The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Problems: Be a First Responder

Episode Date: September 22, 2023

How do you respond when a problem suddenly arises in your life? Many of us face problems in our lives that we did not plan for and did not expect. When problems do arise, it can be difficult to know what the right response is. Today, Jeff Cavins dives into this common life experience and shares wisdom from Scripture to help each of us be great first responders. Snippet from the Show If you find yourself responding to a problem or challenge in your life, take time to first praise God. 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 342 Problems, Be a First Responder. Welcome to the show this week. Beautiful weather in the Midwest this week. I hope it's beautiful where you are at. and that life is going well. Remember to stay on your prayer life, read scripture, make sure you go to Mass as often as possible. Top it off so that you can keep going and live that victorious life.

I want to talk to you today about a problem that we all face, and I know we do, we all do from time to time, the problems that come up suddenly, you know, with the work or in your marriage with the kids or finances or with a neighbor, or just a difficult time. Maybe it's an emotional time for you. Or maybe there's been changes in your family with your parents or one of your siblings that is calling on you now to live differently because you have to respond to the difficulties

that are going on. One of the things that I hear from people who are, say, 50 to 65, 50 to 70 right in there, I hear this. And if you're younger and that, you're going to be there. You're going to be there before you know it. But one of the things I hear from them is that when they were younger, which I guess would be their whole life, but you know what I mean, when they were younger, say in their 20s or early 30s, they thought that the trajectory of life was going to be that they find the love

of their heart, you know, they get engaged and they get married and they have kids and they finish school and then they have a job and they're going to work hard, you know, and they're going to build that house and they're going to fill up their 401k, make sure the kids go to a good Catholic school or a homeschooled. And then, you know, the kids are going to grow up and they're going to be out of the house when they're probably in their, you know, late 40s, early 50s. The kids will be gone and there's you and Sweetie Pie and you've got the next 40 years or so just to live your life, you know, and do whatever you want and burn through that 401K. And all the kids, they're going to grow up and everything's going to be fine.

And then when you get old, they're all going to take care of you. You know, life is so good, isn't it? Well, I have found in talking to so many people in the last few years, wake up. It doesn't happen like that. It might in some people's lives. But in most people's lives, it doesn't just happen like that. Why? Well, because there are things that come up in people.

lives and it took them by surprise it was a curveball got through an old slider a curveball and and they were left with you know the question of well what do i do how do i deal with this now the first course of action that a lot of people will will go down you know to go down that road is one of panic you know that oh no i got to fix this and they start studying up on this or buying that book or that book and and and they're going to look for the solution and and they end up becoming pretty frustrated because after about 10 years of this and fires on multiple levels in their life at work and family and so forth, they become a little bit disillusioned with that dream they had of life. And that can be stressful on a relationship. It can be

stressful on your relationship with your spouse. It can be stressful in your relationship with your adult children who may or may not still be in the house. And it can be stressful on your relationship with your friends, the very people that you're looking forward to being with, you know, in those quote-unquote silver years. So what I'd like to talk to you about is the problems in being a first responder. Now, you know what a first responder is. When there is a problem, who are the first responders? Well, it could be the police.

It could be the medical, medical help. It could be a SWAT team. It could be a counselor. It could be all kinds of people or outfits that would be the first responder. I used to be a voluntary position, but it was a chaplain, a police chaplain. So I would go out on all the rides, you know, in the car with the officers, all of them except, except this. domestics. Why? Because the domestics were typically the worst. They were so unpredictable. You never knew what you were walking into because they were having a problem. And they were

first responders. First responders oftentimes find themselves in the thick of it. And so I want to talk to you about being a first responder, but more specifically, what do you do in response? What is the first thing you do in response when you suddenly have a catastrophe or you have an accident, physical or emotional. You have a left turn when you thought you were going to be taking a right turn. So what do you do? We're going to get into that. And by the way, if you do want show notes, which I do have some for today for you, for sure, some scriptures, if you want those automatically given to you, they'll send them to you. All you got to do is text my name, Jeff Kavens, and send it to the number 3-3-7-7.

That's 3-3-7-7. We'll get those to you in perpetuity. That is, it's just not going to stop. We're going to keep sending you. We're going to send you those notes, so you don't have to write them down in the car or jogging. Okay, so problems. Be a first responder.

You are called as a disciple of the Lord to oftentimes be a first responder. You're the one that's there first. When I used to be a pastor before coming back into the Catholic Church, I was responding three or four times a week. I was the first responder. I walked into the room with someone dead. I walked into the room with a couple that's going to divorce. I walked into the room when they were sitting around their mother who had hours to live, dying of cancer. I was the first responder who came to the home when the children were missing.

A child was gone. So I know that there is great value in the first thing you do at the beginning of a crisis. And a lot of this has already been trained in you. You have already experienced a formation growing up, watching parents or friends or movies or books you read. There's already a bit of a pattern of how you're going to respond first to a problem. But let's look at what the Bible has to say. You know, all throughout the Bible, we have so many examples of people facing difficult situations. In fact, when you go read the entire Bible, that's one of the takeaways that people have is, whoa, there are a lot of problems there in the Bible.

And to that, I would say your ability to perceive the obvious would amaze the most casual observer. Yes, there are all kinds of problems. But what are some of the examples of the difficult situations? Individuals and nations will look at a couple of those. But I have noticed something in the Bible, after all these years of studying it, that is very interesting. When an individual or the nation of Israel gets into trouble or a difficult situation, they always seem to come out of it in such a way that God gets all the credit. by design.

Problem by design. God gets the credit. I also notice that not only does God get the credit, but when deliverance comes, it is a witness to the nations, the surrounding nations of God's power and might. In fact, in the area of Moab, on the eastern side of the Jordan, when Israel came out of 400 years of bondage, they wandered around for 40 years in the wilderness, and when they finally came into the promised land, the people in the promised land, Rehab, they heard about all of the great things that the Lord had done. They were in fear and trembling. So you have this, you have this, you can read about this in Joshua chapter four, the whole chapter you can read there.

But you may recall in judges, and particularly Judges 7, how Gideon, the man of valor was about to take on the Midianites, the Amalekites, and other Eastern peoples, with 32,000 men. And what did God say? He said, that's too many. 20,000 left. Still too many. 300 left. It was with 300 men in cleverness of God.

The Gideon was victorious. God loves to fight the battles for us, and he loves to get the credit for the victory. As a first responder in the kingdom of God, the first thing that we do is the pattern that was laid down for us in the Old Testament and carries over into the new. And that pattern is this, praise goes up first. Praise goes up first. You can read about this in Judges chapter 1, judges chapter 20. I'll put it in the notes for you. The question was, who shall go up first in battle?

You know, sirens go off. Ding, ding, ding, ding. we got a problem. What are we going to do, first responders? Ah, we're going to complain. Yeah, that works, doesn't it? No, what are you going to do, seriously, people of God? What are you going to do?

Well, we're going to read. Listen, you're in a battle. You're in a battle right now. What are you going to do? Okay, there's a lot of funny answers I could give to that one. But here's the answer. Who shall go up first before us, they said, in the book of judges twice, for the answer, Judah. The tribe of Judah.

And so they're really asking a very important point. What is the plan for the first responders? Well, Judah. No, there's a lot of reasons why Judah might be called on to go first. One is the pure size. They were the largest of all 12 tribes. That's one reason. Another reason would be that the future Messiah, Jesus, is going to come through that tribe.

He's the lion of the tribe of Judah. But I think the answer really is found in the meaning of the word. or the name Judah. You see, the name Judah means praise. Judah comes from the root word, Yada. I'll put that in the show notes, meaning to throw or cast. When used in the biblical text, it takes on the meaning of confession or and declaration of who God is and what he's done. And so the first responders are people of praise.

They know what God has done. They know what God has said. They know this. And they know that they need to confess their own weakness and proclaim the glory of God. So let me pause there for a moment. Is that what you do? When problems come your way and you find yourself in that first responder position, does praise come out of your mouth?

Do you gather the children together and say, kids, listen, let's praise God now. Let's thank God in this situation that we're, in let's give him glory or do you have another drink yell at each other binge watch slam doors get caught up in a hobby so you don't have to think about it praise my friend praise praise praise is where we confess who god is and what he is done and when you know the bible you go through the great adventure studies and you learn the bible guess what you are adopting the language of praise because what's going to get you out of that situation and through that situation is not your cleverness but it's going to be God and God will do that in your life I want to talk about this a little bit more and I want to give you some key words

to remember as a first responder you're listening to the Jeff Kaven show Hi, I'm Father Gregory Pine. I'm Father Jacob Bertrand Jansy. And we're the host of Catholic Classics. Join us for Season 2 of the podcast, where we will read and explain the Confessions by San Augustine. So the Confessions, it's a classic. We all know that, but why read it?

In this book, St. Augustine testifies to God's power, God's ability to draw him from a life of sin and error into a life of holiness and of genuine service of God's people. And not only are the Confessions a testimony to St. Augustine's life. life, but also a testimony to the way by which God works in each of our lives, bringing us from our sin to a life of holiness, drawing us ever more and more into God's very own life. To follow along, you can find the reading plan at ascensionpress.com slash Catholic Classics. Welcome back. Talking about being a first responder when problems hit, what do you do, take stock of that right now. And you might want to take a piece of paper out

and write that down. What do you do? now what do you need to unlearn now and learn what to do what happens when we face battles what happens well god wants nothing more for us to be then to be victorious to confess our sin and declare who he is and what he has done i love that i absolutely love that listen to this it says it says in psalm 79 it talks about this idea in Psalm 79. I'm just going to put that in the show notes for you. But in Psalm 79, it talks about truly confessing our sins and at the same time in that Psalm confessing who God is in the battle.

There is a first responders double punch. Confess our sins, deal with that weight in our life, and confess who God is in the battle. We avoid making praise just a formula word. You've heard me talk about this before, you know, this idea of this idea of just confessing, you know, praise God. Thank you, Jesus. Glory to God. Hallelujah.

Glory to God. Maranatha. Thank you. Jesus. Those are all beautiful and those are all good. But oftentimes those are simply commands to praise God. And so that's not actually the heart of praise. The heart of praise is who he is and what he is.

has done. Now a few years ago, a few years ago there was a teaching going around where people were teaching people that they were to praise God in the midst of their situation and just simply praise God for their problems. And I don't know why someone would do that or what the scriptural uh foundation for that is is that just to thank him for the problem i i wouldn't so much thank god for a problem as i would thank him in the midst of the problem and i would thank him for the opportunity to see him glorified in my life what whatever may come whatever may come now david did this in first samuel 17 you know david wasn't running around looking for problems. But you start serving God, and trust me, problems will come your way. They will.

And they did for David in 1st Samuel chapter 17. Remember that? He battled with the Philistine. In chapter 16 of 1st Samuel, he was privately anointed as the second king of Israel after Saul. And then the third, of course, would be Solomon. But in chapter 17, he faced this Philistine giant and not one person in Israel was willing to take this guy on. Everybody was afraid. But what did David do? David began to praise God by what? He brought up what God had done for him in the past with the bear and the lion. And he looks at this Goliath and says, you're no different than them. My God will fight for me with you as well. I am confident in God. See, David was the first. first responder when it came to the Philistines battling the people of Israel and the valley of

over in Judah you got Azica and Soho you got these two hills right there and then you've got this valley in between and that's where the battle takes place. Maybe you feel like that. In Israel is called the Ila Valley. Maybe you have an Ila Valley where you're feeling like I'm in the valley of an experience in my life. And I've got this enemy, Goliath, what do I do? Well, do what David did. Begin to recall what God has done for you in the past. You see, praise opens the door for God to move on your behalf.

And your praise should be given so that God will be given the credit and the glory when the dust settles. Listen to that. bold declaration of David in verse 47 of 1 Samuel chapter 17 read that that is so powerful that David is completely and utterly relying upon the Lord and God will give him the victory I love it let's put it this way God uses our trials this is what you can thank God for I don't just sit around if I found out I had cancer so I'm just not going to sit around all day

saying thank you for it no I'm going to say Lord this is the situation and Lord I'm going to praise you I'm going to lift you up and I'm going to use this trial as a stage to display your love and your power and your faithfulness in my life

and as a result his reality becomes evident both to us and to others who observe our lives. Another great story is Second Chronicles 20. I mentioned to you. I have a few words here for you, actually meaning scriptures.

In Second Chronicles 20, dramatizes the value of prayer that is filled with praise and it has words to it, content into it. It's rich in meaning. You have a praise language, if you will. There was an alliance

of three powerful armies in Second Chronicles 20, and they all converged on this little teedy kingdom of Judah. And when news of the attack reached King Jehoshaphat, guess what happened? He did the same thing you'd do. He trembled with fear. And then, in desperation, what did he do? He turned his attention to God and prayed for deliverance,

saturating his prayer with praise. He began extolling God. as exalted and invincible, verse 6. And then he added further praise for past victories, the past victories that God had wrought, and for the promises he had given. And in verse 12 of 2nd Chronicles 20, he admitted,

We are powerless, but our eyes are on thee. The next day, by faith in God and his promises, Jehoshaphat's army marched to the battle line. In an unusual battle formation, you know what it was? The choir. Ooh.

The choir, robes and all led the attack. And when they began to sing and to praise the Lord, the Lord caused the three enemy armies to fight among themselves until they annihilated each other. Not one enemy soldier survived. and all they did was sing out of the hymnal. You see, the scripture says God inhabits the praises of his people. And Isaiah, in Isaiah 61, 3, I'll put it in the notes for you,

I said something so powerful. I love what the prophet Isaiah said concerning Jesus and what he would give us. He says, you will receive a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. Are you ready to put on? on a garment of praise today as a first responder, rather than just a spirit of despair? Oh my, oh me, what are we going to do? It always happens to me. I'm a worm. No, put on the garment of praise.

God inhabits the praises of his people. In life's battles, don't despair. Don't let sin deceive you and to defeat. Pick up the cloak of praise. Begin to praise him and confess your sin. And God will enter your life just like Gideon, David, and Jahashafat, he really will. He really will. And so I want to encourage you in that today, whatever you're going through. If you find yourself as a first responder, then it's time to praise God. It's time to praise God. Now, if you're facing a real difficult problem with your family at home, what I would recommend that you do is to take some time. You may want to just start with yourself and just take some time and move off to the side for a moment and read the Psalms. Read the life of David, you know, in 1 Samuel 16 and

1st Samuel 17 and on. And learn from these monster saints, just so amazing saints. Learn from the pattern in their life and begin yourself just to praise God. Let praise well up. in your heart. Just raise your hands and say, Jesus, I love you. You are so awesome. You've been so faithful in my life. Even in my teens, Lord, you were watching over me. You delivered me from a life that would have killed me. Lord, you have brought the people into my life that helped me to grow and to walk in victory. And I know that you will do it today. I thank you, Lord, that you have given me a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. And I know, Lord, that you are in enthroned on the praises of your people, Lord, be enthroned on my praises today. You can just go on and on

to the degree that you know him. You know what he's done and you know his deeds. You know the father's heart and you know his plan. That's why Bible study is so important getting to know God, getting to know God. So I encourage you to do that. Take some time by yourself. And if you're married, grab a hold of your spouse then, and say, honey, let's pray. Let's thank God in the middle of this situation. It's like Jehashafat. I don't know exactly what to do, but I do know this. My eyes are on you, Lord, and just give him the chance. Give him the chance to work in a mighty way in your life. This is what it means to be a disciple. This is what it means to go on the great adventure. So let's pray. And I'm going to lift you.

up in prayer, okay? Because I know you're facing some things. I hear from you. I know that. And I'm just here to encourage you on how to be a first responder to the problems that you might be facing in this modern era. Pray with me? In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord Jesus, I lift up, my dear friend, you right now. We're just praying together right now, Lord, and I lift them up to you. And I ask you, oh, God, to meet them in a powerful way. a right spirit within them, renew a spirit of joy and hope and courage in their heart. Lord, encourage them. And Lord, refresh them with hope, with your mercy, with your power, with your faithfulness that you have demonstrated so many times.

Lord, as they are facing the situation, I pray that they will truly be a first, responder who starts with praise, not the problem. They start with you, Lord, rather than the woes what is happening around them. Lord, as we begin to praise you and you are enthroned upon their praises, I thank you for working in a powerful way and demonstrating yourself strong, that not only will they see your work, but all of them around them, their family, their work associates, the neighbors, everybody will see what God is done in their life. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. I love you, my friend. I really do. I'm looking forward to being at a conference around you sometime this coming year.

If I am, let's meet, shall we? All right. God bless you. Love you. Thank you.