 Are you ready? Let's begin in prayer. Thank you so much, by the way, for coming today to a workshop that is actually daring to learn how to share your faith with other people. And so I appreciate your willingness to want to learn that and hopefully we can do something about that today. I'm optimistic. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord Jesus, we love you and adore you and we thank you Lord for giving us this opportunity to come together to discuss your good news, the gospel and how to share it with the world. Help us Lord to not make this complicated, but to make this a simple process of introducing you to people. We thank you for all of those that we're thinking of right now who could use a dose of the good news in Jesus' name. Amen. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. It was a few years ago, I was in Philadelphia and I was recording the Galatian study. And the Galatian study was, I believe, ten weeks. Eight or ten, I can't remember. And on the first day at a church, I taught four lessons. And then that night I went to my hotel the next morning. The next morning I woke up and I met my angels that took me to breakfast before the recording of the second for lessons of Galatians. We stopped off at a little restaurant. And at the restaurant, I was looking at what I wanted to order. You know, I'm looking at coffee or eggs or whatever. And I finally came up with what I wanted to order. And as I ordered, I stepped back with my friend and I looked to the right and there were about four guys, four or five guys walking toward me with great big honking bibles. I mean, they were big, honking is Greek for big. And they were walking towards me with great big grins on their face like they were so happy, you know. And I've been there and I know that look. And I looked at them and I thought, huh. And so I did one thing. I did one thing because I'm always sharing Christ with people on airplanes or wherever it might be. I always want to share the Lord with people. And the simplest of ways or even going deeply. So I did, I did what was called in theological circles, the right foot drop. And they were coming this way and I did the right foot drop. And that was, I put the right foot out like this and blocked the way. And I stood there and I said, looks like you guys like studying the Bible. Do not try that on your own. Looks like you guys are studying the Bible. And the guys say, oh yeah, praise God, man. Yeah, yeah. He said, do you study it? And I go, yeah, yeah, I do too. He says, praise God, brother, have a good day. And I said, have a good day. And I got my food and I walked over to sit down with my friend Barry and his wife. And I get ready to put it down and I look to the left which is also a theological exercise. It's called left glance. You can practice these in the mirror later on when you get home. It's the left glance. And I saw him. The last guy was putting coffee in his to-go coffee canister, whatever, cup. And he's doing that. His friends have left. And right as I'm ready to put my plate down, I have this thought. Go over and talk to him about what, Lord? All it was is go over and talk to him. I'm going to talk to you today about responding to that voice of the Lord and what you might say or what you might not say. At this point, when I did the left glance after doing the right foot drop, I did not know anything of what I would say. So I said, hmm, I got a decision to make. And I said to my friend, do you mind watching my breakfast here for a moment? I just feel like the Lord wants me to talk to that guy. And he said, well, if Lord wants you to talk to him, I mean, sure, yeah. And so I turned and I started walking towards the guy. Absolutely no clue what I'm going to say. None. I mean, Zippo. I have no clue what I'm going to say. And I get closer to him. And I still don't know what I'm going to say. And about two seconds before I said anything, I didn't know. And he looks up at me and I said, let me ask you a question. And it just came out like that. I said, let me ask you a question. He said, yeah, oh, praise God. And I said, I said, let me ask you, how did you get so excited about studying the Bible? Now, when I said that to him, I had no idea who he is. I have no idea of his background. I know nothing. I don't even know the translation he has or anything. All I knew was that in my heart, I felt that God was calling me to go and to talk to him. Not even know about what could have been the Minnesota twins. I don't know. But that's all I knew. And he said, I said, how did you get so excited about studying the Bible? And he says, oh, praise God, do you have a moment? I said, sure. He says, well, and I know what he's thinking. He's thinking because I used to be there. He's thinking I got one by the hook. I know that. And he probably even saw my lip doing that. And he's thinking I brought my Bible. I knew it would work. I wish my buddies were here to see this. I got a lunker on the line. And he said, you got a moment? I said, sure. He said, well, praise God. Well, let me just say this. Well, first of all, I was raised Catholic. That's the first words that come out of his mouth. But then I got born again. And of course, I wasn't being fed, so I had to leave. I'm going, mm-hmm. And he said, well, praise God. He always just interjected, oh, praise God. Hallelujah. Glory to God. And he said, it all started. I went to a Catholic college. And I wasn't doing very well. Of course, I didn't know God. And I was getting depressed. And I was one night, anyway, one night, praise God, hallelujah. One night, we were up in our dorm on the third floor. And a priest came up. A priest came up. And he started talking to us about Jesus. And he started talking about how Jesus loved us. And Jesus wanted to fill us with power and direction in our life. And I thought, yeah, that's what I want. That's what I need. And so anyway, praise God, hallelujah. He prayed with us. And I was filled with the spirit. And my life has never been the same since. It's never been the same since. And I said, wow, that's amazing. He says, but of course, I had to leave the church and now I'm at Calvary Chapel. And so anyway, yeah, I'm a Christian. Hallelujah. Glory to God. And I said, well, that is really interesting. Well, I'm curious. What school did you go to? And he said, well, you wouldn't know. It's just a small Catholic school. I went to Franciscan University over in Steubenville, Ohio. And I said, I wanted to sound conversational. So I said, what was that? Steubenville. He said, Franciscan University. I said, wow. I said, who is the priest? He said, you wouldn't know. Father Michael Scanlon. And I said, really? And he said, did you know the school? I said, yeah. He said, how do you know the school? I said, I taught there. He said, oh, praise God, what did you teach? Scripture. That's exactly what happened on that morning. And he said, and you still, you're still Catholic. And I said, hook, line and sinker. And he said, OK, OK, we need to talk. And we ended up talking till we talked for quite a while there about his walk with the Lord and my walk with the Lord. We talked until my breakfast was cold. The things I do for God. But so I ended up talking to him and it's able to share my story with him. And we exchanged information at that point. Now, I start off by telling you that story because that story began with nothing but a thought, nothing but a thought. That's all it was. Go talk to him. Now, when we as believers are in the kingdom of God and we're walking with Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, we, I believe, have to step up our game and we have to give God some credit that he can talk to us and he can nudge us and that he can give us the words that we are supposed to speak to people in love, in truthfulness. But I think that so many of us are so afraid to open up conversations with others. And if we open up a conversation, what are we going to say? And what if they ask me questions that I don't know the answers? I don't know that I'm quite adequately prepared to talk to anybody about the Lord in my life. There's a lot of fears there. We took a bit of a study. There's going to be more about this coming out in the future that did a basic study. And the study was about how many people that are Catholic that watch EWTN, listen to Christian radio, they have apps, they have students here and so forth. How many, what percentage of Catholics have never ever brought someone to Jesus? Have never brought someone into their church and sponsored them in the RCIA program, this experience, and brought them to the Lord? And the percentage was staggering, staggering that in the upper 90% of Catholics had never brought one person to the church into Christ. And that started making me think, to think that if we're so excited about learning the faith, which we should be, and I'm not putting a cold shower on that, that's very important to learn the faith and go to conferences and buy books and study the Bible, great adventure, and do things like that, these are all really, really important things to do. But if the end of our game is simply consuming more, then when are we going to arrive? And so what we started to discover in our research was that we have a lot of Catholic consumers today, lots of Catholic consumers wanting more books, wanting more audio, wanting more shows, wanting more experiences. But when it comes to actually sharing with other people the good news of the Gospel, people were quiet. They didn't share, they didn't engage. And there were a number of reasons why they didn't do that and I'm going to go over with you some of the excuses that are used as to why we don't share Christ with other people and like Clay Pigeons, we're going to cast them up and with a shotgun we're going to blow them right out of the sky. Because the excuses that we come up with simply don't hold water and I want to show you how today. So when we said yes to Jesus, and I mentioned this the other day when Jesus said, come follow me and we said, yes, Lord, I want to follow you. I want to be your disciple. I want to think like you. I want to act like you. I want to be like you. I want to be with you all the time from morning till night and I hope that you will use me. Well, the end goal of the entire discipleship experience is that Jesus is going to send you on a mission. And the mission and please understand my heart when I say this because I'm being slightly facetious but the mission is not to go to another conference. That could be part of our life and that's a good thing but the mission is not to go to another conference necessarily or buy another book or listen to another CD or watch EWTN or Christian Radio and all those things are phenomenal and I love them and I recommend them to everybody but the mission is to do what he did. And Jesus never said to the disciples, come over tonight and watch TV. He sent them on a mission that was like what he was doing and he was going out and he was laying hands on the sick proclaiming the good news to people, raising the dead and so forth. And so that's what Jesus is calling us to do and deep down inside I can't help but believe that everybody here has deep down inside the desire to have the freedom of heart to be able to talk to anybody anytime anywhere any day. That inside of you there is that desire I want to be there. I want to be there Jeff and I know that because I have been there too and I've had to break through to where I would be bold enough to talk to people and allow the Holy Spirit to lead and guide the conversation but the key was what am I supposed to share with other people? Now in the Gospels, the Gospels are very clear that Jesus said in Matthew chapter 28 he said go into all the world and proclaim the gospel. Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel. And he said, Lo, I will be with you always even to the end of the age. So we are to go into the world and proclaim the gospel and Jesus said I will be there with you and I'll confirm the word with signs and wonders. So if Jesus were here today in the flesh at Christ the King Chapel and he said to you today I want you to go and I want you to tell people about me and I'll be with you. How many of you would be afraid to go to downtown Steubenville and tell people about Jesus if he was standing right there? Nobody would be afraid. Everyone would be like I'm on it. This is great. Great to share you with all of these people in my life. Yet because Jesus is not here in the flesh but here in our heart it becomes difficult and we have the sense that we're alone when the truth is we're not alone that this is something we're partnering with God in that God is with us when we share the Lord with anybody anywhere, anytime. I get questions all the time people saying Jeff how come all of these incredible stories happen to you in your life? How come they're always happening to you? And the answer to that is they're not happening to me. I'm taking advantage of the opportunity. I'm taking advantage of a look I saw on a woman's face as she was wiping tears from her eyes and I stepped in and said excuse me are you okay? No I'm not. Can I talk to you? My husband just left me. I'm so sorry. Can you talk for a minute? Sure. That took 10 seconds. That took 10 seconds. That was all. I have no gift for asking people what's wrong with them. I'm not waving $100 bills around. Want to talk? You know? I'm just saying something very honestly to somebody. So the question is and we're going to go through this what is the good news? What is the gospel? What is it that we're supposed to be sharing with people? Now most people say I don't know but I'm quite sure of one thing. I don't know enough Jeff. They're going to ask me questions about the pre scandal. They're going to ask me questions about Mary. They're going to ask questions about the Eucharist. They're going to know what verse that's in and I can't remember. I just don't even want to get into this. That's not my gift. Or else they pull out one real big excuse that says this. One of the saints said and they say I think it was St. Francis said that preach the gospel and if necessary use words. Number one St. Francis never said that. Number two, what a cop out. What a cop out. It's like given the offering and if necessary leave cash. You know, it doesn't make any sense. So I know that excuse that people use but it's not an excuse and we should all be equipped to share Christ verbally with people but also with our lifestyle of course and what we do in the example that we that we set for people. So what is the gospel? We ask this question to a lot of Catholics in the survey that we were taking and it will be coming out sometime. We'll just stay tuned. So what is the gospel? Hardly anybody could answer the question. They said things like God loves us true. It's actually part of the gospel and he gives us food in his Eucharist. It's true. You gave us his mother and holy water and rosaries and we don't eat fish on Friday. That's not good news but it's interesting. People didn't worth your quite what to say and just saying I'm just asking you to tell me the gospel and they're like, you know what? I don't know. Yet they've been conferencing, buying, listening but could not articulate the gospel. And I thought we got something we need to work on here and I was telling my wife I said when we were talking about that we need to make sure the Christians know how to read the Bible and I believe the Christians and Catholics together can read the Bible and people are saying that will never work. Catholics don't read the Bible. That's what they were saying and I remember that. I tried with the great adventure Bible study I went to three publishers with that and every one of them turned me down. You know what they said? They said, number one Catholics don't read the Bible like that. Number two, they'll never pay for it. Number three, I was going to ask what are you doing in business for you Catholic publisher? And then the other one was that it's too long and I said you are wrong, you are wrong and you are wrong because it's his story and if his story is told people will respond to his words and his call and in the same way I was telling my wife I said if we can teach people how to share Christ with others I see a day when Catholics all over the country are going to be filling up their churches every year. Now the way this all started before I tell you the good news is that it was about seven years ago at the Easter vigil we belong to a church that has over 3,000 families and at the Easter vigil on Saturday night the new people were coming into the church and I kid you not there were three two of them married in because their future mother-in-law insisted and the other one read a Scott Hahn book and we called that church growth that's what we called church growth if you work for a Fortune 500 company you get fired you would, you get fired just like nothing and I leaned over to my wife and I said something's not working I don't think people know they're supposed to be bringing people into the church I don't think that good Catholics know that they can be a sponsor I don't think these people in here know that when the Catechumans leave on Sunday where they're going or what they're doing and we were right in that now back to that question of what is the gospel well the gospel is a fancy word for it in the Catechism the gospel is called the Carigma the Carigma K-E-R-Y G-M-A Carigma go ahead and say it one time Carigma the Carigma is the proclamation of the gospel the Carigma is the spoken proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ eight times in the book of Acts the curigmatic message big fancy word the curigmatic message is given eight times in the book of Acts with the basic structure of what I'm going to share with you today eight times it's there and every time that the Carigma the proclamation of the gospel is proclaimed every time it's on the heels of a miracle or the heels of a happening on the heels of an event of some kind and so that begs the question well before we can share the good news today does the good news need to be preceded with a miracle and the answer is yes and you are the miracle you are the changed life you are the one whose eyes have been opened your heart enlightened with the truth you're the miracle you're the one that the story of the proclamation springs from my life and what has happened to me that I have been changed and we are going to be talking to people who are broken addicted marriages about to fall apart emotional quandary anxiety and depression and a feeling of despair in people's lives you're the miracle to which you cannot respond well Jeff I don't have a story I didn't leave the church and come back and write a book I don't have a story I've always loved God I've always been okay with the Lord well what do you think they're looking for do you think that they're looking for a murderer who repents to come back and say now I identify they're looking for someone like you with a life with a marriage with peace in your life with hope in your heart that's what they're looking for I think you know in some ways we have done a disservice to making stories big big conversion stories as if that's the norm that is not the norm at all the norm is happening in people like all of us around the country that's the norm that's the norm of conversion so what is the gospel I'm going to give it to you I'm going to list off the parts of the gospel here you can write them down if you'd like I didn't know I was going to be giving this talk so I didn't bring anything to sell you like we have these things at Ascension called Carigma Cards with all of the information on there and they're a dollar a piece ten for ten dollars and a hundred for a hundred but that's at Ascension Press so what is the Carigma what is the good news of the gospel now I'm going to give it to you and I know you're going to think this is going to be really deep and complicated but this is the gospel and by the way this is what I'm going to expect you to share with people but I'm also when I'm done with it I'm going to predict that as I even go through the parts of the Carigma that you're going to think to yourself Jeff there is no way in purgatory that I am doing that those words will not come out of my mouth with Larry my neighbor they're not coming out okay yes they will so here they are number one this is the gospel God loves you and has an amazing plan for your life number one God loves you and has an amazing plan for your life I'll go back to these once we're done but I want you to feel the whole thing at once God loves you and has an amazing plan for your life number one number two sin has broken the plan sin has broken the plan now some of you right there are thinking to yourself see sin words not coming out of my mouth mistake maybe but not sin sin has broken the plan messed it up number three the good news is that Jesus Christ has died for your sins he has died for your sins number three number four he now wants a response from us and that response is the word repent now I know right there a lot of you are thinking okay that was the word I wasn't going to say I'm not going to say repent to my Aunt Lucy so I don't use the word repent when I talk to people I use what the catechism says that repentance is and the catechism says that repentance is a radical reorienting of your life to Jesus I'll say that again it's a radical reorienting of your life to Jesus to God I like that so much better when I tell people God really wants you to reorient your life get your life reoriented your marriage reoriented to God they get that really easy they really get it so number one God loves you and has an amazing plan for your life number two sin has disrupted and has wrecked this plan number three Jesus Christ died for your sins and number four he now asks you to radically reorient your life to him number five he asks us to be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit to be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit now I'm going to go through these things in just a second to be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit to become a part of his family the church the sacramental healing family the community comradery familial he asks us to be a part of this amazing church and number seven all the ways full circle you will go out and make disciples yourself someday that's the full package right there so real quickly it's God loves you and has an amazing plan for your life number two is that sin has disrupted the plan number three Jesus Christ died for your sins number four he asks you to radically reorient your life to him number five he asks you to be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit number six join his amazing family seven you're going to go full circle and you are going to go out and make disciples that is the gospel that's the gospel of Jesus Christ that's the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ now we'll go through it real quickly here again I want to make a couple of points that well let's go through it first number one God loves you and has an amazing plan for your life who doesn't want to hear that who does not in the midst of a divorce or in the midst of an addiction or in the midst of a spiraling depression who does not want to hear that God loves me do you know I just said that word to people that one at first point that God loves you and has an amazing plan for your life and they fell apart crying it's the gospel the gospel has power the gospel has power when I share Christ with people there is nothing powerful about my words nothing powerful about the tone of my voice nothing powerful about my style what's powerful is the good news and if I say that God loves you God has a plan for your life I'm speaking the words of the gospel to their broken heart so God loves you and has an amazing plan for your life but then I'm being honest about their situation and my honesty is this your problem is we have sinned we have fallen we are living in a fallen state now someone might immediately think Jeff I just don't you know what I just met the person I don't think that that's my space I don't want to get into their business we have to learn to get into people's business because their business is so serious that it's going to land them in hell and then we're going to wish we were in their business and they're going to cry out from hell hoping and wishing why didn't you get into my business what was there about you that was so self centered that you didn't take a chance on my life and so sin separates people from God and you know what every time I tell someone that I never have to explain they're like they know I don't even have to name their sins you know I don't have to say bank robbery, tax evasion adultery, lying rooting for the packers you know any of that stuff I don't have my mother said there's an inner language and an outer language I went with step too far they're so sorry but I don't have to explain anything about it because you know why they know very well what I'm talking about that man that man that has been has been messing around he's been snorting coke after work and his wife doesn't know it and he's doing other things all I have to say is sin and he knows it because it convicts him and I don't have to be mean about it or anything it's just in a conversation and so everyone knows what sin is but then when I say you need to radically reorient your life to Christ they know what I'm talking about but then I can explain baptism and the Holy Spirit baptism is where we die with Christ and rise with Christ we're new people baptism of the Holy Spirit confirmation we receive the power of the Holy Spirit to live this life it's all there now here's the deal that when I share with people I don't just share those words I don't want to give you the idea that I just walk around with this cheat sheet on it and I'm standing there at Starbucks and behind a lady and I do this on the shoulder she looks around and says God loves you it's got an amazing plan for your life you screwed it up screwed it you've sinned it's time for you to repaint repent anyway have a good day and then you come back to me and say it doesn't work it just doesn't work so I don't stand around talking like that here's the deal I like to paint oil on canvas landscape still lifes my teacher was William Schultz who started the American Impressionist Society I did my college my whatever you call it on the spiritual dimensions of Vincent van Gogh so I like painting and I don't do much of it anymore right now because I'm on the road but I haven't painted for a number of years but my art teacher said to me one time he said I want you to learn all the fundamentals everything and he taught all the fundamentals of painting and then at the end he said now forget him now forget him and paint and that's what I'm talking about here is that you learn the fundamentals of what the gospel is and then forget it and just starting incorporating it into the conversations you have with people and find your way of proclaiming the good news the good news that I want to share with you as to why this works because people are thinking when I share with them here's the gospel and I tell them the gospel and that we have a responsibility to tell people the good news and find ways of weaving this into our conversations with them because we love them and God loves them and he sent us into the world to proclaim the message people are not going to be saved and people are not going to be redeemed together by watching Laura Tucker and Hannity that is not the way we put our lives together they have nothing to offer you as far as the real problem in here that's our job it's okay to watch them I'm not saying that you understand but it's our job to share with them the truth and the good the good news that's the important thing so here's the reason it works watch this, this is amazing because some people are thinking right now I'm picking it up from you that someone is thinking Jeff I can't change anyone to which I would say you are right and I can't either changing someone's heart is way beyond my pay scale I can't change anyone's heart you kidding me I can barely get to the airport much less change your heart but I know someone who can but he needs something to land on he needs something to work with and three times in the New Testament it tells us that when Jesus went out and he sent out his disciples he went out you know what it says Jesus and the Holy Spirit confirmed the message they confirmed the message that means that when I shared something with you that God loves you and has an amazing plan for your life the Holy Spirit was working with me or I should say I was working with the Spirit and I have seen grown men completely collapse and begin to bawl them that God loved them and had an amazing plan for their life because the Holy Spirit was saying yes yes you see the Holy Spirit is the one that does the work he just needs people like us that are vulnerable and willing to love someone and to just say the simplest of things that's all he needs I remember one time I was speaking at a men's conference and I don't know there was a lot of men there and there were somewhere under 100,000 and I don't know how many but there was a lot of men there and there was a guy sitting right over here and he was the only man who had a black suit white shirt and a power red tie the rest of the guys had been to men's conferences before okay his wife sent him to this conference and he was over there and I'm talking what the subject is or whatever we're talking and for some reason I came over here and I looked at him, you can be the guy I looked at him and I just said God loves you so much and he has a plan for your life and then I went out like this and looked around and after I was done talking and closed in prayer I went off to the back of the stage area and I was getting my mic off and the guy comes walking out behind the stage, he said excuse me can I talk to you for a second I said sure he said I've never been anything like this before my wife told me I needed to come he said he said you came over and you're talking you looked at me he said you you said God loves you so much and he has a plan for your life and then he looked at me and he said and he just started crying he said I've never heard anything like that I've never heard anything like that before what do I do and I'm thinking this is right out of the bible that's right out of the bible he's saying I've never heard has he heard anyone say oh God loves us yes he didn't hear it like that he said when you said that to me it was like an explosion took off inside of me it just blew up inside of me he said I just wanted to cry that's the Holy Spirit confirming the word that's what people need in our culture today they need that like Jesus is inside of you and your rib cages are like the prison and he's grabbing your rib cages saying let me out let me out let me love them I don't have that gift Jesus what if they ask me a question I don't know as if it's about you we have the gospel the proclamation of the gospel now let me go through a couple of excuses with you I think we got three or four hours for this one let me go through the excuses that we use okay one of the excuses that we use is that I don't know enough I don't know enough I don't know enough this is one of the excuses I don't know enough now that is a really a funny excuse because when I find people that tell me I don't know enough to tell people the gospel well number one you do now you do now and as Paul said and Jesus says that to whom much is given much is required and so I'm here to tell you you sat through those seven points of the gospel it's too late you've already heard you are already accountable you already know too much you know it now you know it you know the gospel and that's what we're called to share with the world is the gospel Jesus didn't say go out into all the world and beat Pamadrid be an apologist go out into all the world and do apologetics never said it he said go out into the world and proclaim the good news proclaim the gospel you know it's so beautiful because he asked us to do something that all of us can do you know Pamadrid is so impressive in apologetics I can't do what he does I'm not that good I'm not I can't do what Scott Hahn does I'm not that good but I know what I'm called to do and that is to teach people to read the bible and to teach people to share the good news with others that's what I do, that's my wheelhouse I'm not any better than that you know and that's what we can all do I can talk to anyone any day I can share I can talk to them because God opens doors and you learn how to start a conversation which we'll get to in a moment so here's the thing, I don't know enough to which I would like to answer with when will you you know you're supposed to proclaim the gospel you know you're supposed to be a witness so let me ask you, when will you know enough and when you know enough I don't know enough it's an impossible question to answer and it's a convenient excuse to use because we can always say I don't know enough and I can say with all the other speakers at the conference I don't know what they know I don't know what they know stop asking this of me I'm just me, you know but here's the deal people will say I don't know enough and the answer to that is you don't need to know enough you need to know him you don't need to know enough you need to know him evangelization is not about knowing enough, evangelization is about relationship I'm introducing you to Jesus he changed my life, they can laugh at you all they want, doesn't make a difference he changed my life he changed my life I was 18 years old I was 18 years old I had hair down to here I did, I had hair down to here I had jeans that were bell bottoms Elton John platform shoes leather bandana leather bandana going to rock concerts covering rock groups for the college paper 18 years old 18 years old I was seeking God I was seeking the Lord and all I needed I needed was for someone to tell me that God loved me I was reading the Bhagavad Gita the Tibetan Book of the Dead I was studying eastern meditation and there I met my wife in college and I went over to her house and I had my Elton John platform shoes I had my bell bottoms I had my hair down to here I had a yellow bandana a yellow silk shirt and I was going to take out this girl she was 17, I was 18 and her mother was a Bible teacher and I went to the door and I rang the doorbell and her mother came to the door and she looked at me like whoa she said come on in I said come on in and I walked in there and I stood in the doorway nervous and stood there and she says Emily and I said I said she says I heard you were a reporter you're the editor of the college I pulled out these two pictures of me with Gene Simmons of KISS and there was a picture of us doing a selfie with blood going I thought that would impress her she immediately thought you are not going out with my daughter and she started up the stairs to tell Emily who's getting ready in the bathroom I can't go out with her she said she got halfway up the stairs and she said the Lord spoke to her heart and said let him go he's going to proclaim the good news and she said okay Lord I'll trust you and the next day after school I went over to the house and I sat down at the kitchen table and she opened up a Bible and she looked at me and I'll never forget it there was a kid who got drunk with Steppenwolf two weeks earlier and it was KISS three nights before and she looked at me and she said Jeff and she was about as old fashion as they get she said God loves you so much and I looked at her and she said he has an amazing plan for your life and I started to cry what am I crying this 45 year old lady is preaching to me I was just with KISS lady I'm not crying for you it hit me it did a work in my heart if somebody would have said Alice Tobler I want you to get into his heart within a week what would she have said I don't even know KISS she told me the good news and that's all she had to tell me and it opened up the door of my heart I had a hard heart I did the second excuse that people use is this and this is the granddaddy of them all it's not my gift not my gift and here's the thing about that it's not my gift nobody ever talks about going into all the world and proclaiming the good news if you have the gift never Mother Teresa is in Albania with no money, no talent no energy and God calls her to Calcutta to bring the gospel to Calcutta her superior says no because you're too weak but I must go the Lord wants me to go to Calcutta 50 rupees a Bible a rosary and two bad habits we wrote clothing a cabinet two of these that she's wearing and what does she do she goes over there and she finds somebody that is dying that has pus on their back and they're bleeding and she picks them up and says my Jesus, my Jesus come to my home and goes to the next person and she shares the good news that God loves you with these people in 20 years later she wins the Nobel Peace Prize for doing what we were all called to do that's what she wins the Nobel Peace Prize had nothing to do with giftedness at all Mother Angelica, my old boss I was her substitute for her show for six years I had my show Life on the Rock and when Mother Angelica didn't feel like doing her show that night she wouldn't be feeling well she would call up honey I think you're doing the show tonight I don't feel so good okay bye and I'm mowing the lawn I gotta go in the shower and everything I gotta go in there and I gotta do this hour talk now on live television she told me one time she said honey she said honey she said I worked hard for my F's in school now she went down to Birmingham, Alabama with $250 and she had a dream to cover the earth with God's word and she had $250 and no skill and she failed school growing up she admitted that to me and yet this woman gave what she had to Jesus and he parlayed that into the largest religious network in the world it was never her gift it was never her gift feeding 5,000 plus people 5 loaves and 2 fish nobody's gift it's all Jesus listen it's all gift from God everything that Jesus asks you to do is not your gift it's all raising you to a new level of living are you tired of living the way you are are you tired of is this as good as it's gonna get for the next 40 years is walking with Jesus or do you wanna go on the great adventure do you wanna walk with him and every day is a new opportunity to meet people and pray for people and see what God can do in their lives that's where the action is the action is not just in the believing of the gospel it's in the doing of it that's where it's at and the beautiful thing is that the Lord uses normal ordinary people like me and you to do extraordinary things it's all above our pay scale all of it is above our pay scale that's the beauty of it look what the Lord has done do you know what I was growing up my dad went into my sixth grade teacher for parent teacher day and you know what my teacher Mr. Knight told my dad he said Mr. Cavens there's two things that Jeff will never do one is he'll never be a writer because he knows nothing of vocabulary or grammar if he does he refuses to use it we had a five page assignment to write a story he wrote 163 pages without one period or comma and he said the other thing because I passed out three out of the first five times that I had to even stand up and speak he said to my dad your son will never be a public speaker now if I went into life knowing writing and speaking is not my gift I would have never ever even tried but my dad my dad didn't tell me that until five years ago I said I'm so glad you never told me that because that would have been such a good excuse I would have never spoken to anybody about Jesus knowing that it's all above our pay scale let me give you an example it's not my gift my brother in law is crazy about Paul McCartney and the Beatles about seven years ago Paul McCartney came to the Twin Cities Target field we've all wanted to see Paul McCartney live and there's going to be like 50,000 people in this stadium and so in the morning when I was getting up and ready the radio comes on and it says Paul McCartney coming to Target field tickets go on sale, ticket master 10 a.m. today and I said to Emily I'm going to get tickets she said Jeff everyone's going to get tickets you're not going to get tickets don't get your hopes up I said no I'm good at this stuff I'll do it, I'll get them and so I got everything ready and at 10 o'clock bam I got it and it comes on you pick them, you pick them pick the best, seven tickets ninth row oh yeah ask me about the power ball later so that's my next seminar so I got them and now what if I gave them away to my sisters and some other people and I don't give one to Mark my brother in law and I go to that concert that night now I go to the concert that night and it is amazing do do do do hey Jude the whole stadium he hardly drinks water, goes for three hours incredible and so it was really amazing the next day I call up Mark, Mark it was unbelievable what do you mean by unbelievable well Paul McCartney he was at Target Field last night you didn't know I had seven tickets hey Mark slow down there what Mark listen buddy I have a gift for buying tickets I don't have a gift for telling people about them now he did go with me but can you imagine how that would sound okay let me tell you this story because this story will illustrate everything in your face at once I'm in Philadelphia again I'm at a hotel it's the Ascension Press annual meeting where everyone from other parts of the country had about 70 employees or so at that time and they had like 30-40 people come from all over the country to stay for these three days and there at a night they would go out on the veranda in the back and they would have their cigars and wine and everyone's out there talking and I'm a disciple of Jesus I'm a disciple of Jesus and so I'm sitting out there and as a disciple of Jesus I am always situationally aware always situationally aware it's like you men, you go to a restaurant you don't sit with your back to the middle of the room usually do you you sit so that your back is against the walls you want to protect your family situational awareness so I'm sitting there and we're talking I did a theological move called the left eye glance I got this thing down now you know and I did the left eye glance and there were two women, two couches down both listening to all of our conversation take note so they continued talking and everything and about 20 minutes later people are saying I'm going to call it tonight you got a lot of meetings tomorrow I did the left eye glance again like that again the two women are at the end of my couch and they're listening they're not stupid they're listening and so people are getting up and it's my turn now I can't sit here and say if they really want to know about God and avoid hell they'll tell me if they're not going to tell me that they don't want to know about God I'll just let this alone let the Lord lead here it's up to me and so I did this I turned to him and I said so what brings you ladies to Philadelphia that's all I said did I learned that one in graduate school so what brings you ladies to to Philadelphia and they said oh like they were caught oh hi we're here at a Melaleuca conference I said Melaleuca what kind of cult is that no I didn't I said Melaleuca what is that and they said well it's this stuff you put on and drink wash your hair and everything and it's like a good super duper cactus juice or something and they said what are you guys doing here and I said well we're a Catholic publisher my name is Jeff I'm a Bible teacher and I teach Bible studies and she said Catholic and I said yeah you would not believe the look on her face she said Catholic and I said yeah I got a problem with you guys and I'm like whoa here we go this is not my gift this is not my gift and I do not know enough about ladies like that so I said really you got a problem with the Catholic church I said like what she goes where do I start first of all the pre scandal you couldn't get me into a Catholic church number two you made up the papacy thing that whole poke thing just so you could control people you made up Mary as some kind of Aztec goddess and all that art in Rome sure you could sell it give it to the poor but now we're going to put it in a museum we're going to make more money off of it I'm like where do I start where do I actually start on this so I could have said okay let's do the first one first the scandal we'll do that one for the first hour then we'll move on to the art in Rome and then we'll move on now the truth of the matter is I could not answer if I answered all of her questions and now we're each do you think that the needle would have been moved at all not at all because the art in Rome wasn't the problem the pre scandal was not the problem even though that can cause that can cause people to pause for sure but the problem was she doesn't know Jesus that's the real problem is she doesn't know the Lord and so I as a disciple want to get into a conversation with all of that just start answering the questions I know what the problem is so I said to her and this is basically how it went I said to her I said wow hmm those are some good things you're bringing up there can I just share with you just real briefly just a little bit about myself she said sure and I said well and I told her quickly my story that I was an 18 year old kid looking for happiness and so forth and a lady told me about the Lord and I gave my life to the Lord and my life changed it genuinely changed that doesn't mean I'm perfect or anything but my life genuinely changed and when I heard that God loved me and that he had a plan for my life it broke my heart and I was aware that the sin in my life had ruined this plan but then when I heard that Jesus loved me so much and he died for me it really spoke to my heart and at that point everything in my life changed and it was all ordered to Jesus and the joy in my life and she's listening to me like that and I told her that and then I said what about you where are you at now I haven't answered any of her questions yet and I said what about you did you know that God loves you did you know that God had a plan for your life and she's softening up and her friend is looking at me like she did she did so I was like she's given me the signal and I said you're aware of that and that sin ruins this relationship that God wants me you all the people you've mentioned he wants us all to reorient our lives to him some people blow it they do we sin we continually sin but the answer is Jesus Christ and we're about 15 minutes into this little discussion little no scriptures no Latin no Greek no backwards no novenas no anything nothing so I said to her name was Helen I said Helen if you could ask God for anything today what would it be she looked at me and she looked down at the ground totally different face this is a half an hour after we began she said her lips start quivering and she looked up and both tears began to come down her cheek and she said I just want to be happy and I said me too that's me too we're all we're like and I have found that Christ has changed my life I know there's a lot of problems Helen out there I know that but the message is that Jesus loves us well we talk for a little bit more and then she she had to leave and I left and the next day I was out in front of the desk sitting there waiting for someone and she comes down the stairs with this guy and she walks over and said that's the guy that told me about Jesus last night and she said are you guys going to be out there again tonight and I didn't know but I said yeah and she said can I join you and I said sure so that next night she came down they joined us and I started talking to her more and more and she was listening and asking questions and everything and then I said Helen where are you from she said well I'm from Minnesota that's where I'm from I said so am I she was oh really I said where in Minnesota it's a suburb called Bloomington I said that's where I grew up I said what street she told me the street and I said you are not going to believe this I'm on the street right over from you and I told her and she goes you're kidding I said that's where I grew up 5232 Heritage Hills Drive she said this is crazy and I said Helen let me ask you a question when we get back to Minnesota if my wife and I always when I talk to women out there I always bring my wife into it always always usually start off even before Jesus the assembly and I said I said when we get back to Minnesota if my wife and I invite you to come to church with us would you like to you know what she said I'd love to less than 24 hours and all I did was tell her what happened to me and told her the basic charisma see I'm working with a master who knows her background and her weaknesses and pain I'm just trying to be obedient I'm just trying to be obedient now the gospel is so beautiful now what I'm going to ask you to do is to take that that formation of the good news and first of all memorize it and then in the future just start to find ways of bringing this into conversations maybe you have your girlfriend and you go out and maybe she's running into some rough times but you've never gone into your faith that much with her and you can just say you know Susan I gotta tell you I gotta tell you God loves you so much maybe I've never told that to you I'm so sorry he loves you so much he really does and he's got an amazing plan for your life and you can weave into these beautiful truths in the conversation that get to the heart and I have told this to hundreds and hundreds if not in airplanes and airports and stores and parking lots and places and almost every time there's something beautiful that comes out of it now who is it who's the number one man in America that has led more people to Jesus than anybody else in American history Billy Graham someone said Billy Graham now if you listen to Billy Graham remember the karygma is not Catholic it is not Protestant it is the good news it's the good news from the Bible and the Catechism talks about it in spades about that and the the karygma the proclamation of the good news is something that really gets results in human hearts Billy Graham was the master of the karygma the master and Franklin Graham his son on its commercials that's all he says because that's what works that's what the Holy Spirit uses in the heart as silly as you think it is and a lot of people say well my third excuse is Jeff that's just so outdated it's so outdated in fact I spoke about this in Ontario Canada and I gave a talk about this in Ontario Canada and afterwards two really cool looking hip guys came up to me and they said Jeff can we talk to you for a minute and I said sure and they said love the talk really good we'll get the tape but we just have a question and I said sure and they said you know the way you put it God loves you has a plan for your life you sin we believe that but is there another way to put it and I said let me think about that for a second I wanted to toy with their head for a minute let me think about that for a second I walked back no I said guys let's do this for a minute shall we I'll give you five minutes let's improve on the first one God loves you and has an amazing plan for your life I'll give you five minutes improve on that one and I walked away and I looked back and they were like they came back and they said we can't I said I know and you know why it's the truth let's do the second one sin has royally ruined this plan look back same thing pattern came back anything nothing it's you know why it's the truth it's the truth Jesus Christ let's do this one improve on this one Jesus loves you so much he died on a cross for you improve on that it's like get back here I said you don't have it do you and they said no and you know why and they both said because it's the truth and I said it's the truth what are you afraid of with the truth the world may have changed and smartphones may have come but the truth has never changed grow grow up get strong be courageous love people love people with the love of God and so they found out real quickly that this message is for every generation now Billy Graham as I said was the number one guy and when he got in front of a crowd a blanky skinny guy from the Carolinas and he filled up 55,000 people in these stadiums and he would come out there and if you met him on the streets you wouldn't think anything of him if you saw him at work you would think nothing of him that's Billy he's our salesman in the corner there whatever and he stood up there and what does he what does he do have you ever wondered what a Catholic Billy Graham would sound like he gets up there and says God loves you and God has a plan for your life I'm telling you sin has interrupted the plan destroyed marriages and families but Jesus Christ has died for you and you and you and you and I'm calling you this day to repent repent of your sins and come to Christ and I'm going to ask you to come down here and I'm going to ask you to be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit and after you receive the Holy Spirit and you come down here my wife Ruth has a scapula and a rosary for every one of you that did not happen okay that did not happen but Billy Graham every message was ended with the curriculum and 16,000 doctors, lawyers, engineers housewives, households whoever teachers coming down weeping why because he gave them the truth that they've been searching for now we can be we can do that now you don't have to do that at you know at Starbucks and you don't tap you know God loves you you don't have to do that but let's let's do this okay let's let's I'm going to give you a way you will never forget the correct mother rest of your life ever okay you'll never forget that word ever again how many of you have ever had a cup of coffee from a Keurig machine anybody we all know what a Keurig machine is the K-Cups the Keurig machine everyone say Keurig okay now who's the mother of evangelization Mary but you can call her Ma so let's practice that one time you guys be the Keurig and you be Ma ready Keurig okay now pause it's gonna go backward now this is where Catholics get really messed up okay so ready now everyone together let's do the whole thing there you go you got it now now I'm going to charge you with going out and brewing up a cup of good news for your friends and listen to this for the rest of your life every time you see a Keurig machine I will be in your head I will not let you go I will haunt you with the good news I will never stop reminding you you have an art responsibility to do that now I gotta tell you a year ago today I was at the Keurig Institute and I gave a message about the Keurigma and I had those people down there all chanting Keurig Ma Keurig Ma and I was done with my talk I went off the stage and I was Doug Bush or someone grabbed me and said do you know who's sitting out there and I said no the guy that owns the Keurig machine he's sitting out there he's Catholic he's Catholic and afterwards that guy came running back and he said best advertising ever let's pray in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit Lord Jesus we thank you today for challenging us in our lives to share the good news that you've asked us to share thank you that we're never alone you're always with us and you empower us and you know how to get together and get into people's hearts we ask you Lord for wisdom as we proceed and courage and gentleness and love as we interact with people in Jesus name amen name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit amen thank you