Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the
Speaker 1: Bible teaching ministry that's here to encourage and inspire you
Speaker 1: every day. And today we're continuing our series called Awesome Relationships.
Speaker 2: In it, Rick Warren shares practical.
Speaker 1: Ways to help you take your relationships with family, friends,
Speaker 1: co workers, and even God from ordinary to extraordinary.
Speaker 2: And this is a series you don't want to miss.
Speaker 1: Let's get right to Rick for part one of a
Speaker 1: message called fighting for an Awesome Family.
Speaker 3: I choose this word intentionally fighting because families are not
Speaker 3: awesome by accident.
Speaker 4: By accident, they're average.
Speaker 3: And you have to fight for your family if you
Speaker 3: want it to be a great family, because they're all
Speaker 3: kinds of forces working against your family in our society.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to spend a minute detailing those I
Speaker 3: don't want to make a laundry list or a litany
Speaker 3: of all of the things that are working against the
Speaker 3: family today. But there are economic forces, there are spiritual forces,
Speaker 3: there are moral forces. There are cultural and social forces
Speaker 3: that want to destroy the idea of family and specifically
Speaker 3: your family. What I'm much more interested in is looking
Speaker 3: at the positive side, and that is how do you
Speaker 3: fight for an awesome family. You know, when the families
Speaker 3: of Jerusalem were under attack thousands of years ago, the
Speaker 3: leader Nehemiah said this. He said to the people, don't
Speaker 3: be afraid.
Speaker 4: Remember the Lord who is awesome.
Speaker 3: Everything's awesome, including God, and we're looking at awesome relationships.
Speaker 3: Remember the Lord who is awesome, and fight for your brothers,
Speaker 3: fight for your sons, fight for your daughters, fight for
Speaker 3: your wives, fight for your homes. He's saying, your family
Speaker 3: is worth fighting for. Don't just give up and say, well,
Speaker 3: it can't change, it can't be any different.
Speaker 4: It's too late.
Speaker 3: It's not too late, no matter where you are on
Speaker 3: the continuum of family, starting out or at the end,
Speaker 3: or helping a new family develop. No matter where you are,
Speaker 3: it's not too late to fight to make your family better. Now,
Speaker 3: what I want to share with you today is not
Speaker 3: just from God's word, but from forty years of counseling families,
Speaker 3: and I have discovered, after talking to thousands of thousand families,
Speaker 3: that you can find four common traits in families that.
Speaker 4: Are really awesome.
Speaker 3: And we're going to look at those today and in
Speaker 3: order to help you remember these four traits of an
Speaker 3: awesome family. Whether you are a brother or a sister
Speaker 3: and a family, or you're a mother or father, or
Speaker 3: you're a child, or whatever you are, these are four
Speaker 3: things that make an awesome family. And the first symbol
Speaker 3: of an awesome family is this board game called Candyland.
Speaker 3: How many of you remember the board game Candyland? How
Speaker 3: many of you played this game Candyland? How many of
Speaker 3: you wish you never have to play it again?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, all the hands of preschool moms just went up,
Speaker 3: just now. Doesn't require a whole lot of intelligence to
Speaker 3: play this game. In fact, it says ages three years
Speaker 3: an up. It's a pure game of chance. But why
Speaker 3: does the game Candyland represent awesome families? Here's the first reason,
Speaker 3: write it down. Awesome families are playful. It's the first
Speaker 3: common denominator of great families. They know how to play,
Speaker 3: they know how to fun, have fun, They enjoy life together.
Speaker 3: This is a missing ingredient in so many families today. Today,
Speaker 3: our families are too busy, too tired, too negative, to
Speaker 3: worn out, and too serious. Who wants to come home
Speaker 3: from school to that? Families should be fun. The average
Speaker 3: family is all work and no play. It's just getting
Speaker 3: us to the next appointment. Awesome families are fun. Awesome
Speaker 3: families are playful. Now at October, you know, we had
Speaker 3: tens of thousands of kids here at the Lake Forest campus.
Speaker 3: So I decided to do a little kid on the
Speaker 3: street interviews and today I'm gonna share with you some
Speaker 3: of the results.
Speaker 4: And one of the questions I asked kids was what.
Speaker 3: What fun things does your family like to do together?
Speaker 3: And watch these answers.
Speaker 5: I like to spend time on them and girstoning. I
Speaker 5: guess like to play with my family, go to parties
Speaker 5: and try a fun places. I like to go to
Speaker 5: a lego round is right right, play soccer.
Speaker 4: Lo to de be, make jokes, make jokes.
Speaker 5: I like to help my mom cook, go to the
Speaker 5: skate park, hopefully tennis. I like to go bike riding
Speaker 5: and surfing with sometimes being cookies, uh, play tad. I
Speaker 5: like to do crafts. We like see cars, Disneyland, go
Speaker 5: to Disneyland, go to Disneyland, go to Disneyland, open places
Speaker 5: with my family at my booth Day and Christmas, go
Speaker 5: to church and we have family dinners and family Bible studies.
Speaker 5: So sometimes I like to.
Speaker 2: Go bullying and go here bullying, and what.
Speaker 3: Go to saddleback church and saddleback church. Oh, sure of great, Yeah,
Speaker 3: that kid's going to be a pastor. That's my new intern,
Speaker 3: little pastor Rick right there.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 3: The fact is, your family is not a boot camp,
Speaker 3: and parents are not drill sergeants, and your family is
Speaker 3: not a business, and parents are not CEOs, and your
Speaker 3: family is not a laboratory experiment, and your parents are
Speaker 3: not research scientists experimenting and go, let's add a little this,
Speaker 3: little this, We're going to make the perfect little child.
Speaker 3: There is no perfect child, and there is no perfect family,
Speaker 3: and there is no science to being a family.
Speaker 4: It's an art. It's an art, but.
Speaker 3: The Bible has a lot to say about it. And
Speaker 3: one of the things that I say is that families
Speaker 3: are supposed to be fun. Most people know that the
Speaker 3: Bible teaches we're supposed to work, and the Bible tells
Speaker 3: us that we're to work hard, and the Bible says
Speaker 3: that if we're lazy, we shouldn't even eat. Work is
Speaker 3: an important part of your life. But most people don't
Speaker 3: know that the Bible says that play is an important
Speaker 3: part of your life, and play is essential to adults,
Speaker 3: not just a children. In fact, play is connected to creativity.
Speaker 3: The more play you have in life, the more creative
Speaker 3: you're going to be. If you don't have anything play,
Speaker 3: any fun in your life, you're not a very creative person.
Speaker 3: All work, no play makes Jack a dull boy. And
Speaker 3: so you need to have fun in your life. And
Speaker 3: the Bible talks about this and actually commands it. Let
Speaker 3: me show you some scriptures. This first section is from Ecclesiastes,
Speaker 3: written by Solomon, who is the wisest man who ever lived.
Speaker 3: God said, what do you want? He said, I want
Speaker 3: to be the wisest man I ever lived. God said,
Speaker 3: I'll answer that request. So let's look at some verses
Speaker 3: Ecclesiastes eight fifteen. Solomon says, I commend the enjoyment of life.
Speaker 4: Circle the word enjoyment.
Speaker 3: As I said, we know that play is extremely important development.
Speaker 3: In fact, we've known for years that play is essential
Speaker 3: to preschoolers. For preschoolers, play is work. They're actually developing
Speaker 3: when they play, and recess is not a waste of time.
Speaker 3: Recess kids are developing as much at recess as they
Speaker 3: are sitting down with a book open or things like that.
Speaker 3: Paul says, up here on the screen. Look at this
Speaker 3: verse one Timothy six seventeen. God generously gives us everything
Speaker 3: for our What did you realize that everything in the
Speaker 3: world God created, he and created for you to enjoy.
Speaker 3: Now listen, God wants life to be enjoyed, not merely endured,
Speaker 3: and a lot of you are simply enduring life. God
Speaker 3: wants you to enjoy life. The wisest man who ever lives,
Speaker 3: Solomon says, I recommend, I commend the enjoyment of life.
Speaker 3: God says everything I created for enjoyment. If you're too
Speaker 3: busy to enjoy life, you're too busy. God meant for
Speaker 3: you to play and to have some fun. Ecclesiastes eleven seven.
Speaker 3: People ought to enjoy every day, not just on a weekend,
Speaker 3: not just vacation. Ought to enjoy every day of their lives,
Speaker 3: no matter how long they live. Now, why is that
Speaker 3: important that you enjoy every day? Because you don't know
Speaker 3: how long you're gonna live. You don't know if you've
Speaker 3: got next week, next month, you don't know if you've
Speaker 3: got tomorrow, you don't know if you've got tonight. So
Speaker 3: whatever living you're gonna do, you better do it now.
Speaker 3: Not say well, I'm gonna enjoy life in retirement. No,
Speaker 3: you need to enjoy life now. And if you have children,
Speaker 3: you need to be enjoying life with the children, because
Speaker 3: the kids aren't gonna be at home forever.
Speaker 4: When my kids are.
Speaker 3: Growing up, I determined that the number one thing I
Speaker 3: wanted them to know about our family was not that
Speaker 3: we were godly, and it was not that we were smart,
Speaker 3: it was not you know whatever thing, but that they
Speaker 3: were loved.
Speaker 4: And then we had fun together.
Speaker 3: And I created all kinds of things just to have
Speaker 3: fun that weren't very expensive. One of them was called
Speaker 3: Daddy's Magical Mystery Tour, and the kids loved it, and
Speaker 3: it's a hallowed reputation in our family. I now do
Speaker 3: it with the grandkids and Daddy's Magical Mystery Tour. I'd
Speaker 3: take my kids when they were young, they're all in
Speaker 3: preschool or grade school, and they get in their pajamas,
Speaker 3: they go to bed at seven o'clock and long about
Speaker 3: eleven o'clock or midnight, I'd go in and wake them
Speaker 3: all up, get out of bed, Get out of bed
Speaker 3: right now, it's time for Daddy's Magical Mystery Tour.
Speaker 4: And they go, oh, boy, oh boy, oh boy.
Speaker 3: It means that, Ay, we're not going to school tomorrow,
Speaker 3: and b we're about to have something really, really fun.
Speaker 3: Now it could be something expensive, like one time I
Speaker 3: woke them all up. We didn't have a pool, we
Speaker 3: didn't have a hot tub or a jacuzzie, and so
Speaker 3: I woke them all up one time about midnight. We
Speaker 3: put them in the car in their pajamas, drove down
Speaker 3: to Carl's bed, checked into a hotel that had a
Speaker 3: master bedroom with a giant, giant bathtub.
Speaker 4: We filled it with water and.
Speaker 3: A bunch of bubbles, all jumped in in our swimming suits,
Speaker 3: grabbed a bunch of junk food and had a party
Speaker 3: at one o'clock in the morning with first graders and
Speaker 3: third graders. And now they all didn't have to be
Speaker 3: that expensive. Sometimes I'd wake them up in the middle
Speaker 3: of night say we're going to go make a fifteen
Speaker 3: cent ice cream run at thrifties.
Speaker 4: And Kay was going, you can't do that.
Speaker 3: She was the rule keeper. I was the fundmeister. And
Speaker 3: by the way, you need both in a marriage. If
Speaker 3: you watched last week's message, you know what we're talking about.
Speaker 3: But we have so much fun now I want you
Speaker 3: to write this sentence down, and it applies to you,
Speaker 3: whether you're a parent or not, whether you ever get
Speaker 3: married or not.
Speaker 4: Here's an important thing in life.
Speaker 3: People don't remember what you say, but they will remember
Speaker 3: how you made them feel. That's important advice for a boss,
Speaker 3: for an employer, for a husband, for a boyfriend, for
Speaker 3: a girlfriend, for a parent, for a husband or wife.
Speaker 3: People will not remember what you say, they will remember
Speaker 3: how you made them feel.
Speaker 4: My kids don't remember anything of what I.
Speaker 3: Said in the early years of their lives, but they
Speaker 3: do remember how Daddy made them feel.
Speaker 4: Awesome.
Speaker 3: Families are playful, They're Candyland families.
Speaker 4: They have a lot of fun.
Speaker 3: Now, Solomon gets very specific about the kind of fun
Speaker 3: you're supposed to having a family Ecclesiastes nine, verse nine.
Speaker 3: He says this, enjoy life with your wife.
Speaker 4: Enjoy life with your wife whom you love.
Speaker 3: Dads, if you're a dad, here today, the greatest gift
Speaker 3: you can give your children is to love their mom.
Speaker 3: To have fun and enjoy life with their mom. Enjoy
Speaker 3: life with your wife.
Speaker 4: Whom you love.
Speaker 3: You see, when a father shows love for the mother
Speaker 3: of the kids, it creates great stability. It creates great security,
Speaker 3: It creates great peace in the heart of little children.
Speaker 3: And when I hear couples saying, well, you know, don't
Speaker 3: we really can't afford or can't have time to go
Speaker 3: out because of the kid's serious mistake, serious mistake. Your
Speaker 3: kids need to see you loving each other because you
Speaker 3: are the first and greatest model of relationships. And if
Speaker 3: they see parents just passing in the night and working
Speaker 3: and working and working, but no real relationship, that's what
Speaker 3: they're gonna grow up thinking. Marriage is all about love
Speaker 3: your wife. Enjoy life with your wife. The Bible says
Speaker 3: in Psalm one twenty seven. Children are a gift from God.
Speaker 3: They are a gift from God. Now, let's be honest.
Speaker 3: Sometimes they're a gift you'd like to exchange, okay, But
Speaker 3: they are a gift. Okay, They are a gift. And
Speaker 3: what is a gift? A gift is given and it's
Speaker 3: meant to be enjoyed. Are you enjoying your kids? Are
Speaker 3: they just your pet project? You're gonna grow up, right,
Speaker 3: and it's all serious, and you're not enjoying the gift
Speaker 3: that God gave you. Psalm eight fifteen. This one's gonna
Speaker 3: blow your mind. Look at this verse on the screen.
Speaker 3: You should write this one down.
Speaker 4: It says I recommend having fun.
Speaker 3: Did you know that versus in the Bible, the wisest
Speaker 3: man who ever lives, says, I recommend having fun, and
Speaker 3: that way you'll experience some happiness along all the.
Speaker 4: Hard work that God gives you. Now you know.
Speaker 3: I asked the producers of these Little Kid on the
Speaker 3: Street interviews to give a lot of variety of answers,
Speaker 3: and I said, put you know, don't all put the same,
Speaker 3: because honestly, I was stunned.
Speaker 4: I was shocked. I was amazed.
Speaker 3: And how when I asked, what's the number one thing
Speaker 3: you like to do with your family? I got the
Speaker 3: same answer over and over and over and over and
Speaker 3: over and over and over.
Speaker 4: And it shocked me.
Speaker 3: In an age of technology and an age of all
Speaker 3: these different entertainment places, the number one answer was not
Speaker 3: go to Disneyland or go to an amusement park. The
Speaker 3: number one answer that kid said, when you like to
Speaker 3: do something with your family, what's the number one thing
Speaker 3: you like to do? It was over and over playboard games.
Speaker 3: The number one answer. It wasn't play video games. You
Speaker 3: would have thought that it was played board games. Why,
Speaker 3: Because video games are one on one personal game. Board
Speaker 3: games you actually interact with adults. And that's why they said,
Speaker 3: you like it. We're sitting around the table, my mom
Speaker 3: and dad are there and we're playing board games together.
Speaker 3: The number two answer, what do you love to do
Speaker 3: with your answer? With your kids, with your what you
Speaker 3: bye with your family? Most number two answer was go
Speaker 3: to a park. Go to a park. How old fashioned
Speaker 3: can you get? He said, what do you do at
Speaker 3: a park? We throw frisbee, we play cats, we play tag,
Speaker 3: we lay around, we talk, we have a picnic. And
Speaker 3: the number three answer, you'd figure this in Orange County,
Speaker 3: go to the beach. In all three answers, what was
Speaker 3: the common denominator time with parents? It wasn't Disneyland. It
Speaker 3: was time with parents. You see, I talk to guys
Speaker 3: all the time, says, I don't get it. Successful visitib
Speaker 3: but I don't get it. I buy my wife and
Speaker 3: kids all these trinkets and things, and I give them
Speaker 3: everything they need.
Speaker 4: What do they want? I'll tell you what they want.
Speaker 4: They want you.
Speaker 3: They want your attention, they want your focus, they want
Speaker 3: your eyes, they want your time. You spell love tim
Speaker 3: The greatest gift you can give your kids is your time,
Speaker 3: because when you give them your time, you're giving your life.
Speaker 3: You know, always buy things. Kids don't need things. They
Speaker 3: need time. They need fun with the family. They need
Speaker 3: fun in the home. They need it to not be
Speaker 3: a boot camp or something we're just all working on.
Speaker 4: They want time with you.
Speaker 3: And so Candyland is the symbol of an awesome family,
Speaker 3: because awesome families are playful. Now, the second symbol of
Speaker 3: an awesome family is a watering can. A watering can
Speaker 3: because we use this to waterflow hours, plants, you know, vegetables,
Speaker 3: and in many ways, a family is like a garden.
Speaker 3: You have to grow it. You have to develop it,
Speaker 3: you have to cultivate it. A garden doesn't grow on
Speaker 3: its own. You have to weed it, you have to
Speaker 3: water it, you have to care for it. And this
Speaker 3: is the second characteristic of awesome families that makes them
Speaker 3: different from average families. Write this down. Awesome families encourage growth.
Speaker 3: They create an atmosphere of lifelong learning. They help each
Speaker 3: other develop, They encourage the discovery of each person in
Speaker 3: the family's shape shape. And one of the things that
Speaker 3: you do in an awesome family is you support each other.
Speaker 3: And I'm not just talking about the kids growing up.
Speaker 3: I'm saying that you're always growing. Your family never stops growing.
Speaker 3: Mom never stops growing. Everybody encourages mom to grow. Dad
Speaker 3: never stops growing. Everybody encourages dad to grow, brother, sister,
Speaker 3: everybody encourages everybody to keep growing. If you're not growing,
Speaker 3: your family is boring. You're just stuck in a rut.
Speaker 3: You haven't learned anything new, developed any new interest in
Speaker 3: a long time. Your family's boring. Now look at how
Speaker 3: Jesus grew. The Bible tells us in Luke two point
Speaker 3: fifty two. This is when Jesus was twelve years old.
Speaker 3: It says Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in
Speaker 3: favor with God and favor with men. Now, notice there
Speaker 3: are four kinds of growth you want to have in
Speaker 3: your family. You grow in wisdom that's intellectual growth, mental growth.
Speaker 3: You grow in stature that's physical health. You grow in
Speaker 3: favor with God that's spiritual growth. And you grow in
Speaker 3: favor with Man that's social growth. Every person in your
Speaker 3: family needs to be growing in all four of these,
Speaker 3: not just the kids, but you, mom, you dad, you brother, you, sister,
Speaker 3: you need to be growing physically, mentally, spiritually.
Speaker 4: And socially.
Speaker 3: How are you going to be different a year from
Speaker 3: the day are do you know any more than you
Speaker 3: knew a year ago? Are you closer to God than
Speaker 3: you more or a year ago? Are you more loving
Speaker 3: than you were a year ago? Are you literally growing?
Speaker 3: Awesome families encourage growth. Average families just stay the same.
Speaker 3: Nobody changes, nobody grows Now. I ask the kids, what
Speaker 3: have you learned in your family? And here's what they said.
Speaker 5: It's not all about me, and then it's about other people,
Speaker 5: and you need to love fail and teaching me homework.
Speaker 5: They've taught me a lot of that, a lot of Spanish.
Speaker 5: They taught me to read and write. They've taught me
Speaker 5: to never run away.
Speaker 3: I just knew it.
Speaker 4: Not say boud.
Speaker 5: Lord's like, if my brother gets mad at me, I
Speaker 5: should get mad at him and get back. Do not
Speaker 5: talk these strangers to be kind and you won't. If
Speaker 5: you don't be kind, you don't get any friends. God's
Speaker 5: will never start. Don't go through the behaviors of this world.
Speaker 4: Try to be teachable.
Speaker 5: My mom teaches me how who who?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Yeah, even if it's hard to tell the truth that
Speaker 5: you should always see it. Manners, well, my dad always says, manners.
Speaker 2: Make the man.
Speaker 5: They taught me a lessen about God and that family
Speaker 5: never gives up, and that family is always there.
Speaker 4: You can always count on them.
Speaker 5: To be there for you even when you go through
Speaker 5: hard times. Always trust in God and because he'll help
Speaker 5: you get through it.
Speaker 3: Now, what do we really learn from our families. Well,
Speaker 3: there's some things. If you don't learn them in your family,
Speaker 3: you're never going to learn them. You can't learn them
Speaker 3: at school, you can't learn them at work. You only
Speaker 3: can learn them in your family. And I will tell
Speaker 3: you this, most of your problems as an adult comes
Speaker 3: from the fact that you didn't learn certain things correctly
Speaker 3: as child. And if you didn't learn certain skills as
Speaker 3: a child, then you're going to have a rough life
Speaker 3: the rest of your life. There are five things you
Speaker 3: must learn in your family, and if you don't learn
Speaker 3: them there, life's going to be tough for you. You
Speaker 3: might write these down. The first one is the first
Speaker 3: thing we have to learn is what to do with feelings,
Speaker 3: one of the most important skills of mine. How do
Speaker 3: I handle my emotions? What do I do with them?
Speaker 3: How do I deal with how I feel? What do
Speaker 3: you do with feelings? And in a good, awesome family,
Speaker 3: you learn how to recognize your feelings, how to name
Speaker 3: your feelings, how to own up to your feelings, how
Speaker 3: to identify your feelings, how to express your feelings correctly
Speaker 3: rather than incorrectly, how not to stuff them, and how
Speaker 3: to deal with how you feel. If you don't learn
Speaker 3: how to deal with how you feel in your family,
Speaker 3: you go through life and emotional cripple. You have to
Speaker 3: relearn it somewhere else. And the reason why so many
Speaker 3: marriages split up is because they didn't learn in their
Speaker 3: family how to deal with how you feel correctly and effectively.
Speaker 3: And you need to let people be honest and let
Speaker 3: kids express their emotions. One of the stupidest things the
Speaker 3: parent can say is stop crying.
Speaker 4: Don't cry. Don't cry. Why. There's nothing wrong with crying.
Speaker 4: Tears are a gift from God.
Speaker 3: If you're telling your kids stuff your emotions, stuff your emotion,
Speaker 3: stuff your emotion, they're gonna have problems with their emotions
Speaker 3: the rest of their life. There's nothing wrong with crying.
Speaker 3: There's nothing to be ashamed of with crying. And telling
Speaker 3: your kids stop crying, and saying, deny your emotions, deny
Speaker 3: how you feel, and you.
Speaker 4: Learn to stuff it.
Speaker 3: And that comes out in all kinds of strange relationship patterns.
Speaker 3: Later on, in a true family and an awesome family,
Speaker 3: we learn how to recognize that's a good emotion, that's
Speaker 3: a harmful emotion, and we learn to name it, own it,
Speaker 3: speak about it, identify it, talk about it.
Speaker 4: That's a key.
Speaker 3: So you name them, you don't stuff them.
Speaker 1: What a fantastic message from Pastor Rick. You know, Daily
Speaker 1: Hope is changing lives every day. Here's Pastor Rick with
Speaker 1: a letter from one of our listeners.
Speaker 3: Here's a letter from Catherine, a listener who says that
Speaker 3: hearing the truth of the Bible on Daily Hope transformed
Speaker 3: her life. She wrote me this, she said, Pastor Rick.
Speaker 3: A few months ago, I was angry all the time
Speaker 3: about everything. My husband was drinking too much, and my
Speaker 3: marriage was headed for divorce. Years ago, I'd forgotten about
Speaker 3: my faith. But one day, on my long drive home
Speaker 3: from work, I changed the station from my angry music
Speaker 3: and I found you speaking on Daily Hope on the radio.
Speaker 3: You know, it was as if through you Jesus said, oh,
Speaker 3: you're finally listening, and I have something to tell you.
Speaker 5: You.
Speaker 3: Well, your message spoke directly to me, to my problems
Speaker 3: and to my many failures, and you spoke some hard truths,
Speaker 3: Pastor Rick, that I needed to hear about the things
Speaker 3: that I was doing wrong and the things that I
Speaker 3: wasn't doing at all. But it made me look at
Speaker 3: myself and I realized that I had forgotten about Jesus,
Speaker 3: and I was making myself miserable trying to do everything
Speaker 3: on my own. I wasn't trusting in God, or seeking God,
Speaker 3: or even a relationship with Jesus. But a few days later,
Speaker 3: after a lot of inward reflection, I shared your words
Speaker 3: with my husband. You know what, We're now both reading
Speaker 3: our Bibles again, We're going to church again. We're mending
Speaker 3: our relationship with each other and with Christ, our savior.
Speaker 3: And it is your daily Hope program that changed our
Speaker 3: lives and the direction of our lives. Now I'm listening
Speaker 3: to you on my way home from work every day.
Speaker 3: So thanks for allowing yourself to be a vessel through
Speaker 3: which God can work to restore lives and marriages. I
Speaker 3: was hopeless, but now I'm full of hope and full
Speaker 3: of joy through my faith in Jesus. So God, bless
Speaker 3: you Rick for bringing me back to God. Friends, you
Speaker 3: may have heard me say this before that I am
Speaker 3: addicted to change lives. I am passionate about watching God
Speaker 3: at work in your life and giving people hope when
Speaker 3: everything else seems hopeless.
Speaker 4: It's why we do what we do.
Speaker 3: Catherine and her husband have now mended their relationship and
Speaker 3: they're both reading their Bibles. That is incredible news. The
Speaker 3: family that prays together stays together. None of this, by
Speaker 3: the way, would be possible without your support of daily hope.
Speaker 3: It is your gifts, your financial gifts, and your prayers
Speaker 3: that allow me to teach millions of people every day
Speaker 3: all around the world about the hope of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3: Now have you just heard People are being saved, Lives
Speaker 3: are being changed, marriages are being restored, people are finding hope.
Speaker 3: Why because of you and your financial gifts and your prayers.
Speaker 3: So thank you everybody for your caring about others and
Speaker 3: their relationship with God. And if you can send a
Speaker 3: gift today, please do so. We want to reach more
Speaker 3: and more people with the hope of God's word.
Speaker 2: Hey, if you'd like to support Pastor Rick's Daily Hope,
Speaker 2: just go to Pastorick dot com. That's Pastorick dot com,
Speaker 2: or you can text the word hope to seven oh
Speaker 2: three oh nine. That's the word hope to seven oh
Speaker 2: three oh nine. And really, from the bottom of our hearts,
Speaker 2: we thank you so much for your support. Your gift to.
Speaker 1: Daily Hope helps us share the hope of Christ with
Speaker 1: people everywhere. Hey be sure to join us next time
Speaker 1: when we look into God's word for our daily hope.
Speaker 1: This program is sponsored by Asterisks Daily Hope and your
Speaker 1: generous financial support