The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - You Are in God’s Will

Episode Date: April 21, 2023

Did you know that each one of us is in God’s will? Not only does God have a will for your life but he also offers you an inheritance. Jeff Cavins explains what this inheritance is and what it means for your life. Snippet from the Show We have a hope in our hearts that is grounded in the Word of 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 320. You're literally in God's will. Here we are again. Happy Easter, my friend. We're still in the Easter season celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. and I've got some good news for you today in relationship to the resurrection of Jesus and what this all means. And I'm excited to share it with you today. These are things that I'm meditating on myself. And as I was thinking about this show today, you know, sometimes you just feel moved to talk

about a particular topic. And you got to trust that God is going to use it in some way. And that's what's happening today. It's every week. But today specifically, I was like, Lord, you. You really have that on my heart. You want me to share that today. And it felt like the Lord was giving me the thumbs up to go ahead and do it.

And perhaps it's for you. Perhaps this is for you. We're going to talk about you literally being in God's will. I'm not talking about just being in his will in terms of, okay, love your neighbor, that type of thing. I'm talking about a will. And I don't know if it ever dawned on you that you are in God's will. And if I looked into his will and you weren't around me and I came back to you and said,

hey, I got to let you in on this. I got a glimpse of God's will and you're in there. You are in there. And he has really got something for you. So what I'd like to do today is talk about 1 Peter chapter 1 and 1 Peter chapter 2 and there's a couple of other references. But what I'd like to talk about is his inheritance for you and his will for you in light of a word that Peter uses consistently in his epistle, which is living, living. And so I think you're going to like this. And I think it's going to bless you and reaffirm this truth of the resurrection. You know, in 1st Corinthians 15, Paul makes that argument, and I think we talked about that just recently, that if the resurrection didn't take place, you're out of luck at that point. But if it did,

which we believe, and we base our life on it, guess what? You're in his will. You have an inheritance, and that's what we're going to talk about today. If you would like the show notes, they are free. All you've got to do is text my name in one word, Jeff Kavins, and text it to the number 3377. That's 3377. And by the way, I do so appreciate you working with me

and giving this podcast a thumbs up. and making comments, an Apple or wherever you're listening to the show from, you know, where you're getting at the feed. And that helps. It helps in a number of ways. It helps in, number one, in helping other people who are searching for these topics. And we work together. You and I work together to try to give people the truth, the will of God, some help, some encouragement and hope. And number two, the algorithm, of course, and that just continues to cause something to rise up. That's what happened with Bible in a year and catechism in a year, is that people made so many comments and thumbs up. They liked it, you know, ring that bell, all that. And it just went absolutely crazy, and that's what I'm asking you to do.

Help out, if you can. We're going to talk about this today, this idea of you are literally in God's will. And if you do, if you're not running or you're not driving the car, you can grab your Bible and look at First Peter. If you're driving right now, obviously don't do that. And we'll send you the show notes and you'll get all that in there. But I think this is the type of thing that you might want to write, you know, write in your Bible. I teach you the seminary in St. Paul. And I'm always telling my seminarians, write in your Bible, underline, mark it like you're going to give a homily.

you know you're going to teach someone someday or you need to be reminded of the beautiful truth that God showed you live in that Bible use that Bible by the time 10 15 20 years from now your Bible should look lived in it really should it shouldn't be a leaf presser and document holder it is the living word of God okay so I want to start off with 1 Peter and and the very first thing that I want to share with you is 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 4. What follows this about this idea of living, it is for the purpose of realizing and experiencing 1st Peter 1 4, which says that you have an inheritance which is imperishable,

undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. I'll say that again. you have an inheritance this isn't this isn't just theological this isn't just philosophically or you know some some kind of just analogy this is real this is real stuff you your name is written down in this will you have an inheritance which is imperishable good luck finding that these days. It is undefiled good luck finding that these days and unfading kept in heaven for you. That's what the word of God says. That's good, isn't it? That is so good. This is all the result of the resurrection of Jesus. Do you know when we talk about the New Testament?

Another way of saying the will of God is it's the New Testament. It means the new will of God. it is his will. My wife and I met with an attorney a while ago and we were writing up our will. And in our will, we were thinking about our children, our grandchildren. If we happen to have any money left over when it's all said and done, what's going to happen to that? What happens to the house, the cars, all of that? And that is in our hands now. We can do something about that. And when our children and our grandchildren one day, look at the will, they're going to realize I was in Grandpa and Grandma's will. I was in Mom and Dad's Will.

And you know that Bible that I saw Grandpa with? That's mine now. That's mine. And so I even have all my Bibles are willed out. And so when it comes to the Word of God, my kids and grandkids are rich in that. I'll tell you that right now. But you have an inheritance, which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. And I took a look at that will, and you are in there.

that great. So that is really the theme of this. And then as we now move on in the letter, 1 Peter, there are a number of quotes that mention a living something. Now, I think that God's will for you is a living will. It is a living will for you. And in that will, it talks about a living hope. The first thing it talks about is a living hope. And I want to read that to you in 1 peter chapter 1 verses 3 and 4 it does say that blessed be the god and father of our lord jesus christ by his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of jesus christ yes from the dead and to an inheritance which is imperishable yes undefiled yes and unfading kept in heaven for you so you have been born anew my friend to a living

hope. Now that hope was given to you at baptism, theological virtue, faith, hope and charity in your soul when you were baptized. Now, to us, as Christians, hope, as I've said to you before, hope does not mean hope so, you know? Our response to the question, do you think it's going to be a sunny day? I hope so. Well, our hope in Christ is different than hope so. It is a hope that is grounded in the finished work of Jesus and it is grounded in my faithful response to that revelation. I acknowledge it and I entrust myself and I will be faithful to the word of God. That is what my hope is. That's what my goal is. And that hope is a sure foundation in that way. Have I ever blown it? Oh, man, I have blown it. I have. I have. I have.

have, but I have to keep my eye going forward on this path that God has me on, and I need to continue to renew my hope, to renew my hope. And that word hope is Tikva. And so hope is an expectation of good, isn't it? It's an expectation of good. It is linked with trust and yearning. A good definition would be an interest or a desire whose fulfillment is cherished. It's cherished. You don't hope for things. that are not cherished. You hope for things that are cherished and valuable and enduring and meaningful. So scripture says in Ecclesiastes 9-4, it'll be in the notes, so long as there is life, so long as there is breath. There is hope. There's hope. So what are you facing right now in life, in your marriage, in your job, and your finances, your kids, your mental state? What are you facing right now? Well, as long as you've got breath, there is hope. And the life of the righteous is grounded in a hope that implies a future because its point of reference is what? Our point of reference is not our own experience. Our point of reference is not our own knowledge

or our own wisdom. It is our point of reference is God and his experience and his knowledge and his wisdom and his power. But there's a difference in the kind of hope of, say, Plato, and the scriptures. That's not Play-Doh. That's Plato. And Plato speaks of a hope that is a projection from oneself concerning the future. In other words, I create my future with the limited brain power that I have and the limited experience that I have.

Well, as Dr. Phil says, how's that working for you? You know, seriously, how is that working for you? You have a hope that is based on your own limited brain power and limited experience and power and wisdom, no wonder we are a culture on medication, because our hope is generated by our own abilities. And we know that we don't typically do that well. And so how do we go on living in hope? Well, we have a hope that is a projection of the future based on God's plan and God's power and God's hope and God's mercy. And when we live this, and when we pass this on to our children into other people, they will be invited into this incredible worldview and experience of Jesus.

That's why, and you know me, I've been telling you this for quite some time and telling myself that we've got a year now, start looking. Who are you going to bring into the church next year? Who are you going to start talking to? How many people do you know that are not Catholic and they're struggling and they are asking questions, write their names down, pray for them, start talking to them about the church, start talking to them, ask your church. When does it all begin? When does the OCI, formerly RCI, begin to bring these people in? And you sponsor someone at the seminary that I teach at almost every day I get to go in there and I open up my class all the time. I'll ask, well, do you have any, you have a chance to talk to anyone yesterday? And this,

They're telling me their stories. It's amazing. You know, what these guys are doing. So we have a hope that is different than hope so, and it's different than hope based on my own projection. It's a hope based on God's word. You know, Nietzsche held that hope was the worst of evils. Why? Because it prolongs the torment of man, he said. That's where they're at. That's why we've got this message. That's why we've got mouths and ears and eyes. so the hope that the Bible speaks of is good expectation about the future because of what God is done and says he will do and continue to do. What a difference that is. And so if you muster hope up on your own, it results in a false sense of security, doesn't it? I've been there. I've been there.

You know, the Bible talks about we don't put our hope in gold and silver. We don't put our hope in man. We don't put our hope in idols. We don't put our hope in horses and chariots. Even at the racetrack, We don't put our hope there. You know, you say, well, Jeff is gambling bad? Yeah, it can be sin if you're taking money from your kids and your spouse because that's a sin against justice. So, but can you go and place a couple bucks down on Peter Pan on the fourth race? Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that. But that's not where your hope is, is it?

A lot of people bring their hope to Vegas and come back wrecked. if you must muster hope on your own it results in this sense of false security and what what are some of the ways that we do that well you know there's all kinds of ways that we place our hope in money a lot of people have put their money in crypto i'm not saying crypto's bad or anything i'm just saying a lot of people put their money in crypto and they got royally burned got royally burned in some cases where the companies went belly up and I'm not making any pejorative statements about crypto in general but I'm just saying if that was really where your hope was I know what you're going through now it's got to be it's got to be hard you know if

you even look at sports the greatest quarterbacks complete only six out of ten passes these are people who hope the best basketball players only make about half of their shots these are these are men and women of hope major league baseball players make first base only 40% of the time and that includes walks and those are the ones that win the batting title they're men of hope top oil companies even with consultation of expert geologists find oil in only about one out of 10 wells so a successful actor is turned down 29 out of 30 times after auditioning for roles and commercials. Winners in the stock market make money on only two out of, say, five or six investments. So when we really examine hope, we see that hope is an activating and guiding

principle for life. In looking at the various categories of life, faith, intellectual endeavors, we look at bodily desires, moral ideals and social interests. We see that hope is a major factor in all of these areas, faith, intellectual endeavors, bodily desires, moral ideals, social interests, politics, all of these have hope as a major factor, hope of winning, hope of changing. So, none of the disciplines that I just mentioned just a moment ago, spur one to action without some measure of hope. You got up this morning, you went to work most likely, you were moved by hope, hope in some way that this would end with you being satisfied and happier. So we have this living hope. When we come back from the break, I'm going to talk about another

thing that is living in First Peter that has to do with this inheritance. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz. I am the host of the Catechism in your podcast. If you've been following along with us, you've know that God's plan for us is a plan of sheer goodness, that he wants to bring us into a relationship with him. You know that already. One of the ways that God actually brings us into this relationship and keeps us, sustains us in this relationship is through the sacraments. Again, you might know that already. You might further know that so many of us miss out on the beauty and the power of the sacraments. But, Ascension has an answer to this. Ascension has created two new programs. One is

called Renewed. Your Journey Towards First Reconciliation. The second is, your journey towards First Holy Communion. We know that our youth, they're our future. And yet at the same time, it's so hard oftentimes to reach them with this incredible news of God's love for them in reconciliation, God's love for them in the Eucharist. If you want to check out Ascension's new program, renewed your journey towards first reconciliation and received your journey towards First Communion, go to ascensionpress.com and sign up for a free preview. and we're back and we're talking about the fact that you are in the will of god first peter

chapter one says it first peter chapter one says exactly that that there's an inheritance which is imperishable undefiled and unfading kept in heaven for you right now right now go ahead and just say it say lord thank you for keeping my inheritance in heaven right now. Thank you for keeping it. I'm going to keep my eyes on that. And I want to serve you, Lord, and I want to give you praise and glory. And I want to live this life. And so the number one thing was a living hope. And then also it says in 1st Peter 1, 23 through 25, listen to this. You, it says, you have been born anew, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word God. For all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flowers of grass. The grass

withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord abides forever. That word is the good news which was preached to you. So we have a living hope, but that living hope is nurtured and fed and directed by the living word of God. The living and abiding word of God, Peter says right there. It's, oh, man. You have been born anew, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable. Remember, you've got an imperishable inheritance.

And you've been born anew by a seed that is imperishable. It's the living and abiding word of God for you. That word is the good. news which was preached to you. And so you and I today must be students of the word. If you want to walk into that inheritance that is waiting for you in heaven, then my word, God has given you the user's manual. He has given you a full copy. I got my hand right now on a pile of papers and in there is a folder of my parents' will. And I have been working with them.

They're elderly, and I've been helping them and working with them and went to an attorney. Their will is in there. It's not one page. It's not two. It's not three. It's a pretty good will. There's a lot of information in there.

In the same way, that Bible that is next to me, the Great Adventure Bible right there, the blue one right next to me, that is the living world. Word of God. That is the will of God for you. That's not in just a little envelope. It's not on two or three pieces of paper. It is on over a thousand pages of God's will for you and how he works and how he wants you to work. And what do you do? What do you not do? How do you deal with life? How do you live life? How do you deal with confrontation? How do you deal with hurdles? How do you do with desires of the flesh? What do you do with all this? What's your will, Lord? Let me look this up. And we got the catechism. which helps us in living this, which is just so cool. And so I love also what the writer of Hebrews said in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 12, writer said, for the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit of joints and marrow,

and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. So you see that Bible that you have, and if you don't have one, oh my, get one. get one i'll put it in the show notes for you if you want a great adventure bible that's the one that i was using and father mike was using for bible in a year it's kind of becoming the norm out there now everywhere i go people have that great adventure bible which has within it a system to read the bible in chronological order and it's color-coded you know it's actually a very good learning tool and then we have the at ascension we have the great adventure 24-week study of going through the entire Bible, the great adventure study, the Bible timeline. We have a Bible timeline chart.

We have a shorter study, an eight-week study on unlocking the mystery of the Bible. It takes you all the way through, but kind of in a shorter way than the great adventure. You know, go through, if you haven't gone through that, go through that and really get a full glimpse of the living word of God, the plan that God has for you. So, you know, one of the things the catechism says, I probably told you this one time, but one of the things the catechism says is that we are not people of the book. Oh, Jeff, come on now. No, we're not. We are not people of the book. We are people of the word, specifically the living word, Jesus Christ, who gave us his word in writing and also tradition. And so in that Bible, you have,

the all of the points of the will that you're in. Isn't that cool? And so I would really encourage you to to study the Bible deeper. Get a Bible. Do Lexio de Vina every day. My wife and I do every morning. We get up every morning and we read the gospel of the day and we have prayer and meditation and talk about it. Every day. Why? Because it's the will of God, which will help me to obtain that inheritance that's waiting for me in heaven. And then third, we have living stones. Listen to this in 1 Peter 2, 1 through 5. Listen to this. This is going to talk about you. We know that we have a living will. We know that the word of God is living. And Peter talks about living stones. Listen to this. So put away all malice and all guile and insincerity and envy and all slander.

like newborn babes long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up to salvation for you have tasted the kindness of the Lord come to him to that living stone rejected by men but in God's sight chosen and precious and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ verse Peter 2 1 through 5 now in that verse the verses that I just read there it talks about two stones it talks about it talks about God becoming that living stone the one that was rejected by men and then it talks about you and me as living stones and how we are built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood and to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ Now, when I go to Israel every January, we have a tour every January, a pilgrimage. And when Father Mike and I go on these pilgrimages together, we oftentimes will go down to the wall, western wall, at the temple mount. And there is a tour that you can take and you can walk right along the edges of the retaining wall around the temple, where the temple was, I should say.

and you can look at the actual stones of Herod and the Salomonic stone, and it blows your mind away. How in the world did they get stones that big? I mean, it's really, really impressive. I mean, impressive to the tune of pyramids. It's impressive. These massive stones, and they are lined up perfectly to build this retainer wall for the temple. And of course, the temple was made out of stone. So that is a marvelous feat to build something like that. And it really hits home when you go and see it in person. But here it says that God is building this new spiritual house with living stones. Now, think about that for a minute. You are a part of this house that God is building. You have an inheritance. He's given us his word. You are a living stone. But what is the problem with

building with living stone? Do you think it'd be easier, right? John, stand there. Peter, over there, Susan, over there, Debbie, come over here. I want you right here. All right, perfect. We're building. It's going well. Another three days we'll have this thing done. No, because when you say, hey, Gary, here, Peter, there, Debbie there, Barbara, come on over here, stand here. You turn around and go talk to Jeremy over there, and you look back and Peter, and Debbie walked away. Hey, where are you guys going? Oh, we're tired of this.

I was offended. You what? I was offended. I'm leaving. I'm going to go join something else. Oh, my. I didn't know stones could be so sassy. And I got to work with them?

And they got to work with me? Oh, what a feat. What a feat. And so you and I, as living stones, must cooperate with God by being informed by his living word and we must get our wills and our minds dialed in to becoming stones. And I remember the story one time. It's two stones that were next to each other. One was absolutely perfect. A plus. You know, every, boy, just beautiful stone. The other stone next to them had this great big protrusion on its back. And the

The master Mason came over and he grabbed the perfect stone and he started hacking a hole in the side of it. And the stone yells out, hey, hey, stop, stop. And the Mason says, what? He said, I'm perfect. And you are putting a hole in my side. What gives? And the Mason said, well, you see the stone right over here? That one's going next to you.

And rather than hacking that off, I'm going to put a place in you where the, he's, He can, you two can be brought together and you'll be even stronger. No. That's the living stone. We have to die to ourselves. We have to prefer one another. And it becomes, it becomes difficult. But if you keep in mind what Peter started with, this inheritance that's waiting for you in heaven.

All right. Hack away, Lord. I'll get better. You know, maybe in heaven I won't have that great big divot in my back. but do as you will. Your will be done, O Lord. And then finally, there's this idea of the living will of God and living in the spirit. Listen to how Peter goes on in Chapter 4, 1 Peter 4. I'll just read this. Live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer by human passions, but by the will of God. Let the time that is past suffice for doing what the Gentiles like to do. Living in licentiousness, passions, drunkenness, revels, carousing, law. all this idolatry. They are surprised that you do not now join them in the same wild parties and they abuse you, but they will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is why the gospel was preached even to the dead that though judged in the flesh

like men, they might live in the spirit like God. And I love that. Because if you want that inheritance, which is waiting for you, you need the word of God to be sure. You need the word of God to be sure. You need to live as a living stone to be sure. But you need to walk in the spirit and do not feed the lust of the flesh, but walk in the spirit. That is, walk in the power of the spirit, walk in the power of confirmation, walk in the power of baptism, keep your eyes on his word, and keep your eyes on the Lord. we need to be people who walk in the spirit we hear his voice we know when god is talking to us talk to that person do this avoid that give here smile and and and and that's what you know what

it means to live in the spirit is to live the will of god joyfully and so i wanted to leave that with you today and that is that we do have an inheritance a living inheritance we are in the will of God. And we have a hope now in our hearts, right? We have a hope in our hearts. And it is fueled by and led by and motivated by the living word. And we are stones who are living in the spirit. And we want to do what the chief builder, Jesus, wants to do in our lives. Well, I hope that's of some encouragement to you today, whatever you're going through, whatever you're going through, I know that life can be tough, and I know that in the times that we're living in, you know, there's a lot that can go wrong, and I know that. But I do know, too, that we do have something awaiting us that is far greater.

It's imperishable and undefiled, and it doesn't fade, even though blue jeans are cool. It doesn't fade, and it's kept in heaven for you. And that's our prize. That's what we want to keep our minds on. even when there are difficulties. And when you have the difficulties, you can offer that up, that suffering in union with Christ. And even those difficulties can turn out as valuable in this kingdom that we're in. So if you want the notes, go ahead. My name, Jeff Kaven's one word, text it to the number 33777.

Let me pray for you. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord Jesus, we love you. and we thank you for this opportunity today to walk as living stones in your kingdom. As people, we have a smile on our face because as people, we know our names are with you. We have this inheritance waiting for us in heaven. And Lord, help us to walk in hope, walk in your word, walk as living stones, and walk in the spirit. Help us to do that today, Lord, and this week we pray. and we ask for the intercession of our mother.

Our blessed mother, you can help us in your prayer and your intercession for us. We pray, 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. God bless you, my friend. I love you.

I'll be praying for you this week. Thank you.