Peter Herbeck - What You Will Be Shown (2021 Priests, Deacons, Seminarian's Retreat)

[Music] [Music] i just want to express how grateful i am uh that you came to my birthday party i really appreciate it all this way uh i'm 63 years old you guys how about that i'm getting older and uh i felt i've been i was feeling it more this year in different parts of my body and at one point during colbit i was i was in my room in the morning mid-morning praying and i was reading scripture and my heart was just filled with joy and for the second time in a week i got up and i went into my living room no one was home and i started dancing and singing to the lord i'd never done that before in my entire life and i was hoping no one would come into the house you know and see me but i'm dancing around the room and all of a sudden pop my knee popped and all the years i played sports i never had a below-the-belt injury and here i am limping around my flipping around my living room saying you are too old for this herb back to slow down so anyway before we get started why don't we stand brothers and just stretch for a minute okay just let the blood flow stretch reach for the sky all right now bend down let's touch our toes every one of us uh some of your brothers are saying what are you kidding i haven't seen mine for two years how can i touch him yeah let's do it again just stretch a little bit yeah blessed be god okay very good we have been blessed profoundly this week so far haven't we you know and uh yeah amen amen sister miriam sister miriam gave uh laser shot to our hearts the last night and today and the lord did some surgery how many of you felt like god was really doing something deep in your heart along the lines that she was leading you feel kind of freed and healed more than when you walked in the door thanks be to god well i'd like to continue that but but tonight brothers i want to i also want to speak about she's talking about healing and the renewing of our hearts i want to talk about the renewing of our mind because as we go forward as we go forward into what the lord has in store for us and the battle that lies before us he wants us to be healed which is why he's gone out he's helped us so much internally and in the heart because when we're internally battling things carrying weight it's difficult for us to believe and to have faith and to be able to move into what god wants us to do what he says he's calling us to do and what he can accomplish through us because we're stuck and so part of what the internal work that the lord is doing is helping us get free for the work that he wants us to do moving ahead and what i want to talk about tonight is the lord's call in each one of us every one of us is a prophet amen say with me i am a prophet not only a priest not only a king but a prophet and it's my conviction that one of the things the lord is doing the holy spirit is doing is restoring renewing and empowering the gift of being a prophet not only of giving prophecies but to walk as christ did in his prophetic ministry you know christianity brothers is a prophetic interpretation of reality christianity is a revelation about what's true at its most fundamental level christianity is the revelation of human what is a human being of human identity it's a revelation of god and god's plan and god's purpose we're living at a time when there's an extraordinary battle over those very things what is it what does it mean to be human there's a battle for identity going on and brothers the world has never seen anything like this before the battle is intense the devil's going right for the core right for the foundation he's going to try he's going to bite his own tail because he always does he's going to end up you know be part of his own demise but he's going to do everything he can to destroy as much as possible he comes to deceive he comes to destroy and one of the fundamental weapons that we have that the lord has given to us is the word of god and the power that's in the word of god and the power that's in us when these two realities come together this is the most powerful thing on the earth god in us in terms of us engaging and extending the kingdom of god now do you notice in tonight's liturgy of the hours in ephesians chapter 3 verse 20. there's a declaration that happens in in the scripture when especially the beginnings of the letters that the apostles give us they they tell us so much about who god is what god has done for us and who we are before they call us to do what we're supposed to do chapter 3 verse 20 now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we can ask or think to him be glory in the church and in christ jesus to all generations forever and ever amen to him who by the power at work within us there's a power in you there's a power in me that's literally the lord's antidote to bring about the renewal and the transformation and to lead the church in the battle in this moment it's not your smarts it's not your bank account it's not your personality your persuasive ability it's not your it's it's none of that i mean god uses nature but fundamentally there's a power that's at work within us that when we believe it and we walk in it and we stand in it in the power of the holy spirit we're able to break strongholds help renew the mind and set captives free now you may not like the idea but priests and deacons you guys are on the front lines of this battle isn't that great doesn't that just make your day it's all hitting the fan right now and the lord what does the lord do he puts you on the front lines and you're like are you serious look around i mean i'm looking down and thinking wow we're in trouble if i look with natural eyes right i mean we're like the halflings the hobbits in the lord of the rings who actually brought down the kingdom and you know who actually went to the mountain who actually broke the back was it aragorn he played a role who was it it was these little humble halflings there's a message in that for us i mean they were the last people in the whole story that you would want to follow into the fire and that's because it's not about our strength it's not even about aragorn's sword it's about the lord it's about his mighty power he brings the victory brothers amen all right you kind of believe it let me say that again the victory belongs to the lord amen amen and the crazy thing and he's calling us at this moment to go with him now into the heat of the battle so what i want to do tonight i want to talk a little bit about the battle that's going on the battle acts 26 describes paul with our theme passage paul gets a revelation of who jesus is he receives an assignment from the lord that revelation of jesus there was an impartation in the revelation of anointing that the lord passed on to paul to accomplish the assignment that he gave him but not only did he give him something paul needed to see the king he needed to see who it is who has the victory and it changed his whole outlook about reality about himself and what's possible amen this is what the lord always does because the answer is in us knowing who is in charge knowing who the lord is and our confidence in the gift of the holy spirit the fire of the spirit reveals to us the majesty of jesus and he gives us confidence and he gives us courage he gives us the fear of the lord he gives us zeal and we move out of our natural lethargy or timidity or fear and he gives us supernatural strength and then he expects us to do something with it to actually walk in it and to believe with a big faith that the victory belongs to the king and just declare what he tells us to declare and do what he tells us to do he said to paul now i've appeared to you for a purpose you are my servant we are servants of the great king we are servants of the word of the great king and we're and what we do is we exist to follow his commands wherever he sends us it doesn't matter how much it looks like it's over our head or that we can't handle it anymore because i'm too old or my faith is too small it's possible because he's the one sending us and in humility we are his servants and we obey him and we go wherever he tells us to go and he says you're my servants and you're my witnesses to what i've shown you and so paul tells us here that jesus said to him that he's being sent to open people's eyes because their eyes are blinded as i read uh two nights ago where paul said that the devil veils the eyes of human beings so they can't see the one thing that changes everything they can't see the glory of god that's shining on the face of jesus christ on a human face on the god man who is the new creation the beginning of the new humanity and he's the the answer to the fundamental realities that human humanity is facing it can't come to on its own on its own strength we're enslaved in darkness and he said and you're called to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of satan to god that is your commission that is your assignment you can't do that on your own strength but he's given you supernatural power to be able to do it and one of the ways and one of the fundamental ways he does it is through the preaching of the word of god there's power in the word of god to break strongholds now in this battle brothers that we're facing it's important for us to understand the perspective that the apostles walked in i want to read revelation chapter 1 verse 9. he said i john your brother share with you in jesus how many of you know what john's about to say i'm just curious so john's writing a letter to the re to the seven churches in asia minor and he's writing a letter and he says i'm sharing with you he says three things you biblical scholars tell me what are the three things he's sharing with all his brothers and sisters in the seven churches what's the first one what's that what i've seen nope not exactly in the in the ballpark but no here's what he's saying this is normal christianity this is what every generation faces to one degree or another listen to what he says i john your brother share with you the persecution another translation is the tribulation what are we sharing as a community of those who are baptized into christ he's identifying and who are these small little christian communities in a massive pagan empire who's who's claiming that the emperor is god and that everybody needs to somehow some demigod that everybody needs to acknowledge they have no power they have no influence there they are right in the center of this and they're being persecuted some of these churches are literally being persecuted some people are being martyred some people are being thrown in jail right so he said share your share i'm sharing with you the persecution the kingdom and the patient endurance the kingdom we're living together with the king our lord came to establish his kingdom he's saying and we're with him you see his faith vision do you see the prophetic understanding he knows what's going on he's not facing tribulation saying wait a minute what's the deal i didn't sign up for this isn't this supposed to be different i mean jesus is my lord i'm supposed to be prospering i'm supposed to be protected i'm not supposed to be in this situation but he's saying no this is the reality we're living in the tribulation we're living in jesus what did jesus say about the tribulation he said brothers deacons priests seminarians he's saying in this world you will have okay there's one guy alive tonight okay in this world you will have no tribulation is right let's say it together in this world you will have tribulations but what does he say draw back get fearful get somebody else to explain why this has to happen in my life because this isn't what i signed up for he said no in this world you're going to have tribulation you inhabit a fallen world you're in a battlefield but here's what i want you to do you who serve me here's what i want i want you to be of good cheer really how much pain and fear and anger and insecurity what has gone through your mind and heart over the last couple of years when you see the condition of the world and it's growing hostility and the weakness of the church that's being exposed at the same time tell me the truth is your response to that hey i think i'm going to be of good cheer that's what i'm going to do right how much discouragement how much negative talk how much fear how much anxiety has kept you up at night you can say it's like jesus what do you i mean really be of good cheer he's not talking about being silly and living in denial and trying to pretend something's not real he knows you're in the tribulation he called you forth in this hour but he's saying be of good cheer why i have overcome this world and i live in you so you have overcome this world now act like you overcame the world do you hear me this is what the holy spirit wants to help us with because the devil wants right now for you and i to be timid to be fearful and to not respond in confidence and strength i'm a man of god yeah i'm weak and i'm broken but the king lives in me and the one just like the bible we read these you know liturgy of the hours we say these things over and over again there is a power in you that's greater than any power on this earth and you know that and you know that that power is going to lead you from death to life and that nothing will separate you from the love of god that's in you everything is temporary on this earth and you already ready you already have a down payment of the eternal hope that's in you you should have a deep confidence that i'm not afraid of anything on this earth because i know where i'm going i know who i am so i don't care what you do to me i really don't you believe that there's one guy over here praise the lord i actually paid him to say it thanks i paid him to be my amen corner tonight that's really good money that's right that's right the persecution the kingdom and the patient endurance now book of revelation i want to recommend to you brothers i don't know how well you know it i recommend especially the first three chapters to chew on to meditate on there's over 30 titles of jesus in there who is jesus is the key who is he who is he to you how do you know him how he's revealing himself to you he's the faithful witness he's the firstborn from the dead he's the ruler of the kings of the earth he's the bridegroom he's the king he's the judge and that whole beautiful the the the uh revelation is the drawing back of the veil it's the it's the showing forth not just of dimensions of god's plan but it's the showing forth of the person of jesus and so here's john on the island of patmos living what he's describing right here he's celebrating the lord's day and he's in the spirit i love that he's in the spirit and the lord comes and he comes to comfort him as a pastor because what's on his heart is the condition of the seven churches that he's leading in this super difficult environment cultural circumstance and he's crying out to god and what's god's solution god's solution for john is a revelation of the glory of jesus the answer is knowing jesus and so he goes on to say i john your brother who share with you jesus in the tribulation the kingdom and the patient endurance was on the island of patmos i was in the spirit and i heard behind me a loud uh voice like a trumpet and then he goes on to say he hears the voices said now write to these churches and he names the seven churches and then he reveals himself to john eyes flaming fire from his mouth issues a sword and the holy spirit is helping john see it's the it's the fundamental mission brothers of the spirit to reveal the glory and majesty of jesus it's the first mission of the spirit and so john sees him and as the lord draws nearer further and further he says when i saw him i fell to the ground as though dead but he laid his right hand upon me saying fear not i'm the first and the last i'm the living one i die to behold i'm alive forevermore i have the keys of death and hades now write what you see john john sees the king who's conquered anything that john could fear for for his own life or for the churches that he's shepherding and the first thing john needs to see is that that's what we need to see that's what the lord wants to show us and then what does he do people today say you know where where is the lord in all this stuff all this stuff going down where's the lord in the church where's the power where's the life john gets a revelation and jesus says i'm right in the midst of you he's standing amidst the lampstands of the seven churches he's right in the middle and then he says you leaders you are in the palm of my hand the bishops or the priests leading those communities where are they they're right in the palm of his hand and i want to ask you brothers how much conviction do you have that he stands squarely in the center of your church community and that he's you're literally in the palm of his hand that's a that's a reality that's the source of your strength that's the source of your confidence knowing and believing that that's the power of faith confidence in hope then he goes on and he he john communicates to them what jesus is saying to each of the seven churches and it's worth reflecting on these churches i'm not going to do it tonight but encourage you to do that because they represent different dimensions of what the church goes through in time throughout history but i do want to talk about one that is rarely talked about because it's so interesting because of what it reveals about jesus and about who he is as a shepherd and as a prophet you know the ones we know the most about are like ephesus hey you lost your first love or laodicea you're lukewarm i'll spit you out of my mouth i want you guys to listen to this one because this one just shocks me and grips me it says and the angel of the church of thyatira write this these are the words of the son of god who whose eyes are like a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze this is the lord he said i know your works your love your faith your service and your patient endurance i know that your last works are greater than the first but i have against you the following how many of you know what he's about to say i'm just curious how many know what he's going to say to the church in thiatera raise your hand honestly if you know it clearly okay there's like three guys are you guys baptists what are you are you yeah so he goes uh notice what he said here um john john said i share with you the tribulation the kingdom and the patient endurance this is a really important two words to take in because what he's saying and what's what's at the heart of what we need to do as a response brothers is simply to stand we're fighting in the in a battle that's there's no battle like this one in history and fighting it isn't we have to fight in a way no one ever has all we have to do brothers is to stand is to endure and not to quit because the battle's already been won we need to witness to it that's why he's talking about patient endurance that's what courage helps us do to stand scripture says do all that your duty requires and hold your ground we're losing ground in the catholic church today will they ultimately lose the ground no the gates of hell will never prevail against the kingdom against the church but in lots of places the church is losing ground would you agree with me okay because we're in a fierce battle so what are we supposed to do we're supposed to stand and just don't quit and why can i stand in the face of all that because i can see my king and i know who he is and i know where i'm going and i know there's power in me to live it out now buckle up you guys because this is pretty rare what you're about to hear about jesus okay he's the shepherd i know your works your love faith and service and patient endurance those are pretty high qualities for a parish could you say that about your parish okay never mind i want to ask you okay i know that your last works are greater than the first but i have this against you you tolerate the woman jezebel now scholars say it's it's probably wasn't her name but it refers to jezebel of the old testament and you have a teacher a prophetess in your midst who's like jezebel of the old testament listen what he says but i have this against you you tolerate the woman jezebel who calls herself a prophet and is teaching and beguiling my servants to practice immorality and idolatry now how many baptized catholics are openly practicing immorality you know look i mean look at the look at the sexual revolution look what's happening in our culture how many catholics are standing up in places like the governor of new york a few years ago dancing you know in the legislature in albany because we just passed a bill to be able to kill babies all the way up to our last breath let's celebrate and then he goes out and he lights up the capital of the world and sets up a tower pointing up to heaven i just thought to myself oh my gosh oh that's a demonic stronghold a demonic stronghold of a culture we talked about strongholds that are in us that we we dealt with this with sister miriam uh lies unbelief that we believe and the devil builds strongholds he puts up walls around us to just make sure those lies stay in us you're no good you'll never be forgiven you should be filled with shame look at the regret look at your life those are all personal strongholds that god's word comes against we believe what god says about us not what the enemy is saying about us we dialogue with god we don't dialogue with the devil we believe what he says and he breaks the strongholds and we become free cultural strongholds are similar the devil's building walls he's planted these seeds and people a long time ago through the sexual revolution and the lies and now these things are becoming instantiated in law we even have in our midst in the church people promoting sexual immorality and calling us now to change the teaching of the church even some bishops in the world are doing it so here's jesus here's his pastoral strategy i want to recommend this to you okay he says but i have this against you you tolerate the woman jezebel who calls herself a prophet and is teaching and begalling my servants by teaching sexual immorality and i doubt leading them to idolatry i gave her time to repent but she refuses she refuses to repent of her fornication beware i'm throwing her on a sick bed and those who commit adultery with her i will throw into great distress unless they repent of their doings and i will strike her children dead he's talking about the disciples not her biological children if she has them is that jesus could that be gee it sounds old testament doesn't sound like i mean could it be mr rogers the mr rogers that most people think jesus is here's zeal here's the authority of jesus look what he says i'm doing this that all the churches will know that i'm the one who searches the minds and the hearts and i will give to each of you as your works deserve there are brothers throughout the gospels words of jesus where he talks about the serious consequences of not responding to his word we did a bible study this last year ralph martin and i and some of the young men were working with just to go through the gospels we started with matthew say let's we had one goal let's read let's find out how many times jesus talks about the eternal consequences of following his word or not you know and and we thought we knew we thought we were pretty confident we had a pretty good feel of that i thought you know maybe five or ten key points are going to be hit in the gospel of matthew over 50 times jesus talks about the eternal consequences of not responding to him and we're both sitting there saying we're all sitting thinking does our preaching correspond to jesus's preaching i mean do we just in terms of percentage do we talk about the things jesus talks about and the way he talks about them because i'm his servant and i'm meant to go forward with the words that he's given to me and notice what jesus is doing here what sometimes god has to do is bring his discipline to instill a healthy fear of the lord because the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom and wisdom is what how to rightly align myself with god how to walk in righteousness and walk in holiness because god is holy and if i don't know that it's the definition of being stupid i'm going to walk in foolishness we're living in a world brothers that people don't fear god anymore there's no cuts this is why you scratch your head and say wait a minute how can we actually be saying that a circle is a square in our country how can we be believing the crazy things how can we actually believe it's a good thing as a country that if a five-year-old comes to kindergarten class or a first grade boy says i'm a girl that the entire adult population in that school has to recognize that boy that he is who he says he is and they don't have to say a word to the parents it's crazy isn't it how do we get here one of the fundamental reasons is we lack wisdom why do we lack wisdom romans 1 because humanity the constant temptation of humanity paul tells us is to suppress the truth about god refusing to acknowledge god and to give god thanks why because i want to be god that's why that's what's happening in our culture and we're calling it wisdom we're calling it freedom and we're celebrating and our president is i don't know i don't want to say but anyway there's stuff going on we can't gain wisdom we can't lead people in wisdom without a healthy growth of fear of the lord which gary lagrange you know the famous spiritual writer in the catholic church he said jesus had the fear of the lord healthy fear of the lord not to punish you know their slavish fear like oh i'm going to be punished no it's the healthy fear of a son before the almighty god confirmation i wrote a little book you guys the little booklet fear god and give him glory because i was so struck that the spiritual gifts in confirmation they end with the fear of the lord and at the end it says and he uh he had the fear of the lord the messiah and his delight was in the fear of the lord how many of us would say we delight in the fear of the lord really how many like to teach on the fear of the lord how many like to teach on the judgment of god when was the last time you did it right i mean i know we don't do that in our culture some it's somehow man you don't want to talk about fear in god in the same sentence because then people get the wrong idea and you maybe have to encourage people and and you don't want people to feel bad and it totally misses the point the holy fear of god is a precious thing and it gives people strength and it gives us strength to resist what comes it's an important piece of what god wants to equip us with at this time now i was i want to tell you a couple stories that motivated me to write a little bit about this my my wife debbie i told you i'm married to a lovely woman named debbie um hebrew catholic who loves her faith and she was asked to come to a parish not far from ann arbor good sized parish uh to talk to the parents of confermons and so uh the the woman in charge of the parish uh of of the formation had heard debbie give a talk to young women she's been working with young women for many years on identity there's the battleground right the battleground is what is what does it mean to be human right what does it mean to be a man or a woman and she basically talked about finding our identity in jesus and about halfway through the talk she stopped for a minute and she said you know the reason it's so important is i just want you know i work with kids all the time and this is a really really hard thing for them because everywhere on facebook and instagram and this and that everybody is celebrating their self-creative identity and they put pressure on kids to think that this is your burden to create yourself that's all she said and she kind of went on well at the end of it so there's like 90 parents there for this sacrament right so what is confirmation your kid's about to come into full membership into the church soldier of christ disciple right it comes into maturity the parents are excited so they have a q a and my wife is just kind of a small gentle woman and i'm at home by the way i wasn't at this thing but i got a full report after and they have q a and this woman raises her hand and she says i work for the local public school i'm in the health department and she looks at my wife and she points at her she goes you are the most hateful person i've ever heard and my wife just kind of froze because she's not like you know she's not that way at all and this lady goes on to a diatribe about how important trans and this that and the other thing are okay and how we need to be open to this and the whole room froze and another woman got up who was angry and said the same thing nobody said a word and my wife anyway my wife comes home that night and i'm sitting down i'm fighting a good fight i'm on i'm a lazy boy watching a hoops game i got some chips and a beer and i'm going for it you guys i'm like absolutely living it for the kingdom and my wife comes home and this is a woman who's wise and gentle seriously and she comes in and i said hi honey how'd it go and she'd look like a deer in the headlights and i said what's the matter honey and she goes boy was that hard tonight i said really why would it be hard so she sits down and explains it to me and she was shaken by it and i said i said honey did were there any men in the room and she said yeah i even knew some of them and after these women were like really upset and saying these things i looked at one of the guys and he turned his head away wouldn't look me in the eye so the next morning by the way i just i shout i said debbie i am so proud of you wow you took a hit you took a hit for the king you took a hit for the truth unfortunately it happened in a church in a confirmation class with with parents who are supposed to be disciples so the next morning she gets an email from this woman who directed a beautiful email she said debbie i want to ask your forgiveness you said exactly what i wanted you to say but i have to tell you when that woman got angry i was frozen in my seat and i couldn't move so the angry woman you know what she did she went to the pastor and she chewed the pastor out you know what the pastor did the pastor called the woman in who works for him and said you will write an apology letter to every adult who was there and if you don't you're fired hello that is a picture of where much of the church is at today filled shot through with the fear of the lord or fear of man i mean the fear of man which is a stronghold that has to be broken i called that pastor and we had a conversation together which i won't mention what we talked about oh man that was my wife and i know her so anyway never mind i was at a wet that was that was like over 18 months ago a week ago you guys i was at a wedding at a wedding reception beautiful beautiful wedding and i'm there and this guy comes up to me and he goes peter can i talk with you and i said yeah and he goes my name is so-and-so and i was in the crowd that night i mean i'd kind of forgotten about the whole thing i was in the crowd that night and i am so ashamed i was afraid i was afraid to say a word nobody could even stand up and say in a know generally ma'am thank you for sharing what you had to say but i think that debbie didn't say a thing tonight that's not in the scripture or the catechism and i think your issues are with the church at this point and not with her just something simple like that nobody said a word and this man stood there at the wedding he looked at me and he and he uh he said please forgive me that i didn't protect your wife and i hit him no i'm kidding and then i no and i said brother i love you i understand we're entering territory none of us have been before we're not trained for this kind of stuff but the king wants to train us to get there amen amen this priest basically had had a kind of stronghold like don't ever upset anybody you know that feeling anybody like that don't disrupt don't upset pope benedict xvi in verbum domini he says it's time to preach not so much a message of consolation he said but a message that disrupts people wow and he's not talking about a thundering condemnation nothing like that but preaching helping people understand and see who christ is what the stakes are and beginning to help them lay hold of their calling to be priest prophet and king second corinthians chapter 10 for though we live in the world we are not carrying on a worldly war brothers for the weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds these strongholds that grip people friends it's gripping people now i got an email yesterday from a math teacher in a in a big catholic school in a prominent city in the country i've never met a guy he said hey a month and a half ago two guys who work here at the school came out and said they were gay and they were going to marry each other okay and he said so it kind of destabilized things at the same time he said we had students who are running for government you know you know student government and they're running on gender race and all they're doing just what's happening in the culture choose me because of my you know whatever woke category i'm in this happening in the catholic high school and he goes so i thought gosh we gotta have a i can't wait we're having a staff meeting at the end of the week and they had a staff meeting and one of the most prominent teachers in the school stands up and says because teachers were putting up lgbtq flags and things like this this teacher stood up in front of the faculty and said it's time for the church to get beyond the outdated approach to human sexuality and to get with it and he said almost the entire faculty clapped their hands that's a spiritual stronghold of the mind they don't see brothers there's not a human being on the planet that's my enemy or your enemy human the human race is in a spiritual battle and the church is in a weak place it's compromised in many different places it's accommodating in many different places and the word of god paul goes on to say through the word of god we destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of god and we take every thought captive to obey christ being ready to to punish every disobedience when our obedience is complete we destroy strongholds god's word has power one of the reasons so many people are so susceptible to strongholds you guys in positions of fear and compromise is because we've lost confidence in the authority of the word of god so many in the church and we don't preach it with conviction we don't preach it with confidence i had i did a retreat for a group of priests on the east coast a few years ago and where i was talking about the fear of the lord a bit and talking about preaching the whole council of god's word to say don't edit the mail when it comes like you guys know the cycle of readings that come every year and some of them sometimes some of the harder sayings of jesus are on there some of the more complicated things that the culture doesn't like and it's a fair amount of the time guys don't preach on those things because they don't want to because they'll take a little part of it they don't go right after it and they don't teach on it so i said to the guy i said hey guys look just just whatever cycle comes just take up that word and then don't judge people just take the word of god and say wow wow today you guys there's a there's a word from jesus or there's something from paul in the word to in scripture today that's really hard it's hard to read and it's running counter to our culture but i want to read it i want to talk with you about it today because we we all stand under the word of god and i have to align my heart under the word of god under the lordship of my king because he's never said a single thing that's not perfect love and he's teaching this and we need to know it so that we don't get trapped we don't get sucked into the broader culture and we don't get weakened slowly but we understand it we have renewed minds and so this one priest he was about 40 he said you know there is a hole in front of his brother he said there's a whole set of things i just don't preach he said i'm an associate in a really upscale parish highly educated folk and some of the things that i think i'm supposed to preach on i know some of them are not going to like and so he said i just don't do it you know and he said the pastor doesn't either and he named a number of subjects and he asked me he goes what do you think i should do hmm this is what i said to him i said brother i love you but if you're not going to preach the whole counsel of god's word turn in your caller turn it in because you're gonna have to face the king because you're editing his word don't do that trust him he'll help you he'll teach you how to communicate it in love communicate it we need it now it's the the very things we most need teaching on and god's word on are the things that the culture doesn't like and those are the very things we're tempted not to talk about am i resonating at all you guys i don't i'm honestly tell me the truth tell me the truth i mean are is this at all resonating with you [Applause] so we ended the session next morning was the last session so we start the session and he wasn't there you know and i'm kind of feeling like oh shoot maybe maybe i shouldn't have said anything like that you know it's all i said but we went on so we're about 15 minutes into it and he comes walking into the room in front of his brothers and he said peter excuse me can i say something to my brothers and i said yeah he goes guys i want to tell you what happened to me yesterday i left this session and i was troubled i couldn't sleep he said and last night about three in the morning i went down in front of the blessed sacrament and i laid down on my face before the lord and i said lord help me help me what's wrong and he said the lord told me loud and clear son i love you but you are shot through with the fear of man with inordinate self-love and you're afraid you know and he stood up in front of his brothers and said that and he said you know you guys it's true and he said i want to repent before you and i want to say from this day forward i'm going to communicate the whole counsel of god's word in love and i'll wash people's feet while i'm doing it i'm not backing away anymore by the grace of god and his brother stood up and gave him a standing ovation you know i said okay i'll hold off my applause come back in a couple of years and give me an update how it went no i really didn't say that i'm just kidding so you are in a unique place you are in a position of enormous responsibility god has put his word his sword in your hand and you priests in particular you raised the body of the lord which is the fundamental the most important identity forming reality on the planet we gather god's people to say this is what's being communicated here the reality of jesus christ risen this is this is for us the meaning of life love god with all your heart soul mind and strength love your neighbor as yourself this is what he communicated right there he's communicating to me that love is the greatest thing and speaking the truth in love is part of that and he showed me that human fulfillment the absolute apex of existence is to humble yourself and to become obedient even unto death this is our path to freedom this is our path to life and to submit to him and we you guys gather us around that table and we say amen to it every time it's lifted and that lifting is so important but it's word and sacrament guys the word of god the sword needs to be lifted and it's not clubbing somebody over the head it's not judging anybody it starts with the sword in my life it pierces my heart and i bring the whole counsel of god's word because he wants to free people's minds so they can walk in freedom now the in the book of revelation it ends right we all know the reality of the martyrs who it says that they conquered by what by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony they stood they bore witness to the end and now they're being celebrated and their life is like an aroma it's an incense that goes up in the in the heavenly places before god isn't that amazing yeah it's amazing absolutely amazing how do we how do we in this hour when it's so challenging what do we do i love saint francis he said this to preachers father dave has this memorized i could ask dave do you want to just say it no he's not even here okay he went to bed all right here's saint francis the preacher must draw first from secret prayers what he will later pour out in his sermons he must first grow hot within before he speaks words which in themselves are cold these are the life of the body these are the attackers of devils these are the light of the world it made me think of something father francis martin said here at this conference many years ago he said brothers take your day off on monday tuesday do your zits and laban and your form get on the passages you're going to preach on get the background on it and he said once you're done with that what did he say anybody remember he said get on the floor on your face and beg god to put a living word in you for his people that you shepherd and then he said don't get off the ground until the lord gives you an anointed word to proclaim and then you give that word and watch what the lord does it's so important brothers the reason i told that story the story uh the other night about father tim nolan who who got the fire started in my family you know here he was meeting with three young moms who would have known what was gonna happen but he came and lit a fire he just lit the match he goes he said look i hear can i just share with you what god has done in my life can i share what he wants to do in your life and he shared it with them who maybe their babies were crying who knows in the background they're coming back forth it was before i leave could i pray with you sure and boom the current of grace went right through that guy right into my sister and it made its way it's not complicated it's simple but it comes from an awareness of what's in me and going forward brothers it's the spirit that breaks the yoke of slavery that's on people it's the word of god that brings down strongholds it's not just we're we're so heady in the church when we preach i feel so sorry for men a lot in church because so much homolyzing is so heady or it's just so flat it's not urgent it's not full of zeal it's not full of an eternal perspective and brothers we need men look at every statistic out there and and how much men influence the conversion of their own children if you want to grab men you got to grab them you got to speak with fire to their heart with urgency you got to tell them how great their king is and that it's worth selling everything they have for him communicate urgency to men give them a mission let them see the king that you're going to come i don't mean you have to shout and dance but with conviction you communicate who the lord is to you and you say i'm following the king and why you guys want to come with me and you watch some of those guys line up behind you most guys i'm telling i've done men's ministry for years most guys feel like they feel spiritually out of water because they don't feel like they're very spiritual they come to church and the church is a kind of passive reality and they don't engage much of anything and what they end up feeling like is what the church is is what it reminds me of is i need to be a good boy i need to behave you know like sister was saying christianity gets reduced to sin management target your homilies to those guys and challenge them and help them and they'll follow you saint francis one more thing here here's here's the assignment when he sent out the brothers to preach he said you should aim as you preach for the advantage of the spiritual growth of your listeners so he said tell them briefly about vice and virtue tell them about punishment and glory wow saint francis said that the guy who talked to birds and hung out with bambi he said that this is the charge he gave to the brothers that's right from the rule of 1223 chapter nine to preachers let me say it again he said for the advantage of their spiritual growth well what is to the advantage of their spiritual growth teach them advice teach them virtue teach them about the reality of punishment that comes from not from not following god's commands but teach them what the glory that god is giving to them isn't that wonderful isn't that amazing amen amen i'm going to stretch just for two minutes to end with a story during covet you guys uh in a nutshell the first month i was pushing against the goad so to speak i was frustrated we had so much going on uh in 2020 and like all of you i just had to let it go and i felt like jesus said to me you know peter the world doesn't get shut down without the king uh signing off on it i'm i'm permitting this to happen it's in my permissive will but i want you to be still now and i want you to come and listen to me because you i need to heal you i want to help you for what i'm going to lead you into so here's what happened to me almost every single night since then even happened in the hotel last night you know in the middle of the night when you get older you get up anybody do that i've got this thing i do every night i don't know about you but man it's there and i used to and i'd come to bed and i used to get anxious like oh shoot i can't get back to sleep so the lord just said be quiet late and lay down i'd lay down every night you guys every almost every single night and i put my hand on my heart and i listened to something saint francis said and i'd say it to god lord who are you and who am i show me many nights dead quiet it's okay right this how prayer goes i want to tell you about one night one night i'm laying there and all of a sudden i get like a picture of myself and you know they have these beautiful pictures of of standing like i'm like the movie mel gibson's movie the you know the one about jesus you know passion and it's like that scene remember raining on calvaries on the cross and all of a sudden i saw myself and i had i had my arms around his legs and i was leaning on it and the blood from his foot was touching my cheek and i looked down and no one was there except our lady and she's looking up at him she's not looking at me she's looking up at him and she's just gazing at him and then all of a sudden you know how dreams can go i find myself sitting right next to her and she's there and she and and it was a beautiful marion moment you know how married leads you to jesus kind of thing this is the biggest moment i've ever had in my life like that it was really precious my wife was sleeping i didn't want to wake her up i'm laying there and um and i and i see myself sitting next to mary and she's looking at she looks at me she goes peter isn't he beautiful look at how beautiful he is and then the next picture she's holding him and she's stroking him and she's she's just smiling at him and then she turns and looks at me and said would you like to hold him yeah and then it's just like you know all of a sudden i'm holding him and i'm sitting there and i i just i was crying in my bed in the middle of the night but i was crying about how beautiful he is and how what he did for us and i was crying guys i said jesus please i'm begging you help me be your best friend help me be loyal to you i am such a weak dude i'm so compromised i got all the stuff i preach about to people i got it all in me you know what i mean please help me be your friend then the last thing and this was the kicker all of a sudden um i just saw him like he was rising like he was ascending and mary's there and saying do you see what he's done look what he's done and he's he rises up into the presence of god the father and all of a sudden it hits me like never before in a human body a human body now is rising up it's ascending and it's entering into the life of the trinity in full fire and i don't know if this is theologically correct but anyway i had this picture like jesus was stepping into the family of the father son and holy spirit and they were there but he came back with a human body the beginning of the new creation and while he was there the fire of god's love between the father son and holy spirit from which everything was made and created is burning in this renewed resurrected glorified body and he turns and his eyes are flaming fire and his heart is on fire and he sits down and the father says my son begin to rule it's all yours the kingdom has been established all glory belongs to you and the angel started singing and bowing down before him and the saints and everybody saying wow wow and mother mary was right look what he has done for you and this is what it means to get a revelation of jesus christ as lord burning in our hearts when you get that revelation that's what i'm going to pray for tonight we're going to pray that the fire of god come on you again brothers and give you a fresh and a new revelation of god and give you conviction of his glory how much he loves you and how much his power is at work in you did do you want that yeah let's pray stand up just for a minute i'm going to just pray a prayer and the brother's going to take us off i'm ready like five minutes over time [Music] mother mary we see your son how proud you are of him and she's thrilled and fascinated by she's a jewish mom and she loves bragging about him all the time you know lord jesus we are thrilled and fascinated and overwhelmed yes we weaken broken men who you love we do come tonight and we ask you that you would pour your holy fire on us you cast fire into our hearts tonight as we worship you as we adore you we can and then tonight brothers let's just confess our weakness before him tonight whatever compromise fears whatever stuff is there give it to jesus tonight say you know franciscan is not only a mountaintop experience it's kind of a garbage dump too everybody comes and they leave their garbage and they go home you know and the lord wants you to leave it here and just let him fill your heart so let the brethren lead you

Channel: Steubenville Conferences

Views: 52

Rating: 5 out of 5

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

Id: lZ4aIlfFVSM

Length: 61min 32sec (3692 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 16 2021