Kerry Shook is one of today’s most gifted communicators offering a clear; contemporary and creative teaching style.
#Religion
#Miracles
#Personal Story
#Prayer
#Trials-Hard Times
#Hope
#Love of God
#Spiritual Foundation
#Loss
#Kerry Shook
#Jude 1:1-2
#Psalm 119:18
#Psalm 9:1
#2 Kings 19:14-15
#Joshua 4:21-23
#Psalm 42:6
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Show Timecode
Kerry Shook Ministries with Kerry Shook | Miracle Book | May 1, 2022
- ...
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- Chris Shook: This whole time became a crash course, a
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- crash season of how to find hope when times get hard.
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- ♪ Oh, oh. ♪
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- ♪ Oh, oh, oh. ♪
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- ♪ Oh, oh. ♪
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- ♪♪♪
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- CC by Aberdeen Captioning 1-800-688-6621 aberdeen.io
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- ♪♪♪
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- Chris: We are so glad you're here.
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- We've been looking forward to this day for a long time, and
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- we're just thrilled that you are here to share it with us.
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- Kerry Shook: Because this weekend, we're officially
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- kicking off this churchwide adventure we're going to be
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- going on this month that we're calling "The Gift Of One Day."
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- Because if you change what you do
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- in a day, you change a lifetime.
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- If you can learn how to really unwrap the amazing gift of one
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- day and receive all that God has for you and give all that God
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- wants you to give, then you make a difference for all eternity.
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- Now, we said last weekend that this whole series, the book and
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- the great adventure that we're going on is really based
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- on what we're learning from two Judes.
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- The first Jude is our grandson Jude Samuel Shook who
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- was given the gift of one day on this
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- earth before God called him to heaven.
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- But how that little boy unwrapped the divine gift of his
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- one day really changed the way we now live every day.
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- But then the other Jude is Jude, the half-brother of our Lord and
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- Savior Jesus Christ, and he wrote a tiny, little book, one
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- of the smallest books in the New Testament
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- named after him, the book of Jude.
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- And in Jude, chapter 1, verses 1 and 2 in the Message paraphrase,
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- it says, "I, Jude, am a slave to Jesus Christ, writing to those
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- loved by God the Father, called and kept safe by Jesus Christ.
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- Relax, everything's going to be all right; rest, everything's
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- coming together; open your hearts, love is on the way."
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- That last sentence is the secret to
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- really unwrapping the gift of one day.
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- It's opening your heart to receive all that God has to give
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- you, opening your heart to receive all the blessings, the
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- miracles, all the goodness of God in your life and then
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- opening your heart to give all that God wants you to give.
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- So it's all about opening your hearts.
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- So our whole goal for this month is to learn how
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- to live with our hearts wide open.
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- But before you can open your heart,
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- you got to first open your eyes.
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- God's miracles are all around us, but you have
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- to open your eyes to really see them.
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- Before you can open your heart, we
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- got to learn today to open our eyes.
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- Chris: Let's take a look at this first verse in your notes,
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- Psalm 119, verse 18, "Open my eyes so I can see what
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- you show me of your miracle-wonders."
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- As Kerry said, there are so many miracles around
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- us all time, we just don't see 'em.
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- And so, I'm so excited about this journey that we're going to
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- be going on over the next few weeks together as we all learn
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- to open our eyes and actually see the miracles around us.
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- I really believe that you're going to be astounded.
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- And we'll be sharing more of our family story, of our grandson
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- Jude Samuel who went to be with the Lord after living for just
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- one day, but we share that not because our pain is unique.
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- We share our story because this is our story, and we know that
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- there are a lot of parallels, a lot of things that we've learned
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- and the tough times that we pray that you can use.
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- If you're going through a hard time now, or maybe you're still
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- dealing with something really rough from the past, or maybe
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- there is something around the corner that you're a little
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- fearful of, we just pray that this will be something, some
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- things that we've learned, that you can apply to your own life.
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- And so, at the 20-week ultrasound,
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- this whole time became a crash course, a crash season
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- of how to find hope when times get hard.
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- And at that 20-week ultrasound, Kelly and Josh went in and
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- expected everything to be perfect, but actually, it was
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- not, and they were told that most likely, their son,
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- Jude, their firstborn, would not live more than a
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- few minutes or hours after he was born.
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- And it was during this day of feeling absolutely crushed,
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- absolutely just crying out to God more than I ever had in my
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- life, that God led me to grab an empty book just sitting on the
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- shelf, an empty journal and start writing in it.
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- And so, this--you hear us talk about the miracle book, and I
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- want to make sure you understand what that is.
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- This is the book I grabbed.
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- It was just a book. It's orange.
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- It just happened to be on my bookshelf.
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- This was not something I worked up and ran out
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- and tried to find the perfect thing.
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- I just grabbed something off the shelf.
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- And we started referring to it as the miracle book.
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- I carried this around in my purse everywhere we went.
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- And when it got filled up, we started
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- volume two, and I did the same thing.
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- I just grabbed another one, another random,
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- empty book and started writing in it.
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- But this is the miracle book, and on the very first page, I
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- wrote this verse, Psalm 9, verse 1, "I will give thanks
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- to the Lord with my whole heart; I will
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- recount all of your wonderful deeds."
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- So I just wrote Jude Samuel Shook
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- at the top, and I wrote that verse.
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- And I want to tell you that when I wrote that verse at about 1
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- in the morning after feeling more hurt than I
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- had ever felt in my whole life, I did not
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- write that with a heart of thanks.
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- I'll just be honest.
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- When I said, "I will give thanks to the Lord of
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- my whole heart," it was an act of obedience.
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- I was just saying, "I will give thanks to you, God.
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- I will give thanks.
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- I will recount all of your wonderful deeds."
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- And in saying that, I was saying, "God,
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- I expect wonderful deeds from you.
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- I'm looking for wonderful deeds.
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- I'm looking for something that I can give thanks for.
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- And this is going to be where I write it down
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- because I'm counting you, God."
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- And we share this with you because
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- we want you to have your own.
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- We want you to have a written record of what
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- God has done, is doing in your life.
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- female announcer: Still to come with Pastor Kerry Shook.
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- Kerry: We, many times, fail to recognize the miracles of
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- today because we're so focused on a miracle in the future that
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- will solve all of our problems tomorrow.
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- ♪♪♪
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- Kerry: Chris and I really want you to know about our new
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- book that just came out in paperback.
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- It's "The Gift Of One Day:
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- How To Find Hope When Life Gets Hard."
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- We all go through hard times and difficulties and pain, but God
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- wants to see you through with his hope.
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- I know one of the most difficult days we've ever experienced
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- was when our grandson, Jude Samuel,
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- was born, and he only lived for 24 hours.
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- It was devastating to us, and we still grieve.
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- But yet we know that he's with the Lord in heaven.
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- And the way that little boy lived those 24 hours
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- taught us how to live the rest of our years.
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- I know you know someone who's going through some pain
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- and problems, or maybe you're going
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- through a difficult time in your life.
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- And so, I hope you'll call us right now.
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- We'd love to pray with you and pray for you, and we
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- would also love to get you this book for a gift
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- of any amount, "The Gift Of One Day."
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- Because God wants to get you through today, he wants you not
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- only to survive, but he wants you to thrive.
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- He has a great plan for you.
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- Kerry: Now, let's look at how do you do the miracle book.
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- Well, there are four principles.
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- First, "Recognize every miracle."
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- You want to recognize the miracles
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- when they come your way.
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- But before you can recognize a miracle, you got to first
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- recognize that you need a miracle.
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- There was a time in the Old Testament when Jerusalem was
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- under siege by the powerful Assyrian army.
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- And the Assyrian army had destroyed all the other nations
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- around them, and now they were sieging Jerusalem, and there was
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- a godly king, Hezekiah, who was the king of Israel
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- at the time, and he knew that the situation
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- looked bleak, and they needed a miracle.
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- And then he gets a letter from the wicked
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- king of Assyria, King Sennacherib.
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- And this letter says, "You need to surrender, or you will be
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- destroyed like all the other nations before you.
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- We've destroyed all the other nations and all the gods of
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- those nations, so you're going to be destroyed too, and we will
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- destroy your God like we've destroyed all the other gods."
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- And I want you to look at what Hezekiah
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- does when he gets this devastating letter.
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- And I'm sure he was filled with fear because you can't help but
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- be filled with fear when something fearful happens.
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- It's just human nature.
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- But then you have a choice, are
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- you going to choose fear or faith?
- 00:09:20.108 --> 00:09:22.744
- And as Chris said, fear and faith
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- can't occupy the same space.
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- And so Hezekiah chooses faith in spite of his feelings of fear,
- 00:09:26.715 --> 00:09:31.152
- and here's what he does in 2 Kings 19, verse 14, "Hezekiah
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- received the letter from the messengers, and he read it.
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- Then he went up to the temple of the
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- Lord and he spread it out before the Lord.
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- And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord."
- 00:09:42.964 --> 00:09:46.267
- So Hezekiah takes this devastating letter, and he just
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- lays it out before God, and he says,
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- "God, this is what we're up against.
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- God, we need a miracle.
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- God, this king says that he's destroyed all the other gods,
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- and he's going to destroy you too and destroy us.
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- But we know that you're the one true God.
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- We know that you're the God
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- of miracles, and we need a miracle."
- 00:10:06.955 --> 00:10:10.892
- And he lays out his desperate prayer to God.
- 00:10:10.892 --> 00:10:14.763
- And you need to lay out your desperate situation to God.
- 00:10:14.763 --> 00:10:17.799
- Every day, lay out that desperate
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- situation that you're facing to God.
- 00:10:19.367 --> 00:10:21.836
- That's what Josh and Kelly did every day in Cincinnati.
- 00:10:21.836 --> 00:10:23.972
- They would lay out the reality of the problem.
- 00:10:23.972 --> 00:10:28.777
- They would lay out the odds and the medical reports.
- 00:10:28.777 --> 00:10:32.113
- They would lay out before God all the things that
- 00:10:32.113 --> 00:10:34.883
- they needed that God would have to come
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- through on because they couldn't do it.
- 00:10:36.818 --> 00:10:40.455
- They would just lay it out before God.
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- And we said last weekend that we learned
- 00:10:41.790 --> 00:10:44.292
- to pray those just-for-today prayers.
- 00:10:44.292 --> 00:10:46.094
- That we'd say, "Just for today, God, give us the wisdom we need
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- to make that decision that we have to make today.
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- Just for today, God, give us the strength to walk this path.
- 00:10:50.632 --> 00:10:54.235
- Just for today, God, provide this,
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- provide that, that we need.
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- Just for today, God."
- 00:10:57.338 --> 00:10:59.541
- And once you lay out your desperate prayer to God,
- 00:10:59.541 --> 00:11:02.844
- your just-for-today prayer, start watching
- 00:11:02.844 --> 00:11:04.679
- for God to work during the day.
- 00:11:04.679 --> 00:11:07.148
- You open your spiritual eyes and ask God, "Open my eyes to see
- 00:11:07.148 --> 00:11:10.585
- what you're going to bring me today so I can open
- 00:11:10.585 --> 00:11:12.454
- my heart and receive all that you have for me,
- 00:11:12.454 --> 00:11:14.856
- and I can give all that you want me to give."
- 00:11:14.856 --> 00:11:19.127
- But there's three places that we often look,
- 00:11:19.127 --> 00:11:22.297
- and we miss the miracle.
- 00:11:22.297 --> 00:11:23.965
- We're looking in the wrong place for the miracle.
- 00:11:23.965 --> 00:11:26.201
- We're looking for miracles, but it's in the wrong place.
- 00:11:26.201 --> 00:11:28.603
- And if you look in these wrong places, you will miss the
- 00:11:28.603 --> 00:11:30.572
- miracles that God wants to bring into your life.
- 00:11:30.572 --> 00:11:32.874
- The first is we look for the miracle
- 00:11:32.874 --> 00:11:34.642
- in tomorrow and miss the miracle in today.
- 00:11:34.642 --> 00:11:38.713
- Jude taught us an important lesson about miracles that we
- 00:11:38.713 --> 00:11:43.718
- many times fail to recognize the miracles of today because we're
- 00:11:43.718 --> 00:11:47.288
- so focused on a miracle in the future that
- 00:11:47.288 --> 00:11:50.759
- will solve all of our problems tomorrow.
- 00:11:50.759 --> 00:11:54.295
- Remember in the Old Testament when Joshua was ready to lead
- 00:11:54.295 --> 00:11:56.698
- the people into the promised land, there was a great barrier
- 00:11:56.698 --> 00:12:00.068
- between them and their destiny, the Jordan River.
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- It was at flood stage. There was no way across it.
- 00:12:02.737 --> 00:12:05.240
- They would need a miracle. God does the miracle.
- 00:12:05.240 --> 00:12:07.809
- He parts the water. It was the Red Sea 2.0.
- 00:12:07.809 --> 00:12:12.313
- He parts the Jordan River.
- 00:12:12.313 --> 00:12:14.415
- They walk through on dry ground into the promised land.
- 00:12:14.415 --> 00:12:18.319
- But then God convinced Joshua to pick out 12 men,
- 00:12:18.319 --> 00:12:21.022
- one from each tribe, to send them back into
- 00:12:21.022 --> 00:12:23.358
- the dry riverbed while the water is parted.
- 00:12:23.358 --> 00:12:27.395
- That took a little bit of faith. Hey, we just got through that.
- 00:12:27.395 --> 00:12:30.765
- And go back in, and they went back in the dry riverbed, and
- 00:12:30.765 --> 00:12:34.402
- they were to each pick out a sizable rock, to hoist it onto
- 00:12:34.402 --> 00:12:38.540
- their shoulders and then to walk it into the Israelite
- 00:12:38.540 --> 00:12:42.076
- camp on the promised land side of the
- 00:12:42.076 --> 00:12:45.346
- Jordan River and then stack them in a pile.
- 00:12:45.346 --> 00:12:48.316
- Why were they to do that? The answer is in Joshua 4:21.
- 00:12:48.316 --> 00:12:52.353
- It says, "Then Joshua said to the Israelites, 'In the future,
- 00:12:52.353 --> 00:12:55.123
- your children will ask, what do these stones mean?
- 00:12:55.123 --> 00:12:58.159
- Then you will tell them, this is where the Israelites
- 00:12:58.159 --> 00:13:01.396
- crossed the Jordan on dry ground.
- 00:13:01.396 --> 00:13:03.598
- For the Lord, your God dried up
- 00:13:03.598 --> 00:13:05.033
- the river right before your eyes.'"
- 00:13:05.033 --> 00:13:08.036
- It was a monument to remember the miracle.
- 00:13:08.036 --> 00:13:11.139
- The stones of remembrance, and that's what the miracle book is.
- 00:13:11.139 --> 00:13:16.644
- It's a monument to remember the miracle, why?
- 00:13:16.644 --> 00:13:19.781
- Because we forget.
- 00:13:19.781 --> 00:13:21.282
- We forget the big things God does, much less the little
- 00:13:21.282 --> 00:13:25.119
- things that really make a bigger difference most of the time.
- 00:13:25.119 --> 00:13:29.958
- And that's why we have to write it down.
- 00:13:29.958 --> 00:13:32.627
- When you write them down, then you can look back, and it builds
- 00:13:32.627 --> 00:13:36.798
- your faith because you remember how much God loves you.
- 00:13:36.798 --> 00:13:40.835
- You remember that God cares about the details of your life.
- 00:13:40.835 --> 00:13:44.072
- You remember that God saw you through
- 00:13:44.072 --> 00:13:45.874
- once, and he'll do it again.
- 00:13:45.874 --> 00:13:49.544
- But we forget to remember, and so, we recognize
- 00:13:49.544 --> 00:13:53.448
- the miracles and then record every miracle.
- 00:13:53.448 --> 00:13:57.452
- Chris: And then also we need to rehearse every miracle.
- 00:13:57.452 --> 00:14:00.088
- Psalm 42 verse 6 says, "When my soul is in the dumps,
- 00:14:00.088 --> 00:14:03.725
- I rehearse everything I know of you."
- 00:14:03.725 --> 00:14:07.528
- I am never not amazed at how good God
- 00:14:07.528 --> 00:14:11.232
- is when I look back at the miracle book.
- 00:14:11.232 --> 00:14:13.134
- Sure, there's a little bit of ink all the time when we think
- 00:14:13.134 --> 00:14:16.971
- of Jude, but yet we know, and we see it clearly now, that there's
- 00:14:16.971 --> 00:14:22.777
- so much goodness, goodness that we would've missed
- 00:14:22.777 --> 00:14:25.847
- if we didn't intentionally remember.
- 00:14:25.847 --> 00:14:28.583
- This past year, the year before, the year before, these times
- 00:14:28.583 --> 00:14:31.419
- have been easily the toughest, but the hard things
- 00:14:31.419 --> 00:14:35.623
- in this experience with Jude, the hard
- 00:14:35.623 --> 00:14:37.392
- things have been like reading glasses.
- 00:14:37.392 --> 00:14:41.696
- I don't know how many of you need reading glasses like I do.
- 00:14:41.696 --> 00:14:44.666
- I have reading glasses, they really help me a lot.
- 00:14:44.666 --> 00:14:48.736
- You know, let me just tell you for those who are younger.
- 00:14:48.736 --> 00:14:51.139
- You get to a certain age, and all the sudden, all the doctors
- 00:14:51.139 --> 00:14:53.141
- are younger than you, and they all say,
- 00:14:53.141 --> 00:14:55.376
- "Well, you know, around your age."
- 00:14:55.376 --> 00:14:58.680
- I say, "I know. I know."
- 00:14:58.680 --> 00:15:01.950
- But I have reading glasses, and they're great, you know why?
- 00:15:01.950 --> 00:15:04.585
- Because I put them on, and everything
- 00:15:04.585 --> 00:15:06.621
- comes into sharp focus, it's awesome.
- 00:15:06.621 --> 00:15:10.258
- And the hard things in life are like reading glasses because
- 00:15:10.258 --> 00:15:15.997
- when I look through them, I see magnified or unseen God at work.
- 00:15:15.997 --> 00:15:22.870
- I see in sharp focus what he has done when I look through the
- 00:15:22.870 --> 00:15:28.242
- hard things, through the miracles when I use
- 00:15:28.242 --> 00:15:33.348
- those eyes of faith to see what he's doing.
- 00:15:33.348 --> 00:15:37.318
- But what if I took my reading glasses, my prescription reading
- 00:15:37.318 --> 00:15:40.888
- glasses that you know are just perfect for my eyes,
- 00:15:40.888 --> 00:15:43.891
- and I just held them in my hand.
- 00:15:43.891 --> 00:15:45.893
- They said, "Here you go."
- 00:15:45.893 --> 00:15:47.328
- And the optometrist--and I just held them in my hand,
- 00:15:47.328 --> 00:15:49.197
- and I said, "Well, they don't work.
- 00:15:49.197 --> 00:15:51.499
- They're not working for me.
- 00:15:51.499 --> 00:15:52.834
- I thought this was supposed to help me."
- 00:15:52.834 --> 00:15:55.169
- Well, it would be very discouraging if I just looked at
- 00:15:55.169 --> 00:15:58.139
- them and said, "This doesn't help at all."
- 00:15:58.139 --> 00:16:01.843
- But that's what happens when we just look at our hard
- 00:16:01.843 --> 00:16:05.179
- things, when we just keep staring at our hard
- 00:16:05.179 --> 00:16:07.782
- things and saying, "This is hard.
- 00:16:07.782 --> 00:16:09.384
- This is so hard. This is not helping me.
- 00:16:09.384 --> 00:16:12.420
- This is hard."
- 00:16:12.420 --> 00:16:14.288
- But when we look through them, even though we would never
- 00:16:14.288 --> 00:16:17.792
- choose them, when we look through them, then they enable
- 00:16:17.792 --> 00:16:23.264
- us to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
- 00:16:23.264 --> 00:16:28.002
- When we look through our hard things, they expose the true
- 00:16:28.002 --> 00:16:32.173
- state of our existence, which is wholly, utterly, completely
- 00:16:32.173 --> 00:16:36.444
- dependent on the Lord to make it to the next hour.
- 00:16:36.444 --> 00:16:40.448
- That is the truth of my existence.
- 00:16:40.448 --> 00:16:43.017
- I'm not going to make it until noon today, certainly
- 00:16:43.017 --> 00:16:46.187
- not noon tomorrow, if I don't keep my eyes on him,
- 00:16:46.187 --> 00:16:50.725
- if he doesn't keep sustaining me.
- 00:16:50.725 --> 00:16:52.794
- He's my only hope. He's my only hope.
- 00:16:52.794 --> 00:16:57.098
- And looking through the hard things, reminds me of that and
- 00:16:57.098 --> 00:17:00.968
- helps me realize where I really stand.
- 00:17:00.968 --> 00:17:05.373
- The truth is time doesn't heal anything.
- 00:17:05.373 --> 00:17:09.043
- It just passes. Time passes.
- 00:17:09.043 --> 00:17:12.480
- It's what you do during the passing of time that
- 00:17:12.480 --> 00:17:15.216
- helps or hinders the healing process.
- 00:17:15.216 --> 00:17:18.986
- And the thing to do as we're healing--and let's face it, in a
- 00:17:18.986 --> 00:17:21.589
- broken world, we're always in a state of healing.
- 00:17:21.589 --> 00:17:25.893
- And the surprise is not that sometimes things go wrong, even
- 00:17:25.893 --> 00:17:30.531
- though I'm surprised when things go wrong, I shouldn't be.
- 00:17:30.531 --> 00:17:34.268
- We live in a broken world.
- 00:17:34.268 --> 00:17:36.604
- Of course, things are going to go wrong.
- 00:17:36.604 --> 00:17:38.272
- Scripture teaches us.
- 00:17:38.272 --> 00:17:39.607
- It tells us in this world, you will have troubles, expect it.
- 00:17:39.607 --> 00:17:45.546
- The miracle is that they ever go right, that God keeps on holding
- 00:17:45.546 --> 00:17:49.717
- us even when we don't remember to thank him.
- 00:17:49.717 --> 00:17:51.853
- Even when we don't realize what's going on,
- 00:17:51.853 --> 00:17:53.187
- that he's taking care of us.
- 00:17:53.187 --> 00:17:56.457
- And the miracle book is a love note to you from your Savior to
- 00:17:56.457 --> 00:18:01.062
- remind you of how much he loves you, that he's taking
- 00:18:01.062 --> 00:18:04.932
- care of you, that everything is going to
- 00:18:04.932 --> 00:18:07.268
- be all right, that love is on the way.
- 00:18:07.268 --> 00:18:11.806
- That's what we learned.
- 00:18:11.806 --> 00:18:14.408
- And we wanted Josh and Kelly to, in a few minutes,
- 00:18:14.408 --> 00:18:20.214
- just share their story and where they're at now.
- 00:18:20.214 --> 00:18:23.551
- Just watch.
- 00:18:23.551 --> 00:18:24.919
- Kelly: So we woke up on January 7th, and I remember that
- 00:18:26.554 --> 00:18:30.925
- it was the first day in weeks that the sun was shining, and I
- 00:18:30.925 --> 00:18:34.462
- hadn't been outside in weeks because I was in the hospital,
- 00:18:34.462 --> 00:18:36.898
- but I remember the sun coming through the windows,
- 00:18:36.898 --> 00:18:39.367
- and I remember thinking it's a good day to be born.
- 00:18:39.367 --> 00:18:42.403
- ♪♪♪
- 00:18:42.403 --> 00:18:49.377
- Josh: There were so many things
- 00:18:49.377 --> 00:18:50.711
- that were so hard through the pregnancy.
- 00:18:50.711 --> 00:18:54.182
- I distinctly remember waking up, and it's probably the only time
- 00:18:54.182 --> 00:18:57.718
- in my life where I feel like I've heard the Lord, like, share
- 00:18:57.718 --> 00:19:02.123
- something with me directly or heard
- 00:19:02.123 --> 00:19:03.624
- the Lord tell me something directly.
- 00:19:03.624 --> 00:19:05.493
- And it was a voice saying, "Get up.
- 00:19:05.493 --> 00:19:08.229
- Today is the day of salvation.
- 00:19:08.229 --> 00:19:09.564
- Today is the day of deliverance. Get up."
- 00:19:09.564 --> 00:19:11.032
- Kelly: They had told us a million times to not expect him
- 00:19:11.032 --> 00:19:13.768
- to cry because if his lungs weren't working very well yet,
- 00:19:13.768 --> 00:19:17.538
- you know, that was normal and that they would work on him.
- 00:19:17.538 --> 00:19:20.174
- They would get him breathing.
- 00:19:20.174 --> 00:19:21.509
- It would be okay, but that was just the standard that we
- 00:19:21.509 --> 00:19:25.346
- probably would never hear him cry for a long time.
- 00:19:25.346 --> 00:19:28.482
- And I will never forget being in the room and he was born,
- 00:19:28.482 --> 00:19:32.820
- and he had the most beautiful cry that you
- 00:19:32.820 --> 00:19:35.489
- would never know anything was wrong.
- 00:19:35.489 --> 00:19:37.124
- It wasn't until they just couldn't get his lungs
- 00:19:37.124 --> 00:19:40.161
- working like they needed to, I remember a
- 00:19:40.161 --> 00:19:42.496
- doctor finally said, "You've got to sit down.
- 00:19:42.496 --> 00:19:43.831
- You've got to hold him."
- 00:19:43.831 --> 00:19:45.533
- And that was really hard, 'cause that was like the
- 00:19:45.533 --> 00:19:49.036
- first time we thought maybe our prayers won't
- 00:19:49.036 --> 00:19:52.006
- be answered the way we want them.
- 00:19:52.006 --> 00:19:55.209
- And so I remember I held him, and you
- 00:19:55.209 --> 00:19:57.945
- held him, and he went to be with the Lord.
- 00:19:57.945 --> 00:20:02.650
- And I remember thinking, I never thought I would go
- 00:20:02.650 --> 00:20:08.289
- through that, especially now at our age.
- 00:20:08.289 --> 00:20:11.125
- You think of that when you're--you think you'll never
- 00:20:11.125 --> 00:20:13.995
- have to watch your child go to be with the Lord.
- 00:20:13.995 --> 00:20:16.364
- You know, you think that it's you first but we did.
- 00:20:16.364 --> 00:20:21.502
- And I'm so thankful our moms were there and that we had so
- 00:20:21.502 --> 00:20:27.041
- much support from everyone who was there.
- 00:20:27.041 --> 00:20:29.844
- And I remember afterwards thinking I just want to go home.
- 00:20:29.844 --> 00:20:38.019
- Josh: And it was all just so daunting, and I remember
- 00:20:38.019 --> 00:20:41.889
- probably one of the first times that realizing that, you know,
- 00:20:41.889 --> 00:20:46.527
- just how life would be different.
- 00:20:46.527 --> 00:20:48.496
- ♪♪♪
- 00:20:48.496 --> 00:20:56.003
- Josh: A close family friend of ours who had lost
- 00:20:56.003 --> 00:21:01.175
- his son told us, "You'll never get over it, but you
- 00:21:01.175 --> 00:21:04.879
- will get through it with God's power.
- 00:21:04.879 --> 00:21:07.114
- Kelly: And as we walk through the days of life since Jude, God
- 00:21:07.114 --> 00:21:13.220
- started teaching us lesson after lesson.
- 00:21:13.220 --> 00:21:15.623
- And sometimes, in those early days, it was hard to really
- 00:21:15.623 --> 00:21:18.526
- grasp much because we were just trying to survive.
- 00:21:18.526 --> 00:21:21.896
- But very quickly, he showed us that Jude did exactly what he
- 00:21:21.896 --> 00:21:27.201
- was supposed to do for the 24 hours he was here.
- 00:21:27.201 --> 00:21:30.371
- He breathed, and he trusted God.
- 00:21:30.371 --> 00:21:33.407
- Josh: It's easy for me to go through life not recognizing the
- 00:21:33.407 --> 00:21:35.843
- miracles God has done and the blessings that he has given me.
- 00:21:35.843 --> 00:21:39.747
- And I think a lot about through Jude how important it is for me
- 00:21:39.747 --> 00:21:47.455
- and my faith to look back even on the days that are hard, to
- 00:21:47.455 --> 00:21:52.026
- remember the things God has done and remember
- 00:21:52.026 --> 00:21:56.297
- that it was in the midst of a lot of hard things.
- 00:21:56.297 --> 00:21:58.699
- Kelly: Our relationships with God, it almost felt like it got
- 00:21:58.699 --> 00:22:01.635
- so much more complicated because our lives got more complicated,
- 00:22:01.635 --> 00:22:04.805
- but it also got so much deeper, and it felt like these roots
- 00:22:04.805 --> 00:22:09.677
- that were--went deep down and so that when other things have come
- 00:22:09.677 --> 00:22:16.684
- because hard things have come since then and great things have
- 00:22:16.684 --> 00:22:19.687
- come, but we have those deep roots in Christ where
- 00:22:19.687 --> 00:22:26.127
- we know exactly where our foundation is.
- 00:22:26.127 --> 00:22:30.531
- Josh: I had always heard my parents and other people
- 00:22:30.531 --> 00:22:33.667
- say that, "Oh, your view of God just totally
- 00:22:33.667 --> 00:22:37.872
- explodes once you become a parent.
- 00:22:37.872 --> 00:22:41.375
- And I think for Kelly and I, that was absolutely the case.
- 00:22:41.375 --> 00:22:45.379
- Kelly: I know once we became parents, our journey looked a
- 00:22:45.379 --> 00:22:48.115
- little different with having Jude first
- 00:22:48.115 --> 00:22:50.985
- and then our daughter, Mary Love.
- 00:22:50.985 --> 00:22:53.287
- And with Mary Love, here we were terrified the whole time.
- 00:22:53.287 --> 00:22:57.091
- And you know, we prayed, and we prayed, and we trusted God but
- 00:22:57.091 --> 00:23:02.430
- still felt nervous, and we had our whole church praying for us.
- 00:23:02.430 --> 00:23:05.866
- And so when she was born, we were just in awe of God's
- 00:23:05.866 --> 00:23:13.007
- goodness, and we were especially in awe that you could look at
- 00:23:13.007 --> 00:23:16.677
- her and she looked just like Jude.
- 00:23:16.677 --> 00:23:19.780
- Josh: Our greatest prayer for our kids is that they would
- 00:23:22.583 --> 00:23:24.485
- honor the Lord and love the Lord with all their hearts.
- 00:23:24.485 --> 00:23:26.954
- And that the fact that Jude and I together get to share this
- 00:23:26.954 --> 00:23:32.526
- hope of Christ with other people and that independently we
- 00:23:32.526 --> 00:23:37.431
- couldn't do it, but together somehow we can
- 00:23:37.431 --> 00:23:41.969
- present this clear message of hope.
- 00:23:41.969 --> 00:23:44.939
- And then for Kelly as well, where all of us together as a
- 00:23:44.939 --> 00:23:47.041
- family we can do that, it's just the greatest privilege, and it's
- 00:23:47.041 --> 00:23:50.578
- still not the way that we would want to, but we just
- 00:23:50.578 --> 00:23:54.048
- could not be more proud of our son.
- 00:23:54.048 --> 00:23:56.484
- ♪♪♪
- 00:23:56.484 --> 00:24:09.396
- Kerry: See, Jude's alive in heaven, but his life here on
- 00:24:06.427 --> 00:24:11.131
- earth keeps reverberating hope and life.
- 00:24:11.131 --> 00:24:13.968
- And we've seen so many lives changed because of Jude's life.
- 00:24:13.968 --> 00:24:17.104
- We've seen so many people come to Christ because of Jude.
- 00:24:17.104 --> 00:24:20.608
- We've seen so many people have
- 00:24:20.608 --> 00:24:22.476
- hope in the middle of their hurt.
- 00:24:22.476 --> 00:24:24.979
- So many people have life in the middle of the valley of death.
- 00:24:24.979 --> 00:24:30.084
- It's been an amazing thing.
- 00:24:30.084 --> 00:24:32.019
- And the rattling noise of hope is just starting.
- 00:24:32.019 --> 00:24:35.222
- That rattling noise is now becoming
- 00:24:35.222 --> 00:24:36.557
- a rumble and a roar of hope.
- 00:24:36.557 --> 00:24:40.160
- And it's just been amazing to watch this
- 00:24:40.160 --> 00:24:43.464
- echo of hope that echoes into eternity.
- 00:24:43.464 --> 00:24:46.700
- And maybe you feel like you're in a valley of hopelessness and
- 00:24:46.700 --> 00:24:49.570
- death right now, and you feel like there's no
- 00:24:49.570 --> 00:24:52.206
- way out, I want you to know I can hear the
- 00:24:52.206 --> 00:24:54.808
- rattling noise of hope rising up.
- 00:24:54.808 --> 00:24:57.611
- I can hear the rattling noise of hope because of Jesus Christ.
- 00:24:57.611 --> 00:25:02.616
- When everything looked darkest on
- 00:25:02.616 --> 00:25:06.186
- that Good Friday, everything looked dark.
- 00:25:06.186 --> 00:25:10.691
- The whole world went dark. It looked like Satan had won.
- 00:25:10.691 --> 00:25:15.529
- It looked like death had defeated our Savior, but nothing
- 00:25:15.529 --> 00:25:18.165
- could hold him down because, on that third day,
- 00:25:18.165 --> 00:25:20.334
- he rose again, and he's alive.
- 00:25:20.334 --> 00:25:22.903
- He's alive, the rattling noise of hope rising from
- 00:25:22.903 --> 00:25:27.074
- a valley of hopelessness and death, and
- 00:25:27.074 --> 00:25:29.176
- that's what he wants to do in your life.
- 00:25:29.176 --> 00:25:31.045
- ♪♪♪
- 00:25:31.045 --> 00:25:40.321
- Chris: We're so glad that you joined us for the message today,
- 00:25:41.922 --> 00:25:44.491
- and hope that it impacts your life all week long.
- 00:25:44.491 --> 00:25:47.528
- Kerry: And, Chris, I know that there's many out there who've
- 00:25:47.528 --> 00:25:50.598
- never received Christ, and all you have to do is
- 00:25:50.598 --> 00:25:53.667
- just pray and ask for his salvation and say,
- 00:25:53.667 --> 00:25:56.737
- Jesus Christ, forgive me of all my sins, come into my life,
- 00:25:56.737 --> 00:26:00.007
- be the Lord of my life, I accept your free gift of salvation and
- 00:26:00.007 --> 00:26:03.410
- heaven one day.
- 00:26:03.410 --> 00:26:05.245
- And if you pray that prayer, Christ will come into your life,
- 00:26:05.245 --> 00:26:07.881
- and he'll never leave you.
- 00:26:07.881 --> 00:26:10.317
- Kerry: Chris and I really want you to know about our new
- 00:26:10.384 --> 00:26:12.453
- book that just came out in paperback.
- 00:26:12.453 --> 00:26:14.622
- It's "The Gift Of One Day:
- 00:26:14.622 --> 00:26:16.290
- How To Find Hope When Life Gets Hard."
- 00:26:16.290 --> 00:26:18.859
- We all go through hard times and difficulties and pain, but God
- 00:26:18.859 --> 00:26:22.396
- wants to see you through with his hope.
- 00:26:22.396 --> 00:26:25.032
- I know one of the most difficult days we've ever experienced was
- 00:26:25.032 --> 00:26:28.702
- when our grandson, Jude Samuel, was born,
- 00:26:28.702 --> 00:26:31.572
- and he only lived for 24 hours.
- 00:26:31.572 --> 00:26:34.208
- It was devastating to us, and we still grieve.
- 00:26:34.208 --> 00:26:37.344
- But yet we know that he's with the Lord in heaven.
- 00:26:37.344 --> 00:26:40.614
- And the way that little boy lived those 24 hours taught us
- 00:26:40.614 --> 00:26:44.752
- how to live the rest of our years.
- 00:26:44.752 --> 00:26:47.021
- I know you know someone who's going through some pain
- 00:26:47.021 --> 00:26:49.590
- and problems, or maybe you're going
- 00:26:49.590 --> 00:26:51.458
- through a difficult time in your life.
- 00:26:51.458 --> 00:26:54.495
- And so, I hope you'll call us right now.
- 00:26:54.495 --> 00:26:56.263
- We'd love to pray with you and pray for you,
- 00:26:56.263 --> 00:26:59.166
- and we would also love to get you this book for a gift
- 00:26:59.166 --> 00:27:01.835
- of any amount, "The Gift Of One Day."
- 00:27:01.835 --> 00:27:05.139
- Because God wants to get you through today, he wants you not
- 00:27:05.139 --> 00:27:08.575
- only to survive, but he wants you to thrive.
- 00:27:08.575 --> 00:27:11.912
- He has a great plan for you.
- 00:27:11.912 --> 00:27:13.414
- ♪♪♪
- 00:27:13.414 --> 00:27:13.414
