The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Family Members Who Are Lost

Episode Date: April 9, 2021

Who are the lost sheep in your life? Today, Jeff explains the parable of the lost sheep, and shares how we can find the lost sheep in our lives, and bring them back to Christ. Snippet from the Show ��If a parish is not equipped to recognize and go after lost sheep, we will not find them.” 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!

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show, episode 213, family members who are lost. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavins. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven show. And welcome. This is the week after. Easter. I'm not sure when you're listening to the show, but this is the week after Easter. And I hope you had a fantastic trituum and a great Easter Monday. And now we are living it out. And it is wonderful. Jesus is alive. And we can say hallelujah now. And now we set our hearts, our minds like Flint, and we're going to do what he's called us to do. We're going to carry out his wishes, which is really the result of the sacrifice that he made on the cross in his power over death hell and in the grave, now he sends us out with that same power, the power from confirmation. I'm not sure what happened

in your parish. Maybe you had some people come in and they received baptism, they received confirmation, and they received the Eucharist. Those are the sacraments of initiation. And if they received that confirmation, wow, they've got power now to begin to live out their life. Now, coming up in this next period of time, from now till Pentecost, it's called the time of Mistagogy, big fancy word, which really is a time where all of the teachings, the readings in the mass, are really focused on those who stood up in white on the Easter vigil. The neophytes, those who are coming into the church. How many people came into your church this year?

It's kind of a good thing to think about from year to year because if your church has 3,000 people and you had two people come into your church, then, well, your church has some work to do, right? Now, I know of some churches where there was a lot. My good friend, Father Josh Johnson, down in Louisiana, my word, I think he had over 50 people come into the church. And you know why?

because he's a pastor who's looking for the lost sheep. He's got a whole flock of people that he's training to go out and to share the gospel with people. And that's what I want to talk to you about today is family members who are lost. Do you have any family members who are lost? Maybe a brother or a sister. How many times I get emails from people that tell me that their son or their daughter? I've even had people say, all of my children are gone. They've left the faith.

They don't even believe anymore. And oh, what that does to the heart of a father, what that does to the heart of a mother, I have seen that pain in their eyes. I've heard that pain in their voice, and I know that it's a lot to go through. Well, we're going to talk about that on this episode of the show. But I do want to congratulate all of those who did come into the church. this week, this past week, and welcome to the period of Mystoggi. Really pay attention for the readings in the Mass from now till Pentecost because they're meant for the neophyte. They're meant for

the beginner. And I would argue that many of us, most of us, if not all of us, and really need to kind of put ourselves in the position of a beginner and listen afresh, listen anew to the readings, the basic teachings of Jesus that are going to come out in the next. number of weeks because it's it's rich it's powerful a couple housekeeping items here remember bible in a year i'll put it in the show notes bible in in in a year if you would like to sign up for that with father mike schmitz and myself i'll put that in there never too late to begin we still have people every day starting from all over the world literally i'm not that's not exaggerating we got people from all over the world who are reading the bible with us and and it is still going

very very strong highly ranked show encourage you to put some love on that by going and ranking the show and give your comments and that that helps with the algorithm there there is some sad news and that is that israel is not opening up yet and so our trip to israel with father mike schmits and uh taylor tropote aliya the swaffords emily and myself we're going to have to wait till next June know. But while that's bad news for this year, it's good news for next year because who knows, we'll probably have more spaces available. So next June, that's June of 2022. Put it on your calendar. Father Mike Schmitz and I will be leading that pilgrimage in June of 2022 and you can get in on it. Go to my website, jeffcavens.com, and you'll find out all the information there.

Okay. One more thing with housekeeping. If you want the show notes, All you ought to do is text my name, one name, Jeff Kavens, to 3377. Just text it to the number 3377. We'll get you on the list in perpetuity, which is a real fancy way of saying for a long time. Okay, so we're talking about family members who are lost. And I do want to talk to you about this today because this comes on, this message comes on the heels of whatever you saw at the Easter vigil in your church. whether there was 50-some people coming into your church as a result of the labor of your flock this last year, or nobody. And I've seen that. And I've been to churches that had one, two, and praise God for that lost sheep, because that's what I want to talk about this week.

But also, wow, we have to open our eyes to the fact that we're not growing. if you and I are not producing fruit in our parish and bringing people to Jesus, this isn't working. It's not working. And we have to change the way we do perish. We really do. We have to change that. But thank God for that one that came in because you know what? The two parables in Matthew and Luke that talk about the lost sheep, they verify the love of the father for that one single person who came into your parish. But I truly do believe that that one person can grow into a hundred people next year if we would take seriously evangelization. You know, the parable of the lost sheep is one of the parables of Jesus. And it appears in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 18,

and Luke in chapter 15. And it is about a shepherd, you probably know this, but it is about a shepherd who leaves his flock of 99 sheep in order to do what? To go look for the one lost. The one lost sheep. Let me read it to you. I'll read the one out of Matthew for you, and I'll put both of them in the show notes, so you don't have to pull over right now. It says in Matthew 18, 10 through 14,

see that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven, their angels always behold the face of my father who is in heaven. What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the 99 on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the 99 that never went astray. So it is not the will of my father who is in heaven that one of these little ones, should perish. Now, that's a beautiful parable, and it's very similar in Luke chapter 15. I'll put it

in the show notes. I'll give you the differences at the end of this podcast, but it's a beautiful story, and so many people are, you know, very familiar with it, because we get the imagery of this parable, particularly from Luke's Gospel chapter 15, and when he has found that lost sheep, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. And you've got the holy cards. You've seen the pictures of Jesus with that little sheep on his shoulders, lost but now found very, very popular image. And it's so true.

It's so true. But it's a very popular story. And we typically will listen to that story. I'm just being honest. We typically listen to the story and think, wow, he really loves that one sheep. and he's willing to leave the 99 and go look for that one sheep. And I was once that one sheep. And wow, does he love me?

And he came and he looked for me and he found me. And I just am always reminded of how much he loves me when I read that parable. And that's true. He loves you so much that he would leave the 99 and he would go and search for you. But what if that one that is lost is in your family? what if that one that's lost is your brother or your sister or your uncle or your mom then we start to see the story in a completely different way where it's not about me but it's really about that one that is lost and alone and the lord loves that one that is lost let me just say this right off the top here

god loves your sister god loves your brother he loves your son and he loves your daughter. Listen, he loves your daughter. And there isn't anything that he wouldn't do to save her, including give his own life. He loves your daughter. He loves your children so much. And this is a word of encouragement for you as parents who have lost your children, and they are no longer walking in the church. They're no longer walking with Christ, but they're out there. Maybe they're humanists, or they come into some kind of new age movement, or maybe they're just, nuns. You know, they're just nothing. They're not prescribing to any particular belief out there. Maybe they're in the occult, tarot, tarot cards, Ouija boards, all of that kind of thing.

Well, my heart goes out to you, but I want to remind you that Jesus loves your son and daughter so much. And in this parable, the shepherd is very, very moved over the one. And that's important to see is that the people that you walk by on the street, the people that you deal with in commerce, the people that serve you at the restaurant, those that you stand by at the mall, every one of them God loves so much. And some of these people are lost.

You see what I'm saying? Some of these people are lost. Maybe they serve the Lord at one time, but they don't serve the Lord anymore. but the shepherd loves them so much. So I want to ask you a question. In your world, who is that one among your acquaintances? Who is it in your life that is that one that has wandered away?

Is it your brother? Is it your son? Is it your daughter? Is it your next door neighbor? Who is it? I just encourage you to pause here for a moment. Even if you can put me on pause, just pause me for 10 seconds, seconds or 20 seconds. and think to yourself, who are the ones that would fit that category in my life?

Pause, unpause? I can think of several. In my life, I can think of several people that would be counted among the one that was lost out there that the Lord loves. You know, it's an interesting thing about sheep. Sheep are dumb. And now don't write me and say, oh, that was such a mean thing to say. No, it's actually quite true. They're a little bit dim-witted. They're, they are so distracted, and they have this proclivity towards wandering into dangerous areas going outside of the confines, and, you know, a horse will come back, a dog will find its way back home, and sheep can just keep going and going and going. And that's where we get this idea, you know, that the grass is greener on the other side. And sheep,

believe that and they wander away to richer grass and suddenly they realize they're alone and their life is in danger. That's a good thing to remember. Sheep are dim-witted and that has nothing to do with how valuable we are. I'm just saying this is the animal that Jesus used to describe us. And it's true because we are in such need of a shepherd because we easily get into trouble. We buy, you know, shiny silver things and we wander off into other pastures. We get this new computer and before you know it, we're gone in places we shouldn't really be. But how does the Lord go and look for the one? How does he go and look for that one? How is he going to find that one in your life that lives over in Nashville? That one in your life

that lives in Florida, and here you are, you live in Illinois. How is he going to go after that one? How is he going to do it? You know how he's going to do it? He's going to do it through what he does everything through, and that is his church, the body of Christ. How does God go and leave the 99 and search for that one through you? Through the body of Christ. That's how he does it.

And if a, let me put it this way, if a parish is not aware and trained to go after lost sheep, they will not find them. Now, you can quote me on that, and you can email that to your pastor. If a parish is not aware and is not equipped to recognize and to go after lost sheep, we will not find them. That's a truth. But what happens if the church isn't looking for that one? What do we do?

If the church isn't looking for that one, well, we'll continue. continued to go down in population and more and more people will wonder away and we'll just say, man, I don't know what got into them. You know, we raised them right. And they went to such a nice school. We gave them everything they needed to be successful. But look at them now. Well, they made that bed.

They can live in it. You hear that kind of stuff a lot, right? Well, there are some things that we can do when it comes to looking for the lost sheep. and when I come back from this break, that's what I'm going to give you. You're listening to The Jeff Kaven Show. Nestled under the warm Florida sun is a university whose name indicates a vocational call. Ave Maria, which is Latin for Hail Mary, recalls the angel Gabriel's announcement to Mary of her future vocation,

becoming the mother of God. Enriched by God's grace, Mary freely ascends to this call. This is the model for all students. Come to Ave Maria University, where we offer a liberal arts curriculum buoyed by the sacraments. This empowers you to clearly see your vocational call, whatever that call might be. Ave Maria University, your vocation, location. Visit avemaria.edu or call 1833 AMU-SWFL. And I welcome you back.

We're talking today about the law. sheep in your life, the people that you know that are lost, or the people that you encounter on the road that maybe they're not relatives, but they are somebody's relatives. You know what's a good idea to remember is that all the people that you encounter, whether it's at the ball game or the mall or at the Walmart parking lot or getting your car repaired and you're sitting in the waiting room, someone in that place around you might have a mom or a dad praying for them, and you're going to be the one that's going to recognize an opportunity and perhaps strike up a conversation and maybe even find out they're lost.

And you can be the key to bringing them back. The first thing that we can do is certainly pray, right? I mean, you know, Jesus even talked about this at one point when he said, pray for the Lord to send out workers into the harvest to bring people in. pray for people around the country. And if you have lost ones, whether it's a son or daughter, brother, sister, grandma, grandpa, former teacher, whatever, pray for them. Say, God, I pray for my son. Oh, God, that you would bring people into his life who would speak to him and that would gain his attention. Oh, God, I pray for my son that today there would be an encounter with a disciple who has

truth, prepare my heart's son to hear that news, oh God, and I'm going to keep my son in prayer. That's really, really important. But one of the things that's really important when it comes to spotting lost sheep is learning how to look for opportunities. And you've heard me talk about this before when I talk about becoming an activated disciple. We need to look for opportunities for the, for for sharing with people who appear to be lost or after a conversation, it's apparent that they are lost. There are two things that are assumed when it comes to the local parish. I say assumed, meaning that it is deep in the church's teaching that these two things are assumed. And to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, these things are assumed. One of them is that the church is looking,

that the church is actively looking for lost sheep. Now, I want to ask you a question, because I know that you are the most outstanding sheep in your parish. I know you are. The church is to be looking for lost sheep. Let me ask this question. It's really two. Is your parish looking right now for lost sheep?

Are they? St. Mary, St. Edward, St. John's, St. you name it. Is your parish actively looking for lost sheep? That's a good question to ask in your parish. Maybe even ask your pastor. Go ahead and use my name if you want to say, I listen to this podcast and Jeff Kaven said, ask your pastor, are we looking for lost sheep? Well, I don't know what the answer is going to be. I'm assuming it's going to be, well, sure. I mean, yeah, I mean, we're a church and we're Catholic. And are, Is your parish actively looking for lost sheep? That's number one.

Number two, does your parish know how to bring them into the flock? Do the people in your parish, number one, are they looking for lost sheep? Number two, do they know how to bring people into the flock? You just went, most likely, to the Easter vigil, and you saw those two people coming into the church. Maybe it was Father Josh's church, and there was dozens, but you saw them coming into the church. how many people in your parish do you think know how that whole process began? Priests that are listening, educate your people. Tell them now what the schedule is going to be this coming year

and how the people they know that are lost could be up there on the Easter vigil. Start now. Wake up your parish now. Tell them what the RCI program is. Tell them what a sponsor is. Tell them when you meet. Tell them what you're going to learn. and tell them how the church will support this.

So is your church looking for lost sheep? Does your church know how to bring them into the flock? If they don't, can I suggest to you that you be the one that goes to the pastor and says, I would like to take this on? And I'd like to make sure that our people know about lost sheep. And I want our people to know how we do it here and how we bring them into the fold because there's 99 of us in here, but at last count, at last count, we think there's one missing. They're out there somewhere.

The sheep. This is interesting if you know anything about sheep. I go to Israel every January, a lead pilgrimages over there, and we go by thousands of sheep over there, a thousand, a lot of shepherds and sheep. And there's one thing about this, and that is that the sheep doesn't have to work to get home. A sheep gets lost, but they really don't have to work at getting home because they can't get home on their own. He doesn't have to find the way. But think about the way our parishes are organized for just a moment. Let me finish my thought there.

I said to you that the sheep don't have to work at getting home. They don't have to find their way because they don't know where home is and they don't know where they're at. They have to be apprehended, they have to be loved, and they have to be brought back to the church. But think for a moment the way our parishes are organized. Number one, here at 1, 2, 3, Oak Street is when and where we meet. You could say that. Saint Anywhere Parish at 1, 2, 3, Oak Street. This is where we meet.

This is the time we meet. Number two, we have a committee that deals with lost sheep. If we find out that there's any need out there, we've got a committee for that. Number three, why aren't people standing in line to find help? If we expect to have a stagnant building where we meet once a week, faithful, and the whole world knows what our message is and knows what's available to them, why aren't people standing in line to get in? they don't know what they need and they don't know that we have answers the idea that we have a

central parish and that we all go there once a week and especially on christmas and easter and that we expect that if people really want to know what we're about and they're really searching for the truth they're going to wander up to our church and sneak in and get it my word this isn't working. Well, this just isn't working. And so that means that we have to do a radical new job of teaching our people about how to go and look for lost sheep, how to share the carigma. Look up my other podcasts on the corigma and how to share the gospel and how to evangelize. Put all those together with this one. You get a kind of a fuller look here. But we've got to do a much better job of equipping our people to notice lost sheep, carry on a conversation, invite them

in, and then our parish developing an atmosphere that brings in new life, new little lost lambs that we can nurture and help to grow. If your parish doesn't have that, if your parish doesn't have either of those items, then in 25 years from now, it will basically look the same, but substantially smaller, which unfortunately is going to be the inheritance that you give your children. Now, it's interesting about these two parables here, while both parable versions of the lost sheep use the same cast of characters, okay? Jesus is actually speaking to a different audience in both of them. When you look at Matthew 18 in the first one that I read, the lost sheep parable is given in response to a question asked by Jesus' disciples about who's the greatest? Who's the greatest?

And he uses it to address appropriate attitudes and disciplines among believers. And what he was showing the people, the disciples who asked the question, which one of us is the greatest? Was he was showing them all of you. All of you are incredibly important to me. I love you all, so much so that I would leave all of you to go after that one lost one. In Luke 15, the lost sheep parable is given in response to the disapproving comments of all of the leaders, the religious leaders. But this time, Jesus addresses their attitude, their judgmental attitude towards the unrighteous. liars, the cheaters, the prostitutes, the tax collectors in the crowd. Wow. In both cases, Jesus shows his abounding love for not only the lost sheep, but for all of us, the 99.

You see, when the shepherd goes out in search of the one sheep, it's good news for you. What do I mean by that? When the shepherd goes out in search of the one sheep, it's good news. It's good. news for all of us. Because we know that he's not going to forget about that sheep. And if we're going to sit back and there's that one that's gone and suddenly Jesus says, one out of 99, it ain't bad. You know, I only lost one of them. That's not too bad. That's not too bad. What's that going to say about his love for you? Maybe he could do with two out of 99, two out of 100. lose the two out of a hundred yes not bad what about three what about four what about five no the fact that he loves the one means that he loves you too he loves you with an everlasting love isn't that beautiful

when jesus goes out for the one he's loving all of us and we know that if i one day become that one that wanders away i can give you a list of people who are on fire mission 20 years ago that today do not have faith. They have lost it. They have wandered away. Now, there's a bad attitude that we can carry. You know, I see someone in a bad situation, and I start making up reasons for why they've gotten themselves into that mess.

And this is very common among people, isn't it, today? Well, look at the mess he got himself in. What you sow is what you reap. He got his comeuppance. It doesn't work that way in this. system? Well, it's because they haven't obeyed God. Maybe that's the reason that they're in that situation. But they are welcome back into the fold any time. And sometimes we even have a bad attitude of they're welcome back into the fold any time. If they clean up their act,

they're not going to clean up their act. They're lost. The dirty sheep that have lost their way and they need the shepherd in the way that the shepherd reaches them today is through you. It's through our parish. It's not going to be a stimulus package for church growth. The President, the United States, is not going to grant us all 500 new members. It's not the way it works. No stimulus packages in the fold. It's all hard work.

It's rolling up your sleeves. It's going out. And it's recognizing, it's recognizing people and their need in conversations, the look in their eye, overhearing them, and you inserting yourself into their life. Now, this, hold on, I'm almost done here, but hold on, you inserting yourself into the life. And right there, people say, well, that's crossing the threshold of space and privacy. I'm not going to do that. That's what we're called to do.

We're called to be a part of people's lives. and we can do that by just asking questions. How are you today? Or you're standing in line, too? What's your story? You can start a conversation with anyone and soon find out exactly where that person is at and develop a relationship with them.

They just might be the son of a man from Sarasota who's praying for his son and he's in a holy hour right now weeping with tears praying for his son and you, you are talking to him. Wake up. You've heard this thing before, what would Jesus do? Let me ask you this.

Who would Jesus ignore? Who would Jesus ignore? Let me just conclude by saying to you, if you are a law sheep, maybe you stumbled on this podcast. You did a Google search and you ended up with this guy called Jeff. You found out he was a former Protestant minister, Ray's Catholic came back. It was kind of intriguing, you know?

And suddenly you're listening to this. Maybe you did leave the church. Maybe you did leave the faith. I want you to know something. There's a message for lost sheep. You are loved. You are valuable. You are important.

You are needed. You are precious in the heart of God. And he is willing to die for you. You see, my friend, God has an amazing plan for your life. He calls on you now to respond to that by radically reorienting your life to Jesus in receiving those benefits of baptism and the power of the Holy Spirit in confirmation. He will restore you.

He will bring you back into the fold and feed you and protect you and nurture you. You do not have to live alone, isolated, abandon. he will not leave you as an orphan he loves you my friend let's respond to this let's take a look at the neophytes over the next couple of few weeks before pentecost every time we know about them let's think about all the lost sheep out there in next year at the easter vigil god would like to see 50 to a hundred sheep in your parish but there's only one way it's going to happen the man in the mirror. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I thank you today for giving all of us life. I thank you, Lord, for the greatest Easter gift, the death, burial,

and resurrection. You love us so much. Help us, Lord, to not become self-centered, but to look out for the loss that you died for. And I do pray, oh God, that the, that you, the lamb who was slain, would receive the fruit of his suffering. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Pray for me, my friend. I'll pray for you and please know.