The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - FTX & The Disciple

Episode Date: November 18, 2022

To support Ascension’s free media, please click here! To find out more about how your gift will be used, please click here!! What do we do in the midst of chaos? How do we handle the daily anxiety that life tries to throw at us on so many different levels? This week, Jeff reminds us that even though life is hard and sometimes we can’t figure it out, the Word of God has the answers to help us walk the path of wisdom. Snippet from the Show Jesus is in this with us, and if you’ll hold on to him and go deep into his Word, he will show some real, true grit in your life. 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!

Hello, I'm Jeff Kavens today. I'd like to just share something with you. You know, since 2014, Ascension has been producing YouTube videos and podcasts. Now, while we are making all of those free to anybody around the world, making them is not free. And we'd like to encourage you to be a part of what we're doing. Obviously, something is happening right now in great proportions as God's word is going out throughout the world and want to give you an opportunity to partner with us. So if you'd like to help us financially to get more videos out there and to create more free content, we invite you to go to ascensionpress.com slash support. God bless you. Welcome to the Jeff Kaven Show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together in living as activated disciples. This is show 297 FTX and the Disciple. What a week it has been. Welcome, by the way, to the show. I have been spending more time this week, answering people email, text messages, just about the way things are going in culture these days. And a lot of people seem to be very afraid, very anxious. And there's been so many things that have been happening.

I think that the elections are part of that, but this last week, those that are investing in cryptocurrency, which we'll talk about in just a moment, really got the wind knocked out of them this last week with the fall of FTX. And maybe you saw that in the news, FTX and Sam Bankman Fried, the young guy that started this new company and had a lot of backing, a lot of backing. Kevin O'Leary from Shark Tank and Tom Brady, I don't even need to tell you who he is and his wife, Giselle, and many others had been investing in this company, but it didn't turn out to be what they thought it was. And as a result, and we don't know the final tally, but there are billions of dollars lost, it looks like. And, man, I can't, I cannot imagine. Nothing touched me there, so I'm just going to say that at the beginning, but maybe it did you. And I can't imagine what that is like for somebody.

to, you know, get all excited about investing, which is just a good idea to invest, you know, certainly be a good steward of the finances that you have, and to have somebody talk them into putting everything into Bitcoin or, you know, Ethereum, or Solana, chain link, Doge, Luna, whatever it might be, any of these projects, and then to wake up one morning and find out that all of your money that you have been saving for retirement, all of it, is gone or it's frozen and you don't know what to do that has to be a real storm a real emotional storm for people to go through and if that was you i want to encourage you today in the lord if it's not you i want to help prevent things like this not investing that's not what i'm talking about i'm

talking about just being wise just being wise and by the way i'm going to give you i'm going to give you three things that Jesus said in a scripture that we are reading right now. We're reading a lot of scriptures about end times and nation going against nation, political tumult, and so forth. And people are having a lot of questions. But if you do want the show notes, all you got to do is text my name, Jeff Kavins, to the number 3377. That's 3377. Before we get into today's show, I got to tell you again, I am really enjoying this new ascension catechism. I really am. Father Mike and I did a show that I think it's been released. I think you have it. Sort of a beginning show for the catechism in a year, which is starting up on January 1st. We did that show and it was so much fun

talking together about this new catechism that ascensions put together. I didn't put it together. Father Mike didn't put it together. The ascension's done a phenomenal job at that. Although I got to say, it sure looks like a baby brother to the Great Adventure Timeline chart. It really does. It has a beautiful chart of the four pillars in the catechism. And it's just another child from the same father, I think. And that is the Lord. That's the Lord.

But anyway, I love it. And I want to encourage you to get on the list to get your copy of the new ascension Catechism that's coming out in December. and when you find out that everybody else has one, you're going to think, I knew, I knew I should put my order in, and you should. So do it.

Even if you have to put this podcast on pause, just pause it, go do it, put your name on there. And while you're at it, get a great adventure Bible. And then you'll have the two. Same size, they go together. Perfect. You'll love it.

And it's a great thing for Christmas coming up. Okay, wow. Okay. You know what I want to do today. there have been, I don't know if you notice this. Not everybody pays attention to the daily readings in the church. The liturgical calendar is the life of Jesus laid down on a calendar, and we are coming to the very end of the year, Christ the King.

It's this weekend. It's the end. And then next week is going to be the beginning of the new year, Advent. And the readings at the end of the liturgical year are grim in some ways. I mean, they are, wow, you know, there's a lot of this end time stuff. Like, while some people were speaking about how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive, vote of offerings, Jesus said, all that you see here, the days will come when there will be not be left one stone upon another that will not be thrown down. And they said, well, Lord, when is this going to happen? And he said, well, see that you are not deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, I am he and the time has. come, do not follow them. When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified. For such

things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end. And then he said to them, nation will rise against nation and kingdom against nation. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines and plagues from place to place. Awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky. Then another reading this week was dealing with, they will seize you and persecute you and they'll hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name. It will lead to your giving testimony. Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand, for I myself shall give you wisdom in speaking. And it talks about being hated by people and having family members, even turning you over to authorities. You read all that

and think, wow, what are we to do, you know? And then you have the political and social and economic storms that are going on in the world today, that leaves people a little anxious. It does. And I understand that. But you and I have a hope as disciples of the Lord that has ways of dealing with all of this. If we will pay attention to the readings, if you pay attention to the readings, the readings are giving you things that you can exercise in the midst of the craziness that is going on. And I want to share those three with you. They've been on my heart this whole last week.

Everywhere I am, I'm talking about these three things because they've been on my heart. But before we get into that, what about this FTX thing? Maybe you don't invest in crypto. I know a lot of people who do. A lot of people who invest in crypto, at least part of their portfolio.

And they're very familiar with blockchain computing And they're very familiar with Bitcoin, different projects like Ethereum, Solana. They've got Cardano chain link, doge, doge. Terraluna, which sunk, went down in about 24 hours from, oh, wow, it was way up there. And it went down to like 0.000004 in just a day or two. I mean, people were broken about it. It really comes down to it. They weren't sure what they were really investing in.

I get Bitcoin, I get Ethereum, Solana, a Cardano, some of those major projects, which I think are tomorrow. They are, they're here to stay, and that's not investing advice by any way. But these are big, serious projects. Most of what you hear about there is junk, like FTX's coin FTT, purely made up out of nowhere, and people started buying it. So some people got burnt earlier this year with Celsius and BlockFi, but Celsius was an operation where people were staking their crypto and gaining really good returns on it. You know, some of us up there in 11% or so forth. And so there's a lot of people that put their money into a system that they didn't really understand. And the SEC Security Exchange Commission, they are not over this stuff yet.

And all of these people who are serious about finances today are begging them. Please put some regulations down so that we can continue on. That's what they're saying. Well, anyway, enough about that. I'm just saying that's an example right now of people in the midst of a lot of craziness, politically, economically, and socially and Hollywood-wise, every which way. They feel like their world is kind of coming apart and they are anxious. But listen, there are some things in the readings lately that are really, really important, really important. And I'm specifically drawing here from Luke 21 versus 5 through 11, which is one of these readings, you know, recently that spoke about an end time and a lot of insurrection, wars, rumors of wars and that type of thing.

and buried in the middle of it are three things that the Lord says to do in the middle of it. And I'm going to briefly share those three things with you, whether you had got burnt with FTX, Celsius, Terraluna, or you got burnt in the stock market, gold, silver, you got burnt, you feel like politically, socially, whatever it might be. Jesus has three things to tell you today. And we're going to do that right when we come back. listening to The Jeff Kaven Show.

What if you could see that the infinite God is present in your life? What if it was as simple as stopping, opening your heart, and allowing yourself to be found? I'm Danielle Bean, an author, speaker, and host of the Girlfriend's Podcast. In my new book, Whisper, Finding God in the Every Day, I share wisdom from the saints, real-life experiences, and prayer practices that help you to see, know, and grow closer to God in your everyday life. no matter how busy you are. If you've ever been inspired by stories of great saints but wondered where that leaves the rest of us,

this book is for you. In it, we explore how we meet God in joy, pain, other people, prayer, and in the awesome gift of the sacraments. Join me on this journey of letting go, being still, and allowing God to meet us right here, right now, right where we are. Order your copy of Whisper, Finding God in the Every Day, at ascensionpress.com. Welcome back. I had a feeling you'd be back. You'd want to know what Jesus said in the midst of the craziness. That's why I called this episode FTX and the disciple. Because the disciple of the Lord is, well, ideally the disciple of the Lord is different than people in the world. We are. We're different. We march to the beat of a different drummer. And that's Jesus. We have our eyes on a different prize. That's heaven.

And we have a source of peace that passes all understanding, and that is in our relationship with the Lord. And we have a way of dealing with things when they fall apart in our life. That's called confession. And we've got the greatest source of strength and life and grace in the world, and that's the Eucharist. When you really sit back and look at everything that God has given us, aren't we blessed? We are so blessed. I want to encourage you in that today. I don't know what you're going through exactly.

Some people write and they tell me, and I think, wow, that's heavy. That's a lot to go through. But I want to encourage you, there is a way to go through this life, even though life can be hard, even though life is hard and sometimes we can't figure it out. You know what? Jesus is in this with us. And if you'll hold on to him and you go deep into his word and you will show some real true grit in your life and in going after him. There's answers here. There really is. Now, I'm going to

read to you, and I'll put this in the show notes, Luke 21, 5 through 11. All I'm going to do is I'm going to read it once. And as I read it, the assignment for you is to pick out three things that Jesus is saying to do or not to do in the midst of the chaos. Okay? So let's go. Ready? while some people were speaking about how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings Jesus said all that you see here the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down then they asked him teacher when will this happen and what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen he said see that see that you not be deceived for many will come in my name saying i am he and the time has come do not follow them when you hear of wars and insurrections do not be terrified for such things must happen first but it will not immediately be the end then he said to them nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom there will be powerful earthquakes famines and plagues from

place to place and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky. Ha-ha, there's your good news for today. Okay, so as I read that, now you can read that one of two ways. And I understand both, and I probably have done both. One way that you can read Luke 21, 5 through 11 there, is you can read it and you're shocked and in awe and a bit paralyzed by all of the things that are going to have. happen? And you think, how in the world is that going to happen? Is that really going to happen, Jeff? Is there going to get that bad someday? Is there really going to be a tremendous amount of tribulation?

Well, yeah, yeah. Now, you can focus on that. Or the other way to read this is to acknowledge the times that we may be living in and then to recognize in the reading the lifesaver he's throwing out to you, the advice he's giving you, the advice he's giving you. The wisdom he's imparting to the disciple, the one who walks with him, the one who spends time with him day and night, knows his teaching, knows his ways, knows how he functions, knows his political slant, knows his worldview. Yeah, there's some stuff in there. So let's look at it real quick, shall we? Number one, he said in the middle of this list of things that are going to happen, he said, see that you not be deceived. See that you not be deceived. Now, that's wisdom for the disciple, because right now in the world, there is all kinds of deception going on. There is deception

politically, and I'm not even mentioning political parties, just everywhere, everywhere. There's deception in politics. There is deception in science and social sciences as well. There is deception in financial exchanges, FTX, what we started with, Celsius. It reminds me back years ago when they had the banking industry just fell apart, you know, the real estate scam and so forth. And people were greatly deceived. I gave a conference in Dallas, Texas one time, and a guy came up to me after I was done talking, and he said, I just got out of prison like a week or so ago, a month ago. And he was caught up in that Enron scandal and spent time in prison for it, but he came out and God is doing a great work in his life. I pray for you, brother. By the way,

if you're listening, I lost your name. If you could get that to me, I want to reach out to you. this is the only way I can do it I guess you know who you are I really like to talk to you again but there's been so many things with finances and politics and socially and and in science too I imagine there's a lot that goes on deception and Jesus is saying don't you be deceived don't be deceived because the enemy is out there in his his weapon of choice is deception getting us to believe things that are not true getting us to hope in things that are not solid mirages, financial mirages and social mirages and political mirages. And in some ways, I think we're wasting our time in some of this. Are you getting a lot of texts and emails from

friends who are saying, oh, you've got to watch this. You've got to see this video. Oh, you've got to read this. This is what's really happening. And there's conspiracy and so forth and so on. There's so much deception going on that the disciple of the Lord does not have the time to vet every single idea that's coming across on the internet. And you talk about a place of deception, the internet. You talk about a place of deception when people call your parents, your 85-year-old parents, and try to offer a way of getting $200 back into their bank account, which was accidentally spent on Amazon, which Amazon didn't have anything to do with it.

But you know these scams that take place, people are deceived, deceived. Now, here's what Jesus is telling us. Don't be deceived. Don't be deceived. And the way that we stay separate from deception is to totally go all in with Jesus, studying his word,

looking at wisdom, looking at the early disciples, in the saints, in the catechism, in the lives of the saints. One guy told me years ago, he said, you know, he worked with, I think the FBI or some big government branch that dealt with counterfeit money. I don't know, maybe he worked with the feds. I don't know. But he said, in the training that he went through to study counterfeit money, he said that rarely did they look at count. counterfeit money. They studied the reel always. They studied and studied and studied the authentic dollar real. And then when counterfeit came their way, they spotted it so quickly. It was just like, boom, that's wrong. Boom, that's wrong. That's wrong. Nope, that's counterfeit. There you go. That one's

right. And he said the key to understanding counterfeit is understanding the truth. And when you and I give ourselves to the Word of God, and we give ourselves to Jesus Christ and to the Blessed Mother and the Saints and the Holy Family, Holy Spirit. Guess what? You're going to pick out things so easy. It's going to like, oh, come on. That's got something written all over it, and it's not good. And so I want to encourage you to buckle up and ride with Jesus and get into His Word. Many of you have gone through the Bible in a year, and you're doing it again. That's great. I would encourage you to go deeper, to go into the great adventure, all 24 weeks of our study, to really follow salvation history and what works, what doesn't work, sin, redemption, all of it. Make that investment to know God's word. Don't be deceived. Number two, he says, for many will come in my name saying, I am he and the time has come. Do not follow them. That's number two. Number two is, There are all kinds of people out there in the world on television, on the internet, who are

what I call pop formators. They are social, truth, gurus. They are people who have the edge and the insight on how to be successful, how to make a million, how to be the person you've always wanted to be, you know, that kind of thing. They have their programs you can buy. They have their podcasts you can listen to. They have their promises that they give. You buy what they have. You will get X, Y, Z, whatever it might be. And what we need to do in the midst of the chaos is make our minds up.

We're not following men. My friend, I can't say that with enough oomph. Don't follow men and women who promise the world. Jesus is king of the world. He died for the world. He has what it takes for us to put our trust totally in him. Don't follow the people out there who are saying, I have the edge, I can put you over the top, I can make you successful.

Now, I'm not saying that everybody who's saying to us I can help you or counsel you is bad. Not at all. There certainly are some good things, but I'm saying in the midst of chaos and what's going on now, you've got to be careful who you're following. Sam Bankman Freed. Is he 30 now? I don't know. 29, 30 years old, something like that.

I don't know how old he is. But do you realize the number of people that put their future in his hands? And now they're thinking, my gosh, I'm so dumb. I cannot believe this. Listen, don't be overhearted. Chalk it up as a learning experience, albeit a tough one. It may have been. but make a new resolve.

I'm following Jesus. I'm following Jesus and I'm not going after the shiny, sparkling stuff and all the promises of people who are slick with the tongue and look good on camera and they have stories that I cannot verify, but boy, that looks good. We can't afford to do that right now. Number one, don't be deceived. Number two, don't follow people who act like they are Jesus

and have all these promises. Don't do it. Don't do it. really vet the people that you listen to. I could give you so many stories of books that have been written by people who say, follow me, follow me. Like, without names, I'll tell you, there's two of them out there right now that they're experts on marriage.

And they've got whole programs that you can subscribe to. Follow me. And one of them is on his fifth marriage. Let's get serious. Now, number three, here we go. I said, do not follow them. And then Jesus says, when you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified, for such things must happen first. The third thing that I would share with you in the midst of kind of a chaotic social scene these days is, don't be terrified.

Okay? Don't be terrified. When I was a kid and I was with my dad, I was doing really well. And I remember a couple of times where I looked up and my dad was nowhere around. I was at the mall. and I got so frightened, so terrified, because I felt alone and abandoned and who knows what would happen to me.

But the moment I saw my dad come around the corner, everything went back to peace. He wasn't real happy with me because it was actually my problem, but everything went back to a level of peace because I saw my father. My friend, with everything that's going on with politics and all that, please do not be terrified. Don't be fearful.

Jesus spoke about fear more than any other topic when he said, do not fear. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. It was the very first phrase that John Paul II said from St. Peter's when he became Pope, Be not afraid. I love that. I got that in my soul. Those words, do not be afraid.

He was at the beginning of a new pontificate that was going to do things that no Pope ever did before. he was going to be the Pope that traveled the world and was on social media, he was on the internet, he was in the homes of people all over the globe, and he knew that things were going to change and the Soviet Union would fall. He knew that he would be a big player in the eastern block countries. He knew it. And he went forth with courage, and he said, don't be afraid. What was his key? Well, his key was his relationship with the Lord. John Paul the second was a class a disciple. He lived what he taught. You think he was afraid? I don't. I think he stood up against Gorbachev and others, and he had no fear. Why? Because he stood with Jesus. I love what

Scripture says. First John says this, the beloved disciple, the youngest one, the only one that didn't die of martyr's death. The one who was banished to Patmos and wrote the book of Revelation, he said, listen perfect love casts out fear perfect love casts out fear if you walk in love and you're with the one who loves and you don't follow charlatans and you don't follow the flavor of the day and you are in god's word so you won't be deceived and you walk in wisdom you get good counsel listen you can get through all this and in one reading recently when jesus talks about they will they will seize you and persecute you they'll hand you over to the synagogue and to the prisons and they'll have have led you before kings and governors because of my name he goes on and on and he says

he says you're not even going to have to prepare how to defend yourself because i'm going to give you wisdom and speaking you say me yeah you he's going to give you wisdom in speaking but he ends the church ends that reading in Luke with this. By your perseverance, you will secure your lives. So in conclusion, let's add this up. Number one, don't be deceived. How? Get into God's word. Learn about the saints. Read the catechism. Accumulate wisdom. Get an insight journal that Father Mike and I put together just for the purpose of containing the gold that you know. I didn't even think of that until now. Yeah, get an insight journal.

I'll put that in the show notes for you. Father Mike and I put that together for the purpose of keeping the real wisdom and the real insights that we need for living. So how do we do this? Number one, we don't. We're not deceive. Number two, we don't follow charlatans. We're following the Lord. Number three, we're not terrified.

Why? Because we're with the one who has overcome death, hell, and the grave. Beyond that, what are you afraid of? Beyond death, hell, and the grave, what is there? He defeated those. He can defeat anything we stand up against. And so that's what perseverance is all about. That's how we secure our lives. Do those three things. Man, I feel strong about this today. You probably can tell, right? I don't talk like this all the time. usually when I'm sleeping I don't but I'm wound up right now because I'm hearing people say I'm anxious I'm afraid and I'm saying you don't have to be you don't you don't there's a battle waging that's for sure we're on the winning team so as a disciple get closer to the Lord and persevere we're winning we're winning we're winning and in the end we're going to see that wow when it's all said and done you're going to be so glad that you persevere persevered in the tough times. Again, if you want the show notes, just type out my name, Jeff Kaven's one word and text

it to the number 3377. If you want to get information about the new Ascension Bible, look to the show notes. And also in the show notes, look at the Insight Journal. We'll put that in there for you, the Insight Journal. And anybody that's interested in catechism in a year, which starts January 1st, we'll put some info in the notes for that as well. Let me pray for you. I love you.

I love being with you every week. And I'm just, I'm here with you in the car. I'm here with you taking a walk on the beach down the street. Having breakfast, I'm here as your friend just to encourage you. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, we lift up today all of our brothers and sisters who are anxious, who are frightened. Lord, I lift them up to you today, and I ask you, Lord, to wrap your arms around them and let them know all is well with their soul. All is well, because you have overcome, and you have taught us how to overcome. We can overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony, and we don't love our lives even to the death.

You have given us the gifts to overcome, and we praise you and give you glory for that today. And we thank our dear Mother, Blessed Virgin Mary, for praying for us today in the midst of our crosses. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed are 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. Looking forward to talking to you next week.

Thank you.