Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 10/28/18 Rivals: Rival Voices

Episode Date: October 28, 2018

Homily from the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time. We do not conquer our rivals, we are called out from beneath their power. The voices around us shape us. Some voices shape us more powerfully and more negatively than others. These rival voices fashion a lens through which we see the world. They can rob us of peace, joy, and Christ place in our heart. But to take courage, get up, Jesus is calling you. Mass Readings from October 28, 2018: Jeremiah 31:7-9 Psalms 126:1-6Hebrews 5:1-6 Mark 10:46-52 Download the Homily Study

Hi, this is Father Mike Schmitz. I just wanted to thank you once again for listening to these podcasts. Hopefully they've been a blessing to you. Hopefully this series, Rivals has been a blessing to you. Today, we have the last installment of this series before next weekend we kick off a new series, which I'm incredibly excited for. It's been something I've been praying about for actually for a couple of years now. And I just can't wait. And so I just thank you for listening to this series. Hope that you like it and hope you like the next. one. Two quick updates. One is this last weekend we had our fan into flame retreat. About 80 or so college students went away for these three days, prayed for an anointing of the Holy Spirit, prayed for God to like touch hearts and transforms lives. And it was just, it was awesome. I talked with a bunch of students after the retreat and after Mass this Sunday who just reported that, oh my gosh, like just incredible gifts being poured out on them. And just like that sense of like being drawn closer and closer to the Lord. So thank you for your prayers for them. I know, especially this retreat, it's so obvious to me that whatever graces are poured out,

it is all because of God himself, that he just blesses and anoints those things and say, thank you so much for cooperating with God by praying for us on that retreat. That's the first thing. The second thing is it's a quick reminder about the give to the Max Day that's coming up this November 15th. So that's only two weeks away. Two and a half. half weeks ago away, I guess. It's Thursday, November 15th. Give to the Max Day is typically the day that we hear at Bulldog Catholic or at UMD Newman used to basically build up the ministry on campus. And because of what people give on Give to the Max Day this November 15th, we are able to do all of the retreats we do. We're able to actually even grow the ministry. In the last couple of years,

what you have done for us on Give to the Max Day has enabled us to reach more and more students that so right now there are more students being reached on campus than we literally ever have in least in my memory and in the memory of i think the living memory of the people in this diocese i'm just so grateful for what you have done if you have prayed about or if you're willing to pray about supporting us financially this November 15th whatever you need to do whatever you'd like to do whatever you'd like to give just go to give mn.org so g-I-v-e-m-n-org so g-I-v-e-m-n-org You can do that now. You can actually plan the gift to be given on the 15th.

If you say, I get busy during Thursdays or I get busy in the future. I know what's going to happen to me. You can actually plan your gift if you'd like to. Right now, you could go to give mn.org and do that. Or you could give on the 15th. Or you could say, I can't give you anything financially, but I can pray for you. If that's the case, thank you so, so much. I literally could not do this ministry without the support that we get from

people who are listening to this podcast around the country and around the world. We literally could not do it. So thank you so much for praying about this. I'll have another message about it next week and maybe the week after, but I just want to get this out there right now. Sorry to take up your podcast time, but I did want to give you an update on the retreat. And I did want to ask you if you wouldn't mind prayerfully considering supporting this ministry this November 15th at GiveTo the Max Day, givemn.org.

And without anything further, I hope that you are blessed by this last installment. rivals. So you know those things about yourself that you notice that you don't like, that like maybe like maybe no one else notices it, you don't know? There's a thing about you that you're like, whenever you look in the mirror or you look at your personality, whatever that thing is, you notice it, you notice it and there's that thing of like maybe, maybe no one else notices but it still bothers you. Like there can be something like that and then there's this devastating moment, it seems devastating I think sometimes, when there's that thing

you have, right? And you're like, everyone's like, no, no one notices that. Are you kidding me? Why are you so obsessed about this? And then comes the moment where someone points it out. You're like, oh, so you did notice. So, ever since I was a kid, I don't know what the deal is. It's totally shallow, and I'm so sorry that I'm going to say it, but maybe you can relate. I have always, I don't know, I haven't like my smile. That's the thing. So I, when I was a kid growing up, like, because why? Whenever I was growing up, people would be like, oh my gosh, wow, you, you know, it's one of those. You know, it's one of people take your picture and they're always like, no, no, give us your real smile. I'm like, no, I'm not going to give you my real smile.

I'll give you the smile that I think is more appropriate to the moment because whenever I give a real smile, people are like, oh my gosh, you look like the Joker. And that's it. So I'm like, okay, fine, it's fine. I'm like, I let it roll off my back, you know, just kind of grow up. But those voices are like, but whenever you give you real smile, it's like the full smile, like, we're actually happy and letting your teeth know, you look like the Joker. And I'm like, okay, but enough people have said, but no, it's nice, though.

So about a month or a half ago, someone, I take, long's really, really long story short, I had stolen someone's phone and took a bunch of selfies on it to be goofy, right? And then they posted them on Instagram and on Facebook and whatever. And I'm saying like, Father Mike got a hold of my phone, and so what he did. And one of them was me smiling, like a real smile. And so what someone did, because it's Internet and people are clever and mean, Someone, like, painted my hair red, or so I'm painting my hair green, and my eyebrows green, and my lips really red, and I'm like, there's the Joker.

And I'm like, yep, there it is. And I was like, actually, I thought, I do look like the joke. I mean, when it comes to the green hair and the red lips, it totally, it actually works. I would have been cast. I would have been a way better pick, I think, than Heath Ledger. But there's that thing of, like, in the moment it scratched but didn't cut. We'll say like that. I don't know if you ever had that word, that thing about yourself, and then someone points it out, and it doesn't cut.

It does scratch, but it doesn't cut. Like, it doesn't hurt you, but you're like, yep, there it is. A lot of times, if it does scratch but doesn't cut, it's because, yep, there's those voices, those voices that are like, hey, this is what's wrong with you. But there's a lot of other voices saying, like, no, that's okay. Like, this is what's wrong with you, but you're not wrong. Like, whatever that thing is about yourself that you're like, I just wish this was different. I wish this wasn't the case. I wish it was different.

I wish it was other than how it is. But then when someone comes along and says, you know, you're okay. We often get shaped by these voices that are speaking to us all of the time. On the shallow levels, like, you know, features, but on deeper levels, too. Like, I think throughout the course of our day,

we encounter what I'll just call rival voices. These voices that actually want to steal your joy, these voices that actually want to rob you of your peace, These voices that actually want to keep you away from Jesus. That's what rival voices do. What rival voices do is they try to keep you from Jesus. We talk, this is the last day on our series called Rivals. On the first day, a month ago, we started talking about what is a rival?

A rival is someone or something that's competing with another for the same objective. A rival is something or someone who's competing with another for the same objective. We recognize that there are some relationships that don't tolerate the presence of rivals. in the relationship we're talking about today that doesn't tolerate the presence of a rival is our relationship with Jesus. Because there's such a thing as rival voices in our lives that want to take, like, here you are in your goodness and you're actually loved by him, and they want to say, but you're not really.

The thing you hate about yourself, he hates it too. The thing you think actually disqualifies you from his love, it actually does. This is the rival voice that wants to steal your joy and rob you of peace and actually keep you away from Jesus. Because here's what rival voices do. Rival voices shape our vision. Rival voices shape our vision. These competing voices, what they end up doing is they shape how we see ourselves.

And they shape how we see others. They shape how we see God himself. Rival voices can actually even shape how we see everything. Because those voices create a lens that we end up looking through. So we all know this. We have the event, the thing that happened, the thing that was said, and we have our response to that event, or our response to that thing that was said.

Right? We have the event itself, and then we have a response to that event. But in between that, we have another thing. And that thing is our interpretation of the event. Right? Here's the thing that was said. Here's our response to the thing that was said. But in between that, we have our interpretation of what was said.

We have interpretation of what happened. That's the lens. And that's the lens that we look through. And so we've all had this, maybe, this experience. If the voices in your life have shaped a lens that tells you, that you're discardable, that you're disposable, that you're only wanted if you have something to offer to that person in front of you.

If the voices, the rival voices have shaped the lens so that it is, if you only wanted when you have something to offer. Picture this scene. You're standing in a room of people. Someone walks in, who you know, who you like, and they say, hey, how's it going? You're great, I'm doing well. And they're like, awesome, da, da, da, and they move on to talk to someone else.

If your lens has been shaped, the rival voices have shaped your lens to say that you're only wanted when you have something to offer, you're going to interpret that exchange as, see, once again, people only talk to me if I have something to give them. They moved on. Why? Because I don't have anything to give them. Versus if the voices have actually shaped the lens so you're like, no. Like, not people like me, not everyone likes me, but people like me. That same person comes in, same exact exchange. Hi, how you doing? Great. all right, awesome. They move on. You're like, that was nice. Because we have the event, we have a response, but in between there, we have, through that lens, we have our interpretation of that event. And our lens, if it's been shaped by rival voices, will say, see, this is proof. This is proof that people only want to talk to me if I have something to give them. Can you imagine, can you imagine someone in the Bible who has been more shaped by rival voices than Bartimaas? like in the gospel today. Can you imagine anyone in the Bible

who's been more shaped by rival voices than Bartamanus? Like in fact, all he had was voices. This man is blind. All he has is what people say around him and what people say about him and what people say to him. All he had in his life were rival voices.

You can imagine what he's a beggar. He's a blind beggar who can't do anything. He has nothing to offer. So his whole life, what are the rival voices telling him? Just imagine this. Do some prayer about this. The rival voices will be telling Bartimaeus his entire life.

Barthamas, you're actually unwanted. You are a mistake. You shouldn't be here. You're a burden. You are difficult to love, Bartimaeus. You're difficult to be around. Like, you ask everything of others, and you offer nothing to anyone. These would be the rival voices that Bartimaeus, I imagine, would hear his entire life.

And yet he has to persist. You're a burden. And he was. You're unwanted, and he was. You are hard to love, Bartimaeus, and he was. But in today's gospel, what happens? He hears Jesus is near, and he realizes, this is my chance. Like, this is literally my one shot.

And he begins calling out, and just notice exactly what happens when he begins calling out. It says, the crowd began to silence him. They rebuked him telling him to be quiet. Right there, those are the rival voices. He begins calling out, Jesus, this is my one chance, by one shot. Do you have anything for me? Because I need you, and immediately they began to rebuke him, telling him to be quiet. These are the rival voices.

They're in competition for the same objective. As we ask the question of ourselves, the rival voices, who or what? Or whose or which voices are God's chief rival for your heart. Just stop with this question. whose voice or which voices are God's chief rival for your heart. Because every single one of us, we experience these voices that demand to be able to shape your lens. We all experience these rival voices that demand to be able to shape how you see. And so question, what do we do in the midst of this?

What do when we hear those voices? What do we do when those rival voices begin attacking us? We can ask two questions. First of all, we can ask two questions. We can ask the question, what are they saying? and we can ask the question, what is their source? He said two questions. What are they saying and what is their source?

And one of the things oftentimes, when I'm meeting with somebody, and they're like, yeah, I just got, I'm so down on myself. Here's the thing is, I just am so negative about everything. Okay, what are the voices saying? What is their source? Talking with the young man relatively recently. He was just, he had given up some, he had given up a lot of hope in his life. And he basically said, I'm just always going to be alone.

No matter what I do, no matter how hard I try, I will never have anyone. So I asked him, like, okay, what is the voice saying? What's that voice that's shaping your lens? What's that voice that's shaping how you see? What is it exactly saying? And he was saying, well, it's to name it, you have to label it, you have to pay attention to this. What is it saying?

So it's saying I have never been chosen and I'll never be chosen. Okay, tell me more. He said, it's also saying that no matter how hard I try, no matter how hard I work, no matter how good I am, I will never be enough. Okay, so keep going on. He said, okay, what that voice is saying is that saying that I can be absolutely perfect as good as I can be, and still I'll be alone. So that's what it's saying.

I said, okay, so where's the source? Where did that come from? I asked them the question, I said, when did you first believe that that was true? When did you first actually believe that that was true? And he told me the story. He said, I may be back in high school. my senior year in high school. He said he voted 14 years of his life up to that point since he was four years old, he was 18 years old, to dedicated to his sport. So he dedicated 14 years of his life.

He said, I gave up social life. I gave up, I kind of sacrificed academics, because I just, this was my sport, and this was what I was going to be great at. And he said, but my senior year, I was really good. But my senior year, they benched me because there were some freshmen and sophomores on the team that the coach wanted to invest in. And so they benched me and put them in. He said, that was the first time I really thought. Up to that point, I'd fended off those voices. I'm working hard. I can prove myself.

But at that point, I realized, man, no matter how hard I work, someone's going to come along and bench me for someone else. He said, that's the first time I believed that. I won't be chosen. No matter how hard I work, I'll not be enough. And then he said, and then I got a girlfriend for the first time of my life a couple months ago. And then two weeks before this, she had just broken up. with him. And he was like, I didn't do anything wrong. Like I was tried to be the perfect boyfriend.

I tried to be the kind of person who like she would have to love because like there was, because I was doing it so well. But even though I was either what I thought was the perfect boyfriend, even though I didn't make any mistakes, I didn't do anything that was, I was always trying to be there for her. At the end of the whole deal, she just wanted to leave. So no matter what I do, no one's ever going to choose me. No matter what I do, no one's ever going to be enough. And so right now what he was doing is he was looking at his life through the lens of unchosen, unwanted, not enough, no matter what. And again, I invited him to what is it saying and what is its source was part of his history. When you ask for what's it saying, you can also ask what's its source in the sense of who said that to you?

Like to write down, I invite you to ask you to do this. If you ever have those rival voices in your life to write down what it's saying. And then to look at it and say, wait, who said that thing? Like, who told you that? This rival voice that is shaping your lens. It's robbing you of joy, robbing you of peace, keeping you from Jesus. Who said that?

I shared this story a little while ago, but I'll just share it again because I think it's really appropriate. So when my older brother and I were growing up, at one point, we hit adolescence, as usually happens. And here's what, ladies, you don't know this about, Guys, when they hit adolescence, guys, we know this, when they're adolescence, you get stronger and you want to pick people up. That's just how it goes. When a young man becomes stronger, he's like, well, I just, you know, I don't know.

But you don't have anyone to pick up because if you do that at school, you get sent to the principal's office. You just don't, you don't do that. So at home, I'm like, here's my mom. I'm pick up my mom. I remember how many times we'd be in the kitchen, she'd be standing there, you know, making us of food or do whatever she was doing. If you come up to my mom and like, just go to pick her up because, mom, I am like super strong now. It's ridiculous. But whenever we did this, whenever we went to pick up our mom, she would like grab onto the countertop and she'd like brace herself.

She's like, no, you can't. Like, what are you talking about? You can't. I'm too heavy. And she was serious. There are two things you need to know. One is my mom is not too heavy. She is what you call normal sized for mom.

The second thing you need to know is I'm really, really strong. But every time, every time no matter what. again my mom is beautiful she's not too heavy but even 18 years old 21 years old like hey mom and like go to give her a hug and then like kind of pick her up in the hug like she's like stop if you grab onto something you can't I'm too heavy then a number of years ago she shared where that came from where that line too heavy where that come from who told you that when she was like five years old A friend of her dads came over to visit the family. At one point, my grandpa was a big guy.

At one point, this big guy, bent down to pick up my mom. When he went to bend down to pick her up, he was like, oh, my gosh, wow, you're a heavy one. She said that was the moment. From then on, I don't ever want to be in a position where someone can try to try to pick me up and say, whoa, you're a heavy one. The rival voice that shaped her heart. and how she saw herself started there. And so what happens is every other voice that says, oh, that's true, that's true, that's true, adds to the lens.

And every voice that says, no, you're not. Like her husband who's like, are you kidding, you're gorgeous. Her sons were like, are you kidding, mom, you're gorgeous, and you're not heavy, and I'm super strong, you don't really, you don't understand this. Every voice was mute to her except for the voices that were the rival voices, keeping her stuck in that vision of herself and vision of this,

life. We ask the question, what's, what are they saying and what is their source? But we ask what's their source. Here's this important. We don't try to track down the source in order to find blame. I'm going to try to track down the source in order to blame. We track down the source in order to understand. This is so important. Because the track down the source in order to blame, that that's a dead end. But to track the source in order to understand, we can look back and say, wait a second, oh, okay, now I get it. That's where this comes from. This isn't even necessarily true. It just came from this one moment, this one person. That wasn't even a reliable source. That's not a reason to define myself. It came from this source. That's not reliable.

Or it came from just an environment or came from a moment when I was just exceptionally weaker. I mean, in reality, we all have hundreds of voices every day. And many of them are just simply annoying. They don't shape our lens. They're just simply, we have to tolerate them, we have to muddle through them. But there's sometimes that the circumstance changes. and those annoying voices become devastating to us. Last night I was driving back to Duluth from Virginia, Minnesota. Went up there for a theology on tap, and I was coming back and it was dark out,

and I don't know if you knew this, it rained a ton between Virginia and Duluth last night, and it was annoying. It was a lot of precipitation, a lot of rain, really annoying. I had to drive a little bit slower, and more cautiously. Not a lot slower. But, like, you know, a bit slower. It was just annoying, but I kept thinking it was 41 degrees last night on the road.

I just kept thinking, if it was even just 10 degrees cooler, this same precipitation that right now is annoying would be potentially devastating. Again, the same precipitation, but just a different environment could completely change the impact of that precipitation, just like these rival voices we have. Sometimes they're just annoying. We get through them, it's fine.

But sometimes we're in a weak spot where we before were invulnerable, all of a sudden now we're incredibly vulnerable, where before we were impermeable to this, all of a sudden we realized just something, just one thing has changed, and I'm in a place right now where it's just those words, those rival voices have seeped in, and they shaped my lens like nothing else. But to understand that was really important. We don't, again, we don't seek the source in order to blame, but to understand. And we also don't seek to find out what they're saying in order to argue. This is really important for every single one of us. When those rival voices

are coming at us, we don't seek to find out what they're saying in order to argue, but to identify it. Because the reality is, arguing against rival voices rarely works. Arguing against rival voices rarely works because they will always be able to produce evidence. They will always be able to produce evidence. Think of the very first rival voice that ever came upon human beings. Here's Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. And what has God done up until this time? He's just cared for them. He's loved them. He's given them everything they could ever want. And the rival voice, Satan comes in and says, did God really say you couldn't eat of any of the fruits of the tree? No, no, no, no. Eve begins to argue. No, no, no, no, no, we can eat of any of the fruit, of any of the trees, except for one tree.

Because God says, if we eat it or touch it, we'll die. And then here's the Bible voice. No, no, no, no, no, no. You won't die. God knows full well that if you eat of this fruit, you'll be like him. Here's the secret. He doesn't want you to be like him. And Eve could look at that and say, well, that's right, maybe. If I start arguing with this rival voice, yeah, me. If he loved us, he would let us have all the fruit of all the trees. So there's evidence here. For someone who says, I'm too heavy. To argue with that, say, no, you're not.

Like, I have proof. That person over there is lighter than me. For someone who says, my nose is too big. No, it's not. Well, it's not small. Say, my smile looks like the Joker. No, it doesn't. Go on Twitter.

And the rival voice says, you'll always be alone. So no, you won't always be alone. No, no, that's not true. That's not true. Oh, really? Then why am I alone right now? And why have I always been alone? And even when people came into my life, why did they leave?

Again, don't argue with the rival voices because they will almost always be able to produce evidence. The rival voice says, I'm a burden. No, no, no, you're not. Really? Then how come everyone always has to take care of me? Again, we don't seek the source to blame but to understand. We don't seek what they're saying to argue but to identify because the key is not to conquer the voices, but to persist.

Again, the key is not to conquer the rival voices, but to persist against the rival voices. To persist in calling out. That's why Bartimaeus is our man. He's our guy. He's our model. Bartimaeus, you're a burden. He doesn't argue and say, no, I'm not,

because the fact of the matter is, yes, you are, Bartimaeus, you are a burden to everyone who knows you. You can't do anything on your own. You are a burden. He can't argue that. What can he do? He cannot conquer the rival voice.

He can only persist in calling out. It's what happens. He persists in calling out, even though those rival voices say, be quiet and rebuke him. He persists and calling out. out and what happens. It says, Jesus calls him. Jesus calls him. And then they say, hey, get up. He's calling you. It's like, call, call, call, call. He called out. Jesus calls him. He's calling you. So he gets up,

springs to his feet. You called me? And then Jesus asks him this question. He says, what do you want me to do for you? Now, this is really interesting in light of last week. If you were here last weekend, you know that James and John, they came up to Jesus last week in the gospel. And they said, in manipulation, they said, Jesus, we want you to do whatever it is we ask of you. That was manipulation. But in this case, Jesus says to Bartamaas, what do you want me to do for you? It's not manipulation, it's the opposite. Not because Jesus didn't know, it's because he wanted, not manipulation, he wanted participation. Jesus asked Bartimaeus. Barthamas, here's the deal. I know, I know you, Bartimaeus. I know what has shaped. I know the rival voices that have tried to keep you from me. I know

of the rival voices that have tried to keep you away from joy and rob you of your peace, all these things. Bartimaeus, I know. And so here's the deal. I need you to say it. I need you to name those things. I need you to name your voices and give them to me. I know you felt rejected.

I know you felt like a burden. I know you felt unwanted because you have been rejected and you have been a burden and you have been unwanted. So, Bartimae asks, what do you want me to do for you? I need you to say it. Bartameas looks at him. He says, Master, I want to see. my lens has been shaped by this life

of nothing but rival voices trying to convince me that you don't care. My life has been shaped by nothing more than the voice that says you're worthless, you're useless, you're discardable, you're disposable. And Jesus, I want to see the truth. He names it and he brings it to Jesus.

This is what we have to do with all of our rival voices just to name it and say, Lord, this is actually what's affected me. I need to see, I need to actually be freed of this because these rival voices have shaped my lens. But what I think is just even more bonkers is that in our translation, it says that he says to Jesus, Master I Want to See, that's actually not a good translation. In the Bible, it says, again, English, it says, Master I Want to See. In the actual original language, Bartimaeus doesn't use the word master.

He uses the word Rabonai. And you probably know this. Rabbi means teacher, right? You might not know this. The word rabbi-nai doesn't just mean, doesn't mean master. It doesn't mean teacher. It means my teacher. Why does Bartimaeus say my teacher?

Because he looks at Jesus. He doesn't look at Jesus yet. He's there and Jesus is in front of him. He says, Jesus, I know that you know. I know that you know the rival voices that have tried to keep me back. I know that you. you know everything that I've been facing. I know that you know what has been holding me away from you. And I know that you are my teacher. You are my master. You're my Lord. You're my Jesus.

It's personal. And this is the last thing. In order to recognize the rival voices, we do have to ask what are they saying? What is their source? Not to argue, but to identify, not to blame, but to understand, to be able to name it and go back to Jesus and go back to his word and say, but what do you say, God? What do you say about me? Like to go back to his word and say, okay, okay, this is what the rival voices say, but God, what do you say about me? This is what the world says who I am.

Who do you say I am? That's why the other thing that blew my mind in reading the gospel for today is, as I said, the word is call and call and call. In fact, they use the word call four times in three sentences or three times in two sentences. It's just call, and that Greek word for call is the word collajo. This is a little language lesson. The Greek word for call is collo.

It's also where we get the other Greek word ecclesia. You might or might not know this. The word eclacia means church. That's our Christian word for church is the word eclaysia, which has immediate and direct ties to collojo. Why did the first Christians call themselves the ecclesia? because every single one of them had faced rivals in their lives. Because every single one of them had come to a place to a point in their lives

where they knew that following Jesus was all or nothing. Because every single one of those first Christians, they all had enough reasons to put off following Jesus. They all had enough rivals. They had all battled the rival of control. They'd all battled those rival voices. They'd all been shaped by those rival voices that tempted to define them or to rob them of their joy,

to keep them from Jesus. but they had all been called. Here's Simon and Andrew on the Sea of Galilee. In Jesus, what is the? Colegho, he called them. Here's James and John on the same Sea of Galilee.

Here's Jesus, Culejo, he calls them. Here's Matthew at his custom post. In Jesus, Colegho, he calls him. And Philip, he calls him. And Mary Magdalene, he calls her. Every single one of them. Recognize that the rivals in their lives had been overcome and overwhelmed, the rivals in their lives had been conquered by the truth

that Jesus had called them. This is why the first Christians called themselves the called out ones. That's what it is to be in church. Church, ecclesia, means those who have been called, those have been called out, called out of the rival voices, called out of the reasons, called out of the, the rival of control, he keeps calling. And that's the thing when it comes to any of our rivals. We don't need to conquer them. We just need to be called. We don't need to control them.

We just need to be called. And we don't need to listen to what the world says, who the world says you are. What we listen to is who he says we are. And that is the only way we can conquer our rivals by letting him call us. to not be who the world says we are, but to be who he says we are. So you can ask the question, Lord, this is who the world says I am.

Who do you say I am? That's what we go back to the Word, and that's why we go back to the church, to keep being called out of that rivalry, to keep being reminded, Lord, this is who you say I am. Just in this time of prayer, we're just going to, I might you to stand right now. Just to pick up your bulletins, we're going to pray right now, We're going to pray this song because we have to let this guide into us because we can't conquer the rivals. We have to be called in the midst of the rivals. To not believe who the world says we are, but God, this is who you say I am.