The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Christ in You: A Change in Perspective

Episode Date: June 13, 2025

Are you aware that Christ lives within you? Jeff discusses the importance of shifting our perspective from simply following Jesus to recognizing that he dwells within us. He emphasizes how the Holy Spirit empowers us to continue Jesus' mission in our daily lives and to faithfully do God's will. Snippet from the Show _ The spirit of God is living in our hearts today._ Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit https://media.ascensionpress.com/?s=&page=2&category%5B0%5D=Ascension%20Podcasts&category%5B1%5D=The%20Jeff%20Cavins%20Show for full shownotes!

Welcome to the Jeff Kavens show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together and living as activated disciples. This is show 434, Christ in You, a change in perspective. Hello and welcome to the show this week. I'm Jeff Kavans. So glad that you are taking some time to join me in this conversation. about walking with Jesus. We talk typically every week about discipleship and the word of God and how to bring God's word into our life in such a way that we're transformed,

we're fruitful, and literally doing the will of God. In every area of our life, whether it's personally or within our family, at work, whatever situation you find yourself in, it's doing the will of God that really, really matters. Hey, by the way, if you do want show notes today, and I do have some scriptures to share with you, quite a few of them, in fact, all you need to do to get on board is text my name. That's Jeff Kaven's one word and text it to the number 3-3-777. We'll get you on board and get you all of the notes that I'm going to be talking about today. Christ in you, a change in perspective. Talking about a change in perspective, boy, I think we need to do that once in a while.

We just need to stop for a moment and take a look at what is our perspective in living, you know, what are our goals, what are our aspirations, what do we find ourselves dealing with on a daily basis, both personally and, you know, within our family and at work as well and among our friends. But even on top of that, a change in perspective is necessary when we are living our life and things are changing in the world. We have to take a look at what is my perspective, how am I living my life in relationship to Jesus? Because I think, honestly, sometimes our faith can be reduced due to the busyness of life and all of the challenges that we face and the decisions that we have to make. Our life perspective has changed from kind of just studying the faith, talking about the faith, reading an interesting article, listening to a talk or a YouTube video. we can get caught in looking at the faith, kind of like a science or a topic that is interesting to look at, or we can see ourselves in God's grand narrative, or as the catechism says in the first paragraph, the plan of sheer goodness. How are we attacking this? How are we going about

our walk with God and our relationship with Jesus? You know, there's a lot of discussion in the world today about change and where we're going. And just a week or two ago, we had that big feud on the news between President Trump and Elon Musk and all kinds of narratives going on out in the news. What about us financially? What's going to happen socially and all the changes that are taking place? But I just want to remind you that ultimately, it is God who is in charge of the narrative on earth and we work with God and we cannot go back to a position where we are just trying to figure out life based on politicians and what we hear on social media, what we see on social media. So I want to talk about that today a little bit about your perspective in living with Christ

in doing his will. I'm talking the 60,000 foot perspective here. If you go back into the New Testament, you will see something that is unusual. Most people don't talk about it, but it's there. And you've heard many, many times people talking about, I'm following Jesus. I'm following Jesus. And that's true, isn't it? I'm following Jesus. Now, that can be reduced to, I agree with his philosophy of life.

I'm following Jesus. You know, if Jesus were on social media today, he made a post this morning. And I'm following that. I gave a thumbs up. I shared it even, you know. And so my following Jesus can be simply an agreement with what he said or an agreement with what his will is in a particular area. And that's fine. That's fine. But agreeing with Jesus' view of life, marriage, children, finances, a sin, sexuality, whatever it might be, just agreeing

with him isn't going to move the dial that much at all, even in our own life, much less in society. But following Jesus is a term that is used a lot today. In fact, 89 times in the New Testament, we are told to follow Jesus, follow him. And we want to follow him, don't we? We really do. But I'm going to get down to something a little bit more detailed here. 89 times in the New Testament we're told to follow Jesus, but only one time outside of the gospel. Now, does this mean that according to Peter and Paul, we are.

not to follow him now? No, not at all. But here's the deal, is that we see a change in language from the gospel that talks about following Jesus to the works of Peter and Paul, which kind of make a shift here. And that is that they don't use the language, follow him, like we saw in the gospels. But we see that he is living in us now, in us. And I think there's a difference between following him and allowing him to live in us. And after Pentecost, which we just celebrated, we are powered by God to do the things that Jesus did. We are empowered from the inside. The Holy Spirit, given to us at baptism, has been poured out in a greater measure in confirmation, and Christ is in us.

So during Jesus' life, it was obvious. He said, Lech Acherai, come follow me. So, for example, I'll give you a few examples here. Matthew 419. He said to them, follow me, and I'll make you fishers of men. Matthew 822. And Jesus said to him, follow me and leave the dead to bury their own dead. Mark chapter 10 in verse 21. And Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, you lack one thing. Go sell all that you have and give to the poor. And you will have treasure. in heaven and come follow me and then Luke 923 he said to all if anyone would come after me let him deny himself take up his cross daily and follow me that's important so we need to follow Jesus his teachings obviously not saying anything about that but there is a shift here on earth they left everything and they follow Jesus he taught he led he demonstrated what the kingdom of God was all about, but there seems to be a shift from pre-resurrection to post-resurrection and that shift is our perspective. Are we still just following his teaching, agreeing with him, fascinated with it? Enamored by this figure, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, we see that there is a

shift from following behind him to Jesus living in you. in continuing his ministry led by the Holy Spirit, which is in them. That is, I think that's an important shift that we don't really talk about a whole lot. You know, Paul, he really nailed this with the Colossians. In Colossians 127, Paul said to them, To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you. the hope of glory. Christ in you, the hope of glory. So I think one of the things that we need to

address is this shift, this change in perspective. Do I have the mindset that I'm simply following his teachings? Or do I have the mindset that he is truly in me? And he's continuing his ministry from me, from my heart. He's in me, not figuratively, not theoretically, not theoretically. or anything like that. He literally is in me, due to baptism and confirmation, Christ is living in me. He is the hope of glory. John 1412, Jesus said, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do. And greater works than these will he do because I'm going to the Father? And so we don't have that visual of following him, but he's saying, you're going to do greater works than I did

because I'm going to the Father. Well, how in the world will we do greater works than Jesus? and he is going to the Father, well, the only answer to that is he's not going to leave us alone. He said in John 1426, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things

and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. And so the Spirit of God is living in our hearts today to continue with the work of the ministry that he has called us all to. very very important so his life is now an example to imitate for sure and we look back right 1 peter 221 4 2 this you have been called because christ also suffered for you leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps now we do follow in his steps but he's in you he is in you now tell me don't you think that that would change the whole perspective

If Jesus would have said in no uncertain terms, in English, if he would have said prior to the death, burial and resurrection and ascension, if he would have said, listen, guys, this is what's going to happen. I am going to be taken. I'm going to be arrested, beaten. They're going to kill me. They're going to put me in a grave, but I'm going to overcome death hell in the grave. I'm going to rise from the dead. I'll be with you for a short period of time, and then I'm going to ascend. I'm going to ascend to the Father. But stay in Jerusalem. Stay in Jerusalem. Why? Because you are going to be filled with the Holy Spirit, third person of the Trinity. Why? Because you're going to continue on in my ministry, in my kingdom. And so we just finished in the last few weeks, the Ascension and Pentecost. And my question is, did that change your perspective? Or do we just keep following and talking about him and studying him? Or do we roll up our sleeves and say, you know what? He said, wait in Jerusalem. And the promise is going to be coming that the Holy Spirit to fill us and ignite us with power, dunamis. Where we get that word dynamite. And then we're going to go forward. And he's going to be in us. I'd like you to think about that this week.

Is he in you? And if he is in you, what is he doing? What is he doing? Surely he didn't just come into you to make you feel better. In fact, he said, they did these things to me. They're going to do them to you. If anything, you should be a little bit nervous. Paul said to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 13-5, examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith, test yourselves, or do you not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you fail to meet the test. So I'm going to give you a test this week. Do you realize this about yourself

that Jesus Christ is in you? And if he's in you, what in the world is he doing? And I mean that literally. What in the world is he doing? He certainly is not our personal guru who helps us to be calm and peaceful in all of our situations.

Oh, there's that. But it's peace in the midst of what you are called to do. Paul said to the Galatians in chapter 2 and verse 20, and by the way, all these are going to be in the show notes. He says, I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God who love me and gave himself for me. It's beautiful. John even got in on this. 1 John chapter 2 verses 4 through 6, whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him truly the love of God is perfected.

By this we may know that we are in him. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. Wow. Wow. That's incredible. If we know him, whoever says that he abides in him, then ought to walk in the same way that he walked. Not just follow and listen and take notes, but to walk the way he walked, to live the way he lived, to treat people the way he treated people. Very, very powerful. Paul said in Galatians also, but when he who had set me apart before I was born and had called me through his grace was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with flesh and blood. He set me apart. And my friend, he set you apart. He set you apart as well. To the Corinthians, he said,

do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you? And he told Timothy, by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. Amazing things there. Amazing things. So I'm going to continue to talk about this because it should change our whole perspective and how we live our life, how we interact with other people and it will raise our life to a new level where we have to be totally dependent upon the Holy Spirit to do the works that Jesus did. The days of just studying it, the days of just talking about it, the days of just searching on the internet about it, or behind us. It's game time. It's post-Pentecost and Christ is in you and he wants to continue with his work. You're listening

to the Jeff Kavens show. Hey guys, my name is Father Mike Schmitz. I'm so excited to tell you about new cities and new dates for the Parables Tour. We're going to cities in both Michigan and Texas. If you're interested in getting tickets, you can go to ascensurepress.com slash Father Mike Tour for access to tickets and more information. Tickets go on sale Thursday, May 22nd. God bless.

Welcome back. We're talking today about Christ in you, a change in perspective. And prior to the break talking about in the Gospels, the language was used 89 times follow Christ. And we certainly want to continue to follow him in terms of following his example, following his word, his correction, and his affirmation, all of that. But after Pentecost, everything has changed. Christ is in us now, the hope of glory, and he wants to continue to do what he was doing before the ascension, but through you. And he even said, greater works will you do than him because he goes to the father. So that's something to contemplate this week, to think about that, greater works, what are, what are you doing?

What's happening in your life? When you wake up in the morning and you get dressed and you have breakfast and you go to work, do you carry with you that perspective that Christ is in you, a change in perspective? Do you have that new perspective when you're driving to work? someone cuts in front of you on the highway or somebody disses you at work or you have an opportunity standing in the line at Starbucks to get some coffee and you overhear something. Is Christ in you at that moment? And if he's in you, does he want to do something? And next week I'm going to talk about opportunities to witness. I want to build on this a little bit so you could call it a two-part

series, I guess, but Christ in you. Are you aware of it from morning to night that he is in you the same Jesus Christ who did amazing things and taught amazing things. You know, I mentioned earlier about studying and looking at his words and so forth. And we need to do that, don't we? We need to study the Word of God. But we need to study it for the purpose of doing it and allowing Jesus to continue on his ministry inside of us. And so when we study it, this great deposit of faith, we isolate its various aspects and then we imitate and we carry it out and what we remember Jesus saying we put into practice in our lives today and I would argue that every single day you've got opportunities to put his teachings into practice to allow him to walk in you the relationship is

much more intimate than following him and of course the most intimate of all is the receiving of the Eucharist in the holy sacrifice of the mass. Truly, he is in you. And if he is truly in you, then he is empowering you for mission, not just to feel better. Boy, I hope that our faith never devolves to that, you know. I see it, I see it among non-denominational churches, oftentimes when I peek in and listen to what's going on, that it seems to be that everything he did was simply for you in your comfort and your platform and your vision. And it just, that's not what the New Testament says. That's not what we're taught, that we are taught that we are disciples prepared for

mission, and that mission is his mission. So he's not mainly a teacher as much as he is a living, dynamic God who motivates and empowers us to live the life that you can't live by merely being a student or one who is just following behind him or someone who's just wearing a cross or a scapular or has holy water in their home. These things are all wonderful, wonderful graces. But are you following or is he in you? And are these graces feeding that truth that he's in you and wants to continue? Paul said to the Romans in chapter 13, verse 14, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. You know, when Paul uses

that term to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, or as he said to the Ephesians, to put on the new self created after the likeness of God. In true righteousness and holiness, he's really talking about the fact that you have a new identity. He's not saying, just put him on, like on the outside, but you have a new identity. You're a new being. Like I said earlier in Colossians 127, to them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this ministry, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. So how are you to live now? How are you to live now? Well, you certainly want to study, right? That's a part of, in fact, you can worship God in your study and give glory to God and praise to God in the midst of your

story. But how do you go about your day and allow Christ to work through you? Well, we're going to talk a lot about that next week, opportunities to witness. But I would say this. One of the things that you should do is look at the lives of the saints. If you look at the lives of the saints, you're going to see people who put on Christ. You're going to see people that Jesus was living through. And they did make a big difference in the world. They really did. And many of them, and certainly not the doctors of the church, but even some of the doctors of the church, were fairly uneducated people, but because they allow Jesus to live big in them and to have an impact on their families, their associates, members of the body of Christ, people outside the church, they accomplished

an awful lot. They really, really did. So I think about people like Mother Teresa, did she put on Christ. Did she live her life telling people about what Jesus was like? Or did she, she do the work that Jesus did? She left Albania for a couple of saris or clothing, a rosary, a few rupees in a Bible, and she went to Calcutta, India. And she had no formal training on how to turn a country upside down or anything like that. What did she do? She put on Christ. She allowed Jesus to love through her. She treated every person, even if they had a hideous disguise as Christ. and she loved him. And because of that, she rose to such popularity in the world.

People were enamored by her. People were impressed and inspired by her. And it wasn't her. It was Christ in her. She simply did the work of Christ. John Paul II. Same thing. He put on Christ.

St. Therese. St. Jerome, St. Vincent de Paul. St. Padre Pio. My old boss, Mother Angel. What did she do? She put on Christ. She allowed Jesus to speak through her, to live through her. She didn't just talk about Jesus. None of these saints just talked about Jesus or just studied Jesus or sat in a small group and shared ideas. They went out and let Jesus free to continue his ministry. St. Barameo, St. Francis, St. Peter, St. Paul, they all put on

Christ. And this is not, there's not a saint in heaven who merely followed behind. and took notice of Jesus, but every one of them put on Christ, and they walked in the power of Pentecost. They walked in the power of the Holy Spirit. So we cannot think that going to conferences, which they're good, buying books, which they're good, videos, they're wonderful. But we cannot think that doing these things is going to change the world. And so as I look at the news, I listen to it in the evening, as you do, and we're on social media. and we hear what's going on. How in the world is all this going to change unless Christ is in the midst of it? And how will Christ be in the midst of all this through you? Put on Christ and live.

This is what we are called to. This is what the world needs right now. Paul said to the Romans in chapter 8, verse 11, I'll give it to you, if the spirit of him, who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. Isn't that amazing? That's amazing. So I wanted to encourage you this week.

Really pray about this. I'm going to do the same thing myself. You and I are in this together. We've been together a long, long time. What is this? Show 434. Let's think about this week. What's my perspective?

Do I study about Jesus? at home and then go out in the world and do my thing? Or do I study about Jesus at home and at church and then say, Lord, what I'm studying needs to happen in my life. I'm going to put you on. You are in me. Let's go out in the world. Help me be sensitive. Help me be prudent. Help me to walk in love. Help me to notice situations where you want to continue your ministry. Because certainly, as you are going throughout your day today, certainly there are opportunities. where Jesus wants to continue his ministry. Are you on board?

Are you on board? Is Christ living in you, the hope of glory? Let's pray. Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I lift up my friend to you, and I ask you, Lord, to convict our hearts concerning our perspective of just simply following verses you in us,

the hope of glory. Lord, help us to discern this week what our perspective is and to help us, Lord, we pray to see our life with you as Peter and Paul did and the early disciples and the saints. We pray this in your mighty name, in the name of Jesus. Amen. Name of the Father's Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. I love you. Go out. Make a difference in the world.