Latest / Padre Alberto (Father Albert) / DON'T GIVE UP

Transcript

DON'T GIVE UP · Padre Alberto (Father Albert)

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  There was a middle age farming couple.
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  They lived on the farm for many, many years.
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  And the woman was getting up in years and she was worried
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  because they prayed. They wanted to have a child and
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  no child was coming. And she prayed and prayed and
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  prayed. And finally she got the news
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  that she was pregnant. And she went to the doctor and
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  said, Doctor, I want you to know, I know you've helped me a
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  lot, but the reason of this pregnancy is because you know
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  God is great. I've been praying.
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  The doctor turned to her and the husband and said, well, I've got
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  news for you. You're not just pregnant, you're
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  going to have triplets. And the woman said, praise God
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  waited all this time to have my family.
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  Now three are coming. You see the power of prayer,
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  honey. The man looked at the doctor,
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  said, doctor, we prayed for a child, not for a bumper crop.
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  And then, of course, Kathy, do you remember the second joke
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  today? There were two of them this
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  week. Oh, yeah.
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  The priest is giving this long, long sermon.
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  Get ready. No, I'm kidding.
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  Long, long sermon. And it was about this unjust
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  judge and the widow bothering him.
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  Right. And the sermon just went on and
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  on and on. And at the end of the service,
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  you know, priest shaking hands with everyone.
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  And one of the parishioners says, oh, Father, he says, I
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  want to thank you because that sermon was the most refreshing,
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  invigorating. It just moved me so much.
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  It's made me feel so well. And the priest was, you know,
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  emotional. I said, oh, gosh, thank you so
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  much. You know, didn't realize it
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  impacted you so much. I said yes.
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  And when I woke up, it just completely refreshed me.
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  I promise you, this won't be that kind of sermon.
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  At least it won't be long. How's your faith?
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  Listen to me carefully. How is your faith?
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  Because the fact is, we go through ups and downs in life,
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  don't we? We struggle.
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  We look at the world about us, and sometimes we're afraid, or
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  we look at the world about us and we see things that don't
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  seem right. There is war and there's hunger
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  and there's great injustice, and there's things that just don't
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  seem right, and they concern us and they worry us.
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  How's your faith? You notice how today's gospel
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  ends with that line, right? When the Son of Man comes, will
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  he find faith on the earth? See this parable of Jesus about
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  the unjust judge. To put it in context, because
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  it's hard for us, we live in a somewhat serious legal system.
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  Emphasis on somewhat in the time of Jesus it was well known that
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  the Roman judges and the Roman authorities were not very just
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  or fair, especially to the people of Israel.
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  There was a kind of dominion over them, a kind of oppression,
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  repression. And so Jesus is using a parable
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  that they can relate to this thing of the unjust judge.
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  But you notice how the emphasis, it's really on the woman who
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  comes and doesn't give up. Has anyone met a woman that
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  doesn't give up? I've yet to meet one.
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  I live with one that never gives up.
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  Actually, 2 now, because that little one's becoming a woman
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  very quickly. They don't give up.
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  The boys never seem to ask for anything.
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  You know, Christian and Albert, they're fine, but the women
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  don't give up. I say this because our faith and
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  the way Jesus tells us parable, our faith is meant to be a
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  persistent faith, a consistent faith, a faith that never gives
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  up. But we give up at every turn.
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  There's people I don't see in church and then I I call and
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  hey, how you doing? Whatever.
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  Oh, Father, you haven't seen me in church in three weeks because
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  you have no idea. I had a car accident and my car
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  this and what? They go shopping.
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  They go to the mall for sure. The mall very important.
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  They go to the store, they go to Publix and they go to Home
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  Depot. You got to go to Home Depot, but
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  it's so hard to come to church. We give up on God very easily.
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  We give up on spiritual things. Oh, Father, I used to read the
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  Bible everyday. I used to read the why don't you
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  read it now? Oh, you know, Father, I used to
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  pray. I went to Crucio.
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  My life was transformed. I used to go to my reunion
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  group. I used to do this and that.
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  But you know, I just, I'm so busy.
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  That's been my excuse with the gym for the last 30 years.
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  What I'm saying is we have to be consistent in our faith.
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  We have to be persistent in our faith.
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  We can't give up because that's what life is, rough.
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  And you will have moments of trial.
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  God knows what this poor widow was going through.
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  It doesn't tell us the crime that was committed against her.
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  It tells us she just wanted justice, but she wouldn't give
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  up. And Jesus uses her as an
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  example, which can serve us too, not to give up.
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  You know what our problem is? Our problem is that we think
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  faith is about getting what we want and when we want it and how
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  we want it. And I'm here to tell you, God
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  will sometimes package his miracles for you.
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  God. God sometimes will package the
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  grace and gifts He wants to give you in ways you did not expect
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  or want. You know when you order
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  something from Amazon or you something online and it looks so
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  good on the screen and when you get it's like what?
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  This ain't what I wanted. Does it happen?
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  That happens with faith. See, you say your prayers and
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  you have your plan and you decide you want things this way,
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  and then God throws you a curveball.
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  Detours happen. That's life.
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  But I'm here to tell you, do not give up on God because God never
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  gives up on you. Don't give up on God.
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  Be consistent, be persistent. Have spiritual discipline, the
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  basics, the basics, the basics. Because what happens is
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  sometimes we put spirituality, God, church in the back burner
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  and then things happen in our lives and then we wonder why?
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  Why am I so spiritually weak? Why can't I seem to get up from
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  this? Well, have you been
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  strengthening your spiritual muscles?
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  Have you been, have you been doing your spiritual tune up?
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  Because the best place I know to get a spiritual tune up is a
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  church, right? We listen to God's Word.
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  We're nourished by the sacraments.
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  We go out into the week in a different way to me, even when
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  I'm on vacation, I got to be at church on Sunday.
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  I got to be there. If I'm not even, I'm not on the
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  altar, I need to be sitting there.
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  I need to be nourished with the word of God and I need to be
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  nourished by the sacraments. One of the beauties of the
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  Anglican tradition is we have this, this worship and word and
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  sacrament. If you look at the Book of
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  Common Prayer, it's filled with the beauty of sacred Scripture.
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  It's filled with the beauty of of, of just our tradition of
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  this balance of word and sacrament.
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  It's beautiful. You can't have one without the
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  other. I love these mega churches.
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  I see young people go to wonderful.
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  They're packed with young people, wonderful music,
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  wonderful. And then I'm like, that's great,
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  but where's the sacrament, right?
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  Word and sacrament, Jesus brought them together.
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  He said, take, eat, this is my body.
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  Take drink, this is my blood. Do this in memory of me and we
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  do it in his memory because that's what Jesus taught us to
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  do. And So what ends up happening,
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  my friends, is we live in a world that it's becoming more
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  and more difficult to kind of understand that faith requires a
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  little bit of sacrifice, a little bit of effort, not what
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  comes natural all the time. There are Sundays that like this
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  morning, you see my hair is a little messier than usual is
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  because I'm having one of those hair days.
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  I didn't have a lot of time today when I get up at when I
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  get to church around 6:15 on Sunday.
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  There's Sundays, I'm like, I have to go to a charity event.
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  Miami yesterday, driving there and then driving back after the
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  6:00 service. So by the time I got home, it
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  was way past my bedtime. And that's now 1030.
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  Look at you laughing. Albert says.
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  Dad, what are you going to see so early, man?
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  Wait till you get to my age. You'll see why.
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  But I'm going to tell you this, sometimes it's hard to get up
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  for church. I get it.
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  But God calls us to be consistent in faith.
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  God calls us to be persistent in faith.
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  Don't give up. Don't give up.
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  You know, there was sometimes we like to test God too, right,
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  with our prayers, right? Give me what I want when I want
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  it. You know, there was a man named
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  Dalton. I believe his name was Dalton
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  Iverton. We're going to look him up in
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  the UK. This guy had an experiment with
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  God. He said half of England was
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  going to pray for rain and the other half of England was going
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  to pray for no rain, no rainfall and see what would happen.
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  He did that, but he wasn't the only one.
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  You know, Gideon, remember Gideon with the fleece?
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  You remember in the book of Judges, the Old Testament,
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  Gideon had the fleece. And he said to God, oh, if the
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  dew lands on the fleece, then then you know, Yeah, you know,
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  you're listening to me. You want me to lead these
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  people. And if it lands on the.
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  And then he did it again. Oh, Lord, I'm sorry for coming
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  back. But now this time, can you put
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  the dew on the. We do that with God.
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  I know. I listen every time the
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  Powerball is like 500 million, I go get a ticket and I say, Lord,
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  if we win this thing, we're going to do great things at
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  Saint Benedict's, don't we do that?
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  We think we got God by the beard like that, see?
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  Faith is not about telling God what to do or make it rain here
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  or do this for me, No. Faith is about trusting that God
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  has the best plan. But we pray because we want
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  God's will to be done, see. And so it's important for us to
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  remember, if we have faith, we cannot give up when things are
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  not going our way. So the best thing to do when
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  we're going through crisis, when we're going through struggles,
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  is do what the widow did. She went to the feet of the
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  judge, you and I, We need to go to the feet of Jesus with
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  humility, and we need to trust God.
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  And we need to say to God, Lord, do what you will, whatever you
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  want, do it because I trusted you.
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  And I want to tell you something.
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  God's plans are a lot better than yours.
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  Did I say that? I'm saying it again.
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  God's plans are a lot better than ours.
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  God always has a better plan. You may not see it right now.
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  You may not see the long term. Remember, God lives in eternity.
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  We just had a 90 over here. Look at that 90.
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  Look at her at the 8:00 Mass Christine Clifford is 90 this
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  week and you think 9 and you think 90 is a long time for God.
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  It's the blink of an eye. 100 a hundred plus.
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  Look at that, she's bowing her head, for God is the blink of an
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  eye. So I'm telling you this so you
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  understand clearly that God's time is eternity.
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  You may feel like you're not getting your miracle now, but
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  you want it now. And God's here to tell you, hey,
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  guess what, it's going to happen in my time, not in your time.
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  And I'm here to tell you, God's time is the best time.
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  So be like the widow. Don't give up.
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  Keep on praying, keep on believing, keep the faith.
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  Doesn't matter what's happening in this crazy world around you,
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  all of it, all of it will pass. All of it because we're here and
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  we're in God's time and we will be blessed in God's time and
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  miracles will happen in God's time.
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  So don't give up. In the name of the Father, Son
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  and Holy Spirit, Amen.