Parish Lenten Mission with Bart Schuchts - Night #1

[Music] bless the lord o my soul o my soul his holy name [Music] sing like never before oh my soul i [Music] the sun comes up it's a new it's time to sing your song again [Music] bless the lord o my worship this holy name oh [Music] for is your goodness i will keep on singing ten thousand reasons for my heart worship his holy name your holy name bless the lord o my soul o my soul worship his whole name sing like never before oh my soul [Music] our worship your holy [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so so so [Music] so um so [Music] good evening everyone thank you so much for being here it's uh like i said and like i preached today and last night it's it's important it's important that we're here together and um helping each other growing in faith helping each other as being faithful guides for one another right those who when we come together and share our faith it helps inspire our faith and everybody's faith grows together so again it's important we're here tonight and i thank you for taking time to be here and there's still more arriving which is really exciting to see that there's still more on their way so let's let's begin with a prayer name of the father to the son holy spirit amen heavenly father we thank you for raining down upon us your holy spirit all the time but especially now in these days these these precious days as we're preparing for the holy season of lent rain down upon us more of your holy spirit rain down your holy spirit onto this church into our hearts we pray that these three days will be a time of stretching and widening our hearts helping us to have more room for you we pray that your protection will surround all of us it will protect us from all evil from all sin from all lies and deceptions of the enemy we pray that you clear all those things out root all those things out of our minds of our hearts of our homes of our church of our community of our world there's no room in our hearts for anything but you so lord come and dwell in our hearts help us to have vision help us to see things the way you see things help us to see ourselves the way you see us how much you love each one of us help us to feel and see that love for ourselves help us to feel and see that love for others for every single one every single human being every single person in our world help us to experience and share that love and let these three days be a time of being immersed fully in your love your mercy and then being sent forth into our world to be your true disciples true disciples who have eyes of faith let's pray together in the words our savior taught us our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil amen so we tonight we are welcoming uh bart shoots he's come come to be with us from all the way from tallahassee florida florida part of church on fire and also from the john paul second healing center he's our our missionary to come preach to us and we also welcome mark mckellar who is our missionary to lead us in worship and song and praise so before we uh welcome bart we're going to begin by please all standing and you're welcome to join in uh praise and worship in these songs that mark is going to lead us in to get us started tonight mark hey guys my name is mark um i'm here to get you guys in some worship um it's song number three sorry that's my bad um it's song number three on the list um but we're gonna be starting worship with a song that i is really dear to my heart it's called build my life and it's a song it's it's down below past um 10 000 reasons yeah it's a bit further down sorry that's that's totally my bad but it is totally good [Music] so this first song is called build my life and it's a song just with us singing about how firm of a foundation that god really is and he really is guys i know sometimes it feels like he's not [Music] but he is it's true it's his nature sometimes things don't feel the way truth actually is right and that's just our brokenness we live in a broken world but god is good right amen he's good and he's a firm foundation and so wherever you are tonight let's just sing out that truth maybe you're in a place where it doesn't really feel like he's a firm foundation but we can still sing out that truth right because he's a firm foundation he is good and we want to build our lives on him because he's he's steadfast he's steady right so please sing this with me if you don't know it the chorus is really easy to catch on to [Music] worthy of every song we could ever sing worthy of all the praise we could ever bring worthy of every breath we could ever [Music] sing breathe jesus [Music] jesus [Music] worthy of every breath we could ever breathe [Music] there is no one like you there is none beside you open up my eyes in wonder and show me who you are [Music] worthy of every song we could ever sing you're worthy of all the praise we could ever bring you're worthy of every breath we could ever breathe we live for you jesus the name above every other name jesus the only one you could ever say you're worthy of every breath we could ever breathe [Music] there is no one like you there is none beside you open up my eyes in wonder and show [Music] around [Music] and i will build my life upon your love it is a firm foundation and i will put my trust in you alone and i will not be shaken i will build my life upon your love it is a firm foundation i will put my trust in you alone and i will not be shaken holy there is no one like you there is none beside you open up my eyes in wonder and show me who you are and fill me with your heart and lead me in your love to those sing holy holy there is no one like you there is none beside you open up my eyes in wonder and show me who you are and fill me with your heart and leave me in your love to those around me [Music] i've heard a thousand stories of what they think you're like but i prefer the tender whisper of love in the dead of night and you tell me that you're pleased and that i'm never alone you're a good good father it's who you are it's who you are it's who you are and i'm loved by you it's who i am it's who i am it's who i am [Music] oh and i've seen many searching for answers far and wide but i know we're all searching for answers only you provide cause you know just what [Music] you're a good good father it's who you are it's who you are it's who you are and i'm loved by you it's who i am it's who i am it's who i am you are perfect in all of your ways you are perfect in all of your ways you are perfect in all of your ways to use you are perfect in all of your ways you are perfect in all of your ways you are perfect in all of your ways to using your perfect you are perfect in all of your ways you are perfect in all of your ways you are perfect in all of your ways [Music] love so undeniable i i can hardly speak peace o unexplainable lie i can hardly think as you call me deeper still as you calm me deeper still as you call me deeper still into love love you're a good good father it's who you are it's who you are it's who you are and i'm loved by you it's who i am it's who i am it's who i am you're a good good father it's who you are it's who you are it's who you are and i'm loved by you it's who i am it's who i am [Music] as mark plays oops better turn that on as mark continues to pray can you can you hear me okay in the back as mark continues to play in the background i want to just encourage us one i know you guys have been restricted and being able to sing and there's a chance i heard father chad he said you can sing so i want to go right back into that course one more time and i want us to belt it out to whatever degree you're comfortable and then go just a little bit more and let's just tell god how good he is let me ask how many fathers are in the room raise your hand how many of you would love for your kids to come to you and say dad you're just a good dad all right so let's tell our heavenly father how good he is mark you got us one more good chorus father it's who you are it's who you are it's who you are and i'm loved by you it's who i am it's who i am it's who i am you're a good good father it's who you [Music] you are and i'm loved by you it's who i am it's who i am [Music] father i just publicly declare that you are indeed a good father i will never forget [Music] how you encountered me 33 years ago i thank you for your amazing goodness your amazing love you are indeed a good good father we ask you to just continue to reveal your heart to us father ask for you to be so present with us lord jesus thank you for your love for your life for your death for conquering sin evil and death and raising from the grave thank you for bringing us into your abundant life thank you for not leaving us orphans but sending us your spirit holy spirit come and be with us we love you lord we invite you and expect you mary where would we be without your yes thank you for your fiat lord may we have the same grace to give our fiat be an untouched lord according to your will your word your ways thank you for the great cloud of witnesses that are surrounding us even right now the saints have gone before us we ask for your intercession and though we ask you to send your angels your warring angels michael the archangel other warring angels to defend us send your ministering angels to be present with us come holy spirit bless this time in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit amen before you're seated i want to do one more thing father chad everyone look back there father chad put your hand up there father chad father chad green speaking of good fathers can we just give him a hand do me a favor and just introduce yourself to some people around you if you already know him just act like you don't just say hey my name is me and you nathan how are you sir how are you i'm bart how are you hello i'm bart greetings thank you sir greetings to you and bart how you doing all righty actually while i have you standing let's do this um actually go ahead and sit down i'm gonna i'm gonna do a quick introduction then i might stand you back up we'll see be like a mini mask we'll just let's give mark again too thanks mark it's fun to sing and it's legal that's pretty cool so i'm bart i'm from tallahassee i want to tell you real quickly about me and then we'll move along so i'm mary been married for 27 years to brooke yes she is a saint i can be a nice guy at events but she has to live with me and uh together we have four children uh hannah is 24. she lives not that far at least compared to florida she lives in san francisco and uh yeah it's kind of far away from us but i get to see her i do two events a year there and she flies home about three four times so we get serious good bit and then we have gabrielle she's a junior at florida state right in our backyard and then kaylee is a freshman at florida state and then joshua is a sophomore in high school and i've worked my schedule i travel a good bit around the church but i've worked my schedule schedule around my son's sporting events and he plays three sports so it gets challenging so someday sometimes i do week events sometimes i do weekend events but as best i can i try to schedule around i love my kids and i also love being here and they send me off with a blessing and uh my wife and a whole group of people right now are praying for us i just got some text wrongs in the back and so we're covered we're good and then you guys met mark marco and stand up mark is married for two years is it already not quite and they're already expecting their second yeah so be blessed and multiply mark continue all right so you'll hear more from him um let's see let's get to know you real quick okay if there's too many of us so we won't be able to go around the room so i'm gonna ask all at once we're gonna do some ordered chaos you ready for this at the count of three i'm gonna ask for your name you're gonna say first and last name as loud as you can you ready all right ready first and last name shout it out one two three oh yeah nice to meet you perfect perfect perfect all right i uh have a ministry called church on fire you can go to the website it's churchonfire.live they ran out of dot com and they ran out of dot org and i didn't know there was a dot live but there is that's l-i-v-e and i kind of like it church on fire live so it's church on fire one word dot live and if i think about it i might pass out these cards so someone remember to remind me and we'll see if i do it alright let's go ahead and jump right in if you heard in mass i quoted saint catherine of siena i'm going to do that again she said become who you are meant to be she didn't say become father chad she didn't say become a pope she didn't say you have to be this that or the other thing she said be you become who you are meant to be and you'll set the earth on fire do you know that jesus desire is to set the earth on fire how do i know that well the catechism refers to it in paragraph 696 but they're referring to a scripture which is luke 12 49 and jesus says these words i came to so here's a hint when jesus says i came to do something we should pay a lot of attention he came to do the will of his father he came to reveal the father he came to set the captives free and in luke 12 49 he tells us another reason he came he said i came to cast fire on the earth and how i wish it was already blazing well i submit to you if he said that 2000 years ago he really feels it now and he wants to set his church on fire paragraph 696 of the catechism says fire is the transforming energy of the holy spirit's actions that the fire of the holy spirit transforms what he touches i'm believing literally for the holy spirit to touch you and for you some of you to literally feel heat as he touches you at some point in these next three days that's my hope that's my belief i've been in events where i received feedback later that people literally felt like they were on fire now not burning and sinji it wasn't bad it was good it was a good thing the warmth the warmth of the presence of the holy reverend presence of god himself so i'm believing for that and i'm believing god has a real plan for this area for sammamish for married queen of peace and for each one of you and we're gonna explore dreams we're gonna explore desires i'm gonna share my testimony a little bit but i'm gonna share it a little different than i normally do and i'm gonna share it from the standpoint of desire my struggles with desires and some fulfillment of desires but jesus came to cast fire upon the earth and saint catherine of siena says how it can happen by you being who you are meant to be you'll set the earth on fire and fire is the transforming energy of the holy spirit's actions so here's my question are you ready to become who you are that's kind of easy isn't it just be you all right so every event i've learned the hard way before every event i share these couple catechism quotes in a saint quote so if you've been to any of my bench you've probably heard this it never gets old for me so hopefully it hasn't gotten old for you and if it's your first time it shouldn't be old for you paragraph 2670 and 2671 of the catechism of the catholic church says this 2670 the church invites us i like the words it doesn't say it's obligatory it's an invitation the church invites us to call upon the holy spirit once a year on pentecost sunday it's actually not what it says it says the church invites us to call upon the holy spirit every day before and after every important action getting out of bed is an important action the older we get the more important that becomes going to bed is an important action eating is an important action everything we do is an important action how many of you find breathing to be an important action raise your hand for me please let's get 100 there we go all right so in other words the church is saying all day every day without exception call upon the holy spirit when we're talking about the holy spirit we're talking about the holy reverent presence of god himself the church says call upon him every day 26 71 gives us a little more instruction it says the simplest and most direct prayer is come holy spirit come holy spirit fill the hearts of the faithful and kindle within them the fire there's our word fire again the fire of your love now saint bonaventure says this the holy spirit comes where he is loved the holy spirit comes where he is invited the holy spirit comes where he is expected when i said there a minute ago that i've learned this the hard way is i've done events thinking that my words or something that i do or say is going to really make an impact in someone's life and i would leave feeling sad and i'm like why did i feel sad i thought that was pretty all right and i realized i was grieving the holy spirit because i never invited him and i realized how many meetings we have where we don't even invite him i was sitting with a group of priests with a bishop and a group of priests and this came out of my mouth the holy spirit wants his church back i was like why did i say that a week later in this very orthodox diocese a scandal broke out and they've had seven cents the holy spirit wants his church back paul tells us in first corinthians 6 18 do you not know that your body is the temple of the holy spirit he lives in you he wants his church back so here's what we're going to do together i can do this on my own but when we do this together it has a whole different impact if you want to join me in this prayer i want to invite you to stand up let's start with saint bonaventure's word stay with me holy spirit i love you holy spirit i invite you holy spirit i expect you place your hand upon your heart stay with me come holy spirit fill the heart of your faithful and kindle within me the fire of your love let's say it three times together save me come holy spirit again come holy spirit third time come holy spirit now ask the people next year and please ask we know how everything's been with cove everything honor everybody honor every individual but ask the people next to you if you can place your hand upon their shoulder if they say no just slap them no i'm kidding don't do that really honor everybody every individual and if you're by yourself and you're wanting some people to join you just go over towards them if not you keep your space let's pray this for one another stay with me come holy spirit fill the heart of your faithful ones and in kindle within them the fire of your love let's intercede for the whole room stay with me come holy spirit fill the hearts of your faithful and then kindle within us the fire of your love let's intercede on behalf of the entire church come holy spirit fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle within your church the fire of your love one more time holy spirit i love you holy spirit i invite you the holy spirit i expect you now let's pray for the people around you say lord bless this friend of mine [Music] and if they're not my friend bless them anyway all right you can be seated we're to bless our enemies too not suggesting anyone was an enemy all right we're living in a special time a difficult time it's been a challenging season yes yes you know people it's funny i did an event up in seattle when covid was like you know a year in not even a year and six months in and it was northern uh north of seattle not here but um and when i got there and even before i got there i was warned uh by the priest and then several other people i said listen they said listen uh it's really strict here with covet you know we have to wear masks and we have to keep six feet apart and i'm like yeah yeah yeah and and like we don't i said no no you're from florida we know in florida everything's relaxed you guys don't have anything i'm like really and you believe the news we've had the same restrictions now you guys are going a little longer than we are i must admit but i heard i heard march 21st is this true all right we're believing believing for you um so it's been an odd season it's been challenging we've had coveted we've had all kind of social craziness going on over the last several years before that as the church we got hit with all these scandals and he's like what's going on so i decided to ask the father because he says ask and you shall receive and i'll give it a shot let's see if i can get some insight father what's going on and i won't go into all the details of what i was sensing but this is what i was sensing is that we're living in the midst of a major move of god and before every major move of god sin and evil are exposed in the people like the book of judges get to a place where we finally cry out to god for mercy the scripture says if my people it's us we can look at the world and say get your act together but it's up to us because god says if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and cry out to me i will hear their prayers and i will heal their land i believe he's getting us to the place as his people to where we're calling out to him i mean why else would you be here on a sunday night by the way give yourselves a hand this is a good audience for a sunday night mission you guys must have really liked mark's song earlier at mass but we're hungrier than we've been before everywhere i go i'm seeing a great hunger i'm seeing a major harvest field within the catholic church where five years ago frankly i wasn't seeing and i believe god's been refining us he's been pruning us he's been doing the work within us but he's preparing us to do a work through us and i really believe god has something in mind here i believe he's been doing pruning here and he's been doing pruning here and he's preparing you and he's actually preparing the whole church for a major move of his spirit and as i travel the country i see it and i believe we'll see it here how he wants to express himself i don't pretend to know but when we invite him and we actually truly want him to show up he does and i'm believing he's going to come and i'm believing he's going to stir dreams he's going to serve desires i'm going to do something tomorrow that i've only done two other times one was a seminary event and one was a priest event so the way i met father chad greene was our first seminary event and here's here with a friend who says greg greg raise your hand and so first seminary event 50 years ago right craig or maybe seven yeah and uh so we do about six seven priest events a year in a summer-long seminary event and several years ago we would have a hard time filling it up and we keep it small because everyone gets a one-on-one prayer time we're having a hard time we as in jpg healing center having a hard time convincing people that they needed healing now as soon as our priest event goes online it's full now when we do our healing no person events they're filling up 700 800 people the church is hungry and god moves where there's hunger he's drawn by our hunger you know in the natural the more we eat by the way we had a really good lunch today at the lebanese restaurant i didn't need dinner i was full i couldn't eat anymore in the natural the more you eat the more full you become but in the spiritual the more you eat the hungrier you become we're hungry why else would you come on a sunday night we're hungry and i believe god has made us hungry and if this is making hungry for food i do think there's going to be snacks afterwards okay so sorry to tease you but i believe we're living in a major move of god and i'm seeing the fruits of it but we're just in the beginnings he's still doing the work in us but i believe he wants to bring about fulfillment of his own desires of everything that jesus purchased through his death and resurrection two thousand years ago and part of that is i believe he wants to set the earth on fire he wants to set his church on fire and he wants to set me and you on fire with the transforming energy of the holy spirit's actions let me share a couple notes that i was jotting down i believe that the church of yesterday is no more if we try to go back to the way it was we're gonna be frustrated in the church of tomorrow isn't yet here we're sitting somewhere in between the unknown an analogy that i'd like to share that maybe would give you a picture is metamorphosis i don't pretend to know a lot about that process but i know a little bit we know that the caterpillar goes into the cocoon crawling and we know that if you open that cocoon prematurely it probably won't live and it certainly won't develop its wings enough to fly it goes through a metamorphosis it changes from what it was and it's in a process while it's in the cocoon of what it's going to become and then at its right time the cocoon develops these wings i mean the caterpillar develops these wings and when the wings get strong enough it breaks open from the cocoon and that gives the wings the strength to then fly so we might have gone into the season crawling and we may still be in a bit of a cocoon but allow the lord to strengthen your wings because we're about to soar we're coming into something really exciting in the world is in desperate need of the church becoming the church things are changing here's my question as we start these three days together are you ready for the adventure i want to show you a movie trailer from a few years back anyone see the movie croods croods it's a cave family the caveman dad and her daughter i'll set it up i'm going to show you this i'm going to show you the trailer don't worry i'm not i'm not telling you the movie's coming okay i'm just showing i like some pieces of this it already came but i want to point out a couple things the daughter keeps going and looking out for the sun they live in this cave in between these rock formations and the dad has them in hiding but the daughter keeps sneaking out and keep wanting to look up at the sun she'd just put her hand up and just try to see the sun but the dad and i get this as a dad having four children especially three oldest or daughters the dad has some fears and so he keeps his family hidden in the cave and he has these rules new is always bad never not be afraid new is always bad never not be afraid so i want you as you watch this i want you to think of the words i just shared with you about what's going on in the church the church as we've known it i believe is no more but god's preparing us for a great adventure and so just put yourself in this family here be one of the cave family and enjoy the process my name's eep and this is my family the croods wow oh you've been in that cave forever three days is not forever it is with this family mom mom still alive it's still early we never had the chance to explore the outside world because of my dad's one rule new is always bad never not be afraid but what we didn't know was that our world was about to change [Music] you really need to see this we should go there [Music] [Applause] i'll take care [Music] this is belt we need to leave immediately the world is ending what everything we're standing on right here will be gone i'm calling it the end okay guy now what i can help you come with me it's too far i'll never live long enough to get there let's do it [Music] just think our whole family packed together on a long trip across country we gotta move faster i call them shoes so beautiful dreamworks the crews try hiding it in the tall dry grass there's some tall dry grass right now in the church god's getting ready to sit us on fire it's not going to look like that it's going to be much sweeter but i want to point out a couple things here right dad's rules new is always bad never not be afraid let me tell you our heavenly father that's not his rules it's not his rules at all he says perfect love drives out fear jesus said i came to bring you life abundant life life to the fullest and frankly church we're not demonstrating that to the degree that he wants us to i believe the catholic church should be the most joyful place on the planet anyone ever see the old movie sister act i think that's what the church should look like maybe not with whoopi but you know alive joyful you know we're coming into lent and that's a time of dying but let's not forget we're going into a dying for a purpose yes enter into christ's suffering to enter into his death but let's not forget he didn't stop there he rose from the grave and he said in john 10 10 the thief comes to steal kill and destroy but i jesus said have come to bring you life abundant life life to the fullest you know how many times joy is written in the scriptures a bunch we should be the most joyful people that doesn't mean we don't have hardships that doesn't mean we don't have sufferings we do but that's not the end game jesus suffered oh he suffered it wasn't that pretty and he wasn't dressed that much his face probably looked like hamburger he was beaten so severely drenched in blood humiliated in front of all the people up on the hill stripped naked and he did that for you for me i heard someone tell me if you're the only person alive jesus would have done that for you but he didn't stay there he went down into hell and snatched the keys conquering sin evil and death and then rose from the grave he appeared to his followers and it says he breathed on them strange he died they were up in the upper room afraid this is in john 20. they're up there trembling because they killed the king they're next and while they're there hiding a ghost shows up jesus doesn't say he walked in the door i don't know about you but if i'm afraid and a ghost shows up that doesn't help my fear and then he comes to them as it says in john 20 peace be with you now i think a lot like peter so i'm thinking peter and the other guys are probably looking a little bit like this when he shows up and he says peace be with you then he shows them his wounds they're like oh it's jesus and then he says it again now they're full of peace peace be with you and it says there in john 20 and then he breathed on them strange strange of all the things he could have done when he resurrected and showed up peace with you what's that about well it's very significant that word breathe there is the word ruha anyone know where else in scripture we have that word come on teacher genesis genesis when god created adam from the dust he formed him and then i said and he breathed into his nostrils and adam became a living being that word breathe same word and then we know what happens adam and eve rebel the serpent says if you eat you're not really going to die the enemy always tells us partial truths and then distorts it so when they ate of it did they fall over and die no but did they die oh yes man lost their breath that were ruha is breath it's spirit it's spirit and man's been walking around like zombies ever since and jesus who the scripture refers to as the second adam dies resurrects pays the price for you and my sin appears grabs the keys resurrects makes a way for me and you to go to the father and his first thing he does it says peace be with you breathes on them and says receive the holy spirit the breath of life so now we can be living beings full of the life of god the ruja breath of god breathed into our very being we're called to be alive fully alive so this movie dad's rule is new is good because i'm good and what i have for you is good you notice there they were hidden between the boulder rocks in the cave fearful and the world as they knew changed the rocks around them crumbled and heaped the one who was trying to find the sun s-o-n so you got to see this and there is this beautiful adventure i don't know what you're thinking in this season of time with what's going on if you watch depending on which which news channel you watch maybe even all of them seems like the world's coming apart the sky is falling let's hide under a rock listen i had to turn it off if you're watching a lot of news and you're feeling depressed turn it off let's get our news from the real source the good news the sky's not falling we're in the brink of a major adventure get ready for this adventure if you will stand up i've had you sitting for a while if you don't mind stand up again ask the people next if you can pray for them but as you're getting ready to pray for them just look at them and said are you ready for an adventure it's good now i want you just to pray for the people next to you person people however just place your hand on the shoulder if they're okay with it and pray for them and say say this to me lord jesus thank you for them thank you for your abundant life i ask you to breathe upon them your rooha breath of life bless them in the name of the father and the son in the holy spirit amen give them a high five and have a seat you know it's funny as catholics we can't even say name father son holy spirit without this i mean it's just like i do it too praise god we're well trained all right i want to share with you my testimony and if you've heard my testimony before you're going to you're going to get some of this but i'm going to share it a little differently and i'm not even sure how it's going to come out so holy spirit i need you take my life and what you've done in my life and bring it out the way you want for what it is you're trying to say for the people here i want to frame this with the theme of these next three days which i'm going to call dreaming and desire and i want to share with you my journey through my testimony of desire i'll start with a memory that popped up about 10 years ago i was sitting in the living room of our home we lived in pittsburgh pennsylvania sitting in the living room of our home first holding my mom's hand i was five and then i'm standing by myself and i'm looking at the door and i'm looking at my father's back and i watch my father in this memory walk out that door never to return and that is when my father left and it happened to be around christmas time i never knew why growing up everyone else loved christmas and i didn't it just brought up so many suppressed emotions because around christmas season when i was five my father walked out the door and never returned and i realized that day a belief was embedded in my heart i will never have what i desire because as a five-year-old boy i desired my daddy and desire walked out the door that day and he never returned now later we had relationship and i don't know if i'll get into some of that but god did a lot of work and a lot of redemption and beautiful work but as it relates to desire desire in the form of my dad walked out the door when i was five years old and in this memory i went off to a little hallway and i was in the hallway feeling sad and and just confused and then i noticed i was surrounded with friends and these friends each had a name despair disillusionment fear abandonment rejection anger hatred and i've realized majority of my life these became my companions and i want to focus mostly on despair discouragement and disillusionment when i was six we moved to miami in life as i remember it was a life of survival chaos my mom raised six of the seven kids by herself my brothers and sisters got in various troubles i was often home alone as a little boy my mom was working siblings at school i would have these nightmares of someone breaking into our home and taking me or my mom or my siblings and almost every time in these reoccurring nightmares my dad would show up like the superhero and rescue us only i'd wake up with the reality that i don't have a dad i would go into my mom's room as a little boy and i would watch her cry herself to sleep and i knew it was because my father broke her heart her only dream was to be a mother and a housewife a wife my father had an affair and broke her heart so as i'd watched my mom cry herself to sleep i grew this deep hatred for my father and i made a vow i will never be like my father i will never hurt a woman the way my father hurt my mother growing up i'd go over to my friend's house i'd watch them play catch with their dad it was a foreign concept to me i would go home and i'd throw a ball against the wall and i would dream dream dream one day i'm going to be somebody someday i'll be happy someday i'll you live for someday when you're miserable i lived on dreams someday i'm gonna be somebody someday i'll be happy so my dream from a young age eight years old was to be a professional athlete went through high school playing baseball basketball football lots of up and down and if i had three hours i'll tell you all the story but i don't have three hours i only have two and a half just kidding so i started getting recruited mostly in football to make a long story short i ended up playing football at florida state anyone ever heard of the florida state seminoles they used to have a football team and we used to win 1987 was my senior year we finished number two in the nation i was a starter on that team coach bobby baldwin and my dreams were on track if i have a couple big games particularly against miami or florida which back then the winner of that game won the national championship which was true that year we finished number two in the nation miami finished number one and we both beat up on florida which is always enjoyable so anyway if i have a couple big games particularly against florida or miami and i get a couple sacks as a defensive end i'm on track for my dream well second game i get injured don't worry ladies i'm not going to talk a lot about football second game i get injured i miss four games in the midst of that four games i'm confronted with my life without going into a whole lot of detail let me just say this my freshman year i met a solid catholic girl named mary from a family of 12 kids i knew she was going to be my wife because my grandfather said mary you're a good catholic girl i hit a home run i knew i was going to marry this girl she apparently had other plans she cheated on me and then didn't come back to school i couldn't eat seemed like for weeks it's football season i'm not functioning very well i'm an emotional wreck i didn't know i had a deep abandonment wound when my father walked out when i was five what i did know is the message kept getting reinforced i will never have what i desire now my football journey was a roller coaster again the message i'll never have what i desire after this girl mary cheats on me a few months later i meet another girl she says i've never loved somebody and hated somebody so much in my life not sure what to say about that a few months later i meet another girl it ends in a similar way then i meet another girl it ends in a similar way i came to a conclusion love does not exist i'm just going to live for pleasure it's reinforced all around me this is what a man does so there's an old song some of you folks will remember my age and older maybe a little younger you might remember or maybe some of you younger ones might have seen it in a movie who knows but there was an old song they wrote it for me looking for love anyone know the rest what's the next line looking for love in all the wrong places looking for love and too many faces that was my college journey so now here it is my senior year i'm back on track for my dream playing what became the number two team in the nation i'm starting i get injured i meet a girl who gave me a major wake-up call after hanging out with her for about 45 minutes she looks me in the eyes and she says i hate you like what you just met me i really was a nice guy i i thought i was just doing what every other guy did so i thought but this was a wake-up call she says i hate you then she says not only do i hate you my whole sorority hates you you're sure he knows me then she hits me with this yes because of this friend of mine this friend of mine this friend of mine because of you they tried to take their own life i didn't know what to do but you know what i remembered my vow i will never be like my father i will never hurt a woman the way my father hurt my mother i hated my father i judged my father see scriptures say as you judge you'll be judged well here it was my senior year college and i realized i'm just like my father maybe worse i hated him i hated me but all during my five years of college on the outside it looked great playing for florida state playing in front of large crowds hanging out with my buddies some guys became well-known name guys i'm living the life so i thought and people say man you got it made but yeah what no one knew is when i was alone in my room and the lights were out i would entertain ways to take my own life i was so depressed so disillusioned so discouraged and the message kept getting reinforced over and over and over again you will never have what you desire and it was so real and so true i didn't know it was rooted in the day my father walked out the door i just knew it kept playing out over and over and over again so by the time my senior year rules around and i've been injured now for three weeks i'm already facing a lot of these realities and it just hit me between the eyes if i ever meet this girl i'm going to give her a hug if she'll let me and i'm going to thank her because she began a major change in my life it was a wake-up call and i was like i need to change i don't know how to change but i need to change i don't know that i can make it much longer i'm so disillusioned and discouraged and depressed full of despair knowing that i'll never really have what i desire and then to make it matters worse i'd have people tell me i don't know if you guys have people tell you this or you tell people this but i'd have people tell me this when i was in high school and then even more in college these are the best years of your life well dang then i don't want to go on because i'm miserable so it's like i got to change but i don't know how to change now a few weeks later a few months later i'm invited as a free agent on the nfl football team the tampa bay buccaneers now people know they are now because they have tom brady and they win but back then they didn't and a free agent just means you didn't get drafted but they invited you to camp after the draft and you have an outside chance they give you a little bit of money and you have an outside chance that's what i wanted was a chance so here i am in tampa bay practicing twice a day i just get moved up in the depth chart things are looking good finally i'm at the doorstep of my dream see i can have what i desire it's in between practices i'm in the locker room i have to tell this as i travel all around the country so here you go if you haven't heard it yet here it is i was on the toilet this is where my life begins to change on the toilet in the locker room of the tampa buccaneers and i'm sitting there looking over my life going man look what i've overcome man i got a chance at my dream i've dreamed of this since i was eight years old i got a chance and they're telling me they like me i got a chance and it hits me like who am i kidding i'm miserable i'm miserable this was my someday aisle someday when i get to the nfl i'll be happy well i'm here and i'm miserable this is what i thought every man wanted and it's not enough for me you see from the time i was a little guy particularly when i got into high school and then college my dream expanded a little bit i wanted to be a household name i wanted to be famous i wanted to be a multi-millionaire i wanted to live in a mansion i wanted to drive a porsche 911 and i wanted to marry a supermodel and here i am at the brink of my dream i don't have any of those things yet but in my mind i did and it hits me who am i kidding i'm miserable this is what every man wants and it's not enough for me and i sat there on this toilet in tampa bay going what do i do and i remembered my upbringing going to mass my catholic middle school my catholic high school and i remember seeing jesus up on the cross and right there on that toilet in tampa bay i remember that 2000 years ago jesus died for me and i sat there on that toilet and i said god it's bart remember me i need to know if you're real if you're real please show yourself real to me i mean i know jesus died for me 2 000 years ago but what good does that do me right now i need to know if you're real if you're real please show yourself real to me if not i don't want to live anymore i went out to practice a week later i get called into the office i'm released from the team my dream of playing in the nfl was over now i had to try out with my dream team pittsburgh steelers and i told my agent i didn't want to go i said why i said one i don't think i have a great chance he said yeah you do yeah well yep but two something's happening inside of me i can't explain he says you're nuts i said maybe and i didn't go so i went back to tallahassee and to make this shorter than i normally do i was hanging out with my brother bob bob who's the founder of the jp2 healing center bob shoots i'm hanging out with my brother bob and bob's telling you about this men's weekend he went to he's telling me stories of these men and i would always go yeah bob that's your thing good for you but this time i'm listening he doesn't know my prayer i said on the toilet but i'm listening and so he keeps telling me the stories of these guys lives and after a while he says hey bart we got another weekend coming up would you like to go i remembered my prayer i said yeah i'll go he said really you'll go yeah i'll go i jokingly say a few that told me you're going to be on a weekend with 50 men who are going to hug each other and say i love you i would have never gone don't worry i won't make you do that so now you want to you know do that on your own time but anyway so here i am i'm on this weekend with 50 men who are saying i love you and hugging one another and i was that guy who's like this what are they doing what are their intentions why are they doing that and i listen to these men ten men share their witness their testimony like i'm doing with you right now now they say if you've ever been on these weekends they say now you're not supposed to tell people stories you're not gonna supposed to say what happened on these weekends i've asked both of these guys and they've told me i can tell their story okay so i got their permission and i'll try not to tell you everything that happens on those weekends in case you happen to go to a men's weekend sometime and it looks like this okay so there you go so i'm listening these men's share and two of them deeply impacted me one was a politician and he stood up in front of the 50 men in the room and he talked about how he had been unfaithful to his wife he destroyed his marriage destroyed his family and he was broken crying and talked about how he had encountered christ i felt like my father was up there repenting i was like man this is touching me i don't know what to do with this another man gets up he said for 10 years i was trying to be businessman of the year he says after 10 years sacrificing my marriage time with my children striving to become this businessman of the year after 10 years i get invited to new york and among all the men in the room they call out my name he says i walk up to the front everyone's applauding [Music] they hand me a plaque i give a speech everyone's applauding i go to walk off the stage and i hear a voice saying look in your hands and he says i looked into my hands and i saw a piece of wood he said for this stinking piece of wood with my name on it i sacrificed my marriage and my family he said he started to cry he says everywhere he went for the next several weeks to a month just wept he'd be at the convenience store and he'd think of this you'd just start to weep but then he went on to say but then he encountered the father's love and he gave his life to christ and i'm sitting there listening as i'm going dang this is this is hitting me this is me ever since i was eight or nine years old i was chasing that piece of wood i was living for someday i'll someday i'm going to be happy when i get there i'm going to finally be happy i was chasing that same stinking piece of wood and i realized it was empty so now i'm open or at least as open as i could be now it's sunday and my brother bob was on the weekend with me but brother bob is eight years older than me my brother bob was one of a few father figures in my life and my brother bob gives me a letter that he wrote for me and he says in this letter bart i just want to let you know that i love you and i'm proud of you and i'm reading this and i'm thinking what is he talking about he loves me i don't love me i hate me i'm full of shame you're proud of me for what i was so used to conditional love you love me i just you're proud of me i just failed at the only thing i'm good at but i thought it's the right thing to do i should thank him so he sees me we meet in the middle of the room i reached my hand out i said bob thank you very much for that letter the politician reminded me of my dad standing behind us and he pushed us together he says you two brothers need to hug and as he did the walls of my heart crumbled and in my brother's arms i'm sobbing like a baby i don't remember crying ever up to that point i don't think i ever cried when my dad left i don't know i was just hardened but here my brother writes me this letter i love you and i'm proud of you and in this hug it's just my my heart crumbled the walls and i'm sobbing sobbing in his arms and as i'm sobbing in his arms bob whispers into my ear and he says bart it's my birthday man i'd always miss my family's birthdays and here he is on this catholic weekend it's my birthday i'm like oh dang man i'm so sorry he says no no it's not my real birthday it's my spiritual birthday i said okay i have no idea what you're talking about but i didn't miss your birthday so we're hugging we're laughing and we're crying and i feel this presence fill the room which i know now is the holy spirit it's one of the reasons i love them so much the holy reverend presence of god himself filled up that room and as my brother and i are crying on one another's arms every man in the room is weeping and as i'm here crying in bob's arms i hear this voice a still small voice but i know it's god and he says bart i'm your father i'm a father to the fatherless and i love you and i lost it in a moment i realized what i had been looking for all these years was my father i was just looking for the father's love and all the wrong places in too many faces striving after this going after this just looking for love but i had no idea what i was looking for until love himself god almighty encountered me see god doesn't just love you and i he is love he is love near the very beginning of the catechism in paragraph 27 it says this the desire for god the desire the desire for god has been written within the human heart and god never ceases to draw man to himself and only in god only in god will man find the truth and the happiness that he never stops searching for i've been looking everywhere and it was in god himself who is love and when the walls were broken down my heart finally opened to receiving him and he radically changed my life in that moment now we've been doing a lot of cleaning up since but right after this i go to confession i was in there a while and in confession and this priest saw everything that happened he was in the room and at the end of confession i said to him father just a few weeks ago i was in the locker room of the tempe buccaneers at the peak of my dream i prayed out and cried out to god and i said god if you're real please show yourself real to me i said today god showed himself real to me i want to give my life to him i want to give my life to christ and hear this priest after confession leads me into prayer and i surrender my life to christ and i've been running hard after him ever since and the reason i travel and the reason i come as a missionary is because i love my father i love jesus i love the holy presence of god almighty and when you love somebody that much you got to share it and i love it when people encounter the father's love i love it when people give their lives fully over to christ i love it when people experience the life and fire of the spirit of god it's my passion and it's what we're all looking for you know when i was a kid i felt like i had to choose between serving jesus and playing football because the image that was portrayed to me at least the one that i i thought was portrayed to me was that jesus was this frail weak passive feminine defeated god and i had this thing in my heart that i wanted to be a warrior i wanted to be a football player and i felt like i had a choice i could follow jesus and be passive and always turn the other cheek or i could play football of course it was deception but it hindered me then i thought i was always told growing up if you don't go to mass you're going to hell so i went because i was afraid to go to hell i never went out of desire i went out of obligation i checked my boxes or my mom made sure i checked my boxes baptism baptism there's communion confirmation confirmation check check check and then i came to a conclusion [Music] is [Music] [Music] and defeated and i wanted to play football i wasn't interested so by the time i got to college i said forget it and i said god listen if that's how you are and you're just going to send me to hell if i don't then fine send me there must be a big party there all deceptions none of them are the truth of who he is but when i encountered him and his presence filled up that room and i felt his amazing love i was like where has he been all my life he's so good he is love itself jesus is so awesome the spirit of god is so awesome i got to tell everybody i'll be honest with you i came back to the catholic church about nine years ago i came back kicking and screaming because of my experiences growing up but that same voice who spoke to me and says bart i'm your father spoke to me he says bart i'm inviting you as my friend to feel my ache i feel it i feel it he says i'm inviting you to partner with me for the transformation of my church now i'm not alone there's many and many of you in this room but he's transforming his church and he's challenging our faulty paradigms and he's bringing us into a genuine encounter with the one who is love himself so i have bishops tell me i have priests tell me this was what they told me but what we need more than anything else as catholics is an encounter with the father's love i was at a priest event i told the priest 20 priests in the room and i said this to the priest one priest who was a vicar to priests so he oversaw the other priest he's in the corner room he said heck we priests need to know jesus i was getting ready to speak at an event right before covet hit the month before and lansing michigan the lansing men's event they had it inside the michigan wolverines indoor football facility 1 600 men i had breakfast that morning with a priest who was part of it and well-known priests in the area and at breakfast he looks at me and he says bart never assume that every catholic knows jesus i said but father they've all been baptized never ever assume that every catholic knows jesus so i stood there in front of these thousand six hundred men shared my testimony and i said man i'm gonna ask you don't worry i'm not gonna do this to you at least i don't think i am i said man i'm going to ask you a question are you living sold out for jesus i said if you're wanting to surrender your life more fully to jesus i'm going to invite you in front of all your peers in this room 1600 men i'm going to invite you to stand to your feet 95 of the men jump to their feet and in chorus shout it out freedom i said guys i've done a lot of things on a football field i even played michigan we lost i've done a lot of things on the football field but i've never had a moment as cool as this i thought that was going to be every month and then covet happened but i'm not assuming that because we've been going to mass every sunday or we grew up catholic or you know i jokingly say my brother bob was was born catholic maybe you're a catholic before you were born maybe you've been catholic your whole life maybe you're the most faithful guy in the church but only you know and only god knows where you are in relation to him as i read earlier in mass from pope francis an authentic faith has a deep desire to change the world and these are the questions we should pose ourselves do we have great vision and zeal are we bold do our dreams fly high are we consumed by zeal or are we mediocre and satisfied with our theoretical apostolic plants the church's strength is not in our theoretical apostolic plans but is concealed in the deep waters of god and these waters agitate our desires and these desires expand our hearts jesus is going to get what he paid for and he paid for you and me to live in an abundant life let me lead you on a prayer if you don't mind close your eyes i want you just to pay attention to the movements of your own heart particularly as it relates to desire you see the word desire is day sire means of the father what is stirring in your heart holy spirit stir our hearts awaken desires pure holy desires i want to invite you to bring that desire to the father or that stirring whatever it is going on in your own heart bring that to the father that's all prayer is it's just communion with the one you love bring that desire to the father and i'm going to give you a minute so i'm going to have mark just sing over you whatever's on his heart and just make that your simple request bring the lord your desire or whatever stirring in your heart i'll be back in a minute you can dream big bigger better [Music] you can dream big with [Music] you can me with me [Music] i have more to bring [Music] my heart [Music] for you [Music] for you to prosper [Music] of abundance bigger and better right where you belong let me bring you a tree of of life [Music] deep waters [Music] do [Music] so as your eyes are still closed i want to lead you in a quick meditation meditation catechism says engages the emotions the imagination desire the contemplative prayer that the church says is simply gazing upon jesus so just as you're paying attention to whatever's moving in your heart i want to lead you in a little guided meditation i want you to picture yourself in the times of jesus you're one of his closest friends whether that's peter john james whether that's mary magdalene magdalene mary and martha [Music] marry his mother whoever just place yourself in his inner circle [Music] and you're hanging out with peter and andrew who are tending to their net just going about your everyday life and jesus walks by and there's just something about him you feel it and he stops and he gazes into your eyes see he doesn't see you the way you do he doesn't see the shame he doesn't see the struggles he sees the one who he loves he sees into the depths of your soul and he sees all of your goodness you've never been looked at like this before just allow him to gaze into your eyes lord jesus i ask you to make this real [Music] and as he's gazing into your eyes he invites you he calls you by name and he says come follow me i've got an adventure for you it'll fulfill your deepest desires beyond your imagination beyond your hopes beyond your dreams yet you're standing there holding on to the net i'm going to ask the holy spirit to reveal to you what that net is for you what is it that you're holding on to see the scriptures say he who he who holds on to his life will lose it but he loses his life for my sake will find it and there's various things we all hold on to i'm asking the holy spirit to show you what that is the holy spirit show them what they're holding on to mark go ahead and sing over them again as their as the holy spirit's revealing to them what they're holding on to come and follow me [Music] you can come with me just come and follow me on right paths child you can follow me on right path's child don't have to be low i'm with you i've never left you i've never forsaken you you can come and follow me you can come and follow me my way is bigger it's better to come and follow me [Music] how was you there and he's revealing to you what you're holding on to he's saying now come follow me this is just between you and him are you willing to lay down that quote-unquote net and run after him between you and him you can give me your yes you can give me your no you can say give me some more time but he's asking are you willing to drop it and run after me he says [Music] let's go another minute or so [Music] we can go on an adventure together so you can come with me just one foot in front of the other you can come and follow me [Music] the weight's not on your shoulders you can just follow me [Music] you can have the light yolk okay you can just follow me i'll show you each step and it's time just follow me on the right path i'll show you the way it's stepping it's time [Music] it's gonna be okay it's gonna be okay church as we've known it is changing to quote the croods our world is about to change it's time to embark upon an adventure it's time we leave the cave of fear and abandon ourselves unto the lord and live the adventure that he's created us for i came that you might have life abundant life are you ready for an adventure are you ready to dream with him are you ready to explore desires with him tomorrow night that's what we're going to do i'm going to share with you from the story of one samuel 1 story of hannah and her longings let me share a little bit of my own journey with the lord and going after desires and i'm going to give you opportunities to share desires with the lord and hear his desires for you and to dream with him and then on wednesday we're going to let the holy spirit set us on fire so we can live out those dreams and desires and live in the adventure that he has for us if you will stand your feet and ask the person next to your people next to you if you can place your hand on their shoulder again and let's pray for one another where we started stay with me come holy spirit spirit we love you holy spirit we invite you holy spirit we expect you so as you're placing your one hand on that person's shoulder place one hand on your heart if there's a few of you i don't know figure it out and let's pray for ourselves and them come holy spirit fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle within them the fire of your love again come holy spirit again come holy spirit third time come holy spirit now pray blessings over the person people next to you say lord bless them inspire them breathe into them to your life bring them into your adventure bring them into your joy bless them and their family now pray this with me i pray this over my kids every morning and every night let's pray this over one another say with me may the lord bless you and keep you may his face shine upon you and be gracious to you may he turn his face toward you and give you peace and may the lord bless you in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit amen amen thank you all so real quick father they're in the social hall there's open bar steak did i hear you right maybe not maybe just snacks um and so go enjoy one another enjoy home hopefully i'll see all of you and you invite some other folks for tomorrow night we're gonna have fun i've only done this with the group of seminarians and priests what i'm gonna do with you all tomorrow night and they both loved it and uh we're gonna dream with god and let him share his dreams and desires with us amen god bless you all you

Channel: Mary Queen of Peace - Sammamish

Views: 333

Keywords: Catholic Church, ChurchVideos, Catholicism, Worship, Spirituality, Evanglization, Evangelism, Christianity, Church, #Sacraments, #Jesus, Salvation, Transformation, Grace, Hope, Love, Religion, Faith, Live Stream Church, Liturgy, Live Stream Mass, Testimonials, Testimonies

Id: PUk921Zypfc

Length: 117min 25sec (7045 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 27 2022