Fr. Michael Schmitz - The Cross Revealed - 2018 Steubenville On The Bayou

[Music] [Music] [Music] it's a couple thoughts um you guys are great what I mean by that is great what do you mean by that is um I feel very special being with you guys like truly just getting a chance to talk to some of you feel like really really special um but the thing is after I get done talking with a lot of you I realize the truth and I know the truth already it's not that I'm special I'm not I mean honestly I'm not special I look in the mirror I think that's but after talking to you guys I'm just like wow they are so special but I know that like in this room tonight there are a bunch of people you don't believe that that you think you're the exception you think that although we're talking about sometimes it's like you want to believe it because you want to be like maybe is that true about me is that am i worth that and then you think well I would be if I didn't have this in my life there's someone in my life I think I probably the man I'm closest to maybe than any other person in my life I may or may not be related with to him and he would come to these conferences and he hear the truth you hear the message of how much God loved him how he was worth more than he can imagine he'd sit there and he'd say what he would want to believe it if they need say but yeah but they don't know what I'm dealing with and so I'm so I'm disqualified yeah God would love me if it wasn't for this thing that I've got going on right now some disqualified so he he always just stayed on the bubble because he thought I don't know maybe it just doesn't maybe doesn't count for me I just want to start tonight by saying it you are you're not special because I believe it if you want to know how much you're worth to God but I know how much you're worth to God I just look up behind me that's your price tag God says that's my how much you're worth and if you forget anything from tonight I just need you not to forget that it's so hard I mean I think it's probably a heart in a real way what I mean but that is I mean for crying out loud you guys know one shot each other at school when I was growing up that when I was growing up I mean and I'm not I mean I'm old but I'm not that old that they didn't have all the stuff you have going on right now and I just feel that you recognize that what's going on is a couple things one is this massive since its massive belief I talked about this little bit this afternoon this massive sense that there that life doesn't mean anything this meaninglessness that's pervades so many people's lives it comes down to it it's like nothing really means anything it's just this meaninglessness because it's just yeah you go we live you you get born you live you die and that's that's it I mean that's kind of what people say right and there's also this hopelessness you can't do anything about it I mean that's well meaningless isn't hopelessness team up it's like wait nothing matters meaninglessness and you can't do anything about it hopelessness and when there's within when there's a culture of meaninglessness and hopelessness what that leads to is anxiety and I don't know if you know this but on college campuses anxiety is overtaking depression for the main reason why college students seek out mental health because when you're in a world where nothing matters and you can't do anything about it then absolutely you're gonna feel anxiety you know what a great definition of anxiety is is looking at the threats of a future in doubting one's ability to cope with that future looking at what's coming down the road for your life and doubting your ability to cope with what's coming down the road in your life and again if you embrace you're surrounded by in a world where this meaninglessness hopelessness where it's like nothing matters and you can't do anything about it then absolutely absolutely anxieties gonna go through the roof and I just have to ask the question like I mean not ask the question note this something's wrong like something's seriously wrong with our world something is seriously amiss we're in the midst of a crisis now when I say crisis I don't mean just 2018 I mean we're in the midst of a crisis so I don't know if you know anything about medical help and effusion like you know paramedics or first responders what kind of thing um I have a brothers in the military and he is trained in front to back on how to like just assess situations and like get people at help but when you're a person who comes upon crisis and you know what to do one of the first things you do when you come up on someone who is obviously in distress someone who's in a crisis you have to assess the situation and they've used this term called alert and oriented and you can you can gauge how how wicked a person is and you gauge them out depending on if they're alert and oriented times 1 through x 4 so alerts on oriented times 1 what that means is the person knows who they are right so you say sir do you know who you are yeah my name is John like no it's not father Mike sir do you know who you are he says yes my name you know I'm Who lerton oriented Em's one secondly there are alert in origin times two if they know who they are and where they are certain where you are yeah I'm in Louisiana okay great good if they know who though who they are and where they are alert and oriented times to if they know who they are where they are and when what time it is when they are there alert to 90 times 3 so that's what I asked questions like sir do you know who the president is like yes I think it's George Washington wrong you're not alerting or any sin x 3 it's if you know who you are where you are when you are and if you can remember how you got there if you can remember what happened you're alert to 90 times for again you know who you are where you are when you are and how you got there you're alert anoint exams for but if you don't know any of those things it's what you call alert and oriented times zero so we have to ask the question we're in the midst of a crisis do we in the midst of this crisis know who we are where we are when we are and do we know how we got here how did we get like this I want to talk a little bit this evening about how it got like this because we might find ourselves a lot like I don't know I guess a lot like modern North Koreans I was reading a this article about these these young women who escaped from King Kim I'd never get the names right Kim Jong Un's reign and they she was raised and her Kim Jong Il's a train or vice versa right you know I'm saying you know Kim Jong New York North North Carolina or threa North Carolina I bet you escaped from North Carolina man and it's good thing you got out of there but they said well they were living under the rain in North Korea they didn't know that they were living under a tyrants that when they were living in North Korea they had no idea their history of North Korea had no idea the history of Korea they had no idea the history before their tyrant they didn't know who they were they didn't know where they were in the world compared to everyone else cuz they it was like a media blackout right when it was I mean they were completely cut off from all technology and all things that could help them forward didn't know when they were and they didn't know how they got there because they were cut up they were living under the reign of this tyrant so they they were living under a tyrant and they didn't even realize it they're alert in Orion two times zero you guys living in this world right now we are alert and oriented I'm zero but it didn't begin this way didn't start off this way in fact God being so good he actually created us to be alert in oriented times for even more than that God crated as well do you guys know that's core to the story let's go to the book let's see the playbook how did God create this world he begins and it says in Genesis chapter 1 that as he begins creating this whole world I said we're going back to the beginning all the way to the beginning as you creates this world what to say he says God made the world heavens earth he said it's good makes you human beings it's very good but I want to get into chapter 2 here because this is what God does something amazing says the God formed a man out of the clay of the ground I just I memorized this so I have to look the God formed man out of the clay of the ground and he breathed the breath of life into him and then it says this it says the Lord God then took the man and set settle him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and to care for the garden no I always loved that moment because again guys gentlemen think about this in this moment you're the you're the dude you're the only man who's been created in the world and God puts you in the garden to cultivate and to care for the garden no I used to think I used to read that and go like okay so God I don't know he likes gardeners and so hey Adam you need something to do cult abate and cared like for the garden so I was like okay I gotta mow the lawn Here I am picking the weeds I always imagined that here's Adam cultivating the garden and caring for the garden but that word to care for is actually the Hebrew word to garden so when God puts Adam in the garden he wants him in the garden yes for a purpose in the garden is good but he puts him in the garden to cultivate the garden and to guard the garden so I always imagined here's Adam and he's like making the lawn signs I keep off the grass and like don't eat my radishes even there's no one around but like you know he's guard in the garden but two things one is he doesn't know who he's supposed to guard and secondly he doesn't know who he's guarding against so he's in the garden but like Adam who are you guarding what are you guarding I don't know just here God told me to cultivate the garden guard the garden but then got the older God says it's not good for the man to be alone and so I love this part of the story I will make a suitable partner for the man so the Lord God had formed out of the very ground various wild animals various birds of the air and he brought into the man to see what he would call each of them and he gave them names to all the cattle the birds of the air and all the wild animals but none of them proved to be a suitable partner for the man I just like that story cuz I just imagine like you know here's Adam and he's he didn't get a partner a suitable partner for himself and God he's like okay finally great and God like brings my cat like oh gosh Lord seriously I mean the dog was nice and my best friend but the cat Lord now you can take put it outside the garden that's where he's living later on in Chapter three the cat comes back in but they call him by a different name then it says none of them proved a suitable partner for the man so then it said the Lord guy put a deep sleep on the man and while he was asleep he got one of his ribs and closed up the supplies with flesh and the Lord God then built up into a woman the rib the date taken from the man no I just a little side point I've always heard people say like oh that's a good reason for um I've never actually talked about the story and there's a husband I said next was wife when he was like well you're welcome it's like what it's like well yeah well you came from me and she's like yeah and you came from dirt so what do you got you know cuz it's so interesting and this on on this point there's so many times people try to say like well the man came first - the man is better or the woman came last the woman is best I didn't say that I said some people say that but honestly the Bible gets used sometimes to either say like you know yeah that means that men are better or that means women are better but it always reminds me of when I was growing up my parents my parents had an Atari it's a video game thing and it was so cool I had a lot of older siblings and so I got to watch them play Atari four hours a day I honestly never got to play the Atari but I think that was in God's providence because what happened was I was I would sit next to them watching them play the Atari game but next to the next to the TV screen there's a little plaque that my mom had put up there it was about this scene and so since I never play the game I got to look at the plaque a bunch and memorize it and it said this said God did not take Eve from Adams head to lord it over him nor did he take her from his foot to be walked upon by him she took him he took her from his side to walk with him from nearest heart to be loved by him and from beneath his arm to be guarded by him said again God did not take Ephraim Adams head to lord it over him nor from his feet to be walked upon by him but from his side to walk with for near his heart to be loved by him from beneath his arm and to be guarded by him and so then that's what happens right the Lord God then brings her to the man in the man imagine him at this whole kind of time he's like okay here's the dog here's that pony's here's the cats here's everything and then he's breaks into a song right now I say say he sings immediately sees the woman and he says at last my love he says this one at last is born of my bones and flesh of my flesh this one shall be called woman part of her man has this one been taken he breaks into song I just imagine you can hear this man singing this song at last this is the reason it goes on to say this is why a man leaves his father and a mother and clings to his wife and the two of them become one body guys you know what this is like when you meet that woman and you're like oh my gosh I would do anything for you this is the reason why a men build skyscrapers ladies you're the reason why men sing love songs this is why men want to fight dragons is because of you honestly when I was growing up I always a friend to me pretend to be Luke Skywalker or Amy Anna Jones and that run through the woods you know just you know shooting stormtroopers and beat em Nazis not because I had something against stormtroopers and not because I guess I yeah I guess it killed Nazis but but in my mind it wasn't about that I mean in my mind it wasn't about the violence in my mind it was about if I'm Indiana Jones I can rescue Miriam and if I'm Luke Skywalker I can rescue Princess Leia it's like why do you fight for her ladies I don't know if you know this but in the man's heart there's this thing why because God said I'll put you in the garden here - why to do what to cultivate and to guard the garden and there's something deep in every man's heart that wants to be like I I don't I don't know why I want to fight I want to fight for her and then it says the man and his wife were both naked but they felt no shame see what they're saying is there wasn't a crisis there but they're saying is Adam and Eve or alert in oriented times for they know who they knew who they were they knew where they were they knew when they were and they knew how they got there who are you we are made in God's image and likeness where are you we're in the Garden of Eden when are you we are right here right now and how'd you get there cuz dad loves us and he put us in the garden and they're in there and they can look at each other and they're naked and they feel no shame there's not a crisis moment they're alerted Norrington times four but then at the end of chapter two chapter three happens if it didn't it'd be a much shorter book and the beginning of chapter 3 says now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals Lord God had made and what does he do he goes up to the woman he goes up to Eve and he says that the Lord God really tell you not to eat any of the fruit of the trees in the garden she says none of them we can eat of any of the fruit of the trees except for the one tree in the middle of the garden if we eat it or even touch it will die here's what Satan says back the serpent you will certainly not die God knows full well the moment you eat of this fruit you'll become like gods who know good and evil so we've seized fruit is attractive good freedom desirable for gaining wisdom she takes it and eats it now this is something that not everyone realizes it recognizes because when we read our children's books a lot of times we see that snake and we think of like a garter snake right a little small little snake not poisonous just you know slithering around but the Hebrew word for snake in the Bible here is not just the word for snake it's actually the word in the hosh which means sea monster or Leviathan or actually the word dragon who changes the story doesn't it says now the look the dragon then comes into the garden and the dragon goes up to the woman and the dragon begins to say that the Lord God really tell you not to eat any of the fruit of the trees do you know no we can eat of any of the fruit except for that one no no if you eat it you'll become like gods now think about this who is made in God's image likeness Adam and Eve what Satan is saying here is he's saying no you're not any more mating on Jimmy's likeness Satan no no no you're not but if you do eat this fruit you'll be like gods so she takes it she eats it and then the next line is tragic is that one of the most tragic lines in the Bible then she gave some to her husband who was with her this whole time here's Adam he's in the garden for one treat one purpose only right to cultivate and to guard the garden here's his wife he once gets to guard her the very first chance he gets when the serpent when the dragon comes in attacks his wife he's standing right there and what does he do he does nothing and it says this they realized they were naked so they sewed fig leaves together made wine claws for themselves after this moment they are now ashamed after this moment they're tormented by this temptation towards meaninglessness there's temptation towards helplessness this impatient towards anxiety and they feel a kind of shame that you and I are very very familiar with but this isn't the end of the story this is just the beginning of the story because in that moment they went from alert and oriented times four to alert and oriented times zero they forgot absolutely forgot who they were where they were when they were and how they got there cuz all of a sudden God comes on the scene where are you guys not because God doesn't know but he's giving them a chance to come to me that's not asking a question he doesn't know he's giving Adam and Eve a chance to do something they haven't yet done because in this moment they've they've failed to trust God where are you and Adam says I heard you coming and I hid myself because I was naked and I was afraid who told you you're naked most woman you put here with me she gave me some fruit and I hate it he looks at the woman and says why did you do this serpent tricked me see here Adam and Eve go from like this place of just absolute they have confidence in God to this place of I'm now afraid of God they go from this place of like having confidence that God is dad all of a sudden like no no maybe God is a tyrant these are blaming each other but here's the most important part of this story right now God doesn't run away from them in fact he runs after them this moment God doesn't run away from them he begins to run after them because what does he say the very next line he looks at the Serpent and he says because you've done this on your belly you'll crawl all these kind of things but then he says I'll put enmity between you and the woman between your your offspring and hers he will strike at your head while you strike at his heel this is this is a thing called like the pre gospel I'll put enmity duck talks of Satan I'll put enmity your enemy will be the woman now he's not saying evil be your enemy because he's even now under the Dominion of Satan it's so important for all us to understand Eve is now under the Dominion of Satan Adam is now under the Dominion of Satan but God promises there will be a woman who will be the enemy of Satan and her offspring will crush his head there will be a woman who doesn't belong to the enemy she'll say yes and that woman's son will destroy his Dominion will destroy his power and will restore his children from the very first moment when we lost our alert in oriented times for when we forgot who we were we forgot where we were forgotten we didn't even know how we got there God says I'm coming for you I'm running after you I'm not gonna leave you alone you now live under the Dominion of Satan but I will send not just someone I will send myself he will rescue you it's so amazing I'm gonna jump to the end of the book because you know it's big book and we only have so many so much time but in John chapter 3 it says these words that you know and I love for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life here's a broken world or you and I are filled with meaninglessness and hopelessness and anxiety and God says no no I still love you how much okay uh you want to know I love you so much I will send my only Son so that if you believe in him if you belong to him you don't have to die so when Jesus comes on the scene this is so amazing when Jesus comes on the scene he comes into a world that's under the Dominion of Satan he comes into the world that's under the power of the devil and so it's not just about Jesus teaching us some good things and it's not just about Jesus healing some people although he does teach good things and he heals people it's not just about Jesus giving us good stuff it's about Jesus rescuing us that's why in Matthew chapter 16 in every chapter 16 Jesus asks the question whose apostle he says who people say that I am some people say well maybe Elisha Jeremiah one of the prophets and then Simon stands up and he says you're the Messiah you're the Holy One of God and Jesus says to Peter you know blessed Winnett kimsen gives them the name Peter he says blessed are You Simon son of John flesh and blood has not revealed to these you my heavenly father has and so you're now Simon you're now rock Peter and upon this rock I'll build my church and he says very very clearly Simon Peter like you're my dude I'm gonna build a church on you but the very next words Jesus says he says then jesus said to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised as soon as Jesus says I'm gonna establish a church this church is gonna dominate the world this church is gonna save the world he says actually but right first what has to happen is I have to go to Jerusalem I'm gonna suffer I'm gonna die in order to redeem you and that point Peter said steps forward and says god forbid Lord no such thing shall ever happen to you but Jesus turns it says get behind me Satan you are an obstacle to me you're thinking not as God does but as human beings do why does Jesus say these harsh words to Jesus to Peter because Jesus knows this rule doesn't need another teacher Jesus knows this rule does an agent need another just another healer Jesus knows this world needs every Deemer this world needs a savior there's rule eight someone who's willing to do what Adam wasn't willing to do basically Jesus is telling is it's telling Peter I have to do this for you I want to do this for you because you don't need another lesson you need to be set free from that moment on he starts walking to Jerusalem and we know what happens he gets to Jerusalem and when that dragon comes for him here's Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane just like Adam in the Garden of Eden where where Adam was in the Garden of Eden and he sees the dragon coming for him he just gets out of the way but Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane he sees the dragon coming for you and he dives in front of the dragon says not them take me this whole time imagine Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and he's broken his heart is breaking it's being wrung out his body is shaking so vehemently that he begins to sweat drops of blood and he says dad please if it's possible let this cup pass for me but not my will your will be done these people are worth saving this is the reason I'm here they are enslaved and they don't even realize it they're living under a tyrant and they don't even realize it they're in crisis and they forgotten who they are they've forgotten where they are and what they're made for and they forgot how they got here so here comes the dragon and she throws himself in front of it and you know this he allows evil people to beat him to torture him and to nail him to a cross this is the thing this is the central this is the center of our faith you guys this is the center of our faith there's nothing more important than this because this is where you were set free from the tyrant this is there's nothing more important to this because this is where you were brought from alert and oriented times zero to alert and oriented times for one more time first John four in this way the love of God was revealed to us God sent His only Son into the world so that we might be have life through him and this is love not that we have loved God but that he loved us he sent his son as an expiation for us and this is love not that we loved God but that he loved us he sent his son as an expiation for our sins the cross is God revealing his love for us and restoring you to alert in oriented times for because of the cross who are you you're God's child because of the cross where are you you're in his church you're in his family who are you God's child where are you in his family when now and forever how'd you get here through his cross so crazy we try to have a cross list Christianity people try to remove people try to remove the cross from their vision but they can't remove the cross from their lives I know people who actually would do that though they'll go through different rooms of their schools or their of their homes and I'll say we need to take this cross off there off the wall we need to take a crucifix off the wall listen you can remove the crucifix from your wall you'll never be able to remove the cross from your life so the very thing that reminds you of who you are where you are when you are and how you got there is remove from your life all you have is what all you have is meaninglessness and hopelessness anxiety suffering and that's it that's why so many people in our world actually so many people maybe even yourself maybe someone you know we've been raised in a cross cross list Christianity means we were raised and what I call greenhouse Christianity too many of us are raised in what I call greenhouse Christianity greenhouse Christianity is this you know the greenhouse is right you guys happened down here we have men we have them in Minnesota we have to have them because the environment is so hostile up in Minnesota if you're gonna try to grow something you have to bring it into a greenhouse where it's protected where it's been where it's where it's kept safe from everything that can harm it and this is how most of us come to know Jesus in a greenhouse so many of us in the West especially in the United States we come to know Jesus in like comfort we come to know Jesus when people say hey God loves you and that's it people say hey God loves you and that's all as opposed to God loves you and he actually embraced a cross for you that means you're gonna have to embrace a cross in response and we don't have the cross in the center of our lives and what happens when the first challenge comes along when we're taken out of the greenhouse all of a sudden we're like wait what's going on here we go from Larssen oriented times for to alert you 92 times zero and we're in crisis and we have no idea what to do with it but that doesn't have to happen like you don't have to your so many people I know you're adults who are with you they're they're afraid that you're gonna have a green house faith they're afraid to even have a fragile faith when something is fragile it encounters an obstacle and the obstacle breaks it when your faith is fragile your faith encounters an obstacle and it breaks it at the first trial that the first difficulty at the first test the trial the difficulty the test breaks it it's a fragile faith so maybe you want to have a resilient faith you know as opposed to fragile maybe a resilient really resilience good resilient means you hit the obstacle and you make it through resilient means you go through suffering and you make it through no better no worse but you're not called to that either you're not merely called to have you're not called to avoid a fragile faith you're not called to have a resilient faith we're called to have something even more faith that's rooted in the cross that's called an anti fragile faith when anti fragile faith is great what's fragile faith hits the obstacle brakes resilient faith yes the obstacle makes it through no better no worse an anti fragile faith is a faith that wood hits an obstacle it gets stronger in anti fragile faith is that when you come look you come up against suffer you come up against the cross you come up against death you come up against the things that could possibly crush you and it doesn't crush you what does it do it increases your faith it increases your hope and it increases your love that's called anti fragile faith that's the kind of faith that's rooted in the cross of Jesus Christ that's the kind of faith that God wants you to have then you get to say Lord today I want to look forward to picking up my cross and following after you why because if I do that I have an anti fragile faith Jesus Christ was in him most anti even the most anti fragile God you've ever met why he gets killed and comes back resurrected he dies in shame and comes back in glory he empties himself in a week and he comes back and weakness he comes back in power Jesus dies an absolute abandonment and he comes back and he brings a family to himself you know and if Jesus is the most incredible sign of an anti-pressure God you know the most incredible anti fragile institution the world has ever seen it's called the Catholic Church it's true the most anti fragile institution the world has ever seen is the Catholic Church the Catholic Church is fragile when it's comfortable the church is fragile when it's comfortable but when the church is facing opposition when the church is facing difficulty when the church is facing persecution all of a sudden what does it do it doesn't doesn't get broken it doesn't just make it through it grows it thrives it becomes unstoppable just like its founder just like it's a stainer just like it's God and this is the last thing not only is Jesus with the cross at the center of his life the most anti fragile God you could ever imagine and not only is the Catholic Church the most anti fragile institution you could ever imagine but my brothers and sisters you are meant to be anti fragile Christians that when you encounter obstacles it doesn't crush you you don't just make it through but actually makes your faith your hope and your love stronger you know I'm metal I met a girl like this is the last thing I'm gonna tell you about her her name is Mallory December 21st 2016 so a year and a half ago Mallory was 15 and the summer 21st 2016 Mallory went down to Duluth that's where I live to the hospital there because she's been having headaches had to having some problems and she went to the doctor and the doctor found what was wrong with her that Mallory had cancer but mouths really interesting girl mal would keep a prayer journal every day starting when she was about 14 she continued it 15 into 16 and every day in her journal she write down she didn't just want to just want to say like God I'm yours when it's sunny skies God it's yours I'm yours when there's a green house she wanted to say got him years when there's roses in my life and I got them yours when there's thorns in my life that's what she would do she write down in her prayer journals right every day she raked down a rose in a thorn saying no I can't be a Christian if I just expect roses cuz he's the god of the cross and God proves his love for me and then while I was still a sinner he died for me on a cross so he's gonna be roses and there's gonna be thorns is that an example I just have some pictures of her prayer journal keep him on my phone that's not weird August 26 this is a couple months before she was diagnosed with cancer she had read Matthew 25 that day it's a parable of the virgins she wrote down then the door was locked that was verse 10 that's the verse she picked to pray about she wrote down nothing really stuck out so I just picked this because it kind of it's like well you only have one chance to make your life worthy of going to heaven after you die and the doors to heaven will be locked or they'll be close to you so make your life worthy of heaven smiley face now loved hockey and she loved Lord of the Rings one day one day Bishop survi he's our Bishop you know he came down and visited her and that night in her prayer journal the the rose that day was not the bishop sir but joined her it was that the hockey team from the University minnesota-duluth stopped by that was a rose for the day but she loved this quote from Lord of the Rings from Gandalf again at one point Gandalf says all we have to do is decide what to do with the time we've been given on November 7 last year right before Thanksgiving about I know 10 months after mal was diagnosed with cancer we had a youth minister meeting and at 10 o'clock in the morning and one of the youth ministers said hey father Mike we need to pray for Mel we need to pray either that God heals her or that he's glorified through her death okay let's do it it's the meeting before it starts like you guys we all know mal we all love Mount she's in the hospital right now so we're all in this room we knew that the hospital's like in that general direction so we're just like let's raise our hands start praying that got either heals mal or that he is glorified through her death none of us realize this but at that exact moment our friend mal was being confirmed by bishop in ER in her hospital room that noon time about 12:30 to 1:00 o'clock we said Mass and really you guys were saying this master Mel and at the exact moment that our crucified Lord was made present in the Eucharist across town sixteen-year-old Mallory stepped from this life into eternal life but she died with anti fragile faith because she lived the cross at the center of her life she didn't say why me she didn't say this isn't fair she said Jesus if you're gonna suffer for me I'm gonna suffer for you you're gonna chase after me I'm running after you yeah life has roses thank you Jesus and life has thorns thank you for letting me experience them with you Jesus you know the day she was diagnosed December 21st 2016 that night wrote in her prayer journal Rose going to adoration tonight and being able to hand my load to God thorn spending all afternoon / evening in the ER and finding the tumor but then she put in parentheses but that's also kind of my rose smiley face you can do that you can have that kind of faith when you have the cross at the center of your life when you know that there is no ashame Jesus hasn't taken on himself when you know that there's no weakness in you that he hasn't embraced when you know that there's no sin that he hasn't forgiven we know that no live has come against you hasn't been torn down on the walls that surround you haven't come down when you know that when you know that the God on the cross is running after you when you know that he'll do everything you possibly can to lift you up there's no place you won't climb too because he's coming after you then you get to have a faith that his anti fragile a faith that is not in the greenhouse but a faith that can live in any environment but only if the cross is at the center of your life there is no shadow he won't light up there is no mountain he won't climb up to Kate after you there's no wall you won't tear down so lie you won't tear down he's coming after you if you have this cross at the center of your life then you know there is a God we'll stop at nothing to get to you amen you know there's a God who is willing to embrace your shame to get to you there is nothing nothing this world can do to you amen [Music] give the cross of the center of your life there is nothing to be ashamed of nothing to be afraid of and everything to live for amen

Channel: Steubenville Youth Conferences

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Keywords: Catholic, Charismatic, Youth Conference, Youth, Conference, Evangelization, Steubenville Conferences, Steubenville

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Length: 42min 15sec (2535 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 17 2018