaker 4: a letter from one of our listeners who says Daily
Speaker 4: Hope is making a real difference in their life.
Speaker 1: Your generous prayers and support help us teach God's word
Speaker 1: to people all around the world who've never heard about
Speaker 1: the hope of Jesus Christ. And God is using your
Speaker 1: prayers and your gifts to help us reach people who
Speaker 1: would never set foot inside the door of a church.
Speaker 1: Here's a letter from Cheryl who's said, Pastor Rick, your
Speaker 1: obedience in teaching God's word brings blessings of hope in
Speaker 1: my life every day through your daily email devotional, through
Speaker 1: your teaching, God is continually changing my thinking and aligning
Speaker 1: my heart with His word, which brings hope and happiness
Speaker 1: to my life and positive thoughts for a great future.
Speaker 1: Please pray that all keep the fight to keep the
Speaker 1: enemy from stealing the truth from me. I can now
Speaker 1: see why staying in God's word every day is so important.
Speaker 1: I want to pray for Cheryl right now. Cheryl, let
Speaker 1: me pray for you.
Speaker 2: Father.
Speaker 1: Together we join in praying for Cheryl right now. And
Speaker 1: I asked that your word will grow deep in her
Speaker 1: heart and in the hearts of everyone else who's listening
Speaker 1: right now. Plant it like a seed in fertile soil,
Speaker 1: and then make it grow, and let the weeds of
Speaker 1: temptation not choke it out. Help her and help all
Speaker 1: of us to stand firm in your and Father, I
Speaker 1: pray for everyone who hears this message today. I pray
Speaker 1: for every listener of daily hope, and I ask that
Speaker 1: you strengthen them to be obedient to your word, to
Speaker 1: see your purpose, and to depend on your power, trusting
Speaker 1: Jesus that you'll help them through no matter what they face.
Speaker 1: And I ask this prayer, and I pray this blessing
Speaker 1: in the name of Jesus.
Speaker 2: Amen.
Speaker 4: Hey, you know a great way to stay in God's
Speaker 4: word every day is to sign up for the free
Speaker 4: Daily Hope devotional and it's so easy. Just go to
Speaker 4: Dailyhope Radio dot com and sign up today. Be sure
Speaker 4: to join us next time as we look into God's
Speaker 4: Word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by
Speaker 4: Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support