Rick Warren - You Need This 1 Thing When Life Gets Hard x The Bible

Did you know you can't have faith without hope. Most

people don't realize this. You have to have hope in

order to have faith. If there's nothing to hope for,

there's nothing to believe for. If you didn't have the

hope of heaven, then you don't need to believe in heaven.

So faith and hope actually go together. You can't have

faith without hope. Now, we know a lot about faith,

but most people don't know a lot about hope. And

so that's why when the Bible says the three greatest

virtues are faith, hope, and love. Well that we know

about love and we know about faith, but we're not

so sure about this hope thing. And that's why next

year in a series we're going to go into it

in detail. But a certain hope is Christian hope. Let

me show you verse Look here on the screen, are

there on your outline? Hebrews six, verse nineteen. Here's one

example the certain hope circle that the certain hope of

being saved, that if you've trusted Christ, you're going to

be saved, is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. Now,

in certain hope, there's no doubt, there's no doubt. In

certain hope, there's no hesitation, there's no reservation, there's no uncertainty,

there's no well, I'm hoping, But what if you don't?

What if in certain hope, I don't say, what if

I don't go to heaven? That's doesn't even enter my mind.

Because my entrance into heaven is a certain hope. It

doesn't enter my mind. What if I don't make it.

Certain hope means it's sure, it's confident, it's sure, it's guaranteed.

You can count on it. Now, the Bible says, this

is the kind of hope. God wants you to build

your life on. This real hope, not phony hope. This

real hope. This certain hope has three characteristics and they're

all mentioned in that verse. It says it's strong. First,

it's strong. This certain hope of being saved is strong.

That means it's solid. It's sturdy, it's stable, it's firm,

it's unchanging. It's strong, it's not a week hope. And

then it says it's trustworthy. Circle that word circle strong

and trustworthy means it's dependable, it's reliable. You can bet

your life on it, on certain hope. And then it

says it's an anchor. Circle the word anchor. Now, what

is the purpose of an anchor? You see, the Bible says,

hope is the anchor for your soul.

So what is that? So why do I need hope?

It's often said that you can go weeks without food.

Some of us could go a little longer than that.

You can go days without water, you can go minutes

without air, but you can't go five seconds without hope.

You have to have hope to live. When you lose

all hope, you die. You've got to have hope. So

he says, hope is the anchor of the soul. What

is the purpose of an anchor in a ship or

in a boat, Well, that's two purposes. The first purpose

is to keep the ship from drifting, and the second

is to add stability in a storm. These are the

very two things you need in your life. This is

why we need to study hope, because you need it

for an anchor for the same two reasons. The ship

needs an anchor, And the Bible says, the anchor of

your soul.

Is not money, it's not fame, it's not all these

other things.

The anchor of your soul is hope when you've got hope,

and the stronger your hope, the stronger you be anchored

of Hope is like an anchor because it keeps the

boat from drifting. And there's a chain obviously on that anchor.

And so if the boat starts to drift, it only

drifts in a certain circle, can't go any further fixedirfule,

you know, if you don't have an anchor, a boat

can drift into unsafe water. And what's interesting is, and

if you've ever been on boats for an extended period times,

it's easy to drift. Have you noticed this in your life.

It's easy to drift. It's easy to drift away from God.

It's easy to drift away from your goals. It's easy

to drift away from the person you love. It's easy

to drift away from your dream. We are constantly drifting

if we are not anchored. And he says, hope is

the anchor of your soul, and you can drift without

even knowing it.

He said.

The other purpose, as I said, of an anchor, is

it gives you stability in a storm. And when you

let down an anchor in the middle of a storm

and you're out in the middle of an ocean. It

reduces pitch and roll in bad weather. Now, the oldest

anchors actually were just rocks and then they drill a

hole in them and put a little chain on them,

or they wear a basket of stones and things like that.

But the best designed anchors actually have hooks. Let me

show you a couple. Let me show you up here.

Here's an example. You've seen this kind of anchor. It's

got a hook in it, so it hooks itself into

the bedrock of the ocean floor. Let me show you

some big anchors. Here's a chain.

That is a.

Chain for a typical like an oil tanker. Each of

those links weighs five hundred pounds. Okay, I mean it

makes that man look like a mini figure from Legos. Okay, okay,

everything is awesome as he walks through those chains. All right,

but that's just the chain. Let me show you a

picture of the largest anchor in the world. There it

is right there. Now, look how these people see how

it's like almost got like a saw tooth in it says,

that's seventy five tons that anchor. You can imagine what

it takes to lift and lower that in the ocean.

Now here's the point. The bigger your ship, the bigger

your anchor. Now, if you want to live a little, tiny,

puny life, you don't need.

A very big anchor.

But if you want to live a big life, a

full life, what Jesus called an abundant life, a life

to the fullest, you're going to need an anchor. Because

you are going to have storms in your life. You

are going to go through rogue winds and tidal waves

in every area, financial, moral, ethical, every area. You're going

to have these mental physical tidal waves in your life.

You better have an anchor to keep you from drifting,

and you better have an anchor to keep you from

the pitch and roll and the instability that happens when

the waves come. You need an anchor for your souls. Now,

the question is where do you get it. Well, the

fact is, when people are in a storm, they typically

look to everything else except God for their anchor.

They don't look the hope.

When people are in deep pain or in deep discouragement

or deep despair, they often look at the bottom of

a bottle for their hope, or some medicines for their hope,

or entertainment or an affair or vacation, or it could

be good or bad, and they're looking for somebody to

anchor their lives. If I could just get a boyfriend,

if I could just get a job, if I could

just whatever, And they're looking outside of themselves for something

to anchor them when God says, no, really, what you need.

What you need is hope. Now, what makes the difference

between wishful hope and expectant hope and certain hope? When

you know you can bet your life on it, it's

going to happen, you can count on it. It's solid,

it's strong, it's trustworthy, and it's an anchor.

How do you get that kind of hope? Well, write

this down.

Real hope is based on God's word, not my wishes.

Real hope is based on God's word, not my wishes.

In other words, it's not based on what I sense. Well,

I think this is gonna happen. I hope this is

gonna happen. I want this to happen. It's not based

on what I sense. It's based on what God has said.

It's not based on my emotion. It's based on what

God has spoken. It's not based on my imagination.

It's based on.

God's obligation to do what he says. You see in

the Bible, God has said over seven thousand promises to you.

If I want to count over seven thousand promises. Now,

certain hope is based on the fact that God cannot lie.

People often ask me, is there anything God can't do?

Of course, there are things God can't do. God cannot die,

deny himself, he wouldn't be God. God cannot do evil,

he would not be God. There are certain things. Obviously,

God is self limiting by his own character. And one

of the things that the Bible says over and over

and over and over and over is this God cannot lie.

All truth comes from God. All lies or from the devil.

If you ever hear the devil talk of you, you

know it's a lie. He never, never, never speaks the truth.

And God never, never, never, never lies. God cannot lie.

And He's given in this book over seven thousand promises.

When we put our hope in these promises, that's going

to give a certain hope. When I put my hope

in my emotion, my talent, my friends, my circumstances, my intelligence,

or anything else. When I put my hope in anything else,

it's wishful thinking, or it's expectant hope, but it certainly

isn't certain. It can't be counted on all the time.

But God, God cannot lie. So if he said seven

thousand promises in here, then I base my hope on

God's word, not my wishes. I base my hope not

on my feelings, what I feel like doing, but on

God's promises. And he said, well, what about the promises

that haven't been realized yet? Well, God has all of

eternity to fulfill his promises. God doesn't have to fulfill

his promise just here on earth. Have you ever thought

about that? When God makes a promise to you, he

doesn't just have your sixty years on earth to fulfill it.

There are some promises that God has.

Made to you. He's got all of eternity to fulfill.

He's not limited to simply the space and time of

a ball that spits around space and has a twenty

four our day. God has all of eternity to fulfill

his promises in you. Let me give you an example

of what it means to have a certain faith, and

by putting your faith not in what you feel, but

in what God has revealed not in your wishes, but

in his word. Here's an example. Hebrews chapter six, verse

thirteen to seventeen talks about Abraham. So God made a

promise to Abraham, and Abraham waited patiently for it to happen.

Because God is not a vending machine.

God doesn't give you promise and fulfill it the next

day because God is more interested in growing your faith

than he is even actually meeting your timeline. So there

will always be a timeline. When God gives your promise,

there's always a delay because he's going to see if

you're going to trust him.

That's what God wants to do, wants to build your faith.

So God made a promise to Abraham, and Abraham waited

patiently for it to happen. Actually was ninety nine years

old when it happened, so he received what God promised. Now,

people always use the name of someone greater than themselves

when they make an oath.

Let me stop and explain that.

Have you ever noticed that people who don't believe in

Jesus use his name more than you do?

What's that all about?

Okay, when somebody gets mad and they start saying blankety

blankety blank and Jesus Christ blankety blank and oh God,

blank blank blank.

What in the world, Why are they bringing Jesus into this?

They just hit their thumb, you know, they just had

a you know, they had an accident.

Why are they bringing God in Jesus name? It is?

I'll tell you why, he says.

Right here, people always use the name of someone greater

than themselves when they make an oath, okay, and swearing

is like an oath. They're trying to make themselves more powerful.

If somebody's mad at you and they come up to

you and they talk to you in a reasonable tone,

you're not threatened to frighten by all. But if they

come out and they start cussing you out and swearing,

use Jesus name, you get intimidated. Why Because there's power

in the name of Jesus and the name of God.

Now, it said.

People, when they want to make a promise, they say,

you know, I swe where by the name of Jesus

or God. And he says, God wanted to prove that

his promise was true to those who'd get what he promised,

and he wanted them to understand that his purposes never change.

His purposes never.

That's why we call ourselves a purpose driven church because

we build on unchanging purposes of God. So God made

an oath. Now there are two things that are unchangeable.

In other words, they're never going to change. God cannot

lie when he makes a promise, and he cannot lie

when he makes an oath.

These things encourage us.

They give us strength to hold on, which is what

an anchor does. They give us strength to hold on

to the hope we've been given. We have this hope

as an anchor for our souls.

It is sure and it is strong.

Now that whole passage there says what I've just been

explaining to you for the last ten minutes. Certain hope

isn't based on feelings. It's based on what God has said.

It's based on God's promises. It's based on God's statements.

It's not based on what you think. It's based on

what God teaches. And he says, the reason why you

build your life on those things because they're certain, is

because God can't lie. Other people tell you stuff and

they'll lie to you, but God cannot lie. So he says,

this hope is something we can hold on to. We

can have it as an anchor for our souls. And

it's strong, and it's true, and it's trustworthy. Now one

day Jesus gave the key to hopelessness, and he says

it in Luke chapter eighteen, Verse one. Jesus taught his

followers that they should read it with me aloud. Always

pray and never lose hope. And I want you to circle,

always pray, and I want you to circle never lose hope. Those,

my friends, are the two alternatives in life. Every single

moment of your life, you're choosing one of those two alternatives.

And when stuff bad happens, you'll either panic or you'll pray.

It's your alternative. If you pray, you don't panic. If

you panic, you don't pray. You will either worship or

you will worry. Those are the two alternatives in life.

Jesus said that we should always pray and never lose hope.

God wants you to never lose hope. And how do

you never lose hope by praying? By the way, As

part of my writing, I surveyed people and I did

research to discover what are the most common causes of hopelessness,

What caused people to give up, what caused people to

give up on their marriage. What costs people to give

up on their What causes people to give up on

their life? What causes people to take their life? What

causes people to have hopelessness. I want to give you

the results of my research right now. These are the

top ten causes of hopelessness. They're not on your outline.

You don't have to write them down. We'll look at

the antidotes to them in forty days. But look up

here on the screen. These are top ten and they're

not in any order, but they're the ten most common.

When you feel alone or when you feel abandoned, and

you feel that for a long period of time, that

causes you to feel hopelessly. And you can be in

a crowd and feel all alone.

Isn't that true?

I mean you have people all around you. You could

be sitting here right now in one of our campuses

and feel very lonely. When you feel all alone, when

you feel abandoned, that causes hopeless Here's another one. When

life seems out of control. Here's a common phrase. When

life is out of control. It's never going to change.

I have no power to change it. It's never going

to change. And I feel hopeless about this in my relationship,

in my life, in my habits, that feeling of hopeless

Number three, let's leave these up there.

You don't see a purpose.

People can handle enormous amount of pain as long as

they realize there's a purpose behind it. What we cannot

handle is purposeless pain. And when you don't see a

reason or rhyme or a plan, that causes hopelessness.

Number four. Grieving a loss.

When you've had a major loss or a series of

major losses in your life, that can cause a sense

of hopelessness. Number five when you don't have what you need.

You need more money and you can't get it. You

need more energy and you can't get it. You need

to be smarter and you're not. You need more talent

you don't have. You just feel like I'm always behind.

I'm always a day late and a dollar short. I

don't have what I need. And many people go through

life feeling that their entire lives, I don't know what

I need and they feel hopeless.

I'm stuck.

I'm stuck in a dead end job. I'm stuck in poverty.

I'm stuck in my situation. I can't get out of it,

and I can't get.

On with it.

You don't have what you need. Number six, when you've

done something wrong. There's a big one. Guilt causes hopelessness.

Shame causes hopelessness, Regret causes hopelessness. Remorse causes hopelessness. When

I cannot forgive myself for something that I did and

it just eats away.

It's not what you're.

Eating, it's what's eating you that causes hopelessness over the

long haul.

Number seven.

When you've been deeply wounded by somebody, maybe abuse, physical, sexual,

or some other way. When you've been really hurt by somebody,

and that hurt is so bad and that wedge was

driven so deep and that thorn is so far into

your flesh you can't think of anything else, and bitterness

and resentment and holding onto that will cause ultimately hopelessness

in your life.

Number eight.

When you're pulled in the wrong direction. There's a word

for this. It's called temptation. And when you're constantly being

pulled in the wrong direction, and you go, I really

don't want to live this way, but why do I

keep giving into it? I know this is wrong, I

know this is not good for me. I know this

is not healthy. I know this relationship is self destructive.

I know this habit is taking me in the wrong way.

Why do I keep doing it? There's an entire chapter

in the Bible about this, it's Roman seven. But Paul says,

the things that I know are right and I want

to do, I end up not doing. And the stuff

that I don't want to do and I know it's wrong,

it's bad for me, I end up doing that sense

of pulled in the wrong direction by temptations.

Number nine is hounded by fear.

When you're frightened, when you're scared, when you live in anxiety.

It leads to hopelessness and people from when people are terrorised,

I'm talking about physical terrorism around the world, it causes

a sense of hopelessness. Isis is on the way to

our village, and there's nothing we can do about it.

That causes hopelessness. And then number ten is this when

it looks like defeat, when you feel like I'm not

on the winning side, I'm on the losing side. We're

defeat is sure, there's no way the enemy is overwhelming,

we can't handle the onslaught. We're gone er, this is

our last stand, but we're all gonna die when it

looks like now. These are the ten I believe most

common causes of hopelessness in the world.

Here's an amazing little truth.

Over the months and even years I've been thinking about this,

what I discovered is that the ten greatest causes of

hopelessness find their antidotes in the ten phrases of the

Lord's Prayer. The Lord's Prayer is a deceptively simple prayer.

You've got it memorized. It's less than seventy words. A

lot of people say the Lord's Prayer and don't pray

the Lord's prayer. You may have never prayed it. You've

said it, you say it, but you.

Don't pray it. And to understand the.

Depth of each of the phrases of the Lord's Prayer

is to see the antide to every one of the

ten biggest causes of hopelessness on our planet. Ten reasons

for hope that we get from the phrases of the

Lord's Prayer. Number one, When I'm feeling all alone, I

remember Number one. My loving Father will never abandon me.

My loving Father will never abandon me, Our Father in heaven.

You are not an orphan. Jesus broke the mold. You

don't realize how radical it was when Jesus used the

phrase our Father. Nobody had ever talked to God that way.

We do it all the time today, but it's because

of this prayer. It was so radical when he said,

you have a father who is caring and comforting, and

you know, consistent, and he's close and all of those things.

My father will never abandon me. That gives me hope.

Number Two, when life seems out of control, I need

to remember and I'm feeling powers, that God's power is

greater than any price problem. God's power is greater than

any problem. I don't have time to go into the

meaning of Hallowed be your Name, but the Bible teaches

that there is power in the name of God and

power in the name of Jesus, and when we hollow

his name, it brings power in our life. Jesus even

himself prayed, keep them safe by the power of your name.

So we'll go into that later. God's power is greater

than any other problem, and it is wrapped up in

the name of God. Number Three. When I'm confused and

i don't see any purpose to what's going on in

my life, I need to remember. Number three, God fits

everything into his plan. That is a reason for hope,

that even my mistakes, even my sins, he fits it

into his plan. And his plan is called the Kingdom

of God. And we are to seek the Kingdom of God.

We are to live for the Kingdom of God. We're

to live for God's plan and purpose. It's this overarching plan.

And we know the Bible says that in all things

God works for the good of those who love him

according to this purpose. And he takes even the bad

things in our lives and he fits it into his

kingdom plan.

That's a reason for hope. Number Four.

When I'm grieving, when I've had a major loss in

my life, I need to remember that God has a

greater purpose for my life, and I surrender to that

purpose even when I don't understand the losses in my life.

I say, Thy will be done on earth as it

is in heaven. And why do we pray that, because

God's will is not always done on earth. It's done

perfectly in heaven, but it's not done perfectly on earth.

The fact it's done seldom on earth. That's why if

God's will was always done, you wouldn't have to pray

for it. Share that God's will was always done, you

wouldn't have to pray for it. Not everything that happens

is God's will. That's why we are to pray thy

will be done for God's greater purpose in our lives.

Number five. When I'm worried about not having enough, one

of the ten causes of hopelessness, I need to remember

that God has promised to meet all my needs. And

he says, I want you to come to me for

your needs, and I want you to pray give us

this day our daily bread.

And notice he doesn't say give me this day.

My monthly bread, are my weekly bread, are my annual bread.

God wants you to depend on him day by day,

and he says, God has promised to meet all your

needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus, and

the Bible says, since God loved us enough to send Jesus,

won't he love us enough to take care of all

of our other needs. The answer is obvious yes. So

God's promised to meet all my needs and we can

come to him for our daily bread. Means everything that

I need in life, physical, emotional, et cetera. Number six.

When I feel guilty and I feel full of remorse

or regret, I remember that Jesus paid, he died to

pay for all I've done wrong. And I'm forgiven, and

I am forgiven, and we are to forget. We are

to pray forgive us our sins. And the Bible tells

us this. There is no condemnation for those who are

in Christ Jesus.

That's a reason for hope. There is no condemnation.

We are forgiven, even the stuff we haven't even done yet.

Jesus Christ paid for on the cross. No condemnation. That's

a reason for hope. And you can stop hanging yourself

on the cross. Number seven. When I've been hurt, when

people have hurt me deeply, when I've been wounded, when

I've been judged, when I've been misunderstood, when I've been

wronged unfairly, I need to remember that God will settle

the score someday. That's a reason for hope. People don't

just get away with stuff. God says, one day, I'm

going to settle the story. He says, Your job is

to forgive. My job is to judge. It's not my

judge job to judge other people. It's God's job because

he can only judge fairly. I'm going to show this

one verse Romans twelve nineteen. Can we put that on

the outlet on the screen. Don't insist on getting even

that's not for you to do.

I'll do the judging, says God. I'll take care of it.

He weird to do the forgiving. God's to do the judging.

And we need to know and.

We can count on the fact that God has promised

that He's going to settle the score someday.

Number eight.

When I feel powerless to break through those temptations that

keep messing me up, when I feel like I cannot

actually get free from the habits and hurts and the

hang ups. Something bad's always causing my downfall, I need

to remember this number eight. God has promised to help me.

God has promised to help me, and he says that

you ask for help. He says, pray lead us not

into temptation. Let me show you this verse two First

Corinthians ten thirteen. The Bible says, remember that the temptations

have come into your life are no different from what

others experience. And God is faithful.

He will keep.

The temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand

up against it. And when you're attempted, he will show

you a way out so that you will not give

in to it.

That gives me a reason for hope that maybe, just maybe.

I can break through the things that are messing up

my life and my witness.

Number nine.

When I feel threatened, when I feel anxious, when I

feel afraid, when I feel frightened or scared by forces

that are coming against me. Number nine, I need to

remember that Jesus in me is greater than any other power.

The Bible says, greater is He that is in you

than is heath in the world, and we are to

pray deliver us from evil.

And when you.

Understand the full implication of that phrase, you're going to

be a lot more confident in life, the fact that

greater is He who is in you than he that

is in the world. And most Christians do not practice

that on.

A daily basis.

And finally, number ten, we said that the tenth pause

of hopelessness is a feeling of defeat.

We're on the wrong side. You're hear it all the time.

You're on the wrong side of history.

Christianity has never been on the right side of history.

It started when the Romans were nailing us to the cross.

It's never been on the right side of history. But

there are two point three billion of us. Sorry, And

so when it looks like defeat and it looks like

evil is winning, I need to remember this number ten.

This is not the end of the story. This is

not the end of the story. People can vote this

way and that way, and do this thing and that thing,

and cultures can rise and crumble, but it is not

the end of the story.

History is his story.

For yours is the kingdom, and yours is the power,

and yours is the glory forever. And one day He's

gonna wipe away every tear and every pain, and there

will be no more death, and no more sorrow, and

no more crying, and no more pain.

This is not the end of the story.

Now, I want to just close by talking to some

of you who may be in the despair right now.

And some of you have thought this is never going

to change in my life, and some.

Of you have thought maybe maybe the world would be

at a better place without me, and maybe you've even

thought about taking your life. Don't don't you have no

idea of the implications of that foolish decision. So let

me just say a few things too. Those of you,

and it's not everybody, but those of you who are

in the pit of despair right now. Suicidal thoughts are

a symptom, not a solution. It's not the solution to

your despair. It's not the solution to your hopelessness. Suicidal

thoughts are never rational, that don't make sense.

You got to not listen to them.

And what you have to do when you feel hopeless,

and whether you're suicide or not, everybody needs this one.

When you feel hopeless, you must challenge your thoughts. You

must challenge your thoughts. Let me give you some ways,

just as I close here, some ways to challenge your

thoughts when you feel hopeless. First, you need to tell

yourself this, just because I think something doesn't make it true.

You think a lot of things about yourself and about

others that simply aren't true. Just because you think it

doesn't make it true. Let me tell you something else.

Just because you think your thoughts tell you to do

something doesn't mean you should do it. Your mind tells

you a lot of things you should never, never, never do.

You need to challenge your thoughts, and you need to

tell yourself I don't really want to die. I just

want the pain to end. And you need to sell yourself.

I believe that there's a better solution to ending my pain,

even though I can't see it right now.

You have to tell.

Yourself that, and you have to say to yourself, this

will pass. This is my depression talking to me. It's

not the truth. This is my depression talking to me.

I will get through this. This too will pass. When

you go through deep waters in great trouble, I will

be with you. When you go through rivers of difficult

you will not drown. This is a promise. When you

walk through the fires of oppression, you will not be

burned up. The flames will not consume you. For I

am the Lord, your God. Let's bow our heads. Father,

I love these people in all of our campuses. Thank

you for our family called saddleback. And I know that

in a family our size, that there are many many

people who right now feel hopeless about a job, a relationship,

their future, their finances. Lord, there's some who feel alone

and abandoned. Help them to remember that you are their

loving Father who will never abandon them. And there are

some who feel life's out of control. Help them to

feel and realize that your power is greater than any

problem they're facing. And there's some who feel like it

just doesn't and there is no purpose to their life.

Help them to realize that you have a plan and

that you fit everything into the plan, even the tough stuff,

and use it for good.

Lord.

There are those who are grieving a loss right now.

Thank you that you have a greater purpose for our life,

and that when we surrender to you and say I

will be done on earth as it is in Heaven,

we find peace and comfort.

Lord.

There's so many people here who don't have what they

need physically, emotionally, sexually, spiritually, financially. Thank you that you've

promised to meet all of our needs if we will

turn to you.

Lord.

There are those who are carrying deep regret, deep remorse,

deep guilt for something they've done wrong. Thank you, Jesus

that you died for those sins. You died for them,

that those sins have been paid for, we don't have

to pay for them. Thank You that we're forgiven completely

freely and instantly. Maybe learn to forgive ourselves and learn

to forgive others.

And Father, when people.

Wound us and they hurt us, help us to not

seek revenged. And you said vengeance is mine, I will repay.

Help us to forgive and lead the judgment to you,

because you are the only righteous judge.

We are not.

Thank you, Lord that you're going to settle the score

one day. And when we're pulled in the wrong direction,

help us to claim the promises that you will never

allow us to be tempted more than we're able.

And when we're hounded.

By fear, deliver us from evil. Help us to remember

that Jesus, you and us are greater than any other

power that's in the world. And when we live in

a culture where things seem to be going the wrong way,

and when it looks like defeat, help us remember that

this is not the end for yours as the kingdom

and the power and the glory forever. I pray that

this fall each of us will find one person to

bring to church to share the good news with. It's

just too good to keep it a secret. And I

pray that we will be agents of hope in a

world that is increasingly hopeless. I Pray this blessing in

the name of the Father and the Son and the

Holy Spirit.

Amen.