#2 - "Born Into a Battle" - John Kazanjian

[Music] I am so glad to be here at OU LGC again it is such an honor to be at this parish at the invitation of father John and the unbound team that's here the Brewis is this is this is really special this is a special place and I am really honored that you would come and sit down and listen to me speak especially since how many of you have heard me speak before that's quite a few right and I don't say a lot knew so that's pretty special that people would come and want to listen to me again how many of you are not from olg see you've come from another parish Wow okay so how many are from olg see okay so I'm guessing like 25% that's like 75% of the people here are not from here that's really great that you would come and and and visit this parish and be here for the day today how many are you how many are from like not Michigan they're from outside of Michigan where are you from Arizona Wow where else California what part Northern California get me an invitation to California I got family there and I want to preach to him I was just in Los Angeles where else are people from Canada what part Toronto wonderful anywhere else Saskatchewan that's not close by no where else oh hi oh whoo I can say Ohio State Buckeye can you say Michigan Wolverine so see I've been delivered I did a conference in Columbus and there was actually a guy who wouldn't let me pray with him he had played for the Buckeyes and he said I just can't do it Michelle said he needs prayer okay so I don't have a lot of time and between now my hard cutoff time is 10:30 you're gonna keep me to that we're also going to fit in a beautiful testimony in that time so I have about an hour and a half less the testimony and give or take to try and present to you what I usually give in three talks so I'm gonna I'm gonna try and pare it down and you're gonna pray for me God willing I'm not gonna go down any rabbit trails because if I do something's getting cut out okay so we'll save all the rabbit trails for the end how's that okay so I want to get started right away I want to get started with first an understanding of how do we understand deliverance so we until recently I would say even even in the last five years to talk about deliverance in a Catholic parish would be a little outside the outside the range you wouldn't really want to talk about deliverance in most Catholic parishes because deliverance is typically something that people associate with something that's really kind of ugly kind of scary kind of out there and you're like really do we have to go there our image of it isn't typically very good when people ask me as I'm traveling from place to place what do you do I don't say I do deliverance ministry unless they really have an an understanding of a basis for that I usually talk about healing about getting free of the messes we've gotten ourself into when we train unbound teams we even teach them to try and give a definition of unbound without using churchy or scary words in 25 words or less I usually like to talk it about getting free of this stuff we get ourselves into I think the reason why people come to a conference on deliverance is usually out of desperation I've tried everything else it hasn't worked or it's worked modestly or moderately and I want to try something new something different I'm even going to put myself out there and receive prayer for deliverance that's kind of a big deal for people why is it part of Christian ministry well because it's been part of Christian ministry for the longest time really since the beginning in the early part of church history a person couldn't enter into the church until they got prayed with for deliverance by the bishop and it was usually not just one session oftentimes it was multiple sessions why because the church knew that there were things outside the church that people had gotten themselves into which they didn't want introduced into the church and they wanted to make sure people were free of these influences before they entered the church so it's been part of Christian we know that it's part of the Easter Vigil right every year at the Easter Vigil we all stand up and we all pray right and we say the priest leads us in a prayer do you renounce Satan right we do it at the beginning of every baptism right so we know it's part of and parcel of the identity of the church I'm gonna present to you can you go ahead and give me the next slide or is there a clicker somewhere that I could use I'm gonna I'm gonna present unbound by Neil Lozano unbound a the book it's available here it's a book that I read in the year 2000 2001 I went to a conference in Cincinnati because that was the nearest one to me there were 20 people there we Neal gave the first talk maybe on repentance and faith then we had to start praying with people and he asked me to start praying with people I had just read the book myself this is not what I would recommend but you know I had been praying with people I had given my life to the Lord I just thought just a different application go for it it was a baptism by fire the first person I prayed with was one of the most damaged people I've ever prayed with in my life and I've prayed with a lot of people and if I was going to turn and run it would have been then but God used that time he used that moment and I saw that this is a very powerful tool and it's really a terrific blessing for the church it's the most commonly used deliverance model in the Catholic Church I'm getting opportunities to go and preach to bishops and priests at priests retreats and priest conferences because they want to learn the model and they want to be prayed with it's a beautiful model it's not a confrontation model you're not getting in there and getting ugly Neil says we don't go for the show I like that I don't go for the show and I could tell you all kinds of ways in which that that happens but I I just want you to know that this is a model you can trust it obviously wouldn't be presented in this parish if it weren't consistent with the teachings of the church so I'm not going to spend a lot of time giving you the apologetics behind it but I just want you to know you can trust it it's based on five keys the five keys are repentance and faith forgiveness renunciation Authority and blessing you're going to hear talks on all of the renunciation and authority usually go together you're gonna hear from father Pierre this afternoon and you're gonna hear a talk on the father's blessing from father John this afternoon I'm gonna fit in the first two keys this morning okay as father John said deliverance is what happened when you believed when you decided that I'm gonna follow Jesus and I'm gonna give my life to Him that's a deliverance it's a movement from one kingdom to another Kingdom that's what happened to you and I when we made that decision in and of itself that is a deliverance deliverance is about freedom I mean I love this passage for freedom's sake Christ has set us free a lot of people think freedom is being able to do whatever I want whenever I want do you know there was a there you know the way they named every day now like this is such an such day this week it was everything I do today is right there was actually I actually because I listen to podcasts a lot and that's what there was one day this week and that was the day and I thought that's freedom in people's minds no freedom at John Paul put it very beautifully I can't quote him exactly but in essence the essence of what he said was that freedom is knowing what is right knowing what is right now how do I know what's right how do I know something is really right the only way I think I know something is really right as if I know God believes this is right if I believe that this is God's desire then I know it's right because God cannot be wrong now you say that might be presumptuous how do you know what God thinks well here in the church we know what we can trust we know the good water the good stream right we know we can trust the Scriptures we know we can trust the Catechism we know we can trust the Magisterium of the church right so if we know something is right and we can do it then that's true freedom it's when we know what's right and we can't do it that we're not free that's when we're in bondage when I do what I know I don't want to do how many of you have that problem I got it in spades we want to be able to know what is right and do it that's true freedom and moving from a place where we can't do what's right to the place that we can that's deliverance we also know that we have an enemy as father John said the Lord entered into the situation and I'm going to talk about that but he came to break the power of that enemy we know that enemy is active and we're trying to break his power in our lives so that I could truly be free and when the son sets you free you are free indeed now deliverance is not exorcism I'm going to cover this very quickly deliverance is a transfer of kingdoms it includes freedom from evil spirits but here's the thing exorcism is when you have no control when you have ceded complete control and you no longer have control and you have to go and have a right performed over you to get you free so that you can communicate I think this is one of the things that's beautiful ego I know in our diocese in Lansing Detroit and in many others because I've been talking to bishops they're not opposed to sending a priest to pray the Rite of exorcism over people but as they have been telling us 90 plus percent of the time that's not the case if that is the case we want to pray with those people but then we want to hand them over to you to pray unbound with them once they can communicate once they can talk that's the beauty of this deliverance model it's very respectful of the person it's very gentle it's not complicated it's centered in the gospel now for those of us for which the battle has been won for many of you most of you I'd say like you know you belong to the Lord how many people here would say and just be honest just be honest say I know that God knows me I know that God knows me are there any of you here that when I say that you're like I don't know I don't know if God really knows me there are always a few that's really important to think about today how many of you could say I know the Lord I know him I talk to him how many of you a lot of you right most of you but there are some of us here who would say I don't know if I know him I don't know if I really know him this is a special day for you because you're going to I believe if you respond to what you're being called to today I believe you will leave today saying I know the Lord I belong to him I belong to Jesus I know Jesus I don't just know about him but I know him and I know that he knows me see that's the gospel and that's why I love Unbound because it's the gospel okay what happened and how did we get here this is what I call born into a battle the big story you see all of us have our own story right every one of us if I sit down with you if you sit down with me you're gonna tell me your story I like to call that the little story it's an important story but it's an it's your story but there's a much bigger story you were born into history a time in history what happened before you came how did you end up here and I don't just mean physically how did you end up here but how did we get into this situation I mean I've been reading a lot recently about I'm reading this book called John Paul and Ronald Reagan and how they the two of them cross paths and overlapped and so forth and I just think about in the right time at the right place God sent us the right man I mean John Paul changed my life I would not be standing here today if it weren't for John Paul the hour of the laya T has struck and when he said those words they struck they struck right here I believe he commissioned me that's the time you and I were born into right now but how did we get here what happened in the beginning in the beginning we can go back and look at the book of Genesis we know that there were three persons in one God all good all loving completely comfortable needing nothing totally sufficient right perfect love no headaches right no anxiety no problems and in the council of god it was determined that they would create and God in His great wisdom created created the heavens and the earth and we can read about that two different accounts in the book of Genesis but we also know that he created beings and the first beings he created were angels great amazing powerful complete spirit all spirit no soul beings incredibly powerful and the greatest being that he created it says the most powerful one was known as the Light Bearer the bringer of light we know him now by other names right but what his name means is the bringer of light Lucifer Lucifer that means bringer of light we know him now by other names don't we Smeagol no that's not one of the names but we know him by other names and this angel the most powerful the most beautiful what a great sight it must have been to see him in the presence of God worshipping God the one who created him loving God giving everything that he had bowing his knee and this most powerful angel decides that he's going to rebell and I when I consider that this creature rebelled it really is difficult to understand like how could you think that this is going to work I mean you must be pretty powerful but then what the scriptures say is he convinced a third of the angels to follow him to rebel with him what does this say about him in addition to being powerful how deceptive he must have been how convincing he must have been how beautiful but he the Scriptures say he convinced a third and it says in Revelation now war arose in heaven Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon the dragon and his angels fought and they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven the great dragon was thrown down the ancient serpent called the devil and Satan the deceiver of the whole world was thrown down to earth and his angels were thrown down with him what happened how did he get thrown down when you rebel you can't be in God's presence right there can be no rebellion in heaven every knee must bow willingly we must assent to his authority in our life the Angels some of them didn't like it right and we know now that's something we understand isn't it we don't like to bow our knee to anyone to anything to be subservient we like to be the god of our own life I like to be the final determiner of right and wrong don't I I like to say well that's okay come on I can reason that right that's what happens and that's what he did and that's where he got sent and then God creates another being now I find it interesting that some of the church fathers say that the reason the angels rebelled was because he was going to create another being God was going to create a flesh-and-blood being that was spirit and flesh that could be easily wounded and that this creature this weak creature would one day rise up and actually have authority over the Angels some of the church fathers actually say that that's why they believe the enemy Satan rebelled and he said I won't stand for that I bow my knee to God but I'm going to bow and live under the authority of a human being this hairless biped no way well God creates that being and we see that in the story of Genesis and we see God wanting to have a relationship right that's what it's all about that's why I'm talking about having a relationship with God with Jesus I know him he knows me read the Old Testament it's what it's all about he wants to have a relationship with me he wanted to have a relationship with all of our ancestors and we can see it time and time again read the Old Testament they go away he calls them back they go away he calls them back we see the story par excellence in the prodigal son oh how many times I have read that story and I still can't get enough he continues to go after them and to go after us and we see that all through the Old Testament in spite of the hatred and the jealousy and murder and disobedience and loving things that we shouldn't love and going after false things giving our life to false things worshipping false gods God continues to go after us he pursues us we see it all through the Old Testament yet what we see ultimately is you can't get in where you can't get into heaven there's something wrong there's something broken because the only thing that can enter Heaven is that which is perfect without sin totally clean right if not it's not heaven who wants to go to heaven if there's sin in heaven heaven means it's going to be perfect clean without sin that's where you and I ultimately want to go isn't it that's why we're here today right but no matter what happened it wasn't enough until this happened when God said I know what I'm gonna do I'm gonna send my own son to do battle for them I'm gonna send I'm gonna go myself what King goes to battle at the front of his army that's what our King did he said I'm going to go myself at the head of the army I'm going to do battle for them and he came weak he came Vanar ball he came born to a poor insignificant family in the middle of nowhere and he didn't come with trumpets blaring and chariots no our king came very humbly and they put him in a food box for animals that's how our King came why because he was entering that battle as father John was saying he was coming in to enter the battle and say I am going to fight for them and when he came the enemy immediately tried to destroy him and in a dream his father is told take a child and his mother and flee and indeed Herod rides in to that little village and that whole surrounding area and starts killing all of the little children it's a historical fact he did it why he thought somebody was coming to take his power away his authority he was going to have to bow his knee and he wouldn't have it who's that sound like and this young baby Rises gets older most of his life is hidden most of the life of his family is hidden but at around 30 years old he starts taking off the disguise right he starts taking off his disguise why what did he come to do he came to do battle he came to do battle with the one who was seeking to destroy him and who does he come he come and preaches to people weak people poor people I would recently reading a book about Jesus and what all the other villages around him were like because there's a lot of villages around Jesus that we have no evidence that he ever went and preached to obviously we know where he did go we see that in the scriptures but there were places he didn't go what's surprising is he tended to go to the places where the poor the weak that's the places that he tended to go to at least that's the ones that were written about and what's he doing what is he who is he calling he's calling people that are sick that are broken that are lonely that are fearful and he's saying come back come back to your true father he loves you he knows you and people flock to him we see that today don't we when somebody speaks a word and it cuts right to the heart we saw this we see this in all the Pope's we certainly saw it in John Paul massive crowds massive number of people Billy Graham just died right do you know how many people Billy Graham preached to face to face over 80 years over 250 million people came to see him speak not on TV face to face actually came to a rally that he did 250 million people why because they heard God's Word preached and it cut to the heart why because we really really really want to be with God ultimately what must I do to have eternal life can God help me my daughter is pregnant my son is on drugs my husband is leaving my wife is an alcoholic what's God have to say to me these are the issues that people are dealing with this is why we come to a conference like this because there's stuff that I'm dealing with and I don't know what to do with it that's what Jesus came to address and that's why they flocked to him but the enemy also had a plan he was trying to figure it out who is this guy he seems to have a lot of authority nobody ever spoke like him what have you to do with us I know I'll have to go if you say go but maybe you'll just send me into those pigs over there he had authority and the enemy is like I think I need to take care of this one and what does he do he comes up with a plan he hatches a plan he gets trumped-up charges he musters up anger and hatred in people he says I know what I will do I will kill him death will take him ultimately it takes all of these human beings and then I will be in complete control right that was his plan and he does it he killed God's Son and it was ugly I don't want to leave you here but I just want to say it was ugly just think about it you are God you could call down angels you could call down the hosts of heaven I mean one word from you poof it's all gone right and you submit to that why he knew something the enemy didn't know the power of death is found in sin that thing we deal with you and I all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God this one never sinned he did not have to submit to death he did not have to sit in the belly of the earth and wait no on the third day he came to life he broke the chains of death and he burst forth from the tomb and he was alive and that's really good news isn't it I can't tell you how many time I've heard it I can't tell you how many times I've said it but it makes me happy every time I hear it and every time I say it I can't hear it enough how about you I listen to a podcast every day that preaches the gospel to me I'll listen to father John's sermons I'll listen to Peter Herbeck I'll listen to Ralph Martin I'll listen to Protestant preachers I just want to hear God's Word I want to fill my mind with it I think God has used it over the years he's filled it in me and I love it so much but that's the message he's alive he's not dead and everything changed on that day you see it doesn't matter anymore if I'm good enough cuz I never will be the question is int are you worthy no the question is where have you put your life where have you entrusted your life that's the question and this one is deserving of your life now you and I were born a short time later only a couple thousand years not that long when you think of all of human history the history of the world right you and I were born into a battle behind enemy lines where the enemy still is looking around seeking someone to devour that's what Paul said right that's the situation you and I were born into and when you decided and when I decided I'm giving my life to Jesus I am gonna live for the king I am gonna repent of my sins most of us didn't decide to be baptized our parents decided for us but some of us decided on our own but every one of us decided to assent right I hope so we're gonna have an opportunity to do that this morning if you haven't but when you decided to do that you made yourself an enemy of the most powerful being ever created did you know that that's what you were born into you weren't born into a vacuum you're not that insignificant that he doesn't care about you we love to say God has a plan for your life and it's a good plan don't we we love that but did you know the enemy has a plan for your life to have that's a plan for death that's a plan to wrap you up in your loneliness in your anger in your insecurities in your addictions that's his plan and to leave you in that this one has another plan for your life and when you said I'm gonna give my life to him that's what you chose you chose an enemy as well as an advocate I went through a lot already how is the enemy coming after you how is he coming after me that's the question for today that's the question that I want you to be pondering today who are my enemies and it's not your husband or your wife it's not your boss if you're from Virginia it's not UMBC not amazing r16 has never beat a one seed I just heard it this morning and I had Virginia going all the way in my bracket but what's the enemy's plan for you and me first Peter 5:8 says watch out for your great enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone devout to devour another question whose side are you on because in this battle there's two things that are important I need to know who my enemies are and I need to know who's on my team that's the two most important things the day my friend John met me when I was 19 and living a really loose life and he could see it he was from Ann Arbor I was from California we met at a church camp in New York I only went to the church camp for the wrong reasons and John was in the bunk across from me and I had a dream and in that dream I was being tempted by all my favorite sins now up until that point when I was in junior up until June hi I had gone to church every week when I was in high school we moved from Massachusetts to California and I stopped going to church when I got to California and then I went off to college I had a Bible next to my bed but I never opened it and when I met this guy it was after my first year in college I was on the crew team and I was in an athlete and he was an athlete he was a little older than me had just had a very dramatic conversion and during that week he was in the bunk across from me by God's providence and I had this dream one night in which I was being tempted and for the first time in my life I understood that the temptation wasn't in a vacuum that there was a tempter behind it I couldn't see him but I knew he was there and he was frightening and ugly and dark that's what I could see in my dream everything I wanted to do he was inviting me into that creature was inviting me into an Dyke for but I just kept saying no not no because I didn't want to do the sin but no because I didn't want to get near him sometimes we need a taste of Hell before we can really know what it's like and when I woke up in the morning I was sitting on the edge of my bed I was a little disturbed and I stand John said to me what's up and I said I had a weird dream and he said tell me and I told him and he said that's great that's not the response I was expecting and I said what's great about that and he said well first of all before you know that there's a God who loves you and has the best for you it's important that you know that there's an enemy and that he hates you and he's trying to destroy you and here's the key I think it's time for you to choose sides you see I know where I want to get to I need help getting there I need people who are going to tell me the truth I need people who are going to mentor me I need friends I need teachers I need people who will lead me I need a team around me we all need those things do you know that it is not good that man is alone that's right right in the beginning of the Bible right it was time for me to choose teams I was part I'd grown up in the Armenian community I'm Armenian I'm very Armenian I mean like if you break my bone inside it's Armenian that's Armenian I have purebred I come from a race of people that was in Turkey or in Western the eastern part of Turkey and part of you know what's now Armenia part of Iran but that's where we lived for 3,000 years until a hundred years ago and a hundred years ago most Armenians lived in Turkey and at that point in 1915 there were a new group of Turks that came into power the Young Turks and they decided there's no room here for the Armenians anymore and they systematically removed us and in the process killed over a million people and now in eastern Turkey there are maybe a hundred Armenians and in all of Turkey there are maybe 50,000 so I grew up with a lot of anger and hatred and bitterness a lot of resentment I used to go to rallies I went to the UN and tried to tear down the Turkish flag almost got arrested I mean that's the kind of stuff that was in me and John a few days later took me into the woods and he said what are you gonna do who are you gonna serve and he said some really key things he said one you need to repent of your sin we're gonna talk about that in a little bit and you need to decide to let Jesus be the lord of your life and you need to ask him for his Holy Spirit and I did that I really did I said okay I want to choose sides today and I forgave the Turks for the first time had to do it a lot more I'll tell you more about that later but God started changing me he started delivering me he started converting me those are all really good words he moved me from one Kingdom to another Kingdom you know I read I heard this week that Thomas Aquinas said deliverance can happen just by reading God's Word did you know that I've seen people convert to delivered in three ways I've seen him get prayed over for deliverance I've seen people who have read Scripture and got delivered and I've seen people that came to Mass and got delivered like just seeing the Eucharist for the first time they didn't even know what it was those are three big ones sometimes God just does it sovereignly like he did to saint paul it's not common that was a deliverance God delivered me that day that was the first day that I said that's it now I've got about 45 minutes but I want to take a break right here I wanted to well here I'm gonna share just this little bit and then Patrice are you gonna give your where's Patrice you're gonna you're gonna give your testimony right after this so give me ten minutes and you'll be ready to go okay what happened what happened to me that day when John said make this decision the first key happened in my life I decided to repent and believe the good news that's the first key that's the first deliverance any of us will ever experience that's what I want to talk to you about very briefly what does it mean to repent of your sin it means not just that I'm going to try harder not just that I feel bad and I want to feel better not just to feel sorrow and regret repentance really means a change in mind that changes my heart that changes my life I want to say that again a change in my mind it's a decision it starts up here why am i doing this what is it that makes me believe that it's okay to do that what's my rationale what's my reasoning what is my stinking thinking as they say in the AAA community it's got to start up here the decision understanding the foundational lie for why I think that's not a problem even though I know it's a problem most of us go to confession when we feel bad don't we I'm starting to feel a little yucky I think I need to get to confession that's good but if you want to see real change in your life start to think about why you rationalize that that's okay to do then what happens is there's a there's something in you you're your core your feelings that you're saying I want I want that to change to I want to change my feeling about that but it starts with your thinking and then it changes in what I do that's true metanoia true repentance the Greek word is Metanoia it's a turning away going in another direction what does it mean to believe to repent and believe repentance repentance also means that I need somebody to forgive me doesn't it repentance means that I need somebody to forgive me I can't just like what if the person I hurt that I offended they're not available what if they say oh it didn't matter because at the essence we know who we are truly offending is God right that's why we go to confession maybe we need to do something with someone else to get right with them to be reconciled to them but the first step is to be able to say I know that I've done wrong and I need to be forgiven for this right that's the first step is the assent somebody else has authority here and I need to go to them and say I'm sorry and ultimately we believe that that's God right but we're also saying and Jesus brought them together when he said the kingdom of God is at hand repent and believe the good news repent and believe the good news so why did he put them together because along with the sorrow for our sins the change in mind that leads to a change in life there needs to be also what do I believe what is my thinking who do I belong to who am I asking to be lord over my life now some people think nobody is it lord over my life right if you ask most Americans they will say well nobody is really Lord of my life right what does that usually mean that usually means I am the Lord of my life somebody is the Lord of your life did you know that you cannot live without there being a lord of your life even if it's you and that's what many people logically come to the conclusion of well of course I am the ultimate authority in my life it's very deceptive the question is do you believe there is one who came and laid down his life to save you do you believe that there is one who came with whose without whose forgiveness you can't enter Heaven do you believe that there is someone who came and paid a price for that sinn do you believe that do you really believe it and if you believe it is it having an effect in your life and what I mean by that is something really simple what does your life look like when nobody is watching what does your life look like when you are on vacation when you're away from everyone's view who do you belong to in that moment if there is one that you say I believe in him he is the lord of my life then he needs to be the lord in your life at all times when people are watching and when people aren't watching and it's the same for every single one of us why because you know you might have gotten rid of mortal sin in your life a long time ago but you still have plenty of sin or you might have a lot of mortal sin in your life right now and this is the way we enter God's kingdom there is a conversion that needs to be going on every day in us it needs to be continuous it's not a once and done conversion yes the first time I gave myself to the Lord was a significant day God did a wonderful thing for me I knew I was not living for myself anymore as far as I could write but it's been a long time since then I was 19 what's happened on all the subsequent days who do you belong to today when you woke up this morning who did you say you belong to did you get up and say God I need you today help me today that's what I want to do and I want to invite Patrice to come up and share a little bit of her story and then I'm gonna come right after her and talk about the second key which is forgiveness quite a few years ago a very good friend of mine were in a meeting together and during the meeting my friend gave me a book and it was the unbound book and I politely took the book and said well thank thank you thank you for thinking of me and I put the book in my pile and we finished our meeting and later in the day I picked up the book and actually read the title and I turned into the cartoon character that turns bright red and steam comes out their ears I was so insulted she thought I needed deliverance are you freaking kidding me I think you need deliverance I don't think I need deliverance I was so hot about that book I don't know what I did with it I lost it I might have given it away I'm pretty sure I didn't throw it away I hope I didn't throw it away but I might have so we fast forward probably two or three years and God has a very good sense of humor and he is a great pursuer of us so I'm here at Our Lady of Good Counsel and I'm watching what's unfolding here and watching the change in my brothers and sisters are encountering Christ and it's SuperDuper exciting because I encountered Christ when I was 12 and I had given my life to him when I was 12 so this journey wasn't new to me and I was very excited about what was going on here so I happen to get a glimpse of a calendar and our calendars are packed but I got a glimpse of a calendar that said unbound was going to come to Our Lady of Good Counsel and so being myself my arrogant self I rolled my eyes and thought oh my god you gotta be kidding me not going to do that so they asked me to be on the team and I said sure love to because I love my friends at Our Lady of Good Counsel and I love what the Lord is doing here and so I got on the team but you know I can't get behind something I don't believe in and I can't talk to you about something that I haven't encountered myself and so part of the training for the team was to have father pierre Ingram who I believe you'll hear from this afternoon come and give his testimony about his experience with unbound and I had had father Pierre to my home and he is a funny Canadian eh I just love him and so I respected him I did not know at the time he was a theologian but that helped me a lot and so when he gave his testimony it was beautiful and in my mind's eye I could see than how unbound wasn't deliverance even though it is deliverance but I could see how this could be a part of a journey and that I probably could benefit too from this journey so that helped a lot so part of the training for the team was to go through the unbound experience much like you'll be doing today and so it came time to enter into the prayer portion of the journey and so I did I went in to the prayer ministry with my two partners who were gonna help me make this journey to freedom and you know I had forgiven a lot of people on my journey I mean I was 12 right when I encountered Jesus and so the big stuff you know your mom mom is scary you got to forgive mom I was an easy target so that wasn't too difficult but as we get began to make the journey through the keys it was really the second key on forgiveness that just really profoundly worked for me we were walking making our journey through unforgiveness and it came to my dad you know I never really thought about my dad too much he was rather a background figure in my life and my mom was just so colorful he just was gray but as we were making our way through the keys it really became clear that I did have a gaping wound my daddy left and so took a lot of energy and courage and help but I did forgive my dad and that was very freeing but there was more to the journey than that yikes and we went a little farther down my road and the next person I really needed to forgive who I really hadn't thought about was myself and so I did and I walked through that difficult owning my sin and then choosing to forgive myself as God had already clearly forgiven me and that became a very powerful experience as well so we walked through the following keys and I finish up and I'm feeling whew a lot lighter and very very grateful and a few fast forward a week later some experiences unfolded in my life that week that were big for me and my usual response is to overreact just a raw nerve I used to have that just I don't know where it came from now I do but I didn't know then I would just blow up so these two experiences came and I realized wow I just I didn't overreact I didn't even I didn't even swear I mean that was a big day I had experienced true freedom and praise God this happened and I was so grateful and I am still so grateful but on this journey I remembered that you know what I'm a mom and I have a lot of kids and I raised them and I know the wounds that I inflicted not intentionally but I inflicted them and so I came to my kids and said hey look I'm kind of changed they would tell you they saw it and they agreed and I invited them to come on this journey of unbounded and some of them did and that's been awesome for all of us we are not perfect we are far from it but every day we're delivered a little bit more and entering into the freedom that you know Jesus already won for us so in closing I had a closing I've lost my closing not surprising anyway that's my story so I encourage you to be open to the Lord to let him show you the places where the lies have entered and he really really wants to bring us into the kingdom of freedom so thank you for your time so this is a dedication prayer some people call it a miracle prayer if it's the first time you're praying it praise God pray it with all your heart as best you can if you've prayed it a million times you haven't prayed it today so let's pray this prayer together Lord Jesus Jesus I come before you what they have done all evil spirits in all their works deceitful ways and empty promises Lord Jesus I give you my entire self ever I invite you to use my line I accept you as my Lord God and Savior cover me with your precious love and fill me with your Holy Spirit send me your blessing father heal me change me and strengthen me that I might follow you every day I love you lord I praise and thank you Jesus amen you made a great decision today tell the person next to you you made a great decision today that's right praise God you see there's just joy than giving your life to Christ okay I have you ready for this 23 minutes to give my talk on forgiveness that I usually take 55 minutes for so sit down and I'm gonna get started right away okay about a year or so ago father John gave a talk on forgiveness I listened to his podcasts every week some and it's whatever pastor had whichever priest happens to be or the deacon and father John picks one of them and this talk he got I just listened to all the talks by Abbot Jeremy they were fantastic I don't know how many of you were here for that but that was great but father John started one of his homilies and he said this he said I want you to close your eyes and I know you hate to do this because I do close your eyes and I want you to put in your vision I want you to put in your mind's eye in your imagination the person who has hurt you the most and I want you to put with that person right next to them pull into your vision that image that I had of Jesus hanging on the cross they're side-by-side this person who has hurt you and Jesus they're dying for them and just pray this prayer lord help me do that help me to forgive use me as a vessel of mercy help me to forgive those who have hurt me the most because I can't do it on my own amen now some of you when I said to do that maybe nobody came to mind praise God my guess is there's a very few of you here you've all lived long enough there aren't really that many very young people here most of us have been hurt badly and when someone says yes you need to forgive that person now you might know that that's true you might have tried to do it or have tried to do it in the past but it keeps coming back it's almost like it's not working I still don't feel better right how do you forgive like that how do you get to a place where you can actually let go of somebody who has hurt you so badly father John said Christianity up until that point seems so beautiful but then when you tell me I need to forgive my worst enemy then it seems laughable then it seems impossible he said I'll never forget those words and they're so true because I've been hurt pretty badly recently and I've been trying to forgive someone now for several years and it's happening but really slowly I also told you about the Turks I've been forgiving the Turks for a long time but today is st. Patrick's Day I understand going to the home of your enemies to try and bring conversion there I've been to Turkey 40 times now to preach the gospel I love st. Patrick I pray for his intercession every time I'm on that plane but that's what needs to happen there needs to be something that changes in our heart that gives us a grace to love our enemies father Prentiss said that this morning at his homily that's what Jesus is looking to do he's trying to win them even right to the end he's trying to win them so we're told to forgive even when it doesn't make us feel better jesus said let me make sure forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us you see we forgive because our eternal destiny depends on it the next line is for if you forgive men when they sin against you your heavenly Father will also forgive you that's awesome isn't it he could have left it there right but he didn't he gave this next line as well but if you don't forgive men their sins your father will not forgive you your sins those are some frightening words it does not leave forgiveness as an option as an extra as it would be good if you did this - he's very clear about this this is not difficult scripture to understand is it this is not one of those complicated things that we say scripture I mean it's so difficult to understand I did Bible stay Catholic Bible study how many of you are in the Catholic Bible study I did the Catholic Bible study here in southeast Michigan for two years I wanted to do the other years but I got too is he but the thing that you really want to do when you read scripture how does this apply to my life I mean I understand this but how do I apply it to my life and one of the things I noticed at Catholic Bible study is we love to talk about what does it mean but we don't like to talk about how does it apply to my life and when you read scripture like this and you say are you forgiving those like your life depends on it or are you holding on to it are you entering into the process this is how my Heavenly Father will treat you unless you forgive your brother from the heart what's he talking about here he's talking about the story from Matthew 18 where we know that there is a business owner I'm a business owner I like to look at him as a business owner and he's very wealthy and he has somebody serving him who has stolen a lot of money from him in fact I worked out the amount it was thirty three million dollars in current dollars that's how much that servant odom 33 million that's in modern-day prices and he forgave him he forgave that servant jesus said the servant said forgive me and I'll pay you back please don't put me in jail and I will pay you back and it says the father that the business owner had mercy and forgave him the entire debt he didn't say you had to pay me back he didn't say let's work out a plan cuz he knew he was never getting paid back the guy would never be able to pay back that amount but then that same guy goes and he finds somebody that owes him a few thousand dollars in modern day money he chokes him he gets him by the neck and he says pay me back and the guy says give me time and I'll pay you back and he refuses now what's going on in this story the business owner finally says put him in jail send him to the torturers he says until he pays back the entire amount that he owed so what's going on what's Jesus trying to communicate to you and me in this story who is the one that owes millions of dollars who is that one is it Hitler is it Stalin is it Mao I see some of you are pointing in the right direction that's you and me that's how much it cost that's the forgiveness that we need to get to heaven not a little forgiveness I've been good you know if Mother Teresa got to heaven and said I've been good I don't think that would be a good answer I think there were two words on her lips Jesus and mercy I got to pray with a dying person of cancer recently I said when you get there two words Jesus mercy got that got that tell me you got that he died the next day my cousin that's what Jesus is saying here don't compare yourself that's the forgiveness that you need have you been forgiven much or forgiven little are you having a hard time loving check your forgiveness meter that's a good barometer if you're having a hard time loving check your forgiveness meter this is where you want to start are you having trouble forgiving get to church get yourself before the cross in the Lord's presence all the better this is where it starts you're going to get the power to forgive here because forgiveness doesn't make sense like father John says it seems laughable it seems way too hard it seems impossible you're asking me to do something that I can't do it's not working you need power you need power to do it and this is the place to get the power spend some time in front of the cross spend some time reading God's Word okay unforgiveness blocks God's love forgiveness releases it this is a powerful sentence do you want God's love do you really want it you see Turks don't understand when I talk about forgiveness because they don't understand the cross it seems ridiculous to a Muslim why would God do that he's so strong he's so powerful you Christians you always forgive forgive forgive and we just beat on you you're so weak see but forgiveness releases God's love in me when you forgive three people are affected you are affected we've just seen that the person you forgive is obviously affected aren't they because you've released them of a debt they've they've been touched the third is everyone who sees it everyone who sees it says wow how did she do that it's an amazing witness it's an incredibly powerful evangelistic tool to forgive okay why don't we forgive I've got ten minutes to run through a lot of stuff you ready for this these are all your excuses and I'm gonna run through their excuses one pride you just don't want to you've been hardened you've got a big ego I've got a big ego and you just say no I'm not going there I'm not gonna do that and you need to pray that God deflates your ego and you need to pray that God can do in you what you can't do for yourself number two I can't it's impossible you're asking me to do the impossible but with God all things are possible right you believe that so pray that God will change your heart and give you Grace and start to walk in the process do it anyway very simple prayer in the name of Jesus I forgive him in the name of Jesus I forgive him say it out loud we're gonna say it out loud pretty soon here you're gonna have an opportunity to do that with our prayer teams number three some people aren't aware of the need now Unbound cannot deal with repressed memories some of you who have maybe psychologists or counselors Unbound doesn't deal with repressed memories but once you do remember once you are aware you can forgive some of us minimize the need we minimize the need because we don't like to get hurt and we don't like to admit that we've been hurt and we even say oh that didn't hurt or she didn't really mean to hurt me and the important thing isn't how badly it hurt or if they understood what they were doing the important thing is to do it and not to just dismiss it don't worry about it that's a common thing we get hurt I love to say that's my you know the kids will do something they'll hurt me and they'll say I'm sorry papa and I'll say don't worry about it no that's not the right response the right response is I love you and I forgive you I'm not ready it's going to take a long time these people often need their story heard you say have you forgiven they say not really and why not usually because nobody has sat down and listened to their whole story and attempted to empathize with them and say come on let's do this I'll help you let's walk through it together we confuse forgiveness with feelings we think that we can't forgive until we feel better do you remember what I said repentance was it starts in the mind and then that leads to a change in heart now our heart can make us aware of something but my feelings aren't up here my feelings are in here and you need to start from a decision forgiveness is a decision it's a decision that you make and it only requires you and the grace of God reconciliation you need two people and the grace of God you can forgive people who have died you can forgive people who you can never be reconciled with you can forgive people that will never even admit that they hurt you there are very few Turks maybe less than a handful who have ever come to me and said I know what we did to your people I just want you to know that for my part I'm sorry it was a very moving moment when they did that and that was beautiful but that didn't have to do with feelings that was a decision that they made and I was deciding to forgive them even if they never came to me right it's not about feelings feelings will come but it's a decision okay there are a number of ways in which forgiveness is misunderstood it's not a feeling it's an act of the will as I said come on it's not reconciliation which I said it also doesn't mean allowing or accepting wrongdoing this is very important it is perfectly right for people to protect themselves or to get into a situation where they will be free of the abuse it doesn't mean that I need to subject myself to ongoing abuse that's not what forgiveness means and it doesn't mean I can't pursue justice you can still pursue justice God is fully just and he's fully forgiving you can do both and it doesn't mean returning to an abusive relationship it doesn't mean you have to do that I have counseled a number of women out of abusive relationships and I have also been told I'm sorry I need to stay with this I understand but it doesn't mean you have to stay okay next forgiveness just makes me more vulnerable to pain this is true it does make you vulnerable you will have to say this could happen again when you love people you make yourself vulnerable it's that understandable you will make yourself vulnerable you open yourself up if you don't love you won't be vulnerable but you will be very unhappy I already did it some people feel like you do it once you never have to do it again I like to say the barometer for whether you have forgiven enough is your pain meter when you think about that situation when you remember that person are you pained does it still bring up feelings of anger and bitterness or hurt if that's the case then you need to forgive more you've gotten more forgiving to do I am the child of an alcoholic father he's still alive I was just with him last week he's starting to have early dementia I love my dad it was very difficult growing up with him okay I have forgiven my dad thousands of times usually every day when I say my prayers I say a prayer of forgiveness to my father it's not a once and done but you know what it's like an onion your heart it's got to be peeled you got to get to the core I'm much better with it now than I was in my 20s so it's not a once and done this is a tough one you go to the offender you say they've done something wrong and they refuse to admit that they're guilty or they don't engage with you or they don't admit fault or wrongdoing this is really tough but it doesn't mean you are released from the responsibility you see what happened to you what people do to you you often don't have control over but your response to what they do to you that is your responsibility how did I react when they and sometimes the offender will not admit guilt the Turks to this day denied that they killed anybody in Turkey if I talk about the genocide I will be arrested you're not allowed to say the word I've even been asked directly by people publicly it's very difficult you got a very tight line to walk if I say no it didn't happen to my Armenian friends I am a coward and to say that it did happen I am very at risk right so when the one of the things I always start out with is I say many things happen between our people a lot of wrongdoing occurred anything that was done to hurt me or my family I have forgiven in the name of Jesus let's start from there it kind of disarms them I am NOT holding you personally responsible for what happened but when the offender refuses to admit admit guilt that doesn't relieve you of the responsibility of forgiving sometimes you'll have to forgive many times in one day sometimes there's a spiritual component to unforgiveness and if that's the case our team will pray you through that if you feel like there's something that I can't even say the words bring that to the teams when you go up for prayer this I've already talked about some people either a like Patrice said haven't forgiven themselves we just somewhat theological II difficult to understand because really it's accepting the forgiveness you've already been given and you just haven't accepted it and the way we usually talk about that is I need to forgive myself what we really mean to say is I really need to accept the forgiveness Jesus has already given to me he paid a price for me he paid a price for my sin am I going to accept that or am I going to reject it you understand that is that clear some of us have a victim mentality what's a victim mentality I always get hurt bad things always happen to me the other shoe is going to drop any minute now I'm always in the wrong place at the wrong time what's next right I just got through spending a ridiculous amount of money because of a very difficult problem that one of my children got into and I said to Michelle recently sweetheart you know if we don't have a disaster this year we're gonna be okay financially but you know I'm driving around in the work van I'd like to get a car and all kinds of stuff and I can see the victim mentality and me like I'm just waiting what's next right and it can put us in a place that just says you know what I mean how many times am I going to go through this am I gonna really have to just wait till it happens and forgive again I don't want to keep doing that and if that's where you are bring that to our teams and they will help you pray through that now jesus said I lay down my life on my own accord 33 so the last thing I want to say you know you know what that means in church when someone says that that's the last thing I want to say it means nothing let's see what the next slide is that's an important one that's a really important one people think that by not forgiving they're gonna hurt the person that has hurt them I am NOT going to forgive them I'm gonna hold it over them they don't deserve my forgiveness I'm not going there why should I forgive I've heard all of these things I've even said them myself but that's poison and you're not killing the other person you're killing yourself you really are you've probably met some people if you haven't seen it in yourself who cannot forgive who will not forgive who will not accept forgiveness from God and who will not give forgiveness to others and what usually happens to those people they turn into pretty scary ugly sad people they've been drinking the poison and it's killing them if you haven't seen it look around it's out there this is that's Turkey and I was pretty happy this day it was during a snowstorm which doesn't happen often in Istanbul but five hundred people came out to hear my talk on forgiveness and it's really hard to get around in Istanbul when it snows out because it's wall-to-wall ice and these people responded to the Lord's call to forgive and I want to give you an opportunity now to respond to his call the Lord's calling you to forgive people

Channel: OLGCPlymouth

Views: 15,289

Rating: 4.8579884 out of 5

Keywords: OLGC, Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church, Catholic Church, Plymouth Michigan, unbound

Id: vdAvB0poxog

Length: 93min 24sec (5604 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 18 2018