Recounting the trials, challenges and hurdles of America's past, keynote speaker Glenn Beck at Sunday night's Patriotic Service of America's Freedom Festival at Provo admonished the thousands gathered at the Marriott Center with the words from a familiar LDS refrain "Come, Come Ye Saints."

"We stood in this new canyon of heroes and we just applauded," he said.

As he returned to his studio to prepare for his broadcast, Beck said he wrestled with his grim task, and said to his wife, to God, "I can't tell this story." But he had his scriptures and hymnal with him and therein he found the lyrics to "Come, Come Ye Saints", a song that suddenly took on a whole new meaning.

"Why should we mourn, or think are lot is hard. Our God will never us forsake. And so we'll have this tale to tell, all is well, all is well," he said.

Beck said despite natural disasters across the nation, hard economic times and fuel prices being up "700 percent," he said America's best days are not behind her.

"As long as we look at ourselves and ask the question 'Who are we?' ... Are we the country that is somehow or another mired in a war that cannot be won or are we the country of free men, that free man's mind, and that have freed millions of people in the last hundred years alone? Are we losers or people who change the world?"

In a time when many seek a leader to bring us through these difficult times, Beck said the American people are that leader. He recounted the tale of one of his favorite heroes, Gen. George Washington, who didn't want to get into politics but served his country anyway at Valley Forge, just a mile from the fledgling nation's then-capital, Philadelphia.

"The government, the Congress did nothing then," Beck said. "Not a lot has changed ... He was serving his people by serving his God. That's why he did it."

Beck refuted those who say the United States of America is not a special place. Throughout its history, when America has served God, it has prospered, from the Mayflower pilgrims to the Founding Fathers to the Mormon saints crossing the plains.

"Like the next wave of Founding Fathers, we have humbled ourselves and served God ... We have been preserved for some great purpose. We are special. We must recognize it," he said. "We are this country's next great dispensation's pioneers."

Akin to the job of colonial rider Paul Revere, much of the battle of overcoming today's challenges in America lies in simply waking up people and visualizing the hope of a better future. We know what are problems and it's time for the next step: realizing how good we have it and determining to make it even better, he said.

"People are dying in the desert to have just a small piece of what we take for granted everyday," he said. "How can it not be worth fighting for? ... We just have to recognize it and remember who we are."

Much like the visionary men who signed their own death warrants by inking the Declaration of Independence on a hot and humid day in Philadelphia on July 2, 1776, he said each and every American needs to mutually pledge his life, fortunes and sacred honor to being the new bearers of the country's sacred trust.

"We are the ones who will take us to new places beyond our wildest imaginations. It will be hard and rough, but oh, we'll have this tale to tell," Beck said. "All is well, all is well."

Michael Ballam, a music professor at Utah State University and founder of the Utah Festival Opera, sang the national anthem as well as "My Country Tis Of Thee," "God Bless America," and "Love at Home."