Chris Stefanick - Contagious Catholicism (2019 Defending the Faith Conference)

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I am just such a fan everybody here really man like Bob rice I wouldn't I wouldn't have survived my first year in youth ministry without Bob rice they don't want to been out of ministry all together Scott Hahn I mean listen his voice since I was a kid actually hear his voice in my head whenever I think something profound it's in his voice so I'm grateful for her for his voice in the church and I'm just grateful for all you guys man it gives me hope for the church praise God yeah I was just filming a real life Catholic episode a couple hours from here at a teen camp called Damascus if you know about it's amazing so uh so underneath this nice outfit I'm covered in paintball welts tune in for season 3 you'll see me and five guys take on forty girls or be taking on and destroyed by forty girls at a violent game of paintball so anyway anyway and the name of the Father Son the Holy Spirit and then Lord we praise you and we thank you that you've given us yourself that you've given us the best news ever and that you've given us your life we ask you to help us be faithful and effective at sharing that life with the whole world glory be to the Father to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen Mary our mother pray for us and maybe the father still in the Holy Spirit amen I'm gonna talk about how to share the best news ever with the world that seems to want it less and less right then some people tell us that the world we find ourselves in is a lot like the world the first Christians found themselves in because no one really seems to be interested or know about Jesus I'm a societal level and I don't really agree you see throughout history human beings about a sense a natural sense that we should worship something when the Catechism talks about public worship it says it doesn't just fulfill divine law but natural law there's something within human beings and our very DNA that wants to look for the source of all this and then publicly return some sort of thanks my travels and speaking and filling of taking me all around the world you know if you go to to the ancient sites of the Western world you'll see altars where people offered sacrifice to God as they understood him and in the Catholic world altars everywhere go to the other side of the planet in Hawaii you see Hay House temples with altars in them here's cultures that had no contact at all and not only were they worshipping God and looking for the source of all this they were doing in the same way human beings aren't just vaguely spiritual you know here that's saying you're spiritual but not religious right by the way the devil is spiritual but not religious - where does that get you human beings aren't as vaguely spiritual were also profoundly religious in every culture throughout history people people have have looked for tangible ways to express gratitude to the source of all this life that we find ourselves in and for the first time in history we have this unique problem where people aren't worshiping anything and I think that one of the first Christians found themselves in evangelization was way easier you had to convince people to go for worshipping a lightning bolt wielding jerk to Jesus that's an easy sell and now we find ourselves convincing people to worship anything at all GK Chesterton said that men today have lost their way which isn't surprising because they've always lost the way except today they've lost their address that sense of justice see religiosity Thomas Aquinas talked about it being a subset under the virtue of justice that sense of justice that I owe something to God but even if Church doesn't feel good for me I'm going anyway because God deserves that that's gone but sense of obligation to family is gone I've had countless young people tell me Chris should I really be confirmed just for my parents you know what I say yes unless you're gonna tell me without the worldly wisdom of a fifteen year old you're about to throw away what's been handed on to you for 2,000 years get confirmed for your parents and we'll talk about your doubts later go through the motion to honor your family and the act like you have faith guess what you start to have faith don't you amen that sense of nostalgia for things of the past is gone but III and we used to have this faith that people would come back if they left the faith they'd come back when their kids were born that came back when they were married in no particular order right that's not even happening now I talked to a priest in Canada recently a young priest and he looked downtrodden he said Chrisman have been a priest for a year and a half and I've had a single wedding we've not only lost our way we've lost our address and you know this isn't this this peaceful coexistence of people who worship God and people who don't you see when people don't worship God you who ends up on the throne of their hearts it's themselves and people who worship themselves don't get along with people of faith have you noticed this Pharaoh didn't peacefully coexist with God's people because their presence was annoying to him why because their presence said to him maybe Pharaoh there's something bigger than you that you should bow to our very presence sometimes annoys people it reminds them just the fact that we worship God reminds them that maybe there's something bigger than you but people don't want to bow to anything today people don't even want to bow to their own DNA today we could Forge our own identities and so we see we see this growing tension between well there's not one fair now there's billions of pharaohs and the people of God we have a couple options at this point right what are they let's go let's go through a few of them maybe one is to get really angry option that works for bringing the world back to Jesus doesn't it you know it's worth calling that one out because it's a temptation for everyone in this room it's really painful and frustrating to watch what's happening in the world it's painful and frustrating to watch how that stuff has gotten inside the church at every level it's really frustrating and there can be a just anger don't get me wrong but I'll tell you what man when anger isn't directed and Jesus felt a just anger he looked at the crowd with anger the Gospel of Mark tells us I would hate to be in that crowd but he wielded his anger for good we often really stink at that don't we and then it becomes a destructive fire in our lives and it becomes something that turns people away from the faith if there's anger it's got to be in brief doses and under our control to get really angry option is not a good one right how about this option number two the blend in with everybody option come down from that cross then we'll believe in you Jesus you don't have to say the things that got you up there why are you retract those statements that divide us from you but separate you from the world then we could all just get along we've seen mainstream mainline Protestant churches that have done that has their attendance boomed since they've done that they might get some points with mainstream media guys but that's it they're not converting anyone because not inviting anyone to anything different than what they're already doing Jesus admission was not just to come give us a pat on the back and hand out warm fuzzies a religion that attracts people as women also challenges people amen the blendin option doesn't work there's something beautiful called the Benedict option there's a book reading written about this recently and it follows the example of Saint Benedict the Western civilization was crumbling and he said you know I'm not gonna engage at all I'm gonna go out and do the Christian thing with the intentional community of people who are doing it and it's not like that he was angry at the world or pushing the world away hospitality is a hallmark of Benedict spirituality to this day but they just focused on doing what they who they were and living on who they were as Christians keeping Western civilization alive not just keeping Christian civilization alive but Western civilization itself you know if you read the classics today it's because those things were protected from barbarian Raiders and Benedictine monasteries you're welcome world we don't get much credit in the secular grocery books do we but as wave after wave of tragedy and invaders and barbarians who swept over Europe they just held on to who they were when those waves subsided there's the church still alive amen it's a beautiful option but you know I'm not sure I agree that we're quite at that point yeah I call for a different option maybe let's call it the apostolic option the decision to be radical the decision to be joyful the decision to be like the first apostles and to go out and win the world for Jesus Christ I think that's the option we have to go for right now see because we're not quite dead yet [Applause] the devil would like us to retreat to give up to disengage way ahead of the end of the battle there are 70 million Catholics in the United States it's over a billion of us on the planet I'm not dead yet we still got it in us can I hear an amen to that somewhat talk about the seven Habits of modern-day apostles the seven Habits of Highly Effective evangelists all right and these will go through some practical you know ways to convince people to come into a relationship with Jesus Christ some practical illustrations but you know I'm calling these habits for a reason because if evangelization if sharing the faith is something that feels enforced and put on for you it's not gonna work people could see a salesman coming from a mile away nowadays can't they but if it's what comes from who you are because of how you live your everyday life because of habits you've formed it'll be natural and you'll be effective so habit number one habit number one is to keep first things first what's happen um bur one standpoint keep first things first the main thing is keeping the main thing the main thing isn't it that's really hard to do that's hard to do within our own marriages that's why we have weekly date nights even to those times that we don't really like each other by the way date nights cheaper than marriage counseling if you think that $50 plate is too expensive marriage counseling is double that and not nearly as enjoyable you have to fight to keep first things first what's first things in our Catholic faith and I'll tell you the world doesn't associate us with this first thing anymore the world thinks that we're the Church of various scandals various issues various statements and politics or of history tradition theology all these all these things that we should engage in as a church but where does all this Catholic stuff come from what's this all about the first thing is the gospel of Jesus Christ the charisma the core message of the gospel and it's summed up beautifully in John 3:16 for God so loved the world for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever should believe in him would not perish but have eternal life I get chills when I said it I just said the best thing that human ears have ever heard this is the gospel we need to be known as the Church of the gospel again amen there's nothing that compares with the gospel of Jesus Christ that God is shows us that life has purpose this is the best news ever oh this a theist was trying to debate me I was giving a talk at MIT he said Chris I don't really believe in an imaginary God to tell me life has purpose I make up my own purpose I said you know what that's called right it's called make-believe if there's no God there's no purpose except the one you made up and you know at your core you made it up we'll just make believe which is not real right you know the difference between real and fake amen we've the best news ever if there is a God that so therefore there is a purpose but but it gets way better than that we believe that God so loved the world cuz God is love look the Greeks and Romans believe in lots of God's was that good news was that the best news ever no they believed in lots of jerks really powerful jerks we believe in a God who is love but that immaterial force that started space and time that breathed life into the void is love one of my dear friends was an atheist he became a Catholic I got to be his Godfather and one night he told me after many you know light late nights talking him about the faith he said Chris I don't know if there's a God but if there is he's Catholic cuz I can't imagine him being anything less than the love that you say he is a lot of people would tell us if there's a god surely he's not this God you religious people put into your little boxes in categories he's more vast than that more vague than that let's call that religion vague vague ooh as if vague is profound vague is not profound love is profound a God who would stay hidden behind the cloud is not profound but a God who would literally put himself in a box for me is one who loves me so much he become my food give me a face to recognize a name to call him a God who would almost risk becoming so ordinary that people get bored of him that's profound God is love that when we wandered from our created purpose that relationship he Creoles for with him the relationship that is the Father Son and Holy Spirit three persons one God how did he do that that he entered space and time for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son oh how amazing his love for us I see the smallest glimpse of that love in my heart as a dad it's downright terrifying I'm not a perfect dad right we've insurance that covers counseling for my kids but they all know I love them enough to die for them it'll often share this story when I'm preaching the gospel that my worst twenty minutes in life I lost my son we were camping in the Rocky Mountains he ran off after some family thinking it was us he's four years old right and he's find themselves surrounded by these big trees he sits down the sun's starting to set were screaming his name he was too afraid to respond to us and there was a pond we were camping I thought he must have drowned so I ran there thinking I was gonna find his body I'm knee-deep in this water looking for him and his prayer just exploded from my heart from the heart of an imperfect father an echo of who God is though so God you've done so much good for me you've given me a great life and given me so many blessings I want you to take it all back right now and give me my son that's how the father's looking at you right now that when you and me wandered to the forest of sin he's never saying destroy yourself be lost no no every time take everything take my life I'll be your food in the Eucharist I'll be waiting for you in confession I just want my son I just want my daughter I will do anything to get my son or my daughter home and when you mess up for the thousandth time if you've been following the Lord for years you becoming scrupulous and you're getting burned out on yourself I just want my son is my daughter to come home that's what he sees in us by the way we found Joey and God did not kill me but these little glimpse their parents made of what it means that God is love man it's mind-blowing that love died for us I love rose from the dead for us that love calls us to participate in the life of the church that love Destin's us for eternal glory brothers and sisters this is the gospel outside of this simple message that were created by love that we wanted from a purpose love died for us that he that he calls us to life in himself that he calls us to experience that in the church that he calls us to mission and eternal glory that simple message it's not the Big Bang Theory man all matter in the universe was compacted to a singularity exploded from there but it was already there everything it means to be as a Catholic is already there all the history the tradition the liturgy that smells and the bells and the Saints and everything it's all right there I just something up in three minutes it's all right there but outside the context of that gospel message brothers and sisters everything else we give the world doesn't make any sense Pope Francis recently said we're in the midst of a love story and if we don't understand that we've understood nothing of what the church is outside the love story nothing makes sense it's like marriage removes a love story what do you got I gave this talk recently I asked that question an old guy in the front row said a to-do list that's what you're left with man and when the world sees us coming with our met with our Catholic thing you know what they see you're coming at me with the to-do list I have doctrines to memorize that have nothing to do with real life I have rules to follow that are burdensome I have rituals I have to keep alive to keep my community happy or my grandma happy no thank you ask the average university student not here we're not at the average University praise be Jesus Christ that's the average university student where you gonna look for enlightenment they might give you a top ten list they might give you a top 40 list the Catholic Church won't even be on the top forty you know why we've forgotten the love story and outside the context of the love story now it is the rest of Catholicism not makes sense the rest of life doesn't make any sense I will read you a couple Pope quotes that really drive this home religion itself without the experience of the wondrous discovery of the Son of God and communion with him who became our brother becomes a mere set of principles which are increasingly difficult to understand and rules which are increasingly hard to accept john paul ii said that Pope Benedict the 16th said the church can't become identified with certain Commandments of prohibition because if it does quote we give the impression that we're more or less with a few somewhat antiquated convictions and not even the hint of the greatness of the faith appears and Pope Francis said we as a church cannot insist only on issues related to abortion gay marriage a use of contraception though I thank God he has spoken on those things I'd like him to speak more often but hey I'm not the Pope but he has all right we can't say insist only on this thing you said when we speak about these issues we have to talk about them in a context we have to talk about a minute on what that good context is the love story it's the gospel we have to keep first things first people have to see us and know right away what we're about there to see Catholics and say you're the Church of the gospel of Jesus Christ oh and the rest of that cool stuff too outside that context nothing makes sense I was at a theology ONTAP event but I put when I worked for the Archdiocese of Denver and my bishop was there talking and someone started heckling him from the crowd he was talking about pro-life issue and of course my wife in an attempt to get me in a fight to see how tough I was went right up to the guy at the end of theology on the tap and started correcting him right but I'm kidding obviously about the fight part but she's ready man right but we got in a long conversation it was a great conversation but after about an hour talking to this guy explaining the logic of the Church's teaching and the life issue you know what he said I said yeah you know what that I didn't I think my mom should have aborted me and I realized here I'm talking to a guy trying to explain the inner logic of the Church's teaching on the pro-life issue and this guy doesn't even know that he should exist I'm trying to convince him that a fetus has inherent value and should be legally protected and he has no idea that he has any inherent value at all guys outside the gospel not only does the Church's teachings not make sense all of life doesn't make sense this is the one solution to every problem mankind's ever faced this is the only thing that makes life beautiful that shows us who we are what we're worth what it's all about we have to lead with the gospel of Jesus Christ we have to position everything we say within the context of the gospel or it'll fall on deaf ears amen so what's that mean yeah it means that we're not just selling an ideologies or selling a person and a relationship with that person you know when I was in Steubenville I sat in on RCA with Barbara Morgan legendary catechist love this woman pray first she's very sick right now if you happen to know her but when she would debate with atheists she'd always landed on this hey listen if you don't believe in God I'd encourage you to ask him if he exists totally reframed and personalized the whole debate is not amazing keep it first things first means we we keep it centered on a person not to sell an idea or a philosophy or path to life we're first and foremost selling Jesus Christ do we have faith that's that's enough but that's gonna work because he is enough second we have to stop presuming that people get it already because they don't I travel the world to give a multi-generational parish renewal events called reboot and we typically get like a thousand people even at small parishes cuz we have a six months lead-up program of invitation inviting people who don't usually come to church to come and pack these events but my cousin came to one of these events and afterwards he said Chris I had never before thought of my faith as a Catholic it's having to do with my relationship with God we presume people get it because they have the badge that says Catholic we need to stop presuming that people get it my dad's a very quiet guy my mom is not Slovak Irish right Jim do you love me well I get you know that I love you I mean I I I work I don't cheat on you I come home every night yeah Jim I want you to say I love you okay I love you we have to stop presuming that people get the obvious I'm going to repeat the obvious again and again and again and we don't move past the obvious the primary proclamation of the gospel is from evangelii gaudium Pope Francis talked about how it's not primary just because it happens first let me move on to more important things its primary and importance and it has to come out again and again and ring out our message again and again and again so we don't presume people get it we personalize our message and it means that we make things clear again this is this is amazing the Synod on young people this is a quote people we were summing up the responsive youth to the church and how they perceive the church today and this summaries a little disturbing a large number of young people mostly from secularized areas are not asking the church for anything they don't see her as a significant interlope in their lives some expressly asked to be left alone because they feel her presence to be bothersome or even irritating irritating see we live in a world where people get about 3,000 advertisements per day thrown at them and if that advertisement isn't clear right away about what it does for you and your life and what message are you bringing I'll tell you what it's log in to the category of one of the 3,000 ads and it's annoying we have to be overt we have to be clear we have to be personalistic how do you do this in your daily life brothers and sisters we have to make a habit out of talking about the person of Jesus do you really believe is a real person who's there in your life you need to start talking about him with me with your friends with your family with your co-workers especially for a ministry as if he's actually there you need to be comfortable pausing a conversation to talk to him and to pray together about something when you have that sense of his nearness you start naturally keeping first things first because you've kept him first amen amen the second habit of holy people and there are not all this long or we'd be here until 10:00 p.m. the second habit of holy people is to make time for it what's the second habit beautiful don't ever be so busy with evangelization that you don't have time for people don't ever be so busy with anything that you won't drop them for people see every human being God reveals that worth the value the dignity of human beings because we believe in a God who thought people were worth dying for that's an impact how we make time for people how we welcome people into our homes I know it's annoying we got our little schedules are trying to keep all the time don't we make time for it I was at a coffee shop recently I was actually writing this talk a woman came in sat next to me and started crying and I almost said would you please shut up I'm ready to talk about Jesus my natural default is jerk okay man I didn't I didn't do that obviously I I made time for her and got no conversation with her about the problems she was facing and she was a Buddhist woman we ended up saying a prayer together in that coffee shop always make time for it along those lines the ordinary forum for evangelization is friendship I want to say that again the ordinary forum for evangelization to happen in its friendship not just friendship that your friends so that you can evangelize no no you you want to share your faith with this person because your friends you see the difference my buddy I told you about who converted I got to be his Godfather hi there was he went through RCIA one year here here look this is the best place ever to go through RCA but it didn't take then the second year he decided on Holy Thursday to be dunked to be baptized but I remember leading up for that second year I thought maybe he won't get baptized and I said listen Ryan you're my best friends I Love You Man and and I don't want to share my faith with you just to make a point for Jesus you know and I'm not your friend just to share your my faith with you I want to share my faith you because you're my friend and if you reject what I'm trying to share with you I'm still your friend for life forever that's the context when people will actually listen to us that's really hard because friendship is hard because people are annoying and so are you and God loves you and puts up with you anyway see we have a society we're more increasingly isolated we could do friendships on our terms on our phones and our social media another know God wants us to drop everything to make time for it to make time for people the third habit of holy people is to give beautiful what's the third habit of holy people awesome listen I need you to give I need you to start tithing 10% to God I don't to be legalistic about this but if you're in the category of most Catholics where you're giving one to 1.2 percent of your income back to God in my opinion you've just lost every right to complain that the evangelical church down the street is so much cooler than yours because you're the reason they're so much cooler than yours he's like wow I enjoyed his preaching until just then nobody said Amen nobody clapped nothing I make a habit of giving 10% of my income back to the church all right even when I don't want to my wife is holier than us make sure that we do you have to give back to God but I want to challenge in a deeper level be discerning about how you give listen we're in an era where there's a lot of historically Catholic ministries who could care less about the church existing a hundred years from now and we have to recognize the difference between those ministries and ministries that do good in charitable works and also want to see the church survive amen I was talking to a president of a school district and he said Chris you know we don't really emphasize our Catholic tradition we emphasize our Lasallian tradition what are you talking about I mean seriously as if the Christian Brothers can be separated from Jesus Christ now this is the innocent represented Christian Brothers but one particular guy and one particular School District right but when you discern that do not give to that organization don't support them in any way I made a really bad mistake once there was a young person who's getting involved in her faith and thinking about becoming Catholic and she wanted to go do some volunteer core so I wrote her a letter of recommendation nothing up the sermon on my part she came back a year later had no interest after a year with these people a year they had her totally completely turned off from the Catholic faith she said she said they did good charitable works but they're sleeping together they were drinking together the priests the priests who were involved in is like I had no interest in they had no fire for the faith at all she went off and became something some other denomination thank God she still was a Christian it wasn't turned off from the whole thing altogether because we have to know the difference between actually Catholic institutions and ones that just bear the name and frankly drain everybody's money using that name give to things that are evangelistic and I know this is a guy who's as a directly evangelistic apostolate it's very hard to raise money for that kind of thing in the church people can put a plaque under a stained-glass window you don't get a plaque under a soul until you get to heaven then you'll see then they'll see that your donation helped get that person to heaven right but it's kind of intangible guys we have to think differently about how we give right now we are not in a place the church were the few people who actually bear the burden of caring about the church existing in a hundred years can afford to take a step back and not give to make that happen and also once you give away stuff I'm always caring frankly I write books just so I can buy them for cheap from myself and give them the later people I was at the stet I was getting a bank note notarized recently and I just you know I didn't have any time to talk to this person I was rushing out somewhere and I told this woman what I do for a living and say hey here's a book I wrote and I left two weeks later she emailed me hey that changed my life and going to church again when you carry stuff to give around you don't have to seal the deal immediately so if you're gonna buy one of my books are gonna buy Scott Hines book by ten and use them as frisbees on your pagan friends lovingly number four what's number four don't let your fear dictate your actions what's number four listen sharing the faith can be scary because you might get rejected no no hold on you will get rejected it's awkward it's awkward for me not right now it would be really awkward right now if I didn't talk about Jesus right but in my daily life it's awkward my most awkward time ever sharing the faith my wife's grandma was dying of pneumonia 92 years old wonderful wonderful woman it'll hurt her son she took good care of him was faithful in her marriage but she never went to church ever and she told my wife years before that moment on her deathbed that she thought she was gonna end up in hell when she died so here I am by you know grandma's deathbed and I had to say something this is not one of those times you want to rock the boat with a challenging religious discussion with Grandma and let's make it more awkward her son my father-in-law's an agnostic and I'm preacher boy huh very uncomfortable moment but I had to say something so I got real close to her and we're face to face and I said repent mission accomplished Oh No thank you for laughing and knowing that was a joke oh yeah I got yeah I got real close to her and I said Florence there was a thief crucified next to Jesus he didn't do anything good at the end of his life he said remember me when you come into your kingdom and Jesus said today you'll be with me in paradise I said that guy went to heaven that day not because of the good he had done but because of what Jesus did for him on the cross I said that thief can be you the next day she was reconciled to God and received into the Catholic Church and the day after that she died what if I hadn't said anything what if you don't we have a God who could do everything himself but in his plan for the salvation of the world he is chosen to make the eternal destiny of other people contingent on your response to his call on your willingness to step outside your comfort zone on your willingness to leave your safe space Millennials in the room I'm sorry there's no safe space in Christianity to get out we have a God who said walk on water get out of the boat the boat of your own security the boat of worrying about your own name the boat of worrying about being liked by everybody all the time sometimes the boat of your financial security all I get out of that boat and make me known to a world that needs me does that mean you have to always know the right thing to say no does that mean you always have to you know be or be super articulate you've memorized all these beautiful things you've read in theology class no no it just means you have to be holy and then not be afraid to be yourself the whole world say be yourself be yourself unless you're a Catholic guys how about we start walking around as if we have the best news ever again cuz guess what we do is a great saying I'm not saying that you'll be be like a fire hydrant just be like a sprinkler system just make sure you sprinkle everywhere you go going out of the grocery store you get your change open your mouth say something say thanks for the change and God bless you did I sneeze no I'm just a Catholic you see if person having a horrible day telling you praying for him someone keeps coming to mind that you haven't seen in a long time maybe they've become a lost sheep and straight from the church and from life and maybe God is putting that person on your mind cause he's calling you to get them reach out said I'm a tax I'm praying for you I love you just want you to know I'm moving you up to God today sometimes you'll be rejected yes that's totally okay and you don't have to stay in that fight zone where you can get punched if they reject they get angry you just step back you just made known to that person why you love them like you do you just made known to that person why you smile like you do and it'll bug them for the rest of their lives because they'll want what you have open your mouth brothers and sisters this is not the age for timidity those of us who are here who are called who are called to Shepherd people back to God got to start opening our mouths and being bold about it can I hear a loud amen to that make a habit of doing that in your daily life make a habit of going there make a habit of having friendships and conversations that are actually deep so that when it comes time to invite someone to relationship with Jesus you're not afraid to do it that you go there because that's the kind of person you are I have no tolerance for shallow conversations I don't know how to have them anymore it's a problem but we have enough shallow in our world be the person who always gets right in there it loves on people shares life with them and goes there amen the next habit of holy people bring up on the screen is to present faith as part of life what's that one nice and loud present faith as part of life you know there's something I like to call the Louisiana anomaly who's from Louisiana here anybody whoo it's an amazing place it really is see because the roots of culture there are profoundly Catholic now in my travels around the world there's places that are post Christian post Catholic where there's a profound resentment toward the church I have friends who are missionaries in Europe in certain countries they say if I'm wearing my collar out in public I will be spat upon because their experience of the faith was something that busted into life and gave them rules and burdens kind of a Jansson istic experience this moralistic christianity Louisiana something that different happened see faith was always tied into the celebration of life and I have a friend who lives in New Orleans right now and he said he called me recently he's like you know I was reading an article around Lent and it was written by an atheist and he was talking about what he's gonna give up for Lent there's this open friendliness toward the faith though it's super post Christian in New Orleans especially you look at some of the festivals they have there's there's some family-friendly ones for sure but I'll tell you what all the festivals have their roots in Catholic feast days they're their way of feasting on life was connected to Catholicism my kids all love the faith now I'm not saying if your kids don't I mean if there's a dang thing called free will it screws everything up right but if I could say one big reason they're all still in love with the faith is because they've always experienced the faith is part of the way to celebrate life my kids like a good burger and a nice sunset well we will pull the car over and look at it they like listened to the classical music that likes to listen to heavy metal music if it's good but they like all of it and they're like Jesus all over the same reason because life is Christ in Christ is life and it's all one big beautiful ball life so we gotta celebrate the people perceiving you that you're a lover of life but she stop and smell the roses I took my family too you know someplace warm this winter I kept losing my 18 year old who's about to join the army god bless him but I can't lose in him because it's like it where's Ethan oh he's literally smelling flowers again sit down you've got a smooth gardenia in there it's amazing is that how we live see our our faith in life should bleed into one another if we wanted to be attractive to people amen amen beautiful I was debating with Ricky Gervais on Twitter who actually responded to me on Twitter which is kind of amazing and he said he's a famous comedian atheist and he said to me I'm in awe of the world I just don't believe in God and I said and and he said I love this short beautiful life without believing in God and I said if man is no more than a collection of molecules whose destinies worm food the only way to call life beautiful is to not think too hard you got to try all of the world as a gift love is eternal life is inherently meaningful that's something beautiful and his response was the magic of realities enough for me have a great life and I said I couldn't agree more I'm just disagreeing with you about how big reality is you see faith doesn't limit your view of reality it makes reality huge it makes real and then I said by the way come to our reboot event in Soho exactly the part of London when I was at and he didn't but hey whatever we try amen God's fingerprints are all over creation truth beauty goodness it's everywhere so we got to present the faintest part of life the six habit of holy people bring that up on the screen I got to talk to faster now can you believe that I can actually talk faster because I'm from New Jersey you have no idea how fast I can talk number six presenter witness with your life what is number six this is a scary one you see because it's easy to talk about your faith but when people see you up close and personal you're the only Bible someone might ever read you're the only church someone might ever enter hmm so if you got a rose read dangling from the car window when you're in traffic and someone cuts you off make sure you wave with five fingers I know you're not perfect so this one's really scary and I'm not either it's easy for me to travel the world and for each I come home my kids are watching someone cut me off recently in a cuspid on my mouth I'm not proud of that but a little voice in the backseat said daddy people would talk about Jesus are not supposed to use that word so I said shut up no I did I said hey they see me mess up they seem to go to confession they see that a week but I surround myself with friends who are strong they see that I'm self-centered but then I make a high priority out of helping people who are poor and needy because I have read the cheat sheet for the final exam Matthew 25 um I'm gonna read that one they see that I mess up but they hear their dad say I'm sorry because they know that for all my flaws I'm not the Lord and king of our home or of myself I'm not the boss of me I bound to somebody else and that gives dad a joy and a peace and a purpose that nothing else could and there's nothing more convincing than that you don't have to be perfect to be a witness with your life but here's what you do have to be authentic you have to be striving to be saint to insert your name here I do not buy into that message of you know it's okay just be messy and stay messy it's okay to be messy yes it is it's okay to be fixed too it's okay to be wash clean it's okay to become a saint and deliver the power and grace of God that's okay too and when we're striving to live that life and all our messiness on the way if we really want that above all else and we can't fake that we are witness with our lives and the seventh habit of holy people bring them up on the screen might be the most important one is to pray nice and loud why did we do this because Jesus knows what the person you're talking to needs more than you do he's got that added advantage of being able to see every thing that's why he approached everybody in the Gospels differently he'd go up to the to the Pharisees who were arrogant men and say you were like a whitewashed tomb you're all dead bones on the inside that is the case who was a nun liked unpopular little man who climbed the tree to get a glimpse of Jesus what did Jesus do he look at Zacchaeus and said you are like a whitewashed you and your dead bones on the inside no he said it's aquellas I want to come over your house for a beer I'm paraphrasing scripture like big time right now it's a case I want to come over your home that was it and it changed his life he's going to the house of a sinner it's a case just puff his chest out right there right now lord I give my life to you anything that I that I've taken for people I'll give it back times two I don't think it's exactly what you can seek total conversion right there because Jesus just said I want to come over and hang out what's the person that you want to bring the gospel to need if you stay tied into Jesus Christ if you keep asking him he'll show you one of my dear friends who travels the world and preaches he's amazing guy give this big weekend conference to youth and it was flying home and he was exhausted and he's sitting next to a guy and he looks over and he sees the word adultery written across this guy's forehead he's like really Lord I'm really tired right now I don't feel like talk to this guy but if I look back and see it again I know I'm gonna have to say something he looks back he still sees it there and he taps again the shoulder and says I don't know how to say this but I can see the word adultery written across your forehead the guy's jaw dropped he said I'm on my way to see my mistress right now they talked in the whole flight to Los Angeles the guy got off the plane bought a ticket back home God can do extraordinary things like that he doesn't usually which is really annoying but I have to believe he's got a reason for not usually doing that so what's the reason Lord here's the reason brothers and sisters if I could presume him to speak for God right now he doesn't make it that easy for us because he wants us to do the hard work the hard work of listening to the person in front of us the hard work of putting ourselves out there not being sure what's gonna happen the hard work of praying and listening to him praying lord please show me the right words to say he wants us to do that hard work to stretch and expand our hearts to let him in and to look the people around us in because when we do that who do we become more like and the end of this game guys in the eyes of God isn't just to use you as tools to do stuff for him but to make you more like as children to enjoy his glory forever see before preaching the gospel we got to be recipients of that ourselves and rest in that reality so let's pray and the name of the Father Son the Holy Spirit in them Lord Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God we thank you we praise you we worship you because you didn't only call us to yourself and we thank you for that you don't only promised us paradise and we thank you for that but even more you raise us up and share with us the joy of spreading your kingdom sharing with us the joy of doing what you do thanks for believing in us more than we could possibly ever believe in ourselves or in you thank you for loving us glory be to the Father to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end the name of the Father Son the Holy Spirit and praise God thank you thank you guys thank you hey a cup of praise God huh hey a couple quick announcements number one if you want more frisbees to throw at your friends there's a book called joy of the world I would say I copied it from Scott Hans title but he copied it from something else too it's a song called joy anyway short meditations about the gospel I'll be talking about relativism tomorrow in my breakout session is a booklet on that a book called I am that I wrote it's about how to rewire how you talk to yourself to replace the negative self-talk and self-defeating talk with the Word of God so you got to share this stuff with people in your lives ok don't get this Catholic stuff for you get it for other people right I also have free videos and media that we give out to the world if you want to be on our newsletter text your name and email address to that number so in the where you write the message put your name and email and text it two three three oh seven three two five two two eight well leave that up there for a minute and then we'll prepare our hearts for Holy Mass thank you guys so much

Channel: Steubenville Conferences

Views: 21,531

Rating: 4.9180632 out of 5

Keywords: Steubenville Conferences, Catholic, Franciscan University, Catholic Ministry, New Evangelization, Youth

Id: b3xzbcJvqVg

Length: 50min 6sec (3006 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 27 2019