The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Evangelization…What’s Holding You Back?

Episode Date: September 9, 2022

We are all called to be evangelists, so what is holding you back? In this episode, Jeff addresses some of the common reasons people use to avoid evangelization. He offers Scripture and advice on how to overcome fears and hurdles to evangelization. Snippet from the Show God’s power is demonstrated in our weakness. 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 ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

Welcome to the Jeff Kaven Show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together and living as activated disciples. This is show 287 evangelization. What's holding you back? I remember it like it was yesterday. I was in Florida, and I was in the middle of a training. a theological training school in Florida back in the 80s, and I was given the responsibility of going to a beach in Florida and standing up on a picnic bench and proclaiming the gospel. I am not kidding you. This was all a part of a class that I was a part of years ago

about how do you share Christ with people publicly? I took the class, and the assignment was, go do it. Well, good day to you, my friend, Jeff Kaven's with you, and it's good to talk to you again about all things, evangelization and Bible and discipleship and what it means to follow Christ. Today I want to talk to you about what's holding you back, what's holding you back from evangelizing, what's holding you back from sharing Christ with the people that you work with or the people that you encounter throughout the week.

I'm going to talk about five things today that I think our whole. you back. And I, my goal is to, is to set you free, is to help you to get over those hurdles so that you can do what deep down inside you know you're called to do. Before I get to that, I want to tell you, I just got, I think it was a week and a half ago, my large print great adventure Bible. Oh, man. I am looking at my, my stack of Bibles in my bookcase right now at least one of them. And I have several hard-bound Bibles, but the large print Great Adventure Bible is hard-bound, and I don't have anything like this. This is beautiful. It is in color. It's the regular Great Adventure Bible, but it's much bigger, bigger text, and a beautiful cover,

a blue cover. And I'm going to put that in the show notes for you. If you know of anybody who who says, yeah, I'd read the Bible, but I can't read the small print in those Bibles. Well, you can get them the Great Adventure Bible, and they're going to smile when they see it. Trust me. So we'll put that in the show notes for you. And thank you, by the way, for all your feedback, both on this show and my daily reflection on the Hallow app. It's so good to hear from you regularly. Okay, so we're talking about evangelization, what's holding you back?

Now, the reason I want to keep hammering this topic is it really comes from what I'm hearing people say. And I know that people are watching, you know, cable news and network news and there's so many hot topics, you know, politics and medicine and you name it going on out there. And people are just talking about it and the way our country is going and oh, no, what's happening to our children and how can we ever expect that our children? children are going to break through all this garbage and so forth. And we talk about it, but the answer is really taking the truth, which is in your heart, my friend, and bringing it to the world. We have to stop talking to each other about simply the church and what we already know. We've got to bring this message to broken people.

And I've had several shows over the last number of years on the carigma in sharing the gospel with one another and how easy that is. I'll give you an example on today's show just in a little bit of a man that I encountered just this last week. In fact, I've even thought about sharing with you every week at least one encounter that I have and how we get the job done and how we open up conversations and so forth. So these are the five things that I think are holding you back. or maybe it's one, maybe it's two, but for most people, they can identify with one of these things. Now, when it comes to sharing the Lord with whoever, I have found that these opportunities usually come quickly. They come very quickly. I'll give you the example that I was talking about just a moment ago. I was at Starbucks, or the friend of mine, and we were shooting a video for a

revelation study that I'm doing for the Cate Catechetical Institute at the Seminary of St. Paul, Minneapolis. And so I was sitting outside, had the camera there, and I was in the middle of this promotional, I guess you would call it, when suddenly a man walked right by. And I had a quick opportunity to decide, do I break and talk to him? Because he just walked by like that. Or do I just keep on going with the recording and kind of forget about it? Well, in that split second, I decided, stop.

So I stopped. And I looked at him, and I engaged him in conversation. You know, right when I stopped and looked at him, he said to me, we said, what are you guys doing? Well, that was his question. And he said, are you running for office? It must have looked like a politician. But he said, are you running for office? And I said, yeah, president.

just joking with him. And then it became a discussion about what I do. And it turns out that he sent his kids to the same school as mine went to. He was raised Catholic, wasn't doing anything right now with it. And I was able to share with him a little bit about Jesus and really challenged him to come back and that what he's searching for in life is found in Christ. Well, that happens so quickly right there.

The opportunities usually come quickly. And one of the problems that I think we run into so often as Uber Catholics today is that we love to talk to people we know about things we know. You know what I mean? We love to talk to people we know about things we know. And as a result of that, we don't bring this message to the world, the world that we're complaining about, the world that is falling apart. and you've got the answer. Now, you and I both have a responsibility to share the gospel with others, period. Full stop, as they say.

The question is, will you, will I? And what is going to get in the way? And will you overcome it? What's stopping you? What's holding you back from being an effective witness of Jesus? You know the gospel, we've talked about that many times with the correct. That is not the problem, knowing the gospel, although many don't. The problem is walking in love and boldness to share that with other people.

Now, the first obstacle that's holding us back from being effective in evangelization is this concept, and I'm going to put this in the show notes for you. It's the concept of the separation of the head from the body in the church. That is that Christ is the head and we, the church, are the body of Christ, but we live independently from the head and we're not in sync with the head. Jesus. And I know this to be true because everywhere Jesus went 2,000 years ago, he told people about himself. Everywhere he went. He told people about himself. And now it's easier to talk about the church than Jesus, I find, and a lot of people are willing to talk about the church, but they don't talk about the head.

And when Christ entered our world 2,000 years ago, he took on a physical body. In fact, that physical body was prepared for him. Hebrew says chapter 10 in verse 5, let me just tell you how to get these notes real quick. Just text my name, Jeff Kaven's one word, and text it to the number 3377. We'll get you the notes like this one. Hebrews 10.5 says consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said sacrifices and offerings, thou hast not desire. but a body thou has prepared for me. So it was through his physical body

that Jesus demonstrated the love of the Father, very clearly, tangibly, and boldly, especially through his sacrificial death on the cross. And after his bodily ascension, Christ continues his work in the world through those he has redeemed. That's you. That's me. That's the church.

And he now demonstrates that. love, the love of the Father, clearly, tangibly, and boldly, in this way, the way that the church functions as the body of Christ is the key. It really is the key. We got a choice to make, you know? Are we going to do this? Or are we going to talk to people we know about things we know the rest of our lives? It's got to end. It has to end. We have to become bold. We have to provide the answer to this generation. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12, now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. He said to the Romans, so we though many are one body in Christ and individually members of

one another. He goes on and on and he says to the Ephesians, Jesus has put all things under his feet and has made him Jesus the head over all. God has made Jesus the head over all. And you and I are members of the body of Christ, and you and I share in an inheritance. And that inheritance is so, so wonderful, eternal life. But listen, it's not right to grab the inheritance and shirk the responsibilities. It really isn't right. We have to take both. We're going, have gained a tremendous inheritance, but we've also been given a tremendous responsibility to be the body of Christ. So that is one thing we have to get over, is we have to bring back together the head and the body to walk as one. And as long as the body doesn't talk about the head to this

generation, we are not doing what the body of Christ should do. Every bishop, every pastor, every leader, every deacon, every mother, every father should be sharing the message of Jesus Christ, the gospel, and teaching others how to do it. That's something I really truly believe is holding us back, is that we see our lives separate from the head and we simply talk about the head, study the head, share the head and the things we know with people we know. Okay, number one, I'm just being honest with you this week. If I can stir you up, you know, that's what I want to do. And the second thing, holding us back is when people have the attitude of, well, it's just

not my gift, Jeff. It's not my gift. There's all kinds of opportunities in the body of Christ all the way from going on a foreign mission trip to manning the beard tent at the fall. festival, and this idea of talking to other people about Jesus and what Jesus has done in my life, well, that's not my gift, to which I would say, how convenient. How convenient. Now, this is really a wild excuse that people use about. It's not my gift, especially in light of the fact that Jesus came and died for you, gave his life for you, because you were bankrupt.

You were bankrupt, you know, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins, and he died for you. And then he says, guess what? I'm going to send you on a mission in life, and I'm going to empower you to do what you never could do, to say things you never thought you would say, talk to people, you never thought you had talked to, you're going to hear me speak to you and empower you by virtue of baptism and confirmation, and I'm going to be with you always, even to the end of the earth. Now go. And then we respond, well, it's not my gift. Oh, brother, give me a break. When Jesus saw the 5,000 plus people up there in the northern part of Israel, Sea of Galilee, he looked at them and he was moved

because he saw them as sheep without a shepherd. He was moved. And the disciples saw that problem, and they said, well, Lord, send him away. Jesus said, no, you give him something to eat. Well, Jesus, that ain't my gift. Can you imagine saying that to him? That's not my gift. They kind of did say it in a way because they said, well, what do you want? You know, we don't have anything here. And he says, well, what do you have? Well, we got five loaves and two fish. give them to me. It's enough. He takes him. He blesses. He breaks it back to them. And they end up feeding 5,000 people. You think that was their gift? No. Their gift was simply saying, yes. Okay, Lord, I'll do it. So you see, it's not your ability that is going to make the difference in this

new evangelization that I believe is going to sweep this country in the next three years. it's not your ability but it is your availability that's what god is looking for if we start off with the focus on our weaknesses and live that way we will never be the disciples that the lord has called us to be so we don't want to start off with focusing on our weakness what i don't have what we want to start off with is is what i have in his hands can he use what i have as small as it may seem as as weak as it appears. Can he use this? Yes. Listen, I wet the bed until eighth grade. I passed out. Three out of the first five times, I stood up and gave a speech. This thing of speaking is not my gift. But God can use it in some way. I'm giving it to them. The gospel, God's power. God's power is

demonstrated in weakness, my friend. We've got to get off of our excuses as to why we can't do things. We're serving a God who created the world. We're serving a God who redeemed the world and empowered us to go out and get the job done. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12, when I am weak, then I am strong. He said, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. You feel foolish? You're my brother. You're my sister. I'm with you. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong. You feel weak? I'm with you. I feel weak too. And the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen. Ever feel despised? I'm with you again. And the things that are not, that he might nullify the things that are that no man should boast before God. Let him boast. Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. you see it's not about your gift it's not about you know you have gone to all kinds of speaking classes and apologetic seminars and and just maybe you're equipped now you know when we're called to share Christ with other people we're called to tell them what he's done in our life that he's brought

joy to me that god loved me he has a plan for my life and and my sin got in the way and he tied for that and now my life is radically reoriented to Jesus and I got to tell you, I have a joy that I've never had before in my life. That's evangelization. If you're waiting for someone to boast about you, or if you're waiting for something to boast about something in you, it's not going to happen. What we have to boast about is Jesus. It's Jesus. I'm going to take a break when I come back. I've got three more things that are holding us back. You stay with me. Please Stay with me. We're going to overcome this together, and we're going to be a part of the new evangelization in such a beautiful, powerful, and unique way in the next three years or so,

three or four years. And I hope that you'll be a part of it. You're listening to the Jeff Kavan Show. The most important person ever to walk the face of the earth. The source and summit of all things Catholic. But do we really know him? Hi, I'm Dr. Marchalino D'Ambrosio, is sometimes known as Dr. Italy. For 30 years, I've taught about Jesus in Catholic University classrooms on TV and on radio. And I've been surprised at how Catholics fascinated with so many of the unique features of the rich Catholic tradition seem to take for granted the very basis of it all, the person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Some other Catholic Bible teachers I know have noticed the very same problem. So Jeff Kaven's Dr. Edward Sri and I decided to collaborate

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Your life will never be the same. Back again talking about the things that are holding you back. And the first two were this idea, number one, of the idea of being separate, the body separate from the head. We'll never accomplish evangelization if we walk around like that. And number two, it's not my gift to evangelize hooey. I think that's a Greek word. But hooey, that's just not the truth. That's not the truth at all.

God uses our weaknesses. He uses our inabilities to do extraordinary things. And that's part of the great adventure, isn't it? Well, one of the other things that's holding us back is that many times people will, in fact, they even voice this, they'll say, God doesn't speak to me. God doesn't speak to me. To which I would respond, who said that? Who told you that God doesn't?

speak to you. The church teaches us that you are created in such a way as that you can talk to God, but you're also created in a way that you can hear from God. And if God wants you to talk to someone or to give to something, an organization, or a person, or go pray, or whatever it might be, he's very capable of nudging you. You know, I find that that's kind of how the Lord speaks. to me, he nudges me. It's kind of like, you know, pokes me and says, hey, go up and pray. Or, hey, go over and talk to that person. And the truth is, God can speak to you and you can hear him. Maybe, maybe we don't listen or maybe we're not trying to listen because we don't believe that God would want or can speak to me. Why me? But he does. He does. He spoke to all these

people in the New Testament, why would he suddenly stop speaking to us to go up to the chariot, to speak to a certain person? I would prefer to think of this as God's nudging or guiding or correcting rather than just running around directly speaking to us. I'm not suggesting that God is just running around constantly speaking to everyone, but I do know that he nudges me from time to time to speak. And there are a number of ways that God does speak to us, even to today. One is he speaks through his word, obviously, 2 Timothy 316. He speaks through his word, and he also speaks through nature, creation. Now hold it for a second there. I'm not saying he is in the tree. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that oftentimes God speaks to us

about himself through creation. The catechism says that he speaks and can be understood. He reveals himself to some degree through nature, through the created order, and then also through the human person, what we long for, and then third through reason. And so he speaks to us through nature and creation and self, the human craving of the heart and reason. And there's another another way that I have found that the Lord has spoken to me and encouraged me in a particular area. And that was through sacred music. Music and the songs that we have available to us, praise songs, worship songs, are ways that the Lord has just really confirmed in my heart, who I am and what he wants me to do. I also have found that God speaks through circumstances.

getting a confirming message from two or three people on the same day, I have to ask myself, is God speaking to me about something in particular? And so God can speak to me that way. Of course, he speaks through his spirit. He whispers, he whispers to us, like Elijah, God whispered to Elijah. I've had that happen to me several times where I was just watching television and the Lord whispered in my heart to go and pray up at the church, and something extraordinary was awaiting me. But the one area, well, there's two areas, but one area that I know God speaks to me every single day in is Lexio Divina in the morning with Emily.

Now, Lexio Divina is a way of praying the scriptures in a way that allows you to hear God speak to you every single day. And I have found that what he speaks to me in the morning, somehow, some way throughout the day, I have an opportunity to put that into practice. And a lot of times it is in the area of evangelization, in sharing a good word with someone, a word of encouragement, a word of correction, direction. And so Lexio Divina is one way that the Lord I know speaks to me every single day. And then there is another way that the Lord speaks to me every day. And I kind of talked about this, but it is this nudge. It is this sudden thought, this feeling, thought that I should talk to someone. And then I have to simply step out and begin the conversation with

them. I'm telling you, my friend, you, oh, I've heard people say, wow, I was bored. Christianity's boring. You're not following the one I'm following. Because if you follow the one I'm following, Jesus Christ, there are so many opportunities. And it's really what fills me with joy every day is to be able to talk to people or to pray for people. And you can do that through that simple nudging. And then, of course, lastly, there's also the conscience, right? He can warn you with your conscience. He can guide you in that way. And that's what Paul seemed to have had in my mind when he spoke to Timothy in 1. Timothy 1.5, but the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Now, the fourth thing holding you back from sharing

the gospel may be, I'm not good at speech. Well, we've heard this one for a long time, right? I'm not good at speech and I don't know enough. Again, opening with your weakness. I don't talk well. Never did well in speech. I don't know enough. I haven't studied enough. Maybe someday I will, and then I can talk to people, but I haven't at this point. Those are oftentimes used as excuses. Moses used that in Exodus 4. You remember that? The Lord gave him specific instructions, but the Lord, he said to the Lord, I'm telling you the truth, Lord, I'm not a skilled speaker. I have never been able to speak well. And now even after talking to you, I am still not a good speaker. You know that I talk slowly and don't use the best words.

Ah, the Lord said, I'll be with you. And he sent Aaron with Moses. But I love what Luke says. In Luke's Gospel chapter 2, and I'll put this in the show notes, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. Beautiful. Luke 12 says, and when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say.

Man, if we just believe that, that would be incredible, wouldn't it? If we just believe that one right there, don't be anxious. Why, the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour, what you ought to say. And I'm here to tell you, my friend, I have seen that happen so many times. and you too you probably have had that happen to you where you shared with somebody some aspect of the kingdom of god and when you were done you thought to yourself where in the world did that come from i've never rehearsed that wow holy spirit are you just teaching me in the moment how to speak to someone well you'll never know until you open your mouth right psalm 45 my heart overflows with a good

theme. I address my verses to the king. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. Is your tongue the pen of a ready writer? Are you ready to write? Are you ready to speak? People say I don't know enough. Not knowing enough is not an excuse. We know enough if we know Jesus and we know what he's done in our life. That's what we're called to share. We share according to the level that we know and we are not obligated to sound smarter than we are. We're just called on to tell the truth. Listen, if you don't know enough as you feel, I want to give you one thing to do about that, and that is to get to know more. And I'm going to put in the show notes a beautiful promotion for the great adventure Bible study that I want you to see. It's on YouTube,

and I'm going to give you the address in the show notes. I want you to watch that. and then respond to it with Lord, I want to know you more. I want to know you more. Peter said, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you. See, we're called to let our light shine, right? Let our light shine before men in such a way that they're going to see our good works and glorify our father who is in heaven.

And yes, works are important. Speech is important as well. So if you don't feel like you know enough, number one, start reading the Bible. Number two, start reading the catechism. This coming year, we're going to be doing catechism in a year. Father Mike Schmitz and the team. Study big issues like suffering,

hopelessness, fear, loneliness, faithfulness. Start studying. Start studying. We've got to step out from behind our excuses and be bold. And the last one is fear. That's something that is holding us back. In surveys, taken fear is the number one reason why people don't evangelize as disciples.

Again, it's easier to talk to the choir than the visitor. We love to talk to people we know about things we know. And if we don't talk about Jesus, we default to talking about the church. that's where we're at. But we were never called to go into the world and proclaim the church, even though the church is beautiful and the church is deep and the church is a pillar, but we are called to tell people about Jesus. You see, when fear grips you, fear is a temporary loss of perspective on the situation, and that

that person you're talking to is in need of the good news of the gospel. They have every right to hear what Jesus has done, but you lost perspective with fear, and it became about you. You see, fear can be due to idols in your heart. Idols are those things that we hold on to rather than Christ, and we don't want to lose them, whether it's our status in the community, the respect we have at work, our reputation among family members. But I'll tell you the truth, your feelings. are not more important than doing his will. And fear expresses itself in a lot of different ways,

rejection, failure, loss of relationship, lack of knowledge as I face tough questions. But listen to this. Love casts out fear. Love casts out fear. And my friend, it's been good sharing with you. And if you hear a different tone in my voice, it's because I can't be quiet about this. I can't.

The world is hurting really bad. You know it. You are very aware of that. It's the content of discussions you have at home with your spouse, your friend, your roommate. It's part of the streaming text. you have with friends, what's happening in Washington, what's happening in the news, what's happening at Moralaga, what's happening in the Senate, what's happening in energy, you know, all that's in the news right now, what's happening in our kids' schools, you know this. And you have the answer. And the answer

is Jesus. And you have been given a slice of responsibility in your world to let that light shine and to share what you can of what God has done in your life and why you are not going to bend the knee to this culture, but you will bend your knee to Jesus. We have a choice to make. Are we going to do this? Or are we going to hide behind excuses? Are we going to become men and women of God and do the hard things? Or are we just going to talk to each other about the inheritance. Pray about it. I'll pray with you. You know I love you. You know that I love you. I'm just an older brother, probably an older brother. I might be a younger brother to some of you. But it's because I love you. I have this burning in my heart

because I know the answer. I'll try to share with you on every show. Maybe an example of that week of being able to talk to people about Jesus. Let me pray with you. And seriously, you might want to listen to this again, but pass it on to someone that you know. Maybe you've been talking in your Bible study or your group you get together with, you know, every week or every other week. Share it with them. And go ahead and put some comments in and like it or rate it, whatever they want you to do. Because that helps with the algorithm. And I want this message to go out to Catholics around the world that we have to step up to the plate. And we, in some ways, I would say, we really don't have a right to sit around complaining anymore when we have the answer and refuse to share it.

So let's pray about this together, shall we in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, Jesus, we love you. Lord, you have changed our lives. You have given us purpose. You have forgiven us of our sins, filled us. with life, eternal life, and you simply ask us to be the body, the body that continues on in the work that you started 2,000 years ago. Lord, help us in our decision making. Give us a tenacious

spirit. Help us to say yes to you. Help us to take a step out of our comfort zone. Help us, Lord, to be bold and loving. Help us to recognize the opportunities that you are giving us on a daily basis. And may we totally rely upon you in your strength and your wisdom to navigate through life. Lord, raise up an army, an army of compassionate, loving disciples who are not afraid to share the truth. Mary, our dear mother, you said yes. Help us to say yes. Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women. And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death, amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. I love you, my

friend. I really do. And I pray that you'll have a very fruitful week.