Welcome to the Jesus Calling Podcast.

Our guest today address finding hope in our world,

both in our current generation and in our youth culture.

Pastor Max Locato and Christian musician,

Phil Joel.

First up is Max Locato, a New York Times best-selling author

who has written a new book called Unshakable Hope,

in which he offers encouraging guidance for overcoming sadness and despair,

renewing a sense of purpose and triumphantly facing our fears of the future.

I decided to write a book on Hope when I came across what I thought was a very disturbing statistic and that's the fact that suicides have gone up 24% since 1999.

I was so struck by that and I thought how could that be? How could that be?

And I know there are many many answers to that question, but I think at the core of it has to be a lack of hope. You know if you don't have any hope

Then you don't have reason or power to live tomorrow and so I thought how can we best give people hope?

And so this book was my attempt to give readers some practical ways

to start building their lives on God's promises and thereby discover a life of hope.

I can think of several occasions when God's promises spoke directly to me.

Most recently, because of some changes at the church where I serve in San Antonio,

I've stepped back in a senior minister. I was senior minister for 20 years and

then I was a teaching minister and then I needed to step back in and at the age of 62.

And I came across a promise in the book of Psalms where the Psalms says, I know, oh oh Lord that you will use me even though my hair is gray

that's kind of a loose translation and I thought now there's a promise I can stand

on because I think as we even get older I know we probably should think oh I have

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