Parish Lenten Mission with Bart Schuchts - Night #2

uh somebody's watching [Music] [Music] i believe in the sun i believe in the risen one i believe i overcome [Music] is [Music] because i was dead in the grave i was covered in sin and shame i heard mercy call my name [Music] he rolled the [Music] i'm alive because he lives [Music] i can face tomorrow because he lives every fear is gone i know he holds my life my future in his hands [Music] lives i can face tomorrow because he lives every fear is gone and i know he holds my life my future in his hands [Music] amen amen i'm alive i'm alive because he lives let my song join the one that never [Music] because he lives i can face tomorrow because he lives every fear is gone and i know he holds my life my [Music] testing testing [Music] i'm alive i'm alive because he lives amen [Music] you unravel me with a melody you surround me with a song of deliverance from my enemies till all my fears [Music] i am a child of god [Music] i am my mother's womb you have chosen me love has called my name and i've been born again [Music] to your family your blood flows through my veins and i'm no [Music] [Applause] and i'm no longer slave to fear i am a child of god you split the sea so i can walk right through it my fears were drowned in perfect love you rescued me so i could stand and sing i am a child of god you split the sea so i can walk right through it my fears were drowned in perfect love you rescued me so i could stand and sing i am the child of god i am i am a child i am a child of god and i'm no longer a slave to fear i am a child of god [Music] and i'm no longer slave to fear i am a child [Music] i am a child of god i am a child of god [Music] just foreign yes good um good evening everyone great to see you all again tonight maybe some of you so who is here from last night excellent good good turn on who's here for the first time tonight excellent great well it's great to see you all if you missed anything from last night you can can go to our youtube page if you want to get a a get caught up so to speak but you're never we're never behind we're with the lord we're always in his timing it's always just perfect timing so tonight is the perfect time for you all to be here and so let's pray in the name of the father and of the son and holy spirit heavenly father we uh we wonder at the beauty of our world around around us especially the ways that you reveal yourself to us and what you're like in nature and we pray that this rain that is pouring down upon us will be assigned to us of all the graces that are just flooding from heaven right now especially onto this church onto all of us and we pray come holy spirit pray after pray after me those words come holy spirit come holy spirit come holy spirit we pray lord tonight that you will help us to expand our hearts that you will stretch our hearts to receive this flood that is pouring out of heaven make our hearts larger as big as you want them to be so that we can catch every drop we pray that you will help us to see things the way you do to have eyes of faith let us pray 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 name of the father and of the son and the holy spirit amen as you please to rise and let us sing out and praise the lord as mark's gonna lead us in a couple of songs to get get our hearts uh get the flame going in our hearts widen our hearts stretch our hearts and so please join along the words are on the screen there and you can join in and sing out to lord and give praise and worship to god our good and gracious god who is loving us and who has gathered us and has called us to be here tonight [Music] you give life you are love and you bring light to the darkness you give hope you restore every heart that is it's your breath in our lungs so we pour out our praise pour out our praise it's your breath in our lungs so we pour out our praise [Music] you give life you are love and you bring light to the darkness [Music] so we pour out our praise pour out our praises your breath in our lungs so we pour out our praises all the earth will shout your praise our hearts will cry these [Music] the bones will shout your praise our hearts will cry these bones [Music] it's your breath in our lungs so we pour out our praise pour out it's your breath in our lungs so we pour out [Music] lord [Music] holy spirit you are welcome here come flood this place [Music] your glory god is what our hearts long for to be overcome by your presence lord your presence [Music] there's nothing there's nothing worth more that will ever come close nothing can compare you were our living hope your presence and i've tasted and seen of the sweetest of loves where my heart becomes free and my shame is undone in your presence lord holy [Music] this place and fill your glory god is what our hearts long for to be overcome by your presence lord [Music] your presence let us become more aware of your presence let us the glory of your goodness let us be calm more aware of your presence let us experience the glory of your goodness your presence let us become more aware of your presence let us experience the glory of your goodness let us become more aware of your presence let us experience the glory of your goodness [Music] your presence [Music] holy spirit you are welcome here come flood this place and fill the atmosphere your glory god is what our hearts long for to be overcome by your presence lord [Music] your presence [Music] [Music] good evening i want to go into this chorus two different times i want to do it two different ways first let's do it as a meditation on a contemplative prayer style the church says contemplative prayer is gazing upon jesus so if you will close your eyes and just gaze upon jesus whatever that looks like for you just gaze upon his beauty and just tell them how much you love them how grateful you are for all that he's done in bringing you abundant life the scriptures tell us that jesus says i'm going to leave to his followers i'm going to leave and you're going to be sad but your sadness is going to turn to joy because because when i leave i'm going to send you my spirit he will live in you thank jesus for sending his spirit holy reverent presence of god almighty now thank the holy spirit for his presence and from this posture i want us to sing this softly holy spirit just the chorus so mark if you just lead us in this chorus if you need to open your eyes to see the words that's fine but just stay in the same quiet posture of contemplative prayer go ahead mark holy spirit you are come here come flood this place and fill the atmosphere your glory god is what our hearts long for to be overcome by your presence [Music] i want to invite everyone to open your eyes if you haven't already and now we're going to sing this out boldly as a proclamation as an invitation mark lead us boldly and loudly awaken our hearts and our spirits and our bodies into calling upon his presence [Music] your glory god is what our hearts long for to be overcome by your presence your presence lord [Music] all right that was good but i want gooder all right mark amp it up another three notches [Music] your glory [Music] by your presence [Music] good job church now let's pray as the church taught us in 2670 remember the church invites us to call upon the holy spirit every day this counts before and after every important action this counts so let's call upon the holy spirit stay with me come holy spirit again third time place your hand upon your heart 2671 say with me come holy spirit fill the heart of your faithful and kindle within me the fire of your love all right now ask the people next to you if you can place your hand upon the shoulders please again honor where everyone is you want to honor the dignity of every individual and if there's no one near you and you want some people to place your hands on you can move closer to somebody you move as you want to move let's pray for one another as catechism 26 71 teaches us say with me come holy spirit fill the heart of your faithful and kindle within them the fire of your love let's intercede for everyone in this room say come holy spirit fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle within them the fire of your love let's intercede for the church again ready come holy spirit fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle within your church the fire of your love let's say as saint bonaventure said say holy spirit i love you holy spirit i invite you holy spirit i expect you and one more really divine prayer really powerful you ready for this one holy spirit be with this guy from tallahassee we really need you i pray a blessing over the people around you play something you would love someone to pray over you just pray a blessing if you don't know what else to say just say come holy spirit give them more of you prepare them to dream in fact let's pray that we're going to talk about dreaming with god and desire so let's pray that you can pray that for yourself or for the people around you or both say come holy spirit awaken holy desire give us the ability to dream with the father come holy spirit all right give somebody a high five and grab a chair thanks mark let's everyone give mark a hand [Applause] all right before i get going i said i would do this so i'm going to go ahead and do it i've got little postcards they're not that little this is uh the logo of my website it's a fiery lion and i'm going to give some here and if we could just pass them around and if we run out i don't know what to tell you i'll try to bring more i guess you just pass them up and down the rows and i would just like to make a request i'd just like to ask if you would prayerfully consider donating to the mission of church on fire so no pressure but if you will just take a little time before the father before the lord at some point whenever from now to the next couple days and just ask him lord is this something you're wanting me to help and you can go right on the website and there's donate button and you can contribute 10 thousand a month and if that's not enough that's fine you can give more now pl just please prayerfully consider that and uh let's move on so we're going to talk about dreaming with god but before we can dream with god i want to lay a little bit of a foundation and i want to share something that happened to me as i was sitting in a building when a speaker was speaking and it's centered around the fact that god is good so this guy started to say god is good and the people repeated all the time and he says yes yes yes i appreciate that but but hear me out a moment and he says and i was like that was unique and then he said god is good he cannot give what he does not have i thought well that's true isn't it if you were to ask me for a million dollars i wouldn't be able to give that to you maybe after all of you guys donate maybe the ministry can but we give what we have right we cannot give what we do not have so god is only good so he can only give out of the overflow of his goodness there is no evil in him and i'm listening to this guy and i'm like yeah that's kind of cool yeah i can get that god's only good he can only give good he has no evil he can't give evil and then he goes on and he says this god is only good he doesn't teach us lessons by letting us get hit by cars god is only good he has no evil god does not give us cancer i want whoa now candidly i lost a brother it's been almost well it's been 28 maybe years i lost a brother to aids unfortunately he was a heroin addict got a hold of a dirty needle but he had come to christ come back to the church and it was a few years later that he got aids and he died it was a very difficult time in our family but a very beautiful time in our family if you want to hear more about it my brother bob's written a book called be healed by bob shoots and you're welcome to get that i'm not here to plug his book but i don't have the time to tell the whole story there so we watched our brother slowly die he died in my brother bob's arms and my father's arms actually very beautiful time and his desire that his sickness would bring healing to our family and i believe the reason that my brother bob and i do the things we do now is a byproduct of that season see god takes our mess and he redeems it you see jesus didn't come now i want you to hear me out jesus did not come to bring us suffering in fact john paul ii now saint john paul ii said all suffering is rooted in evil however it's very clear throughout scripture and the teachings of the church that we will suffer but see what jesus came to do he came to redeem suffering redemptive suffering see through his death through his suffering he then went into hell and grabbed the keys conquering sin evil and death and he rose from the grave and invited us into an abundant life and gave to peter into the church his keys the keys of the kingdom the keys that he snatched the keys of authority and before he ascended he told the apostles to wait for the promise of the holy spirit that they would receive power power to be his witnesses and they would go around to all the nations in baptizing people in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit and he said to them all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me that's what jesus said all authority so through his suffering through his death he grabbed the keys and now all authority had been given to him through his victory he threw the keys to his followers and said all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me now therefore you go so here's a little math question for you if jesus has all authority how much authority does the enemy have zero the only authority the enemy has is that which we give him and that's a message in and of itself so here's the point jesus suffered and we are invited into his suffering but if it stops there we're missing the point we go through the suffering to come out to the redemptive victory that jesus purchased through his death and resurrection and he came to bring us abundant life so even when we do suffer there's joy there's victory there's abundant life hopefully you're understanding what i'm saying is there suffering yes but jesus came to redeem suffering and invited us into his abundant life through his death and resurrection so i watched suffering i watched my brother die and suffer but i watched god redeem it and brought healing to my entire family and brought a healing ministry as a byproduct of it the jp2 healing center god takes our mess and turns it into a message god takes our sufferings and he redeems it so as i'm listening to this speaker speak and he says god has no evil he cannot give what he does not have god doesn't have cancer he can't give cancer i kind of went tilt i i believe that i accept that but yet i watched my brother die of aids then he goes on to say god is good he can only give of the overflow of what he is and who what he has he's only good it's his nature he gives out of the overflow of his goodness god is good he cannot give what he does not have he has no evil he cannot give evil he's only good god is good and he went on and on and on and i started to get annoyed maybe some of you were annoyed already with me and i was getting annoyed and i've learned enough about myself that when i get annoyed like that there's something going on under the hood so i invited the holy mechanic i'm not really a mechanic maybe a carpenter i invited jesus and as this guy is going on and on i'm quietly i'll say lord why is this bothering me i know you're good i encountered your love i know you're good why is this bothering me and he exposed places in my heart where i believed that he was not good from my experiences with my natural father i've believed many a times that god is not there for me i was on the way to go to an event and i drove to an event because it was only four and a half hours away and i'm pulling out of my driveway said goodbye to my kids my wife followed me out to the car i'm saying goodbye to my wife and i decided to vent because i was annoyed and i'm an outward processor god bless my wife and so i'm venting and i don't even know what i'm venting about i'm just bothered by something and we're sitting out there she's in the parking lot i'm in the car and i'm just venting and then this came out of my mouth and i said you know i feel like no one has my back and then i said i feel like god doesn't have my back and i'm like oh why did i say that so cleaned that up repented we had got on the road for about two hours of my drive i'm venting to the father father why does it feel like you don't have my back i know you're good but why doesn't it feel like that all the time i know you're there for me because the scriptures say you'll never leave me nor forsake me but why does it feel like you're not there sometimes i'm sorry father for saying this but sometimes i feel like you don't have my back and then after a couple hours i i put on some worship and i started listening to some teachings and all of a sudden my whole mindset started to change and now i'm thanking him and praising him and just really enjoying his his goodness and his presence so i get there to the meeting which started that night and friday night meeting was good saturday morning i'm pulling into the the parking lot i get out of the car and i'm still a little agitated but i don't know why and i go to the door and the guy who's managing the door the door keeper another ordinary guy at the door he opens the door for me greetings bart i said hello sir can i introduce myself how are you you know we chat a minute he goes hey um the lord shared a word with me he wanted me to share it with you now let's be honest with you sometimes i really love it because they really speak something that's actually from god and sometimes yeah not always sure and so that was cordial i was like yeah yeah yeah sure yeah go what is it what is it he goes real short he said god just told me to tell you that he's got your back i said that's the lord he says i got your back i'll never leave you no forsake you i'm with you always i'm good so back to this guy speaking god is good he cannot give what he does not have he's only good and he gives out the overflow of who he is he has no evil he cannot give evil he's only good so i just wanted to share that with you as we get started tonight god is good he is not capable of anything other than goodness god is love he doesn't just love you he is love itself he is goodness he is joy god is good just say with me god is good no matter what the enemy's been telling me the truth is god is good and jesus died for me he conquered sin evil and death and he rose from the grave and he said all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him and he's given it to us as his church and jesus came to bring us life abundant life so maybe you wrestle with this and i was wrestling with this i said well lord what about all this evil what about this that happened what about this and this and this and this and this and then i turn to john 10 10. you know what john 10 10 says the thief the evil one comes to steal kill and destroy but i jesus said have come to bring life life to the fullest abundant life so as we go in to talk about dreaming and desires i wanted to lay the foundation that god is good so say with me one more time real loud god is good amen good class all right so as we get started this let me ask a question how many of you were not here last night raise your hand where the heck were you i'm kidding thank you for coming now how many of you were here last night you're not here tonight all right just wanted to check all right so we're all here that's here you know i want to do this i want to honor anyone who's involved in ministry like you work with a church or you're involved in some sort of ministry please stand up can we give them a hand all right you could be seated i just wanted to honor you so let's jump in i'm going to talk about desire i'm going to talk about dreaming i'm going to share some scriptures with you i'm going to share some of my own journey with you and then we're going to have some time god willing to actually dream and desire and we're going to do it i think in the form of meditation and contemplative prayer so we'll see we'll see how we do here oh yeah we got time why don't you stand up one more time because i'm gonna have you sitting for about six hours i want you to get at least a break hi shake a little bit you know stretch look at someone near you and say are you ready to dream say are you sure all right when you're ready grab a seat if you're not ready grab a seat [Laughter] all right i want to start with a scripture from ephesians you're probably familiar with this this is ephesians 3 15-21 this is paul saint paul apostle paul says this for this reason i kneel before the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner self and that christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breath and length and height and depth and to know the love of christ that surpasses knowledge so you may be filled with all of the fullness of god and he says this now to him christ not to him who is able to accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine by the power at work within us to him be glory in the church and in christ jesus to all generations forever and ever amen here's the summary of this god wants to exceed your hopes dreams and imagination he wants to exceed all that you ask or imagine now you might be thinking i don't know if i believe that i just asked for a new house and you didn't give it to me i just asked for a simple prayer for my family it didn't happen the scripture says ask and you shall receive seek and you shall find knock and the door will be answered if your son asks for bread would you give him a stone if he asked you for a fish would you give him a snake ask and you shall receive and then another scripture says you receive not because you ask not now if you're anything like me in some ways i hope you're not i i'm very experiential and so when i read something i i take it literally when someone tells me something i believe it as long as i think it's true so when i'm reading the scriptures and i'm hearing jesus say ask it'll be given seek you'll find knock the door be open if you ask for bread i won't give you a stone if you ask for fish i won't give you a snake so i was in a season where i was asking a lot and i wasn't receiving and i read that scripture and literally i laid in my bed and i said father what am i missing i feel like when i ask for bread i get a border i feel like when i ask for a fish i get nothing what am i missing and then you read in other places of scriptures and it says i am the vine my father the vine dresser he prunes if you abide in me you will produce much fruit apart from me you can do nothing and then it goes on to say in anything you ask in my name i will give to you i was like oh am i asking like a branch that's disconnected from the vine lord help me to abide and help me that when i ask help me to ask things that are consistent with you in your character your nature your ways but i want to say this to you god wants to exceed your hopes dreams and expectations god wants to answer the deep longings of your heart now you might be saying now when we're talking about desire here i'm not so sure i can follow you because like your story last night when i was in college i pursued some desires that got me in trouble i'm not sure i can trust my desires don't raise your hand but is that maybe you when the subject of desire comes up do you start to sweat i i i i don't want to touch desire because when i pursue desire i've gotten in trouble let me share a phrase that we have in the jp2 healing center i'm going to say it in my words behind every disordered desire so disorder desires would be sins ungodly desires behind every disorder desire is an unmet pure and holy longing behind every disorder desire is an unmet pure and holy longing why do we turn to sin because we don't trust god is going to meet the longings of our heart we can white knuckle it you know what i mean we can discipline ourselves away from sin and some of you are probably pretty good at that some of us it might last a week there's a place for discipline of course but what if we took it a step further and what if we said you know what the same sin pattern keeps playing over and over and over in my life what if we stopped and went what's the deeper unmet longing and what am i believing about god in this longing clearly i don't believe he's going to answer this longing that's why i'm taking matters into my own hands because why because the enemy's been whispering into our ears confirmed through some of our wounds and circumstances he's been whispering in our ear god's not good god's not there for you god's not going to meet this longing god doesn't care about your desires isn't that what he did with adam and eve god says listen everything's yours i still don't understand why adam and eve adam and eve did this everything here is yours all i'm asking is just stay away from that one right this just stick stay away from that and here comes the serpent yeah it's really good and what does eve say no god said if we eat of that we'll die and the enemy oh you won't really die he's just afraid you're going to be like him yeah god's really afraid not going to die eat of it the eight of it as we talked about last night they didn't fall over and die but they died because we disconnected from god and and desires got disordered longings got suppressed because what's our true desire our true desire is catechism 27 says again the desire for god has been written in our heart only in god are we going to find the happiness and truth that we're searching for we may know that here but our experience in life says um that's that's not how it worked out yeah my experience tells me yeah i desired my dad you know but he bailed he bailed when i was five that formed all kind of beliefs inside of me i'll never have what i desire as i shared last night it's never gonna be met that desire left never returned it played out over and over and over in my life the message kept getting reinforced over and over and over again you will never have what you desire i would get close to what i desire and bam i can tell you story after story after story little did i know this belief was embedded in my heart i had to renounce it and renounce the lie that i'll never have what i desire in fact let's do that say with me in the name of jesus i renounce the lie that i will never have what i desire let's pronounce a couple other things in the name of jesus i renounce the lie that says god is not good that says god doesn't care about my desires and in jesus name i announce the truth that god is good that jesus came to bring me abundant life amen so when i'm talking about desires desires is a scary subject the first time i did this at one of our seminary and priest events half the guys didn't even participate they all said they were going to they all went outside to go do it i see this guy on the phone this guy out there playing basketball this guy i'm like what and when they came back in i asked him i said guys what what happened a couple of them spoke up man i've never been con i've never been given permission to follow my desires i've just always done what i'm supposed to do i'm like and how's that working out for you that sin pattern that keeps playing out how's that working out why are you stealing it because you don't believe god will give it and the next one that i did with another group of priests just a little while ago i shared that i said guys i understand it's a struggle for you so i added all these other pieces to it so as i'm sharing this with you i want to make sure you understand when i'm talking about desire i'm not talking about your sinful fleshly desires i'm talking about pure and holy desires and if you run up against disordered desires go deeper lord what's the longing beneath this and what am i believing about you where is this in scripture thanks for asking psalm 37 4. says this take the light say delight one more time delight all right i want to make sure you're awake take the light in the lord and he the lord god will give you the desires of your heart say with me as i delight in the lord he will give me the desires of my heart all right now let's nuance this a minute because i've wrestled this on a number of different sites i'm like okay so if i delight in you which i thought okay if i just if i just delighting you all right now can i have my desire if i'd lying lord he'll give me the desires of my heart okay if i just put in enough time okay now now can i have that car that i need he'll give me his that's what it says and then i realize now that's that's kind of an immature approach isn't it and then i then i matured and i realized he doesn't really give me my desires he gives me his i want oh yes that's right okay so it's not my desire to suppress all my desires and it's all his desires okay what's his desires his desires for me to suffer okay i'll try to delight in you and then i realized that's that's probably not accurate either because he's good so what does this actually mean so i heard someone say this that word delight there means soft and pliable and i heard that and i immediately went to the story of the potter when jeremiah went to the potter's house and he said there was a potter there tending to the clay and he was marring the clay in his hand and he was forming it and shaping it and then god spoke to jeremiah to speak to the people of israel how i long to do with you what this potter does with the clay and so when i heard the word delight it means soft and pliable i immediately went ah yeah god is the master putter and i'm like clay in his hands and as i'm soft and pliable and i yield my life to him and i'm soft and pliable he will now mold me and shape me and then he will grant me the desires of my heart which means he will give me my pure and holy longings that are in line with his you catch that that is we yield our lives to him i said last night scripture says he holds on to his life we'll lose it meaning as much as you try to find it out here it's not gonna it's not gonna it's not gonna work he holds on to his life will lose it but he'll lose his life for my sake and we give our life to him we're gonna gain his life that's pretty good trade let me play this out in a little analogy let's say uh greg has a house do you have a house craig okay so let's say greg has a house everyone say hi greg so greg has a house and i come to greg i'm a multi-millionaire did you know this greg so i come to greg and i said hey greg i want to bless you i want to change out your carpet do you have carpet in your house is it old carpet okay great perfect so i want to trade out your carpet i'm going to take out your old carpet and i'm going to give you brand new flooring carpet whatever it is wood floors whatever it is you want the deep desire of your heart you're already pumped so greg smart guy says yes but let's say greg is really attached to that carpet let's say this is a carpet that he has a lot of his toenail clippings in he's got his favorite food that fell down on that carpet he's really attached to this carpet and even though i'm offering this great deal to greg greg says ah you know i don't i like my carpet greg don't you realize this is i'm giving you brand new no i'm really attached to this of course greg wouldn't do that i mean he was over here fist bumping pumping and yeah man i want the new floor right of course you can say give me the new floor i'm not attached to that old carpet right but that's kind of what we do with the lord so lord says hey i want to take your old life your sin life your beating down life your disorder desires i want to take all of that and i want to give you my life my abundant life we're over here going ah i don't know thanks greg i wish i could do that for you someone do that for me he's really pumped if someone can give him those new floors um but that's that's kind of what we do with the lord because there's places in our mind we don't believe he's good we're not really by it like come on you're not really you're on this is a scam you're not gonna really give me the new wood floors i know you're gonna strip out my carpet and i'm gonna be left with nothing yeah i'll give you my life and then what right and i'm sure that's not a view but there are places i believe that are in our hearts where we just hold back because we don't believe he's good so delight yourself in the lord become soft and pliable give your life to him and he'll give you his life and as we delight in him he will grant us the desires of our heart ask and you shall receive knock the door we open seek you will find he will give you the desires of your heart say with me heart i wonder if the church says anything about the heart well you know what they do all right so catechism paragraph 26 25 63. how do i know that there's something about the heart and the catechism well because i've studied the catechism from front to back no sorry it's not true i actually went online and i pulled up the catechism i recommend this i put up the catechism and there's a search button you've done this and i put the word heart in there and this is what i found fascinating here's what the church says about the heart the heart is the dwelling place where i am where i live according to the semitic or biblical expression the heart is the place to which i withdraw now when we're talking about heart we're not talking about just emotions we're talking about the core of who we are the heart is the place to which i withdraw the heart is our hidden center beyond our grasp and of others i'm glad it included and of others because i get a lot of other people telling me how i'm supposed to think the heart is our hidden center beyond the grasp of our reason and of others only the spirit of god can fathom the human heart and know it fully now listen to this the heart is what the church says the heart is the place of decision didn't say the head the heart is the place of decision you've got some major decisions to make in your life stop trying to figure it out get quiet with the lord gaze upon him enter in with your heart and ask and be quiet enough and let them speak prayer is really that simple the heart is the place of decision deeper than our psychic drives it is the place of truth the heart is the place of truth where we choose life or death life or death comes from the overflow of the heart why are so many people living as dead people because they're disconnected from their heart the heart is the place of truth where we choose life or death it is the place of encounter [Music] because his image of god we live in relation it is the place of covenant so back to psalm 37 4 take delight become soft and pliable in the lord and he will give you the desires of your heart he will encounter you he will bring you to life he will bring you to truth so what is desire the word desire comes from root word de sire sire means father day means of the word desire means of the father we don't need to be afraid of desire you don't need to be afraid of desire the true longings of your heart are from the father not the disordered desires the true longings we don't need to be afraid of desire just ask the holy spirit to reveal to you the pure and holy desires we all have pure and holy desires let me remind you of what i said in mass but before i do go ahead and stand up i've had you sitting for a while just stand up a moment say to someone around you be willing to desire all right you'll sit down please if you desire to i want to remind you of what i read in mass sunday as i was inviting you to come these words from pope francis and again these words inspire me i hope they inspire you inauthentic faith we all desire that look you wouldn't be here you wouldn't be here on monday night if this didn't apply to you you are a wonderful hungry people who are pursuing authentic faith an authentic faith always involves a deep desire to change the world and this is the question we must ask ourselves do we too 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 plans the church's strength is not in its organizational capacity amen but rather is concealed in the deep waters of god i think of peter when jesus said let's go out into the deep the church of strength is concealed in the deep waters of god that agitate our desires and these desires in turn expand our hearts god wants to agitate your desires and he wants to expand our hearts because god has dreams he has dreams and he has desires for you for your family for your workplace for some amish the whole northern washington area heck all of washington the whole united states he has dreams and desires for this region he has dreams and desires for this church he has dreams and desires for the entire church and he wants to dream with you he wants to share his dreams and his desires and he wants to awaken your desires and he wants your and his desires to become one and when that happens you're gonna passionately pursue those desires let me tell you a quick story it happened to me i think i mentioned how god called me back into the church nine or ten years ago and i came back kicking and screaming did i mention that okay let me tell you the backdrop to that so we had a priest over at the house me and my family were not catholics my friend we're all christians we're part of interdenominational uh non-denominational churches in fact a lot of my catholic family and friends they would they would say this cuss word maybe you've used this before and they would they would say to me sometimes you're a protestant i'm like oh my gosh i don't know what that is but that's horrible so i said to look it up i didn't even know what a protestant was oh martin luther protested [Music] i'm not even baptist or epipen [Music] church [Music] did you know this yeah i know they didn't you know what they didn't even call themselves christian you know what they called themselves who knows the way because jesus is the way the truth and the life it was when they the apostles started doing the things that jesus did remember uh peter and john i believe it was were going to afternoon prayer and the guy the invalid was begging and they said hey man silver and gold we have none what we do have which was the holy spirit we give to you get up and walk in the invalid gets up and walks i picture he has no legs and bones are popping and growing out and and what happens is all the people are looking and they're going oh my jesus already had already ascended and now the apostles are doing the stuff jesus did they tried to get rid of jesus and oh my gosh we got a real problem on our hand and they're watching this they're watching them do the things that jesus did and they're looking on and they go they must be christians that's when christians was first used they saw that the followers of christ were doing the things of christ and so they called them after his name christians when they look at us what are they calling us we can't say it they'll know us by our love they'll know us by our fruit so i i really wasn't i was i was just a christian i was following jesus as best i knew how and i was part of interdenominational non-denominational churches and i was quite content in fact i realized now looking back i learned how to be a catholic out there i'll explain this more tomorrow the things that i did not learn in my catholic middle school in my catholic high school i learned out there i learned what confirmation really is and i'll talk about this tomorrow i didn't know that i didn't know that was the language i'll share more tomorrow i was just following jesus as best i knew how was there some deceptions yeah sure but my heart was right my heart was pure and i believe god led me on that journey because it was all part of my preparation for what i do now so about 10 years ago we had a priest over at the house we were having dinner he's a fan of ours and my wife if you knew my wife you'd see how amazing this is she's very quiet sweet natured kind woman she balances me out so we're at dinner with him father marks his name and my wife at dinner says to him i believe god's calling us to be catholic what would you say could we have not talked about this privately this is a priest and then for the next 11 months constantly through other people through prayer god's speaking to me calling me back to the catholic church and i wish i could say i was excited but i wasn't but because it was because of my paradigms it was some of my bad experiences and i write in my journal pretty much every day right i'll start at the beginning father i thought you cared about my desires this is not my desire eleven months of this finally after 11 months i went with my brother and other friend ken to the same priest who was in my house having dinner we went for a three-day planned retreat and on this retreat the first words he said to me father mark looks at me he says bart don't worry about being catholic i said oh thank you father he says this is what i want you to do bart i want you to spend the next three days during the day alone with god bring your notebook journal bring your bible and i want you to share with the father your desires oh man you're speaking my language i could do that but then when you're done with that part i want you to ask the father what his desires are i'm like oh cool hadn't tried that good idea so this is where i was in the backwoods of homo tibulo louisiana mosquitoes alligators heat in the woods and so my first half a day of expressing my desires with the father was venting father i thought you cared about my desires and then i got done with that i got it all out and then i stopped i said father these are my desires in the process of this i opened my book my bible to a book in the bible that used to be one of my favorite passages in the old testament but i hadn't read it in several years but i'd remembered it as i was out here in the in the woods it's the book of haggai any of you ever read the book of haggai i have a homework assignment for you read the book of haggai i believe it's a prophetic word for the day we're living in i'm going to summarize it real fast i'm reading the book of haggai and basically it's this haggai's a prophet and haggai prophesies to the governor the high priest and the people and he says this the lord says while you are all off in your own luxury homes my house says the lord remains in ruins rebuild my house so they begin to work on the house god stirs them and they begin to restore god's temple god it had been sitting in ruins for 15 years they began restoring the house of god when they're in the middle of reconstructing it the prophet haggai shows back up and he says hey who of you have seen this house in its former glory how does it look to you now let me ask some of you grey heads like me how many of you seen the church in its former glory how's it looking to you now now if you look at this one probably pretty good but if you go to some of the places i go maybe not how does it look to you now the prophet says and then he says to them as they continue to build i will fill my house says the lord with my glory which is his manifested presence i will fill my house with my glory and the glory of the latter house the one that's coming will be greater than the former and i'm reading this in the backwoods of homa thibodeau and i'm racing inside i don't know if this has ever happened to you i hope it does if it hasn't i'm racing inside i have all this passion inside of me i can't contain it so i stand up and i start preaching to the trees and this is what comes out of my mouth i want to see the father's house transformed so i start writing that in my journal i'm all passionate i want to see the father's house transform and then i stop and i say okay father what's your desire he said that that's my desire i want to see my church transformed i want to see my church living into the fullness of everything jesus purchased two thousand years ago and i said lord sign me up then he started speaking to me about coming back into the catholic church and i said yeah lord i i don't mind at all shouting over the fence at the catholics he says you're not getting it i'm calling you in well now i start wrestling so we met in the evening and i'm there with father mark and bob and ken and i'm wrestling and i'm telling father mark all the problems i have with the catholic church i just vented i get done with this and he looks at me and he says but i understand that i struggle with some of those same things i'm like really and you became a priest why he said because god called me too and he called me some to the saint to do some of the same things i said okay and he says bart i get all of that but let me ask you a question he said what's the father's ache i had no idea what he was talking about but from down here i started wailing wailing and then i heard the father speak to me that st same still small voice that i heard when i encountered him 33 years ago and i heard him speak to me in a still small voice and he says bart i'm inviting you as my friend to feel my ache now father mark does not know what's going on inside of me anteriorly and he then says the same exact words bart i believe the father is inviting you as his friend to feel his ache i said i love my father yes and then he speaks to me i'm inviting you to partner with me for the transformation of my church that's why i do what i do and i'm running into all kind of people that are doing the same thing and probably some of you in this room are called to do the same thing but god is restoring his house he's transforming his church saint francis rebuild my church see i believe we're living in the fulfillment of john paul the second prophecy saint john paul ii prophecy of a new springtime coming into the church but before spring there's winter yeah winter prepares you for spring the sap is being formed in the tree and getting it ready for springtime i believe firmly that we are coming into one of the greatest hours in the history of the church by greatest hours i don't i'm not saying that we're going to have the biggest buildings and the most people i don't know but i believe we're going to live into everything jesus purchased 2000 years ago but it's going to be up to you and me but this happened as i dared to get alone with the lord and share with him my desires and little did i know as i was sharing with him my desires he actually was putting his desires in my heart and my desire and his desire became one and my passion over the last 10 years has been to see the church transformed that's his passion now let me share one more thing and then i'm going to give you guys some time this is from the story about hannah in the bible one samuel 1. i'm going to summarize it hannah was barren she was one of two wives i don't recommend it but she was and she was the favorite wife but the other wife had lots of children but hannah was barren and hannah would cry out day and night lord i want a child she became so heavy-hearted with this longing that she was one time in the temple in the church and she was crying out in agony for god to grant her the longing of her heart so much so that the priest there thought she was drunk she wasn't drunk she was in deep despair see the scriptures say proverbs 13 12 hope deferred makes the heart sick but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life her hope was so deferred that her heart was sick and she was crying out in agony lord if you will give me a child and then her prayer changed and she said this lord if you will give me a child i will give him to you lord if you give me the deep longings of my heart i will surrender it back to you scripture says not long after this hannah became pregnant and she had a baby boy she named him samuel and she kept her promise and she brought samuel to the temple and she gave him to the lord after she weaned him and once a year she would go and visit him and make him a robe and give him a robe and at first glance it seems cruel that god would give you the deep longing of your heart and then take it from you but as you read the next chapter the next one samuel 2 it says hannah had six children god wants to exceed our dreams hopes and imaginations he cares about your desires he cares about your deep longings he not only cares about your deep longings he put them there and he wants you to go and dig into those deep desires those deep longings and if you can't get past the disordered desires go deeper lord what's the longing behind this what am i believing about you but what's the deep longing my deep longing was i wanted purpose i wanted to fulfill the deep purpose of god that i knew he put me on the earth to the day i encountered him 33 years ago he spoke that to me that he called me to a purpose and i looked all these places and i was close i was experiencing a lot of things that were forming me but not until that day in homa thibodeaux louisiana did i understand the real purpose it was to feel ache and be in the be a part of his work of transforming his church and out of that has come leading people into an encounter with the father encouraging inspiring people and empowering the church to live in the power of the spirit to live into the mission of jesus christ to see the church transformed and i feel the ache and i feel where we're we're not there yet but i'm also full of hope because i'm seeing it happen and as i sit here in some amish washington and i watch on a sunday night in a monday night a hundred plus people showing up encourages me and it tells me yep this is what he's doing because he's stirring your hearts too and he's put dreams in your heart he's put desires in your heart he's placed longings in your heart and maybe like hannah the longings have been deferred maybe your heart has grown sick i could tell you story after story of my deferred hopes but i can also tell you story after story of the fulfillment of longings and you all have your own stories but i can assure you god cares about your deep longings you see this is what happened with hannah hannah had a longing but see god also had a longing hannah longed to have a child she had a deep burning desire to be pregnant and have a child but see god also had a deep desire god wanted a prophet and when hannah's desire and god's desire became one samuel was born samuel was the prophet who prophesied over david who didn't look at what man looks at he heard from the father because he was trained in the house of god to hear the voice of god and he was the one that knew that david the one who was out with the sheep was the anointed one who was the king samuel was very significant in the history of the church hannah had a longing she thought the longing was just to have a child but what she didn't know is that her longing was joining god's longing and when her longing and god's longing became one samuel was born you have a longing you might need to dust it off you might have gotten discouraged you might have believed it's not going to happen but god has placed a longing in your heart he's placed desires within your heart an authentic faith has a deep desire to change the world do your dreams fly high are you bold do you have great vision in zeal are you consumed with zeal or have you given up on the dreams and become mediocre god wants to take us out into the deep he wants to agitate these desires he wants to expand our hearts because the father has dreams and desires that he wants to fulfill in you and through you and with you i'll tell you one of the desires jesus desire i came to cast fire upon the earth that's his desire you know another desire do you know the father has desires it's in the prayer that we pray all the time and growing up i had no idea what i was praying it's the our father our father jesus was saying call my dad your dad our father who art in heaven not he does art in heaven he is in heaven hallowed holy is his name his nature's character and here's his desire he said pray this pray that his kingdom would come and his will would be done where on earth as it is in heaven that's the father's desire the father desires for his kingdom to come and his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven he wants to bring it through you he wants to bring it right here in this church he wants to bring it to samanish he wants to bring it into your home the father has desires but he has personal desires and personal longings that he's placed within your heart that from the time you're in your mother's womb he knits you together he formed you and he's placed things inside of your heart and he wants to awaken them because he wants to dream with you last thing and then we'll enter in to a bit of meditation contemplative prayer john 15 15. this is after jesus talked about abiding in the vine jesus said this i no longer call you servants or slaves because a servant does not know his master's business he didn't call you and i to be his servants he said no i've called you to be my friend and as friends i reveal to you everything my father has revealed to me man unpack that you're his friend and he wants to share his dreams and desires with you and he wants to exceed your dreams hopes and imaginations he wants you to be in the place where you go to him with such faith and such confidence and knowing his goodness that when you ask you receive when you knock the doors open when you seek you find that when you ask for bread he gives you bread when you ask for fish he gives you fish because your desires have been so purified in line with his that he's longing to give you the desires of your heart because they're going to fulfill his so when i finally got to that place in the backwoods of homo thibodeaux and i finally got past all my struggles and i finally got in touch with my desires i was amazed that my desire was his desire and it's the fuel that burns my passion i want to see the church transformed it burns in me if i had more time i would tell you some of the stories of the ache but the ache fuels the passion and causes me not to settle because i want to see everything that jesus paid for fulfilled so i'm hearing some amish because i want to see you all bring him here i want to see you dream i want to see your desires fulfilled i want to see his dreams fulfilled in you and through you so we're going to enter into some meditation and contemplative prayer mark's going to play in the background in a minute but i want to read this real quick from the catechism on meditation and then contemplative prayer 2705 meditation is above all a quest let's go on a quest 2708 meditation engages thought imagination emotion and desire contemplative prayer 2709 says this what is contemplative prayer saint teresa answers contemplative prayer is a close sharing between friends that's all prayer is 27 15 says this contemplation is a gave is contemplation is a gaze of faith fixed on jesus in a moment we're going to go on a quest we're going to seek our friend jesus we're going to engage our thought imagination desires and we're going to gaze upon jesus and i'm going to invite you to share with him whatever's stirring inside of you just bring it to him bring him the desires and then we're going to take a moment and we're going to ask him to share with you his desires now don't strive don't beat yourself up no i can't do this i i've tried that's not just just try just give it a shot who knows he might reveal something to you if not try later this is what i'm going to ask you to do and i'm going to lead you in these in these prayers i'm going to invite you to explore your desires and to bring them to the father share with him your desires what are the pure desires of your heart if you're not sure if they're pure or not share and then after that we're going to ask the father to share his desires with you and then you're gonna ask the lord to connect where your desire and his desires become one okay you all ready if you will close your eyes let's go on a quest i want to invite you to gaze upon jesus now listen some of us we're just going to be able to enter into this and some of us it's more of a struggle and if i was to do this ten times five times i might be able to enter in five times not so just think of jesus maybe a picture you like of him or try to picture him just ask him to reveal himself i'm going to pray that for you that he reveals himself or just if you're not picture-oriented just just know he's there how do i know that because he says i'll never leave you nor forsake you i'm with you always so he's here so let me pray lord jesus i ask that you would reveal yourself to us in whatever way you desire to come holy spirit i'm going to have mark just play in the background softly and i'm going to give you a minute and then i'm going to check on you but just gaze upon jesus now with your eyes closed i just want to see what's happening in the room if you if you were able to gaze upon jesus with your eyes closed just lift your hand up for me just so i could see how we're doing okay that's what i was guessing it's about half the room so if you're not don't think there's something wrong with you oh jesus reveal yourself to us in whatever way you want if he happens to be far away just move closer to him for some of you he may just want to sit with you maybe lay your head upon his chest some of you may want to take a walk with you might want to show you something whatever it is just just allow yourself to go there come holy spirit guide us lord jesus reveal what you want to reveal now whether you're able to experience him right now or not i want to invite you to share with him what's stirring in your heart share with him the desires don't be afraid to go there those real painful ones have been suppressed go ahead and go there bring him your desires mark why don't you go ahead and sing over them as they're sharing with the lord their desires i love each other i'll never leave i'll never leave i love each other [Music] you can dream with me it's okay you can breathe you can dream with me share with him your desires your longings and now i want to invite you to ask him and i'll lead you in the prayer in a minute but ask him what are his desires lord jesus i ask that you would reveal to us your desires again don't strain strive just be still just let it let it unfold the way it's going to unfold come holy spirit lord i ask you to share with them your desires let's have mark singer over you for another minute or two mark you just follow the lord and whatever he's putting on your heart and just sing it over them you can come closer so now with your eyes remaining closed let me ask you guys by show of hands how many of you were able to express your desires to the lord raise your hand for me beautiful how many of you did the lord share something of his desire with you raise your hand for me excellent like i said if i was doing this 50 of the time i received something 50 not don't don't overanalyze that we're just giving opportunity now i want to ask you while i'll do it with you let's ask the lord to show you where your desires and his desires have become one so lord jesus i ask you to reveal that with the desires they've shared with you or any other desires and the desires you shared with them or will share with them i ask you to show them whether it's now or in the days to come where those desires become one [Music] so give you another couple minutes just give opportunity for the lord to reveal what he wants holy spirit come and have your way and then mark if you'll go ahead and sing over them you can go ahead and step up and bring a little more volume that they're ready and just sing whatever the lord's placed on your heart [Music] i'm coming [Music] i'm through through for you i'm coming through [Music] my name is coming through [Music] coming through free i'm coming through coming through for you [Music] i'm coming through [Applause] coming through for you i have a plan i'm coming through coming through for you [Music] i'm not gonna leave you dry i'm coming through i'm coming through for you [Music] let me just summarize this for you and we'll send you off [Music] very beginning of the catechism in paragraph 27 again says the desire for god has been written within the human heart because we've been created by god and for god and god never ceases to draw man to himself he is pursuing you he will continue to pursue you in the days and nights to come he's going to pursue your desires god never ceases to draw man to himself only in god will man find the truth and the happiness that he never stops searching for delight yourself in the lord and he will grant you the desires of your heart hope deferred may make the heart sick but longing fulfilled is a tree of life god desires to fulfill the longings and he wants to exceed your hopes dreams and imaginations he wants to fulfill the deep longings if you get stuck with disordered desires ask the lord to reveal to you what are the deep longings beneath it don't be afraid to pursue the deep longings of your heart dream here's the last thing i'm going to leave with you i invite you to take your dreams the pure and holy desires and multiply them by about a hundred and you might get remotely close to god's dreams and desires for you if you don't mind let's stand up and just go ahead and get near somebody else if you're willing if you want space stay to yourself but let's pray for one another pray this for the people next to you lord jesus thank you for your abundant life i ask that you would awaken your desires in their heart and the days and weeks and months ahead that you would awaken your desires that you would share your desires you would share your dreams and that you would bless them now let's pray what we pray in the beginning come holy spirit fill the heart of your faithful and kindle within them the fire of your love come holy spirit holy spirit i love you holy spirit i invite you holy spirit i expect you holy spirit please go home with us and dwell with us now let's pray this may the lord bless you and keep you may his face shone upon you be gracious to you turn his face toward you and give you peace lord bless everything you are doing everything you will do in the name of the father and the son in the holy spirit amen thank you all so much for your entering in and your hunger and your desire and listen it's a bit of a risk to go after something like dreams and desires and i know for some of you he spoke some things and encouraged you and revealed some things and desires flowed and were awakened and i know for some of you maybe you're feeling hope deferred and a little frustrated press in go on that quest of meditation gaze upon jesus spend that time and be quiet with him share your desires with them give them opportunity to speak cultivate it cultivate that prayer life the catholic church is so beautiful in the rich rich history we have with contemplative prayer meditation all the beautiful things the sacraments and traditions that we have take advantage of it and press into him

Channel: Mary Queen of Peace - Sammamish

Views: 282

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: BI3pgsuiE7Y

Length: 117min 0sec (7020 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 01 2022