E346: How To Reject Satan's Lies & Embrace the Truth w/Fr John Riccardo | Lila Rose Show

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Do you use a football analogy that is the one play? Put thoughts in her heads all day long. His battleground is the month. So he tries to sew lies into our minds. About God and about us. Is there a lie that the devil may want us to believe that actually sounds pretty Christian? Absolutely. I mean, St. Paul says that the devil disguises himself as an angel of light. Nobody just happens to be here. Like nobody sneaks into earth. God goes, oh, I didn't realize. The mob was over there, huh? I wonder who he is. Everybody's will very intentionally by him. Can you walk us through the mechanics of what it means to renew your mind, replacing the lie with the truth, rejecting the evil one? Yes, let's take forgiveness and unforgiveness. So-- If there's somebody listening right now, Father John, who feels like they are too far gone, what do you want to say directly to that person? As water rushes to the lowest point in the ground, so God's mercy rushes to the person who's most in need. Father John Riccardo, welcome back to the show. Great to be with you again, Lila. Thank you. You have spent years now helping people hear God's voice and also discerning God's will for their lives. What is the number one lie that Christians today, that you encounter, are believing that they need to know the truth about? I think in one way or another, the principal lie has to do with identity, which means it has to do with the identity of God, which is where we get our identity from. So Mary who's sitting over to our right or to your left is fond of sharing with people all the time when we do a lot of the healing work that we do that-- I think it's true that many people, maybe not all people, but many people struggle to really believe that they're good. Like they're afraid deep down. Like if you really knew what goes on in here, maybe what I've done in my past, you'd probably run from me. And the enemy tries to exploit that. And so our task as disciples of Jesus is to like the magic coin trick. You reach behind the person's ear, hold it down, and say, hey, look what I found inside you. And what I find inside you is not talents that you have, or skills that you have, or abilities that you have. What I find inside you is, regardless of any of that, you're a beloved daughter of God, the father, who's the creator of the universe. And I think most people have heard that in one fashion or another that God loves you, odd nauseam. I don't think most people believe it, because I don't think they have much experience of it. And so I think that's the core problem for, I would say, all of us in one way or another. My identity, who am I really? And the reason why I say it has to do with the father is because the only way I can really come to know who I am is I have to know who I am to him. And if there's no him, if there's no other, then I'm going to create, I'm going to try anyway to create an identity, which I think is what we see people trying to do all the time, and the culture that we're living in right now, 'cause God's just pushed so far off the stage. So I got to look a certain way, I got to be athletic, I got to be musical, I got to be accomplished, I got to have degrees, I got to have whatever, 'cause that's where I'm going to find my value. - I mean, everything that you're saying rings true for me personally. I know that without that encounter with God's love, people can spend their whole life getting into identity wrong. But what does it mean to feel or to know, to experience, let's say God's love as the father? 'Cause I think a lot of people are like, I don't know what that, like what does that feel like? Some people have mystical experiences of it or special experiences, but a lot of people don't have an ever experience that. - Well, I'd make a distinction between feelings and experiences, like I rarely feel anything. - So, I think physically. - I should have been more specific. I really feel God's love. I mean, you're married. You don't always feel love. - Right. - Like emotionally. - Yeah, in a certain sense, like who cares? I mean, if we chase feelings, we'll be in trouble. And then if you chase the feeling of what your hope and God will do for you, then you'll end up using God the way we use anything else to just get a fix, right? And so we can turn God into an idol in a certain way, I think. That said, I think God wants to give us experiences of himself all the time in his word. We would just talk about this on the way in actually. Like, how do we hear the Lord? How do we encounter him in our days? So for some of us, it's through scripture where he's giving us an experience of his love and of his delight in us. It could be through another person talking to us. I think most especially though, it's coming to know what the Father's done for us and his son, Jesus. And because I'm just of the mind that most people don't know really what the Father's done for us in Jesus, they don't know how much they're loved. - What do you think is the biggest thing that Satan wants us to believe about God? - I think it's three things. He's not good. You can't trust him and you can be happier apart from him. I think that's at the root of the temptation of our first parents in the garden. And I remember a wise mentor of mine, he used to always encourage people to understand scripture isn't just a recording of what it was that happened back then. It is, but it's not just that. It's also like an instruction from the Lord about what always happens. Like, I think that is to use a football analogy, that is the one play that the enemy has. Like, he just runs it over and over and over and over. God's not good. You can't trust him. You'd be happier apart from him. And I think at the root of all of the bad choices that we make in life, it's one of those three things. - So what do you think is the biggest lie that Satan wants us to believe about ourselves? - You're alone. You're unlovable. You're stuck. You're always going to be this way. It's true for everybody else. It's not true for you. - That's a big one. - Yeah, I think those are some of the things that are chronically recurring when we pray with people and talk with people in the work that we get to do. And I'm thinking of priests, as I'm saying that, because we get to do a lot of ministry with priests, thanks be to God. So if they're feeling that, and it's probably comforting for people to know that the guys and the colors feel that too. So the others that aren't wearing colors or veils are not alone. There is a common strategy that our one enemy has against us. - I think that last thing that you just said, it may be true for other people, but it's not true for you. Because especially for a Christian, or someone who's already on the faith, you know, the faith walk, they're like, okay, they've seen some of the goodness of the Lord, right? They have some faith in them, but then the hope gets dashed because they're like, okay, this beautiful breakthrough or this cleansing of your sin or whatever they're struggling with, right? It's not gonna happen for you. So it might happen for somebody else, but you're not in line for that. - Yeah. - And it's maybe presumptuous to believe that you are. - Yep. Yeah. 'Cause who would you be that God would care about you? - Right. - And the answer to that is, well, you're so important that he thinks you're worth dying for. That's who you are. He thinks you're worth fighting for. He thinks you're worth calling into existence. He thinks you're worth being patient with. He thinks you're worth the trouble of becoming a man and getting crucified. That's who God thinks you are. And so the enemy doesn't want us to understand the gospel, doesn't want us to look at the gospel, doesn't want us to look at a crucifix, doesn't want us to think about these kinds of things because that's an insane kind of love that we've never experienced except in the gospel. That's why the gospel is so remarkable. - I mean, even sitting here, it's like thinking, I mean, I've heard this since I was a little kid, but like, again, wrapping my mind around, you know, the crucifixion for me, I heard someone say, I've heard this said, I'm curious your thoughts on this, Jesus would go through all that torture, the agony, the flogging, the crowns shoved into his temple, the horrifically torturous crucifixion, even just for one human being and for each individual human being, for the person listening right now, for me, for you, but each of us individually. - Yeah, absolutely. 'Cause the cross isn't for like generic humanity. He died for everyone, but God doesn't see crowds. You go give a talk and you see crowds and you might see a couple of people that you know and so they're all excited 'cause you made eye contact with them and you talk to them and everybody else is sitting in the back of the audience going, well, I wish somebody saw me and knew who I was. But the gospel isn't like that at all 'cause God's not like that at all. So God sees each and every one of us and He did what He did for each and every one of us because He doesn't have any strangers in this race that He created. They're all His beloved sons and daughters. Like you don't just happen, nobody just happens to be here. You know, and God goes, oh, I didn't realize, you know, Bob was over there, huh? I wonder who he is. Like everybody's willed very intentionally by Him and they're willed very intentionally by Him because He has a plan not only for all eternity, but for even now and that plan got disrupted at the beginning and so for each and every one of us very individually, He did something. So nobody listening right now is somehow outside this. If you're listening right now, like you're worth God, the creator of the universe, which is 90 billion light years across becoming a man and doing all that He did. You're worth that. No matter what you did last night, last week, your whole life up until now. Like that's who you are to Him. No matter what everybody's told you, you're infinitely more important than you could ever imagine. How do I know that? The crucifix, that's how I know that. - It's crazy because if we really believed that, we would never worry about anything. We would never distrust like our lives would be so full of peace. - Yeah, well, it's easy for us to take our eyes off of God and start looking at everything that's going on around us. Thankfully God never takes his eyes off of us. - So 66% of our viewers are not yet subscribed to the channel. So please make sure that you hit that subscribe button and leave this video a like. And if you're on podcast app, leaving us five stars in a review helps the show reach more people. Thank you so much. - Can Satan put thoughts in our heads? - Yeah, that's all he does. - Put thoughts in our heads all day long. - Yep, let's see how many plays he can work. - Our heads. - Wow, I mean, he can do lots of different things, but yes, his battleground is the mind. So he tries to so lies into our minds. About God and about us and about others. But that's the tactic. That's why it's so important to guard your mind. What you put into it is, it's kind of like your stomach, you know? Like you eat bad food, it's gonna show. You put bad food into your mind, it's gonna show. You're gonna get anxious, you're gonna get fearful, you're gonna get angry, you're gonna be prone to demonize people, you're gonna fall prey to all sorts of different things. Like everything starts in the mind. What I say starts in my mind, what I do starts in my mind. Everything starts in my mind. That's why Paul says, don't be conformed to this world but rather be transformed by the renewal of your mind, which is something only God can do. Only God can renew my mind. 'Cause everything in the world is trying to, you know, like squeeze me into a particular way of thinking. You know, like you have an agenda. Like everything you're doing, you're giving an agenda, I have an agenda. You know, secular media has an agenda. Everybody's got an agenda. God is an agenda too. God's agenda is desire, right? Is for you to come to know Him and for you to come to know who you are to Him and then to know what His plan is. But if I'm soaking most of my life each and every day in things which ignore God, see the world in a way that is contrary to Scripture. It's going to show and then it's going to be like, and then the enemy's not going to have to do a whole lot. 'Cause the world that is to say that which is hostile to God is going to be doing its work. They're going to be just kind of waters that a little bit. So it doesn't even need to be directly your voice if you're consuming His world. 'Cause like there's this talk in Scripture right of His dominion. God has given dominion to the evil one for a short time. And He has, I mean, the world that is not of God, His space, His secular, I mean, secular road can be His, but you know, stuff that is not holy. If we are surrounded by it, consuming it, thinking it, it doesn't even have to be directly His. It came from an originally, but it's just His stuff going on in the world. - Yeah, 'cause I can't blame Him for everything. So yes, so He can, He'll exploit that, the enemy will, but if I'm, again, if I'm feeding on in my thinking, a diet of whatever kind of food that is not in sync with God and with reality, then I am going to be anything but peaceful, calm, merciful, forgiving, generous, loving. I'm going to look like what I read and watch. It's so obvious. I mean, it's so obvious. You become who your friends are. And many of us have made friends, if you will, with whatever we see in technology. Those are our companions. And it shows in how we're talking about each other. It shows in how we're talking to each other. It shows in how quick we are to really demonize those that we don't like and whose opinions we don't value. And we just write them off. And life would be, like I dare any, but I remember a friend of mine, he said to me, I don't even remember saying this to him, but he said, you told me 25 years ago, maybe, he says, I dare you, pray a half hour a day this week, every day in front of the blessed sac, in front of the blessed sacraments, see if your life's different. And he was nominally Catholic, I think, at the time. And he thought, okay, I'll try that. He says, I can't believe how different my life is. I mean, one week, seven days of just like spending time detached from technology, reading scriptures, sitting in front of the blessed sacrament. And it's not a gimmick, right? It's not like a technique, but again, God wants to transform us more than we want to be transformed. God wants us to have abundant life. More than we want to have abundant life. God wants us to be peaceful. More than we want to be peaceful. And the way we get to know God is the way you get to know anybody else. Just spend time with them. And unfortunately, we use a word called prayer to describe that. And that makes it sound like it's something, I don't know, for holy people or I'm hard to do. Yeah, or it's just conversation. Like, go talk to God, let him talk to you. Just like talk aloud. Yeah, you can talk aloud if there's people in the room and I think you're weird, so maybe not do that. But, you know, yeah, and then try to listen to him, say, "Okay, will you talk to me?" 'Cause Jesus says, "My sheep hear my voice." Every life is the fastest growing diaper company in America with premium wipes, diapers, and more. 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This is a family-run, faith-filled business, and we-heart nutrition makes their supplements with the most high-quality, bio-available ingredients. These are the vitamins that I take every day and that I- took during my last pregnancy and my last postpartum period. If you go to WeHeartNutrition.com, you can take the two-minute quiz to figure out exactly what's best for your state of life, whether man or woman, prenatal, pregnant, postnatal, premenopause, and more. And you can get these for your husband or for your wife. Right now I'm taking their prenatals, not pregnant yet, but I can feel the difference when I take them faithfully. You can go to WeHeartNutrition.com and use the code Lila for a full 20% off. It's WeHeartNutrition.com, code Lila. What if you're hearing a bunch of voices? I mean, not like a schizophrenic, but let's say you're praying and you get these senses of things. You think you hear something and what if it's wrong? Yeah, well, I think that happens often. Right? I'm talking to somebody right now who has somebody constantly coming to them saying, "Hey, Jesus is telling me X about you and it's clearly not true." And so there are ways to discern these things, right? So is what I'm hearing in my mind or from another, like, is this an accord with Scripture? If it's not, it's not God. Is it an accord with what the church teaches? If it's not, it's not from God. Is it helping me grow in charity? Like if an idea comes into my head and says something along the lines of something's planted in my mind, like, I should probably go say, "I'm sorry to my husband." That's probably not from hell, right? Because that's not how hell is. So there are simple ways, there are so many great teachers in the world that we're living in right now in the church to help people discern, but it's really not that complicated. Is it with Scripture? Is it an accord with Scripture? Is it an accord with the church? Is it going to help me grow in charity? Those are the places to start. If you got all those things going, then like, who cares if it's me or if it's God, it's probably something I should do and act on. Because God usually, at least for me, talks to me through my ideas. And so I have to be able to learn a way to discern those because I have a lot of ideas and they're obviously not all from God, but many of them are. And they also might not come or the thoughts might not come in active prayer session. Yeah. They almost never do. God can surprise us later. Oh yeah, totally. Like I find, you know, so my routine in my life is I wake up, make coffee and I go pray. And I spend however long I spend praying. But that's always something like that's, that's where the soil gets tilled. So I'm just still with him and I might read Scripture and I might just listen to him and I might talk to them. But it's usually, it's usually not the place where I hear him. I usually hear him after that. But I wouldn't have been able to hear him after that. If somehow that time hadn't, I don't know if that makes sense. But that time hadn't happened because it's still my thinking. And it's just put me in a receptive mode, I guess, for like the rest of the day. So I might hear him working out. I might hear him in a conversation. I'd hear him in the car. I might hear him in the shower. I mean, like, who knows? But it's, it's, it's usually more in those moments than it is sitting in a chapel. It's not like God's confined to the chapel. And yet there is something really special about being in the chapel. And so it's hard to know that it's a lie. Yeah, I'm trying to think of an example in my mind, I thought my head, but I would say absolutely. I mean, I think Paul says that the, you know, the devil disguises himself as an angel of light. Pretty scary. Yeah. Yeah. And so I think, I think most, most of the reasons why some of the attacks, especially in our lives as Christians are as tenacious as they are or dangerous as they are is because they're half truths. It means it's easy to just know immediately like that's not of God. But when something sounds like it could be, especially things like righteous and there's righteous indignation, like I'm supposed to get, if I don't react, if I don't respond, react, if I don't respond to injustice, like Aquinas would say, if I see evil happening to somebody, if I see the unborn getting ripped to shreds and it doesn't do something to me, that's a defect. That means something's wrong with me. I don't understand what's happening. If I see people getting abused or exploited and it doesn't do something to me, that's a defect. But if I'm not careful, that becomes twisted ever so much to then not just work for the defense of those who are getting exploited or abused or killed, but it means to go on the attack against those who are doing it. And that's a dangerous place to be. Meaning a feeling of I'm superior morally moral superiority complexes. Yeah. Talk to me more about that. That's a really interesting comment you're making and I think especially in the social media media space, political, ish space, Christians, I think can fall into that. So the way that it's been super helpful for me anyway is just to keep reminding myself over and over and over again and to try to say from the rooftops that the only enemy that you and I have is Satan and his minions. No human being is my enemy. I have to come to understand that as a Christian. If I don't understand that, that means I'm making you my enemy. If I make you my enemy, then I'm going to do everything I can to silence you or worse. And we're doing much worse now, right? And that's that righteous indignation piece taken to an extreme which is no longer righteous. Now it's just indignant and it's volatile. And then I'm just acting like the enemy himself. But if I remember that the enemy is the enemy and the enemy likes to work through people, letting me at times, like I've been upon in his hands, I know that, like we all can fall prey to that. If we don't remember that, then we're in really shaky ground. Our task as disciples is, you know, so I always think of, there's lots of different stories you can think of. But think of David in the Old Testament. So David is getting, he's a tremendous model of this. David is being pursued by a man, namely Saul, who wants to kill him. He's tried on several occasions to nail him to a wall with a spear. That's rather direct. And David, a number of occasions has an opportunity to kill Saul. At one point, you know, David sneaks into a cave where Saul's sleeping and has a chance to kill him. And he doesn't kill him. I mean, his commander says to him, what we could be done with this right now, my Lord. I mean, if this is a movie, this is the climax of the movie. It is going to be one, right? Yeah. How's the David? Yeah, well, but yeah, but it would be a different ending if Hollywood knew it, right? Right. Because it would show David thrusting the spear into Saul's head and Saul would be over and then David would have his revenge instead. What does David do? David steals the spear, sneaks out of the camp, walks across and yells at Saul and wakes him up and says, Saul, and holds up the spear. Do you see this? I could have killed you, but I didn't because far be it for me to touch the Lord's anointed. He says, and everybody in a certain sense is the Lord's anointed. How do I know that? Because God's willed everybody to exist. God became a man and went to the cross for everybody. So far be it for me to touch somebody, whether it's in my words or my actions, let alone to kill them, what what David shows and what Jesus shows in the cross is a real, a really great man and a really great woman doesn't kill the enemy, a really great man or a really great woman wins the enemy. That's what Jesus did for us in the cross and that's what you and I are called to do when the work that we do. People do evil things. Our task is to point out the evil, do what we can to redress it, work to change it and to win the hearts and the minds of those who are doing it. And that's one heck of a call. So this is interesting because I feel like it hits pretty close to home because I'm in the podcast space and I just see what's happening in media and you're talking about media as as being a source of like the devil's lies basically. But. true crime. And a lot of these like public trials of murders are really captivating for people. And there's a lot of theories that get spun up around what really happened who killed who and it gets very dark very quickly. People are obsessing over the details of the crime. Do you think that that can be redeemed or can be good or do you think overall it's a net enemy territory? Let me just play that back for you. Let me ask you what you just asked me like, how in the world could that possibly be good? To be consuming it, that content. What redemptive quality could I possibly find from immersing myself in violent acts that are inflicted on other people? I mean, they would say the search for justice. We know what's going on with the elites or going on with the corrupt criminal justice system or the corrupt medical system or the blah blah. Well, if if something's actually leading people to do things which would rectify situations great, I wonder how many of the people who are consuming this are running out to become advocates of justice as opposed to just how that was amazing. I can't read to read. Watch the next one. Yeah. So, you know, what does for me anyway, like Ignatius would always say this, you know, it's the same Ignatius of Loyal, the founder of the Jesuits. You go back after the fact and you examine, okay, how did those experiences impact me? Meeting like looking at the truth crime or looking at this evil thing. Yeah, so this case like obsessing about it. Yeah, just so think for a moment. So, I've spent a week or four days or whatever, consuming some whatever a podcast, a novelty, a movie. How do I feel? What's my life been like since then? How's my speech? How's my thoughts? Do I feel more anxious? Am I sleeping well? Probably not. So, you know, on the basis of that for versus somebody's like, yeah, you know, I just became a justice warrior. I quit my job and now I'm doing everything I can to work to try to help people who are wrongfully imprisoned and to address the, I'll bet there are very few of those people who are responding to what it is. They've read or watched or consumed versus other people who are angry, frustrated, distrustful, whatever, as a result of consuming what they've consumed. Again, what I put into my mind, this should not be that hard to think about. What I put into my mind is going to affect how I feel and how I think and how I live. Be careful, little ears, what you hear. I mean, what you're saying makes total sense. I think in practice for a lot of people, it's really hard to do. Yeah, well, nobody would smoke if it was enough to know information, but it's not enough, right? And it's not enough. Why? Because I have, you have, at least this way, I think of it, I have a bent will. You know, it's not enough just to, it's a fallacy that if people just knew the right things, they would do it. No, clearly, that's not true. How do I know that? Me, you know, knowledge is not enough. I have, I don't remember if it was Pope Benedict or somebody who talked about how there are, there are two conversions that happen in a person. You know, the first is, is the conversion of the, of the mind, the next is the conversion of the will. I mean, so my mind got converted somewhat young in my life. I knew God was real. I knew he was love. I knew he had done for me. What he had done for me. My will was not at all in harmony with that. So like, I knew this, but I still was obstinate and resistant. Why? Because of the enemy's primary lies again, which are, you know, I could be happier apart from God. That's why I think a lot of, you know, I don't know how you've experienced this in your own life. But a lot of people, my age anyway, we would often talk. I thought the best of both worlds was, you know, like, live it up and then repent when you're dying. You know, that way I get it all. And where does that thought come from? It comes from, I can be happier apart from God. And that's just not true. Like sin is less, not more. God is more, not less. And the fact that we, we were talking about Peter Craved earlier and Craved has this great analogy. He says, you know, Christians have, have turned the wine that Jesus transformed at Cana back into water. Meaning what? Meaning we have made the only person in human history who never bored anybody, boring. Yeah. And we've made the Christian life seem like less when it's in this astounding drama. That's such a, I mean, back to just the spiritual battlefield of all of this. The world does, I think, position itself, even the two crime stuff, right? As more interesting, right? Like the sin, the sinful life, the sex and the city lifestyle, or the, you know, two crime drama or whatever, like it's just, it has the posture of, I'm more interesting. I'm more fun. I'm more engaging. Well, sit in the confessional with those people and you'll find otherwise. 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They're not omniscient, they're not omnipresent, they're not omnithing. They're omninoing. That's what they are, but that's about it. So picture of tinted glass windows. You live in grace and your interior is like tinted glass windows to the enemy. You can't see. You live in sin and your clear as can be. You're exposed. That's a precarious place to be. So I don't want to be transparent to the enemy. In any way, I want to be opaque. When we fall into sin, especially when we get more stuck in really habitual sin, then it's like handing ourselves over to someone who wants to hurt us. That's how it answers your question about authority. I'm giving you myself to hurt me. That's stupid. Right. Why would anybody do that? I think it's pretty obvious that we do that rather frequently. I think a lot of people, maybe they're avoiding a serious sin stuff, largely speaking, or they're falling into it, but they're trying to repent of it. How do you think, though, generally, I mean, I think about the verse and revelation, I will spit you out of my mouth if you are lukewarm. And I think about the verse where Jesus talks about, you know, a rich man cannot enter the kingdom of heaven unless only God can do this. It's like a camel passing through the eye of a needle. So, and the rich man went away sad when he said you have to give up everything to follow me. So there's this idea that the world, the riches of the world, the distractions of the world, even your family, your own family, your own career, maybe even your own mission work, right? Could potentially be taking you away from God? I intern anything to an idol. And Satan could be part of that probably, he could be kind of helping to like set it up for somebody. Yeah, 'cause most things are good. You know, like creation's good. And what we're tempted to do is to turn the creation into something that we worship and block out the creator, as opposed to love the creator through his creation. So, you know, Tim Keller is passed away now. He's a great little book called Counterfeit Gods. I don't know if you've ever read it. But in it, so, you know, idolatry is something that we don't talk much about in the world right now. And I don't hear many Christians talk about it. We talk about it a lot, just 'cause it is one of the core problems of the human person. And once I read Keller's definition of an idol, I thought, oh, that's a little close to home, right? So, he would say an idol is anything more important to you than God, anything. What does it mean for something to be more important than God? So, he goes on, he says, anything that you look to give you what only God can give you, anything that if you should lose it, you would feel your life would hardly be worth living. And now I'm like, shoot, like I got a lot of idols. You know, sports is an idol for most people. I mean, a massive idol. I mean, just think about all the people whose lives are ruined on a Saturday afternoon because their life circles around a college football game or a Sunday afternoon because it circles around an NFL football game or their own achievements or whatnot. So, if I'm somehow a different person, I'm not as charitable with you as I should be because Michigan lost to Ohio State. Something's wrong with me. - Well, I think-- - And yet, that's normal. Like that shouldn't be that way. - I mean, I would say it's a good point and I just think like getting a job or have certain careers. Some people just get totally destroyed because of a career change or a dream, a career dream, they weren't able to achieve or some mishap on their professional passion journey, whatever. And they're just destroyed by it. I guess a lot of people today. - Absolutely. - And they feel some of them life is life worth living. And some people commit suicide after major professional or personal setbacks, like there's a divorce, right? Or they lose a job or a company. - Or interestingly, when they get everything. - That's true. - It's amazing, both are true, I think. It's amazing how many people reach the pinnacle of whatever it is that they're involved in, professionally, athletically, thinking because they've been told once I achieve X, whatever X is, my life will be fulfilled. And they achieve X, and they're not fulfilled. Well, why? Because X is good. I mean, God's not saying don't enjoy life. I mean, my gosh, that's the last thing that the gospel's about. God loves life. God created this. He loves stuff. Like he wants me to be happy. But the moment I put something in front of him could be my wife, could be my husband, could be my son, could be my daughter, could be my work, could be anything. The moment I put it in front of him, now necessarily, my life's going to be out of order. Because it objectively is not more important than he is. It hasn't done for me what he has done for me. Nobody's done for me what God has done for me. Nobody. And so nothing can be first. And to keep him first, at the top of the pyramid, if you will, is to make every other relationship well-ordered. But the moment I make you the God in my life, I'm on really thin ice. Because you can't do for me what God can do for me. You're going to disappoint me. If in no other way, then you're going to die. And so God has to be first. What's it like? I mean, what you're saying makes so much sense. I think I've heard it said, this kind of scares me when I've heard this. That God can allow Satan to tempt us, people trying to do good things, right? With a thing that is good, another good thing along our path. But it's not God's good thing. It's not what God's will is for us, this other good thing. And so somebody could go completely the wrong direction because they're tempted by what is ultimately in itself a good thing, right? I think an idol is maybe the operational problem here. I mean, have you heard that? Do you agree with that? It's a scary idea. And a lot of people in discernment get freaked out about it. Well, he does allow us to tempt us. That's for sure. We've talked before about discernment of decision-making and whatnot. I think this is the way I'd answer that is go back to, if you're regularly praying, if you have a habit of listening to the Lord and you know how we talk to you and you're trying to discern and you have the further habit of not everything is best discerned by just bringing it to prayer. Sometimes the Lord says, you know, I gave you a brain. You should use it. And so one of the helpful ways of discerning things is pulling out a piece of paper and writing a line in the middle of the paper and going, okay, I'm thinking of doing X. Here's the reasons why I think X is a good choice. Here's the reasons why I think X is a bad choice. Get it out of your head and onto paper. That's a really practical way of discerning things. And so if you used the word tempted, if I'm thinking about doing something which looks good, that would be one of the steps I would suggest somebody take. And then I would bring that, that piece of paper into prayer. And say, Lord, he asked me to do, I mean, for me, you know, this isn't how, this is how what comes to mind is you ask that question and it's not the devil who's tempting this by any means, our lady has an amazing plan for her life. - For her life. - Yep. She's gonna consecrate herself entirely to God. She's gonna be a virgin. She's gonna forego children. It's beautiful. She's just not God's plan. It is to say a virgin, but it's also to have a son. Oh, and it's not just a son. It's like the eternal son of the father who created the universe, right? So if Mary, who knows no sin, can have a great plan, it's a heroic plan, it's a virtuous plan, it's a beautiful plan, it's a God-inspired plan, it's just not God's plan. If that's possible, then it's certainly possible that I, who have not any of those things that she is, can have ideas, which are good ideas and good aspirations, which may not be actually what God wants me to do with my life. Am I gonna get to know what He does want me to do with my life? I'm gonna pray, I'm gonna read scripture, I'm gonna find trusted friends I can talk to and go, I'm thinking the Lord's asked me to do this. What do you think of that? - But like in the case of Mary, you don't wanna give the devil too much credit. It's like the devil gave Mary that original plan. - Not at all. - So that's where we don't wanna hyper-spiritualize some of this stuff and say, "Well, Satan's everywhere, he's beyond every Nucontranny." - Yeah, 'cause Satan's not omniscient and he's not omnipresent. - Right. - And I'm not that important that he's really interested in me. The problem is he's got a lot of friends, he's got a lot of demons. And as a priest friend of mine says, "And the really bad news is he doesn't have any hobbies." Like you're his hobby. - You're his hobby, nice. So nice. But back to what you're saying about the confessional and these people that have all of these things, they end up, you can have all of this stuff. And then you can end up in the confessional. Like you're not happy is what I'm trying to say, right? People are not happy even with all the stuff of the world and achieving everything in the world. And then in the confessional, they're also confessing sins, but they're sharing how they're not happy. - I'd find another word than happy, 'cause I think a lot of people who are living a horrible life or living a life apart from God, they'd tell you like, "I'm really happy." I would say you're probably not really fulfilled. And if we can poke, we'd find out why. - But they've lost the appetite for fulfillment. Like, is that the lukewarm? - Yeah, maybe, yeah, I'm content with what I've got. And what I've got is this stuff. And now I have to have like ever more expensive stuff or ever more intense stuff or whatever, 'cause a new thrill, a new experience, another trip to Australia or the Port of Iarta or someplace. 'Cause, 'cause, This, the daily grind isn't satisfying for me. It's not fulfilling for me. I need something just loving being faithful to the people in my life is not enough. - I feel like a lot of people today, it's that situation today, where they're not feeling the hunger for God, they're kind of satiating themselves with the world and chasing the next sort of high of some kind. But the question is how does someone break, if you know someone who's like that, how do you break them out? How does that person break out? - Well, I can't break you out. I can't give you what you don't want, but I can offer you an invitation. - To just offer, invite those people. - At the end of the day, I think that's all I can do is invite you to something, you know, I mean, the gospel doesn't impose it proposes. I'm gonna propose, you know, try this. Like, again, with my friend who wasn't praying, try this, just try it for so. It's a sitcom for gosh sakes. It's 30 minutes go pray, go try it, see what happens. And yeah, I think so often we're trying to, we're trying to force something to happen in someone's life that can't happen, especially parents for children, you know. - It's hard. - Yeah, I can't only imagine, but I can't get you to do something you don't wanna do. That should be pretty self-evident, but I can invite you to things. And sometimes one of the ways I invite you to that is, you know, we all have friends or family members or whatnot that we're concerned about, who we've had great conversations with about the faith and it's never really worked, you know, worked in the sense it's not brought the results we wanted. So stop saying the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, 'cause it's probably not gonna work the next time. It's probably not the case that it's just, they haven't heard it 384,000 times, but the next time they hear it, they're gonna go, oh, that's what you meant? So try being creative, I don't say anything. Pray. - Pray. - Trust the gods and other friends that he wants to bring in these people's lives. - Another aspect that I think is really alive today with the Satan stuff, but it's very kind of undercover is division, people get very divided, including in families, like you have husbands and wives divided, how should a married couple discern whether hey, this isn't attacked from the enemy or I just had a bad night's sleep? - Yeah, I was gonna say at the end of the day, I don't think it really matters. So here's what I would say to, you know, there are so many ways or so many variables that I would wanna know in a couple. Like, is God the center of your relationship? Do you guys pray together? Do you talk about the Lord? I mean, what's the level of the relationship 'cause I wouldn't presume any of those things, quite honestly, with any couple. So I would need to know that. And then I would wanna try to probe in the sense of, you guys hold not any resentments. Are you trying to outdo each other in showing honor? Are you trying to outdo each other in being generous and loving each other? I mean, we're all competitive, you know? Like, I think what God wants to do when you get married is suddenly there's a grace that's given to a couple. Like, oh yeah, you think you're good in that? I'm gonna outdo you in being generous. I'm gonna outdo you in showing mercy. You think that was forgiving? Wait, do you see what I forgive you? I mean, that's what we're supposed to be doing. That's not usually what's going on, unfortunately, right? So resentment is one of those tools that the enemy tries to use to bring about the division we're talking about. And do you think that's directly him? Or that's just a human condition and then he kinda gets in there and starts to help with festers more? In a certain sense, again, which is like you said earlier, I don't think it matters. I don't even think where it can just deal with that. Yeah, exactly, I don't care. Yeah, I'm feeling resentful. I grew up just mirrors it. Like, who cares? I'm sure I shouldn't be resentful. Which human is it today? Yeah, you know, so I think we can get, 'cause we don't want to get fascinated with the enemy. Like, that's what he wants us to not, you know, see us lose a spot on in the screw tape letters. Either we think he's much more powerful than he is and we just become overly enamored with him and fascinated, or we ignore him. And I want to be neither one of those. I want to be mindful of him. But I want my eyes on God, not on him. He's very small. He's a creature. God's not a creature. So I don't need to be overly concerned about him. I just need to be mindful because it's worth knowing that life is not, you know, like sitting on Lake Michigan with a good book in your hand, just chilling out with a drink. You know, like, that's not life, because we have a hostile opponent who's trying to shoot at us in lots of different ways. So I don't need to be overly worried about that, but I do need to be careful. I'm not a oblivious to it. What I want to be worried about, concerned about, focused on, you know, be intent on Paul Says and Colossians set your hearts on things above. Like, I want to, I want to constantly be saying, Lord, what are you asking me to do in my life? What has it you've made me for? What do you want me to do today? I've got today, I don't have to moral, may not come yesterday's gone, can't do anything about it. I got today. How do you want to use me? Travel the worlds of Netflix, IRL. Brave the upside down, face off with the frontman. Play leveled up arcade games, shop exclusive merch, and enjoy themed food and drinks. Beat the heat, play, eat, and shop on repeat at Netflix House at Galleria Dallas. The wild world of college football continues Labor Day weekend on Saturday. East Carolina looks to shock Alabama, and Baylor and Auburn battle it out in Atlanta in the half-flag kickoff game. Father, I bet somebody listening, they're thinking, "Okay, yeah, there are lives that I've been believing my whole life. I think all of us have lives that we have spent many years believing. How do we finally break free?" Well, we asked the Lord to help us break free. I mean, that's the first thing I realized. I can't get free on my own. I gotta have somebody to do it. I mean, that's what Jesus is. When we say he saves, that's what we mean. I mean, he rescues, he liberates, he delivers. I mean, that's what that word means. So, the great news of coming to a place where you realize I'm stuck is now you know I need a savior. I need a rescue or I need a deliverer and you have one. We have one. So in that regard, I'd say that's a great place to be. Then, take some steps. If you're Catholic, I'd say, if you have a medical confession, get to confession. Make sure you're in grace. If you're not Catholic, you have the unfortunate reality of doing this in an immediate or in an immediate fashion where you're gonna have to try to talk to the Lord on your own, but then you're gonna have to try to imagine and hearing your hearing is voice. The beauty of confession is I actually can say out loud. All the things that I'm really not proud of and I hear out loud, someone say to me and I absolve you from all your sins. And the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, not 'cause they're all that, they're not anything, but because they've been given authority to be able to do that. - That is the tremendous design. I mean, Jesus' design of having there be a priesthood and having the priesthood of the power in him to forgive sins. I mean, it's such an amazingly refreshing part of being Catholic is that you can go to confession. And of course, it's God and you can still make us, you know, confession in your heart, blah, blah, blah, but that you know with Jesus' authority through apostolic succession that this is now bound on, no longer bound. - Yeah, and I think it's human. - Yes, it's very human. - You know, like you would do a marriage early, I mean, so if you know you have offended your husband and you don't just sit there and go, I think he knows I'm sorry. Like I need to hear, I need to be able to say to him, hey, I didn't mean to say that or I said it and I'm really sorry. And I need to hear him say back to me, it's okay, I forgive you. Like that's how we're wired. I would argue people go to confession, everybody goes to confession. They just don't go to confession to a priest. Everybody goes to confession. It's like a felt need. You go to a therapist, what do you do? You're talking about what I've done wrong. You go to the bar with somebody in a Tuesday night. What are you doing? You're talking about, oh my gosh. You can't believe what I did on last weekend. I mean, people, we have this, yeah, again, this need to be able to say out loud And I need to hear back, hey, that's not who you are. - Right. Or it's going to be okay, but you don't need to hold on to the shame. The tragedy is like, I don't charge. And I don't even want to see you again. You get a lot of free therapy out of priests. You could anyway. Yeah, I mean, like the rates really good. Really good. You don't want to repeat those things. The line is sometimes long. The line is long. But if you make an appointment, you're good. Better way to go. Yeah. Like, especially if you find those priests, you can tell their own fire like yourself. They never turn down a helpless center. At least God know. I mean, you're busy, but. At least God know. Like, I hear about the priests that travel in the airports and they're like getting mocked. Mocked, is that the word? Mugged. Mugged? That's the word. Or by people who want to get mugs. They get mugs. Or by people who want to go to confession. And just tell them their deepest, darkest spirits and you know, whatever. Yeah. Well, hopefully priests have had a really bad experience in confession themselves. And so as a result of that, you know, the v and negativa, it's often said is, is sometimes more helpful than a really good example. Like bad examples are really helpful. Interesting. Like bad, bad parenting can be a really good example. It's like, I don't want to do that. Overlining. Yeah. You know, I can think of experiences I've had in a confessional where, you know, the confessor was just abysmal. Like, he's mean. Or he's checked out. Mean, rude, checked out could be anything. I can think of two in a very particular way. I could talk about them because I'm not the guy who heard the confession. You are giving me a confession. So I can, yeah. How old were you? Oh gosh, one of them was like three, four years ago. Okay. One of them was when I was in the seminary. And it was like I was even confessing all that. You know, like, I'm just like, I am alive. I breathe. I struggle, you know, and it was the, the response was so rude. What did he say? How one guy just said, he wouldn't do this lecture like, you know, you about why this is wrong. And I, at one point, I just said, thought, you know, I'm here to go to confession. I'm, I'm not here boasting of what I said. But I'm really grateful because I don't ever want to make anybody feel the way you're making me feel right now. What did he say? No, I didn't say that part. Oh, okay. No, should have. You just said okay. I just thought it. I asked you to hear my confession earlier after this interview. It sounds like it's cameras rolling. Yeah, we're going to do it on camera here. That'll be great. But it sounds like you're going to be nice to me. Well, we'll see. Yeah, nice. No, kind, yes. I'll be like, I'm in patient with my husband. Don't you know how terrible in patients is? Why would you do that? Give me a speech on patients. Like, oh, my gosh. I mean, honestly, it probably would probably would help me. I could, I could use a couple more barrels of patients. I used to think I was patient before. I became a mother in a way. I was so patient. No, I'm not anymore. Well, not my fault. That was good. So, confession's great. Checkmark. Do that. People who aren't able to go yet. They're not Catholic yet. I highly recommend you guys. It's great. It's like, I mean, honestly, for me, I also like going to the dentist, which I guess is weird. A lot of people hate that. But it does, like, I love the feeling of going to make teeth clean. I just love having clean teeth. But same with confession. I love just afterwards. And it's always weird. Because after I go to confession, I feel like at least half the time if not more, I feel like I have my worst day yet. Like, I'm tempted to the worst, you know, being extra edgy. Everything is extra, you know, mournful. It's like hard afterwards. Yes, meaning like, I'm all clean. I guess got super clean. And now it's like, okay, we're going to get on clean again. It's maybe spiritual warfare. Or maybe I'm more aware of it because I just got cleaned. Probably the latter. Yeah, I would imagine. I don't think for myself, there's any place where I experience the love of God more powerfully than in confessional. Beautiful. Simply because it's so clear because I mean, the very nature of what you're doing, right? All you do is talk about how you failed and how you failed to love the Lord and love your neighbor. And yet you experience God's love there. That's where I experience the love of God through my confessor as intensely as I experience the love of God anywhere else. Beautiful. Why do you think Satan wants us to keep our sins a secret and not tell anyone and not go to confession? We want you miserable. We want you to get rid of the guilt. Doesn't want you to be free. You know, we talk about dividing, you know, he tries to divide us from God, us from each other and us from ourselves, right? So, yeah, you should, for that reason alone, you should run to repent. The other way you come against the lies, right? You just, you just take authority. So once you've gone to confession, so you're dealing with lies of whatever kind, then you have authority over him in a very particular way. And you can just say simple things like in the name of Jesus. I renounce the lie that I am whatever. And I bind you. And I cast you to the foot of the cross for Jesus to do with as he wishes. And I invite the Holy Spirit into my mind right now and to remind me again and again that I'm as beloved son or as beloved daughter and that I'm not defined by my past. That invitation to the Holy Spirit, the renewal of the mind, you know, that scripture talks about renew your minds. And then also pray without ceasing. We're told as Christians. Practically though, when you're busy, you got your life, you're doing your stuff. Yeah, I get, go have your 30 minutes of prayer. Do it in front of the blessed sacrament if you can. Practically, what does that look like? To be renewing your mind throughout the day with the war in the mind that's happening, right? And to be praying without ceasing. Yeah, well, you have mom with young kids. So you're probably not going to the chapel most days for extended periods of time. Probably shouldn't be. I mean, these are what same Francis to sales would say, you know, when I don't pray at the chapel, I believe I'm playing same Francis to sales. Yeah, I mean, because you can't live like a monk, you know, like, if my life looks different now that I'm a monk. Yeah, you can't just say, hey guys, I'll be back to you a little bit later. I'm going to spend some time with Jesus in the chapel. They can't take care of themselves, right? So you can't do that. But so you find other ways to practice the presence of God in your daily routine. And just to make short prayers and just just invite the Lord. Like, be with me as I go about my work today. I come to be conscious of you and everything I do and everything I say do it. How many to do everything for the glory of God? Whatever it is I'm doing. I'm grocery shopping or putting the kids to bed or I'm working as a fireman or a nurse. I don't have time to just leave in the way that I might. And then try to fight for some moments of time where you can be along with the Lord, whether it's reading scripture, try to be careful of what you put into your mind when you do have those idle moments or those free times so that you're not just filling it with the cacophony of the world at large. So, you know, pay attention to the habits that I have. I think everybody makes time for what they love. Like, I'll say, yeah, I'll work out at three in the morning if I have worked out. Because I like certain things I just enjoy doing and I need whatever the relief is or the releases. If I don't make time for something, it might be the case that it really just doesn't matter that much. It's a harsh truth. Yeah, and so how do you get to care? I mean, this is probably hitting home with at least someone listening, hey, they're not maybe spending as much time actively praying or bringing God's presence into their life. And what you're just saying is, well, you don't love enough. So how do you get more love to want to do more of that? Yeah, I don't want anybody to hear I'm accusing you that you don't love enough, but it might be worth thinking about like, do I really? Do I really care enough about God to give them time? How do you care more? Ask for the desire. Ask for it. You have to make the act to ask. Yeah, and then force yourself to do it. I think there are no shortcuts to great habits. That's true. I wish it was a pill you could take or whatever, but there's not. I was done pick for prayer. Yeah, exactly. 10 easy steps to make yourself a mystic. It doesn't work that way. You just have to do the hard work. And that means changing certain habits and getting into new habits. The question is, you know, like, why would I do that? You know, like, I love Peter. You know, we just had not too long ago. It was the gospel where Jesus says, you know, Lord, we've given up everything for you. What's in it for us? Like, I think that's an awesome question. Like, I asked that all the time. Like, what am I getting out of this? Like, I don't think people realize what he's actually saying. You know, like, we've given up this and this and this and this. What am I, what's the payout? What's the benefit and the Lord answers that with some things? But the heart of it is, well, the payoff is be and your life fulfilled and genuine happiness. Like, am I worth that? Do you want those things? An eternity. Yeah, and like, that for all eternity. Like, how about ever increasing joy? Ever increasing joy? Okay, I need to do this with you because it's a big part of this whole work of the truth, filling your mind with the truth, rejecting the evil one, renunciation. You just did it actually like a couple minutes ago, renouncing the devil and the bad thoughts. What's that habit? Give me an example. Well, make it real. For example, somebody might be really obsessed in their minds with not being able to forgive somebody, or they think they're a bad mom, as examples, and so these thoughts keep coming up about how bad this person has been to them, or about how bad they are. Yeah, so let's take forgiveness and unforgiveness. So if you're watching right now, just think real quick, who is it in your life you most struggle with? Mary and her team always says like, everybody's got a one. Who's your somebody? I think it's the way she says it. Who's your somebody? We're doing this. We're doing this right now. Everybody think of there. Yeah. Who's your somebody? Who's hurt you the most, the deepest, and that probably doesn't take too long to think about. And then what you want to do is so that it's important to realize what we're not doing. You're not going, like God's not saying, hey, that was no big deal, right? Of course it was a big deal. Whatever the it was, it's had an impact on me because it really hurt. So acknowledge that. So you know, try to picture yourself, sit with the Lord the way you and I are sitting across from each other and say, Jesus, you know how much that hurt. Like you were there when that happened or when those things happened or whatever the case might be, and you know how much this has affected me and impacted me. And so I don't want to ignore that or pretend otherwise. But I want to say right now to you, Lord, that I forgive whoever it is for what they did. And then you say that out loud, like in the name of Jesus, I forgive for and I ask you to bless them and to shower your graces on them. And for them to know today that what they did does not define them and it's not who they are, even though it hurt me and that there's hope for them and that you love them. And I ask you to reach into their mind and their heart with your grace and to find those places that might have led to them acting the way that they acted towards me. And then just keep doing that stuff. Like I think Mary is the example of this mother Mary, you know, like so I don't, we hear things like forgive and forget, I think that's true for God and that's about it. Nobody else forgives and forgets, you know, unless you get Alzheimer's I guess. Everybody else forgives and then remembers and has to forgive again and remembers and has to forgive again and remembers and has to forgive again. And sometimes the enemy will work against that and say, "See, you haven't really forgiven because you keep remembering it." Well, you're always going to remember things, you know, especially the traumas that have happened in our lives. And I think again, if you think about Mary, so Mary lives in occupied territory that is constantly filled with Roman soldiers. So everywhere she goes, she sees Roman soldiers. So even after Jesus ascends into heaven, she's constantly seeing Roman soldiers. And every time she sees a Roman soldier, she must be, she must be reminded of what they did to her son, of how they humiliated him and tortured him to death and everything that happened around the passion, which means every time she sees a Roman soldier, she has to choose to forgive him again, which means every day, most likely, Mary has to choose to forgive again. Well, I find that to be really comforting, because probably every day I have to choose again to forgive certain people for what they did. And every time I'm choosing to do that, I'm becoming more like Jesus, because Jesus is prayer from the cross as Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. His explicit renunciation also for lies that you might hear or like negative feelings you might have. It can be forgiveness that we need to do, which is really powerful. I mean, that in and of itself is huge. What does it look like if you're renouncing, I don't know. Yeah, like in the New York impatience, yeah, in the name of Jesus, I renounce the spirit of anger and all related spirits. And I bind you, like you can do that and I cast you to the foot of the cross. I break your power over me. You have no power over me. You have no authority over me. I bind you and I send you to the foot of the cross for Jesus to do with as He wishes. And the name of Jesus. And then in the name of Jesus, I ask Him to come and to fill my mind right now, Lord, and to replace it with thoughts of kindness and compassion and peace and to banish from my thoughts. All that is contrary to you. Amen. If there's somebody listening right now, Father John, who feels like they are too far gone, they're just beyond all of this. What do you want to say directly to that person? This will sound so trade. Nobody is too far gone. So long as you're breathing, and if you're listening right now, you're breathing. If you're breathing, you're breathing because God loves you, no matter what you've done. Otherwise, you wouldn't be alive because He's willing you to exist at this very moment when you can hear Him give you a lifeline. God does not delight in the death of the wicked. How do I know that? He says that. That's how I know that. Jesus died for the ungodly. How do I know that? Because Scripture says that. That means there's extravagant reasons for hope. As water rushes to the lowest point on the ground. So God's mercy rushes to the person who's most in need. And if you're listening, watching right now, and you feel farthest away from Him, that means you are most in need, and God the Father is running towards you with His arms wide open, not to chastise you, and not to yell at you, and not to tell you how dare you show your face again here, so that you can know that His arms are wide open, and His love is there, and His mercy is there, and He wants you home. Amen. Hey, we've got your book here, which is amazing. We've basically talked about a bunch of it, but what else do you want people to take away from this book from the resistance? Yeah, I think the message is a couple of things. It's first to make sure that we really know the story, that we know what it is that God the Father has done for us and the person of His Son, that we understand that Jesus has come not just to be kind and to be loving and compassionate, but also to do battle for us against the one enemy that is the only enemy of the human race. But then especially, I think the message is to help people understand, you know, God's intention for creating us was to be His family, all of us. And the mission of the church, this is the most powerful way I know how to say this, it comes right out of one of the missiles prayers with regards to the mission of the church. The mission of the church, which means the mission of the disciple of Jesus, is to renew and transform the human family into the family of God. Like, God's desire for creating all of us in His imagines like this was to be in relationship with Him and with each other. That's how we once were in Eden, that didn't last very long. It's how we will be again in the kingdom. How that's all going to happen, I don't know, like Jesus has done something by His death and resurrection. He's defeated the power of death. He's defeated the power of sin. He's bound the strong man, but you and I are living in this gap, if you will, between what He's done and what He's going to do when He returns and He makes all things new. Our task in this intermediate stage that we're living in right now is to preach the gospel to ourselves, surrender to Him, to preach the gospel, to share the gospel with others so that they can live in hope and then to go about the work of rescuing and renewing and transforming the human family into the family of God. by putting our hands to it. every dimension of life, which the enemy has somehow defaced or deformed or twisted, and to try to bend it back into conformity with how God created it to be. You're a great example of it. We've been talking about how dangerous media is in so many circumstances, but you can't abandon it. God doesn't want us to like, all turn off our computers and like, go back to be Luddites and just get rid of technology. No, God wants us to use technology in such a way so that it glorifies him. That's what you're doing. That's what you do. You spread hope. You know, please God, you tell truth. You give hope. You spread encouragement. You share the gospel. You probe things in a way that honors and glorifies him. So that's part of building for the kingdom of God. You know, somebody else can do that in medicine. Somebody can do that in politics. Somebody can do that in entertainment. Somebody can do that in athletics, but we're all supposed to be doing that as opposed to just, I think I'm so concerned by what I fear. This will sound too, I don't know, too bald of a statement maybe to say it out loud, but I'm afraid so many Christians live like the goal is just to get out of here. And that's not the goal. First of all, it's not how the book ends. Like the book ends with, we don't get out of here. The Lord comes back and when he comes back, he makes it all new. God loves this world. He loves this world. That's why he brought it into existence. And we're supposed to be both working models. I love the way somebody put this, you know, a both a working model of how God can remake something and an instrument in his hands to build for the kingdom until Jesus comes back and he finishes the job and makes it all wondrously new. That's the point of the book. Exciting. Father John Ricardo, thank you. Thanks, Lionel. Thank you for renewing renewing America and beyond. We need you. Keep it up. Right for me and count on my prayers for you. Thank you. A huge thank you to all of our amazing Patreon supporters. If you become a paid annual Patreon of the show, you get access to behind the scenes, access to our guests and we will send you your choice of free merch from the store. Join our community over at patreon.com/endlesssummerescapesstart here. Break the upside down, face off with the frontman. Play leveled up arcade games, shop exclusive merch and enjoy themed food and drinks. Beat the heat, play, eat and shop on repeat at Netflix House at Galleria Dallas. Bring your crew and safe. On Saturday, East Carolina looks to shock Alabama and Baylor and Auburn battle it out in Atlanta in the aflac kickoff game. Then Clemson hits the road looking to spoil Lane Kippin's Death Valley debut. College Football Labor Day weekend continues Saturday and Sunday on ABC and the ESPN app. Slyla Rose Show.