 Bless you, brother. You too, give me a hug, man. Good morning, everybody. It's the first time I've met Chris, too. And I know I'm never going to be the same. I have to, before I begin, I have to, you know, it's important to clear your conscience before you preach the word of God. And I have to confess a sin. So I'm going to confess a sin of covetousness all day yesterday. I was coveting Chris's red velvet shoes. He's got this papal thing going on in his head. I don't know who he thinks he is, but it's OK. It's OK. Right? Yeah. So it's really a delight to be with you. How many of you enjoyed your weekend so far? Yeah. I have to say I've been laughed this hard at a conference in a long time. It's been fun, hasn't it? The joy of the Lord. I don't know if it's the joy of the Lord or just good stand-up comedy, one or the other. I don't know. Anyway, this morning, I just want to... The theme today is Anointed for Mission. I'm giving the talk, right? I got to remember the title of the talk. Anointed for Mission. Before I say anything else, I want you to say with me, I am. Anointed. I am. Anointed for the mission of the King. That's a fact. Turn to somebody next to you and say, you are anointed. Yes. OK, I'm done. It's been great to be with you. God bless you. One of the things that just kind of dawned on me later yesterday and again this morning is that I'm celebrating an anniversary this summer. Well, a few things. You don't even know what anniversary it is. It was the anniversary of my mother's death. Why are you cheering? Actually, this weekend is... It's something really special is happening for me and I want to share it with you. And I mean that sincerely. 40 years ago this summer, Jesus started to turn my life upside down. And one of the things that happened is I got baptized in the Holy Spirit. 40 years ago. When I was 20 years old, my life was beginning to change at that time and it was beginning to pursue God a little bit. I'll never forget my... One of my sisters calls me in my little hometown of New Allam, Minnesota. I was home for the summer from school and one of my sister calls me and says, hey, Peter, tomorrow night, I'm coming back to New Allam. She lived about 30 miles away with her family. And she said, I'm coming to town for a mass. You know, Tuesday night and I want you to come with me. I'm thinking, why don't I go to mass on Tuesday night in the middle of June, you know? That's kind of where I was at the time. She goes, no, it's gonna be really good. Would you come with me? I said, sure, I love my sister, so I'll go with her. So she comes to town and we go to St. Mary's Parish in New Allam, Minnesota. And we go to the church and there's about 150 women there. No, yeah. 150 middle-aged women and like three guys. And I walk in and it seemed kind of normal, small town stuff. And then the music ministry started to play and the people started raising their hands. I'd never seen that before and my sister didn't warn me. And I said, what is this? And every once in a while, I swear those ladies, they raised their hand and they were looking at me like, the only guy who's under 21 is in the room and they're all looking at me like, we're gonna get this one, you know? And they're all singing in their wave and back and forth. And of course, me being a totally secure 20-year-old, I'm like this. It's Mountain Rushmore all the way and I'm standing there and go through the mass and everybody just seems so happy and at the end of the mass, one of the other guys in the room I learned work for the bishop at the time. He played the guitar and he got up and made an announcement. He said, one of the announcements was there's one seat left on the bus to Notre Dame. And my sister elbows me and she goes, that seat's for you. And I said, what is it? I mean, touchdown Jesus, we're gonna go see a ball game I'm in. You know, I'm up for that. And she goes, no, no, it's gonna be, it's a lot like this, but there's gonna be like 35,000 people and I'm thinking, 35,000 middle-aged women and me doesn't sound like fun, you know? And she goes, yeah, and it's gonna be awesome. Like I heard, she'd never been there before. She goes, like I heard that priest pray over people and their legs grow. And I go, I like my legs just the way they are. They did sound weird, you know, their legs grow. So, lo and behold, I end up on that bus partly because I was a seeker, but also seriously, I wanted to see the football stadium at ND. That's a fact, that was a big deal. So, get on this bus, no joke, you know, there's 50 people on the bus, there's 45 women on that bus and they all thought they were my mother and they were taking care of me all the way, you know? So, we get there and I was an earnest and they put me in a room with this guy who worked for the bishop, his name was Ron. You know what, was anybody there in 1978? Okay, there's two of us, we're gonna be dead soon but let's still rejoice, okay? Oh, four of us, great, great. And the theme that year was, you shall be my witnesses. That's significant to what I wanna say today. Anyway, so I'm there on the weekend and I'm seeing 30,000 people like you laughing, raising their hands full of joy and one thing I knew is they had something I definitely did not have. First guy I heard that night preaching was Father John Bertolucci, you remember that guy? He preached a lot here over the years, didn't he? And so, the next day I heard Father Mike, I heard Ralph Martin for the first time, I heard all kinds of people, but I heard Father Francis Martin give a talk on a Saturday afternoon in a seminar and it was titled, entitled What Happened When That Man Died? And that great scholar that man filled with the spirit in an hour and a half, he talked about how Jesus, his death on the cross, the shedding of his blood, how he disarmed the principalities and powers, he made a public show of the devil, he stripped them of his power and he cleansed me, Peter, her back, by his blood from all my sin and man did I have a lot of it. But for the first time in my life I heard the word of God in a way that the Holy Spirit, the anointing of God started coming on me and deep conviction for my sin came on me and I started weeping and weeping for my sins. And I was very self-conscious, I just didn't know what to do and it was into one of that round dome they used to have there, it was in that field house thing and I just, I said I gotta do something about this and of course on those weekends in NND there's priests all over the place like here. So I grabbed a priest and had one of the most important confessions of my entire life and poured my whole heart out to the guy and thank God for the priesthood, amen. Thank God that they are another Christ. And in the person of that priest he came to me and it was Jesus and he said Peter let me take it all, let me take all the lying, the cheating, the stealing, the fornication, the drug use, let me take it all from you and let me take it to the cross and let me put it to death and let me give you the grace now to do something new, live a new life, amen. Amen. So something really began to turn in me and then that night I'm in the room with my friend Ron and it's late at night and I'm laying there and I'm thinking I still don't have what these people have like I know me man, I've made a hundred promises to the Lord and I broke a lot of them and I'm one step forward, two steps back, I'm a weak guy and I said Ron you know what seriously, I don't know if I can go back and live this stuff I just don't know, you know, because I was very much aware of my own weakness and I kept talking and it was about quarter to 12 at night and he was a very pastoral and warm guy and he said to me, hey dude, nobody comes to one of these things with an open heart without getting blasted so just shut up and go to sleep, okay. That's what he said. I said thanks, thanks. And I went down the hall looking for some of those middle-aged women who I knew would have listened to me anytime night or day. They would have saved me. So the next day I wake up early and I go down to the grotto and I see Mary there and said help me and I go into the stadium and it was a hot August day and I'm there with, I was inappropriately dressed. I had like really short shorts on. What a moron when I think back now but I was thinking of wearing them today for the anniversary with his shoes but anyway, so I'm there in the stadium and I am begging God in my heart. Please, what is so funny about that? I'm begging God and honestly from the bottom of my heart I said, God, please give me the faith. I'll never forget it. Give me the faith like Ralph Martin. Give me the faith like this person or that person. I said, I don't have the strength to do this. I'm scared, you know. I used to be the center of the party in my hometown, me and my buddies, you know. That was part of our MO. What am I gonna do if my life changes? Am I gonna be able to do this? And I was praying in earnest almost like I never had before in my life and I go to communion. A lot of things happen at communion. Isn't that true? Yeah. It's really true. And I come back to my seat and I'm just standing there and I'm just praying, minding my own business. And somebody taps me on the shoulder and I turn and I look and it's a total stranger from Indianapolis, Indiana. Middle-aged man. And he looks at my name tag and he says, Peter, can I share something with you, son? I said, yeah. He said, I'm back here about six rows waiting to go to communion. And I'm watching people go to communion. Don't we do that? You do that too, don't you? Look what she's wearing. Yeah. And he said, as soon as I saw you, the Holy Spirit came on me, son. And he wants me to come and tell you that the faith and the love that you seek right now, he's granting to you because he's died for you and he loves you. He said it to me just like that. And as soon as he said it, you know what Pope Francis calls the Catholic charismatic rule of current of grace? I got hit by 220 volts. As soon as he said it, it was like, and I just started from my feet on up and I just, and I just started shaking and I just started shaking and I just felt it like it was gonna go through the top of my head and I grabbed onto this guy to get grounded. You know what I mean? I need to be grounded before I exploded. And I hung onto this guy, a total stranger. And as I close my eyes, all of a sudden it's like I sensed Jesus coming and it was like my eyes, the eyes of my heart were being enlightened and I began to see a revelation, just a little revelation, a glimpse of Jesus and the closer he got, the more I just felt like my heart was gonna burst and I started weeping and weeping and snotting all over this total stranger. And I'm like, wow, wow, Jesus inside my heart is Jesus is Lord. And I remember opening my eyes and holding this guy and he's patting me on the back. He's going, it's okay, son, it's okay. And I looked around and it seemed like that was happening all over the stadium. You know, people were getting touched all over the place and I felt for the first time a prophetic word emerge in my soul. I felt like the Lord said, welcome, son. The reign of God is at hand, amen? The reign of God is at hand. Jesus Christ is Lord. And I wanted to share that today because it's an anniversary, number one. And number two, I want to remind you, I didn't know that guy from Adam. He was an ordinary layman, an ordinary guy. He wasn't a theologian, didn't have a PhD. He was just an ordinary guy who I met the next year. Ironically, I ran into him in the parking lot. Think he ran an auto body shop or something like that. And there he was, a brother in the Lord who didn't know me at all and he's just in the spirit in the moment and God gives him a living prophetic word for a lost young man. And so he had a moment. Is this me? Is it God? What am I gonna do? You know what I'm saying? Does that ever happen to you? What if I'm wrong? What if I look stupid? Why would God choose me anyway? Cause I am kind of stupid, right? I mean, is that kind of how we think? And so he, in the anointing of the spirit, anointed for mission. He was anointed with power. He was expecting it. And that ordinary guy came and spoke a word of faith to me and it released me. It anointed me and it changed my life. I would not be here today if it wasn't for that man. Lord bless him today wherever he is. And so I get on the bus going back and the word had spread by the way among the ladies. And I get on the bus and there was a nun. God bless the nuns. You can never say no to them, right? They just, you gotta do what they tell you to do. So it was an old bus and she grabs the mic, you know, had that windy cord on it, you know what she's gonna wanna talk. She goes, now we're gonna have a time of sharing about what Jesus did for us, Peter, you know? And seriously, so I get up there, at the time I had a girlfriend, she was on the bus with me and it was wild. So I'm sharing this story, but I'm like slobbering again. And then we drive for a while and we get out at it, we stop at a restaurant. This is true as well. And so we're walking into the restaurant and like three or four of these ladies got an idea in their head. And they come up behind me, they come up with me and they grab my arms and there was like a big area where you hang up your coats and stuff. And they pulled me in a corner and one of these little tiny ladies goes, did you get tongues? I'm like, I mean this one, I got one, you know? I mean, they really did. I said, I just wanna have a hot dog, leave me alone, you know? And so they literally had me cornered, I wanted to say, help! You know? And they go, we think Jesus wants you to have it. I said, good, I'm getting out of here, you know? And they go, no, no, right here, I was like, can we pray with you? I said, okay, you can pray with me. And they were so sincere and they were so fervent and they put their hands in me and they were praying, Jesus give Peter the gift of tongues and I'm sitting there and I didn't feel anything coming but I started to feel bad for him. So I just said, yabba-dabba-doo, yabba-dabba-doo, you know? It's like, forgive me Lord, but I'm not gonna get out of here until something happens, you know? They were so happy. So we go home, I go home and my mama, you know, at the time, my mom was born in this little small town, a block from the cathedral parish and in the living room of her home and she went to that church and that school her whole life and married my dad and they lived one block south of the parish, you know, her whole life was like within two blocks of the parish. You know, my mom was a daily rosary prayer and read the scripture and she'd never been to anything charismatic in her life. She didn't know what that was and I come walking in the house and we drove through the night and I come walking in the house that morning and my mom, who I love so much and was so key to helping save my soul, I walk in the door and she's standing there, you know? And she said, well, how was it, Peter? And I said, mom, it was, and I started talking, I just started weeping again. And here, mom, what does she do? She puts her arms around me and she pats me on the back. And I'll never forget that she said, son, I already know, I prayed for this all your life, she said to me. How about that? How about that? The fervent, effectual prayer of a righteous woman availeth much, right? So I'm rejoicing today and then that, because of that experience, I ended up intersecting, I was thinking a lot this weekend about Father Mike. Father Mike, we love you, by the way, brother, pray for us, thank you. And our lives intersected and we spent time traveling around the world, Africa and Eastern Europe and with some of the other brothers from here and other people and it was just great, it was great getting to know, and I'm just so thankful to be able to be here. But I'm not just looking backward, I'm looking forward. Amen? Because it's just beginning, I feel like the 40, Jesus had to spend 40 years getting me ready for what's coming next. Right, how many of you feel that this weekend? Maybe not 40 years, but you know, there's more God has in store. So what I'd like to do is take the time that I have left and I want to talk about the anointing. You know, last time I saw, last time I worked at conference with Father Dave, I don't know if you remember this Father Dave in St. Paul, when we were at the National Leaders Conference or something like that, Father Conta La Mesa was there. And I was, I'd worked with Father and I wanted to see him on the weekend, but we never really crossed paths and it was the end of the weekend on Sunday, I'm leaving, I'm walking out the door of the hotel and Father Dave goes, I don't know if you remember this, he goes, where are you going? And I said, I'm my brother's out here to pick me up, I'm leaving, he goes, you can't, we have a meeting upstairs. And I said, we do? And he goes, yeah, we have our team launch and so, he said, all right, let's go. So we go to the elevator, the elevator was broken down, you remember that? And so we walked up like 26, 27 flights of stairs and we get up there, we thought we were young men, we were, we get up there and people are ready in their seats, the team members and Father said he had to go talk, I think the Bishop Sam and there's only one seat was next to Father Conta La Mesa and he was talking to Mary Healy and I'm sitting there eating my sandwich, thinking of my brother who's out in the car waiting for me to take me. And so I quick took a few bites and I said, I gotta go. So I gotta go and I'm getting up and Father Conta La Mesa turns to me, he said, Peter, don't leave, stay there. And he finishes a conversation with Sister Mary, or excuse me, Mary, and then he turns to me and he goes, I wanna tell you something, I just wanna share something with you. I said, what? He goes, Peter, just always remember, the power is in the anointing, he said to me. I said, okay, okay, the power is in the anointing. And he goes, no, look at me. And I looked into his eyes and he goes, the power is in the anointing of the Holy Spirit. That's where the yoke of slavery's broken, that's where human hearts are opened. Go back to Notre Dame, the story of that guy, he had an anointing, he came to me with an anointed word of God and it absolutely released something in me. The Spirit of God is the only one who can do that. And Father was reminding me of that and it always kinda stuck in my mind. I wanna talk a little bit about that anointing right now. So let's start with Luke chapter 24, how many of you have your Bibles? Okay, give those Protestants a free lunch, would you? It's good to have you folks here. You can always cheat when people ask you that, you know you guys, cause it's in your phone somewhere. Let's go to Luke 24. Okay, this is the Luke's account of resurrection appearance of Jesus with the apostles. And I want you to pay attention to the passages that I give you, how the anointing of the Spirit and the power that is to be given is connected directly to the preaching of repentance and forgiveness of sins. We often think about it, that it's given to us to get healed, to get set free, to be filled with joy, all that kinda stuff, like it's stuff that's gonna change us and it is. But notice what Jesus does and where Jesus's fundamental priority is because we need to internalize this because the new thing, it's not totally new, but the thing that God is doing is he's moving the church again deeper into our apostolic mission of proclaiming the salvation of the world in Jesus Christ to bringing freedom, not just from wounds and bondage but bringing freedom from sin. That's evangelization at its core. Let's read this, Luke chapter 24. Okay, the apostles are in the upper room, not the upper room, in whatever room they were waiting in. I have to ask the good doctor back there if I have my rooms right, but we'll see. They're waiting, I haven't seen Jesus yet. The last time they saw him he was hanging naked bleeding on a cross. And they didn't know for sure exactly what was going down. They wanted to believe, they didn't know what to believe. Thomas wanted to touch the wounds, they didn't know. They were scared, wasn't Peter's greatest night Holy Thursday, was it? He was a lot like us. So Jesus appears, and here's what the word of God says. Luke 24, verse 45. It says, then Jesus, then he opened their minds to understand the scripture. Jesus taught them the scripture in this crucial moment of his revelation to them. This word of God has power. Understanding it changes our life. It reveals God's plan to us. And he said to them, thus it is written, that Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead. And that repentance and forgiveness of sin should be preached in his name to all nations. So this is the thing Jesus wanted them to see. You know, he said to them, as he opened their minds to the scriptures, he's helping them see, look, this was not a mistake. This was not plan B. My plan didn't fall apart and now I'm trying to switch exactly what was supposed to happen happened according to the scriptures. The Messiah had to suffer and die for the salvation of the world, his blood needed to be shed. But now that I have died and now that I've risen again, Jesus now, the new creation, passed through death because what do we know for sure? Where does death come from? Death comes through, not bad, death comes through sin. Death comes through sin. All men sin and women, therefore all men die. Jesus came to deal with the sin problem that produces the death problem. Jesus did it by becoming one of us. Shedding his blood, he put away death. He put away sin. He rose, he passed through death. His light shone in the darkness of death and he came out of the tomb and the new creation, the new humanity, the new thing God is doing for the salvation of the world began in the flesh of Jesus of Nazareth. The first Adam died, the second Adam Jesus Christ is a life-giving spirit. There's a power that raised Jesus from the dead. The spirit of the father and the son raised Christ from the dead and he came forward a new creation, amen? Okay, and then he stepped into this room with those brothers. Could you imagine that moment? The new creation is right before them. Thomas, touch me. See, the new thing has begun but I want you brothers to listen to me, he said. Everything that happened was according to plan and now I'm sending you and here's what I want you to do. I want you to bring repentance and the forgiveness of sins to the world. He didn't say, I'm sending you to bring goosebumps to the world. Goosebumps are okay, right? He didn't even say in that moment he was bringing joy and healing and all the rest that he was bringing he wanted them to say, what is this all about? This is about you bringing repentance now because of my death on the cross, because of my rising, now it's possible for the human race to have their sins forgiven and to come home to the Father and to become a new creation like me. Amen? Okay, so he makes that clear and then he says, you are my witnesses to these things and behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. What's the name of this conference? Power and purpose. This is the power we're talking about. This is the power of the anointing of the King and even though for three years they were with him and Jesus downloaded a lot into their minds they knew a lot already that they could talk about Christ but they could not go forth without the anointing because repentance and forgiveness of sins comes through the help and the grace of the Holy Spirit. He's the one who's come to bring conviction. He's the one who's come to reveal to every human heart the Lordship and the majesty of Jesus. Amen? And you're the instrument of that. It's not something I do. It's not something I create. It's something I cooperate with. Okay, let's go to Acts chapter one. You've heard this passage a thousand times. Jesus said to them, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be my witnesses. So on the day of Pentecost the apostles obediently waited in the upper room with our lady and what happens, the Holy Spirit comes. We know that, that the tongues of fire came, the wind came blowing forth and John Paul II says this and this is what you can't, you can't miss this. St. John Paul said, in that moment the Spirit came and stirred the deepest energies of the apostles and thrust them into the marketplace. He said, the Spirit of God in the Bible, he said, it comes to tell us, it comes to create movement. It comes to create movement, movement to what? To get out of the upper room, to get into the streets and to announce and declare the glory and majesty of Jesus Christ. That's what the Holy Spirit has come to do and when the church does that, she's healthy and when she does that and she's on the move, the Holy Spirit will continue to fill her but if she's passive, if she's sitting on her backside, if she's timid, if she's indifferent, the Holy Spirit's gonna move to whoever's gonna go because he is one who has been sent on a mission. Right? And he's the one who launches the mission and equips you to do the same. So St. Peter comes out and people say, what in heaven's name is going on with these guys? Who are these guys? And Peter's very clear and he stands up and he says this, quoting Joel two, in the last days it shall be, God declares that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. This is what Jesus wants to do for the whole world to pour out his spirit on all flesh. Amen? How many of you felt like you got a little outpouring this weekend? And more of the Holy Spirit and more of the anointing? Oh yeah, she's got it going down here, oh yeah. Why did he give it to you? So you can get moving, so you can give it away, right? Not just so you can get focused on your own personal healing and your own personal wounds and I'm all for that. Look, I told sister the other night last night, I said, I'm so glad you're here. I've seen her twice in a month and a half and both times she just ministered to me because I still got junk that needs to be healed and fixed. No problem, that's who we are. Jesus has no one else to work with except Chris. Jesus hung it up on that one. He just said, you know, isn't Chris a wonderful guy by the way? He's a good leader. He does a good job, right? Oh, and he's got his shtick. You know, he's kind of schlepping around up here, you know, and he kind of, you know, that guy's as dumb as a fox. You know that? He knows what he's doing. There's a method to his madness. God bless you, Chris. So here we are. And Jesus in that scene, oh, don't let me forget this. I want to go back to chapter one. This is the ascension, right? This is so beautiful. Because Jesus said, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and he ascended to the right hand of the Father. Ascension Thursday or ascension Sunday, however that we celebrate it now might be my favorite day of the year. Pope Benedict described Pentecost as the culmination and the fulfillment of Jesus' entire ministry. And we see that. And not only did he become one of us, not only died in his passion and death and rose again, and he meets with the apostles, he tells them the Spirit's gonna be given to you. But remember John chapter seven, verse 39. He said, when the Spirit comes, you know, we will flow with living water. And it says Jesus was referring to the gift of the Spirit, but the Spirit had not come yet. So people could not receive it. And why does John say the Spirit had not come yet? Because Jesus had not been glorified. So here we are. Turn to Psalm 24 with me. Psalm 24 is beautiful Psalm. It's like reminding us of the ascension of Jesus and what happened. Jesus conquered sin and death. Jesus came as a lamb, he left as a conqueror. And he's going back to the Father. And here's Psalm 24. Imagine Jesus now, in the creed we say what? That he descended into hell, and he what? He released the souls that were waiting to be released. And he took them with him in his train. And as he ascended into heaven, he goes home to Victor King with his wounds in glory. And we are pre-approaches the great gates of heaven. And what does the Psalm tell us? A voice begins to shout. Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted high, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. The King of glory's coming. He's coming home to his Father. And again, the Psalm goes on. Who is the King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty. The Lord, mighty in battle. That's who he is. Lift high, your gates. Be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is the King of glory? It's the Lord of hosts. He's the King of glory. Jesus Christ is the King of glory. And he ascended, brothers and sisters, to enter his glory. So the Father could clothe him in glory. That was once his. And now he's clothing him in glory in human flesh. What does that mean? That humanity now, for the first time, that had fallen from glory because of sin. In Jesus Christ is being lifted to the glory of God. And Jesus is clothed with glory. And that brother, that Lord, our King, the young prince of the universe is gonna give that glory to you. He's clothing you in the glory that belongs to him. And you will live forever in glory. Nobody else can do that. Buddha can't do that. Muhammad can't do that. Donald Trump can't do that. Nobody can do that. He's the King of glory. Jesus is Lord. Humanity has a future because the glory of God flows through Christ. And he has the right because he's King to give that glory. An eternal life to whomever he chooses. And he chooses to give it to anyone who will repent and come to him and let him take your sins and crucify them and make you a new creation. That's where you're going. I told folks in the workshop yesterday, it's so important to know our destiny. Come on, man. You're going to glory. It does not get better than that. What awaits you? The inheritance that's yours. You're going to see the King. And he's going to speak your name and your whole being is going to be transformed and radiant. And you become a partaker in the divine nature. You. Isn't that beautiful? That's our King. Praise God. That's what the Ascension was about. And now he reigns. And this is what Peter says. Look at how obedient Peter is now in Acts chapter two. What does he do? Jesus said, you are witnesses to these things. And I will clothe you with power, right? And you now go lead people to repentance and the forgiveness of sins. In Acts chapter two, I can get back to it here. Peter proclaims the truth about Jesus' death and resurrection. Death could not hold him down. Wow, that's because the glory of God was upon him. You have to internalize this, friends. Death will not be able to hold you down. Is that amazing? There's a power in you already through your baptism. That's stronger than death. It really is. Oh, you'll die the first death, but Christ will come to you and he'll speak your name and you'll rise. And he'll clothe you in glory and he'll take you to your Father, perfect. He's gonna perfect you. He's the one who's gonna finally heal all your wounds, every single one. Okay, it starts here for his glory and that's good. But don't worry, you're heading to glory and it'll be over soon. You're all gonna be dead soon. What's so funny? Life is short, it's a breath, it's a passing shadow. You're here today and you're gone tomorrow, right? So say with me, I am. Chosen, I am. Blessed, I am. Saved, I am. Going to glory. Turn to somebody next to you and say, you are glory bound. You are going to glory. Wow, come Holy Spirit. So here's Peter, he's saying to them who Jesus is and he gets to that central charismatic proclamation. He said, let all the house of Israel therefore know that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you've crucified. Jesus Christ is Lord. He's Lord and Christ. All authority belongs to him in heaven and on earth, right? You are in the palm of his hand. All of human history is in his hand. The whole cosmos is in his hand. He's got everything out of under control. You know, one of the things I'm getting tired of seeing is a lot of scared, timid Catholics. I'm tired of it. I'm tired, I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at just the way the devil's going after us, right? I mean, oh, it's so bad, the world's so bad, right? And where we get, just the situation in the world just steals our confidence and we get discouraged and we get timid. And when we do that, our God gets smaller and smaller. And what I see is we have a little itty-bitty God and there's a real big devil that keeps getting bigger in how we experience things. That's a lie. Jesus Christ is Lord. The devil's totally afraid of Jesus Christ. Don't worry about him. The devil will bite his own tail in the end. You stand in the anointing of Jesus Christ. You stand in the authority of the sons and daughters of God and you live with a big God. You live with a God where all things are possible with your big God. No more fear. No more fear. Take authority over your life and stand up. Live like a Christian. Live like someone who's been saved by Christ. Live like someone who has the King living inside you. Stop moping around. Stop beating yourself up. Stop all, poor me, poor me. Your life will be over soon and it's all gonna be taken care of. So give it to him and go after the mission that he's anointed you for. Right? Come on, come on, come on. Come on. Yes, yes, yes. Yes, yes, yes. Jesus is Lord. Okay, on three, on three, I want you to shout the name of Jesus. Amen? One, two, three. Jesus. Not bad. One, two, three. Jesus. One, two, three. Jesus. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's be seated. So Peter's faithful to exactly what Jesus told him to do. He bore witness to the resurrect, death and resurrection of Jesus. They said, what should we do? Did Peter make their hearts do that? No, the spirit of God touched their hearts and what does Peter say? Repent, change your life, be baptized so your sins can be forgiven. Friends, you gotta know the most important thing that people need in this world, more than healing, even more than food. They need their sins forgiven. They need to come to God. They need to be saved. They need to be born again by water and the spirit. They need to become children of God and that is not an automatic. You don't automatically get that because you're born of the flesh. That's not true. That's how a lot of people in the church talk today and there's no urgency and everybody's a child of God. It's absolutely true. God loves every human being infinitely. He loves us all. We all bear his image but it's not true that everyone is born again by water and the spirit and has become a new creation. That's not true. It comes through the preaching of the gospel. It comes through the forgiveness of sins. It comes through being baptized into Christ. Is it possible for someone who doesn't know Jesus and all that for them to be saved? Well, of course it is. That's what the church teaches. Lumen Gentium 16. But it's very difficult because you're living in the flesh, among the world of flesh and the devil, just to rely on the work of your own conscience. It's easy to be deceived. There's a kind of universalism that makes the church lazy. Everybody's saved. Is that maybe Hitler or Trump? You know, it depends whatever party you're in, right? I mean, if you're, you know, by the way, I'm not showing my colors. I'm just trying to be funny. So this is true. We gotta get this because we lack urgency for the very mission we're anointed for, right? Paul says this in Acts 26. I think I got like 10 minutes left. Oh, it says they do. Okay. I wanna go to Acts 26 and I gotta tell a story. So Paul talks about his meeting Jesus, right? We know we met him on the road to Damascus. He fell, he was not on a horse. At least doesn't say that in the Bible, but he fell down. And here's what he told King Agrippa and all of his people what Jesus said to him. Jesus said, but rise and stand upon your feet. That's what I want you to hear today from the Lord. Stand up, church. Stand on your feet. He said, I've appeared to you for this purpose. How many of you feel like the Lord drew near to you this weekend? You heard him, you touched him. You know, in baptism he came to dwell and he was in a temple. He's here this weekend encouraging you and strengthening you and he's doing it for a purpose. This is power and purpose. Paul understood his purpose. It says he did this to appoint you to serve and bear witness. Say with me, to serve, bear witness. This half, to serve, bear witness. To serve, to bear witness, okay? That's what you get anointed for. And to tell them everything you have seen in me and those which I will lead you to, right? He said, who I will send you, now listen to the commission Jesus gave Paul. I will send you to open their eyes. What did Jesus do with the apostles in Luke 24? He opened their eyes to understand the scripture. What happened to me at Notre Dame with the anointing of that man? He opened my eyes. My eyes were opened by the grace of God to see what I could not see on my own. To whom I send you to open their eyes that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, okay? So there it was, his purpose. Go forward with the help, to help turn people from darkness to light from the power of Satan to God so that they can receive the forgiveness of sins and a place among the sanctified. That's in heaven, right? So you see how serious Jesus is about this? There's other things that come with it but this is the central nugget that sins may be forgiven so that you can enter heaven is what he's saying. So you can become part of the family of God. We have to help people come to Jesus to have their sins forgiven and to be born again and to enter his church, amen? That is so crucial. Today, the preaching of the gospel I think it's set on a shelf. I wrote a little booklet called St. Francis Used Words. Okay, you get where I'm going? Okay, how many of you have heard every single time Catholics talk about evangelization, they say, well, St. Francis said, and if necessary, use words. He never said it. He never said it. Go through the entire omnibus of sources, it's not there. Ed bug me when I heard people say it all the time because Catholics, it was like a perfect, get out of jail free car, right? It just so happens that for Catholics, 99% of the time, we discern that it's not necessary to use words, right? And that's not St. Francis, I'll prove it to you. St. Bonaventure. Francis was a sharp sword all on fire. Zeal for the salvation of others pierced the depths of Francis' heart with burning love. If he saw a soul redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus Christ being stained with sin, he would be overcome with sorrow and he would weep so compassionately that he seemed to travail over them continually like a mother in Christ. When was the last time you wept for the sin of the world? When was the last time you wept in your depths for your own sin? Francis, this Bonaventure goes on. This was the reason Francis was so energetic in prayer and he was so active in preaching. Christ gave himself up to death for the salvation of others and Francis desired to follow in his footsteps to the last. He realized he was sent by God to win for Christ's souls which the devil was trying to snatch away. Do you see what Jesus said to St. Paul? Bring them from darkness to light and from Satan to God? Do you see what Francis understood about himself? That he was a sent one. He was an apostle. Guess what? You're lay people. You're part of the lay apostolate. That means apostle means you're a sent one. Say with me, I am. I am. A sent one. A sent one. And you're sent not just to make people feel comfortable and to feel good, you are sent to bring the salvation you are sent to bring the saving words of Jesus Christ in a loving way at the right time and in the right way to a human being and help them come to terms with who Christ is and to receive his saving love, right? You're meant to follow in the footsteps of Christ and of St. Francis. Said, Francis became a herald of the gospel and he went about the towns and villages preaching the kingdom of God not in such words as human wisdom teaches but in words taught to him by the Holy Spirit. Pope Benedict, the entire people of God is a people which has been sent, right? You get it? Okay. My last few minutes here. I might take like four extra minutes if that's okay. Okay. She said we have all day so she's in charge. Middle-aged women are always in charge. So just, you know, that's simple. No, she's a lot younger than that. True, I blew that, but. Listen to Vincent DePaul, if you don't believe me. St. Vincent DePaul. Well, Jesus was on earth. He directed all his thoughts to the salvation of men and women. And still has these same sentiments for that is where God's will lies. Where is Jesus' heart right now? What is his heart breaking for? For the lost. Look, he loves to comfort me and you. He loves to bring healing to me and you but what he's really after is saving human beings from the clutches of sin and death and from the world of flesh and the devil. And that's the biggest thing going on in the planet. The two kingdoms are at war. They're engaged in a battle for eternal souls. Civilizations pass away. Wall Street's gonna pass away. Hollywood's gonna pass away. United States of America's gonna pass away. It's a piece of historical trivia in light of who you are. You are an eternal creature. You bear the image of the creator of the universe and you will never ever pass away. The question is where are you going? Where are you going? Right? That's the heart of it. And here's Vincent de Paul. He talks about zeal. He said zeal is the purest thing in God's love. Let us place our hand on our heart. Place your hand on your heart, brothers and sisters. Let us place our hands on our heart. Do we feel this desire within us? The zeal for souls. Lord Jesus, I pray, I pray, I beg you, please break our hearts for those who don't know you. Holy Spirit, come. Lord, I just ask that brothers and sisters would be pierced in their heart and they'd feel your heart in pain for the lost. Lord, let our feelings about our own pain shrink and let our mind and heart be consumed with your heart for those who don't know you. Saint Teresa of Jesus, this is an inclination given to me by our Lord. I think he prizes one soul, which by his mercy and through our diligence and our prayer that we have gained for him more than all the other services that we can render to Jesus. You see where the saints' minds, their hearts are? They know where the gold is, right? And the devil wants us to be either indifferent or afraid of engaging this mission with our lives. How many of you know we're in the midst of a great spiritual battle right now? It's enormous what's going on. Pope Benedict the 16th put it this way. He said, in vast areas of the world today, the faith is in danger of dying out like a flame which no longer has fuel. He said, what we're witnessing is humanity is pushing God from the human horizon and the light which comes from God begins to go dim. And he said, as it goes dim, darkness begins to settle on the human mind and humanity is losing its bearings. This is what's going on. This is why we don't know what a man is anymore or what a woman is or what sex is for or what a family is, darkness. This is why we think killing a baby in the womb is freedom. This is why now we're insisting on being able to put people to death when we want to. The darkness of the enemy is settling in on a people who've turned their backs on God. This is spiritual warfare. This is gigantic. And the devil's going for the big enchilada. He's trying to destroy family. He's after the family because the family is the image of God on the earth. The two great institutions, the king himself is established, family and church. And we used to say, as the church goes, so goes the family. Well, guess what? We know differently. For the most part, as the family goes, so goes the church. As the family gets deconstructed, the church gets deconstructed. Why do you think the devil's coming up with these seductive lies? Don't, you know, there's 65 or 105 or 205 genders. Decide who you are. Do whatever you want. The laws are behind it now, pushing us. And they're cornering Christians. And God is permitting it because we're gonna get pruned. We're gonna get persecuted. Are you ready for this? You're gonna, God's trying to find out who is with me? Who will stand for the truth? Who's gonna live and proclaim my gospel? Look at how many people are leaving the church. Like crazy, it's happening. Look at the rise of the nuns. You know that almost 50% of baptized millennials, kids who were baptized as babies in the millennial generation, almost 50% of them now say they have no religious affiliation. Do you see what happened in Ireland last week? I wanna read something to you that I ran across from John Paul II. Oh shoot, I hope I brought it. Oh, here it is right here. 1979, he's in Limerick in Ireland. He's pleading with Ireland. 1979, laypeople today are called to a strong Christian commitment to permeate all of society. The Irish people have to choose today their way forward. Ireland must choose. You, the present generation of Irish people, must decide your choice must be clear and your decision must be firm. Let the voice of your forefathers who suffered so much to maintain their faith in Christ and thus to preserve Ireland's soul resound today in our ears as you hear the pope. Your country seems to be in a sense to be living again the temptations of Christ. Ireland is being asked to prefer the kingdom of the world and their splendor to the kingdom of God. Satan the tempter, the adversary of Christ will use all his might now and all his deceptions to win Ireland away from the way of the world. What a victory he would gain. What a blow he would inflict on the body of Christ in the world if he could seduce Irish men and women away from Christ. Now is the time of the testing of Ireland. That's a profit. You see the battle? Thousands and thousands of Irish baptized people cheered. We're free, we're free. They may not know it, but that is profoundly offensive to God. Where is the fear of God? The judgment of God is coming on the world. Are you ready? Two years ago in Uganda, the Lord spoke to me and I wrote down in my journal, I could show you, he said, watch, my discipline has been on my church and I'm now shifting to the world. I'm gonna start to expose the hypocrisy of the proud and the mighty. I have a few people gone down lately and here's how God convicted me. I was kind of happy when Harvey Weinstein went down. Right? Yes, and justice should be done. But you know what Jesus said to me? How come you don't love Harvey? What's wrong with you, Peter? Are you my disciple? I don't have an enemy on this planet. Not one human being is my enemy. We're all in a battle. And Jesus said, I want you to weep for Harvey because I'm calling him to repentance. And Harvey went down and Bill Cosby went down and big stars are killing themselves. The culture of death is all over the place. The judgment of God is coming and those are meant to be signs for all of us to repent. Right? Not for us to be happy that he finally got his, you know, those rich, arrogant people, but it's meant to bring the fear of God on the world. And if the world doesn't respond, God's not gonna just sit in the heavens and watch babies be killed and the elderly killed and human beings being designed and engineered and human beings becoming cyborgs. It's not gonna happen. The judge, the king is coming. You're not afraid, are you? I'm gonna end here. I was in Poland two weeks ago. I went to see the John Paul II Cultural Center we were doing ministry there and I'd never been there. I didn't do my homework. I knew it'd be good. But I'm walking through. I love them. He's my hero. And I come into the chapel and I look to the right and there's a cassock encased in glass and it's his white cassock that he was shot in. Covered in blood. He once said to a group of Germans, the trial that's coming is inescapable and blood will be shed. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. There's a massive apostasy in the world that's going on and there's tremendous parts of the church where the church is growing. We're gonna face trial. We've been in the upper room for a weekend and it's awesome. It's great to be together. We love you. Your brothers and sisters, you're just like us. Weak. At times scared. Confused. But Jesus always chooses the weak to shame the strong. To bring to nothing those who think there's something. It's the way of the Lord so that no man can boast. I believe the Lord is ready to do great things with us in this apostolic moment in the church if we're willing to go all in. If willing to live in the anointing and to take this mission forward into the world. Do you sense it, friends? Do you sense the timing of it?