In Season and Out of Season

Father Tom DiLorenzo: Good day, it's Father Tom today. I'm reading from Jeremiah. Oh yes, people say Jeremiah is always negative. No, he's not always negative. He speaks the word of God. I'm looking at the 29th chapter, the 11th verse, and this is what the Word of God says: "For surely I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord, "plans for your welfare and not your harm, to give you a future with hope."

"Then, when you call upon me and come to pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me with all your heart, I will let you find me," says the Lord. Oh, that's not very negative. That's very positive. I know the plans I have for you. Not to kill you, not to destroy you, not to make you sick, but plans to give you a future and a hope. That's what it's all about.

As I was coming down to the radio room, I remembered being with a person many, many years ago, and everything in his life was negative. It just was. This is what he said: "The cards are all against me." That's what he said. "The cards, playing cards, are all against me." And immediately I responded, "But God's going to shuffle the deck. God's going to shuffle the deck and the cards aren't going to be against you." For the Lord says, "I know the plans I have for you, plans to give you a future and a hope."

I know the plans. Don't listen to the devil. Don't even listen to your past. God says today: plans for a future and a hope. And that future and hope is in the Lord Jesus. No one else. Not me, not Anthony, not even the church. The future and the hope for the church and for me is in Jesus Christ. We sometimes forget that. We become churchmen. I don't want to ever be a churchman. I want to be a Jesus-man who loves the church. That's who I want to be. Not a churchman, but a Jesus-man who loves the church.

Why do I love the church? Because it is the body of the Lord Jesus himself. He is the head and the church is the body. I know that to be true, and I want to thank God for the church because I'm here today because I received faith from the church. I received faith from the church. I'm here today because of that. I am also called to be part of the church. I don't know what member I am—makes no difference to me. Maybe I'm just a little toe, I have no idea. But I want to be able to encourage people to know that God has a plan for them. And even if the cards are all against them, the Lord can shuffle the deck in faith. And you know what? He does.

Oh, he does. I remember once about *In Season and Out of Season*. Things were happening against me and against the radio program. It was like nothing positive was there. Nothing positive was there. And my experience was telling me it's going to get worse rather than better. It's going to get worse rather than better. I didn't believe it. I didn't believe it. Oh, I couldn't believe for much. But I said it's not going to get worse because this ministry and my life belongs to Jesus. And I believe that it's not going to get worse. God's going to do something to call me out of this miserable mess. And guess what? He did.

I know the plans I have for you, plans to give you a future and a hope. You might say everything is against me. I tell you, our Lord Jesus Christ, before his death, everything was against him. The Jews were against him. The words that the prophets—though they weren't really prophets—spoke were against him. Oh, they hated Jesus. They hated the Lord Jesus. You want to know why? Because our Lord Jesus is the light, and that light shone on the darkness of their lives and they did not want to repent. That light shone on the darkness of their lives and they didn't want to repent.

So guess what? They gave Jesus up. What the high priest said: "It is better for one man to die and give his life for the country." Oh, I tell you, that high priest was no man of God. No. And I'm going to tell you: there can be ministers, there can be priests, there can be evangelists, and they're not men and women of God. You can tell a man or a woman of God from not only the way he or she speaks, but he or she lives. Men and women of God have given it all to Jesus.

Oh yes, and sometimes the Lord multiplies that, and sometimes he doesn't. But they continue to have faith despite what's happening. I tell you, we've all had calamities in our lives. We've all had experiences in our lives that say your faith is not working. Give it up. That's from the devil himself. My faith, even when it seems like every door is closed and every window is closed, my faith is that God will intervene. How? I do not know. I can't tell him how.

But I know one thing: when Jesus gave me his life and I gave my life back to him, he is the most secure experience in my life. I don't have to worry about my life. I'm a kept man, kept by Jesus himself. He is the one that opens the doors for me. He is the one that ministers through other people for me. Oh yes, I don't have to worry about my life because I'm a kept man. Are you a kept woman? Are you a kept man? Do you know that the Lord Jesus wants to take care of everything that you are, have, and do? But you've got to surrender.

It just doesn't happen. It doesn't happen. I tell you—I tell you a secret: this is what I've always believed. If the church and all the believers were like the apostles and that next generation after the apostles, we would have converted the world if we continued on that line. We would have converted the world. But I tell you what came in: compromise, compromise, compromise. I remember being at a meeting and one of the things they were talking about was, "Well, you know what? We cannot expect the..." I said, "We can expect. And we are not called to compromise."

Compromise is of the devil. And so many people have compromised the truth of the gospel. So many people have compromised the truth of the gospel. And you know what happens when you compromise the truth of the gospel? Nothing. Nothing happens. No intervention of God. No intervention of the Holy Spirit. You've compromised. Well, maybe you're listening to me and you've been compromising. You wanted one leg in the kingdom and one leg in the world. I'm going to tell you: make a decision. You're either going to be in the world with two legs or in the kingdom with two legs.

Make a decision today. You cannot be in two kingdoms. Oh, you can be, and when you are, nothing happens. That's why nothing's happening. You're in two kingdoms. You want the assurance of the kingdom of the earth and the kingdom of the world. Oh no, I don't want that assurance. I want the assurance of what Jesus said: "No one who comes to me will I ever reject." What else did he say? "I have come down from the Father so that you might have life and have it more abundantly." What else did he say? "Greater things than these shall you do because I go to the Father." Oh, the Word of God is awesome and powerful.

We do not have to compromise with the Word of God. I tell you, I've been praying for people since 1968 for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Some people think that's not good. Some people think we cannot expect Pentecost experientially. I tell them: I experienced Pentecost experientially before I knew it was Pentecost. It happened in front of the Blessed Sacrament. I experienced Pentecost in front of the Blessed Sacrament. And I knew that I knew that I knew that God had a call on my life and that he was asking one thing for me: that I give my life to him. That's what he was asking.

And at 21, I said yes. You can have my life totally, completely, it's all yours. And you know what else I told him? I said, "Now if I take it back, let me suffer like a dog. Let me suffer like a dog." And you know what? The times I took it back, I was suffering like a dog. So then I had to repent and give my life back to Jesus. I tell you, God has plans for you. Plans to give you a future and a hope. But you cannot live in two worlds. You cannot have one foot in the kingdom and one foot in the world. You cannot, you cannot, you cannot. You need to make a decision.

You're going to have two feet in the world or two feet in the kingdom. That's the decision you have to make. Because I tell you, compromise brings nothing to the people of God. We want to say, "Well, you know, we don't want to expect..." I remember one of the bishops said to me many, many, many years ago, "Well, you know, God has done so wonderful things to you. You can't expect that to happen in other people." Oh, I knew he was wrong. I didn't fight with him, but I knew he was wrong because the Word of God says, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria and throughout all the ends of the earth." I knew the bishop was wrong.

I didn't fight with him. I didn't say, "Your eminence, you're wrong." No, I just left there saying, "Well, he did the best he could and he's wrong." God expects us to be apostolic and have the apostolic power of the Holy Spirit. He does expect that from us. We don't get it because we don't have faith. We don't have faith, and with faith you can do things to move mountains and fill up valleys. Faith is what it's all about. The faith that I have, not in myself, faith that I have, not in my faith, faith that I have in the Lord Jesus Christ.

When that faith is flooded, that faith brings about miracles, signs, and wonders. I don't want to live a life that's safe. I want to live a life that's on the edge, completely relying upon Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Now do you do that? I want to tell you: I don't do that. I want to do that. I'm sure there's parts of me that have compromised. I'm sure of that. But I ask the Lord himself: when I compromise, let me repent. When I compromise, do something in me that'll change me. When I compromise, it's not your will. And it's so easy to compromise.

And we can rationalize it. We can rationalize it. "I'm going to compromise because I'm the only one doing this," whatever this is. Oh, you're not the only one doing this. You're doing it in the power of the Holy Spirit. You're not the only one. That's what the devil says. And the church has compromised. We need to proclaim the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We need to proclaim that God wants to do mighty things in our midst. That he is still the same yesterday, today, and forever. That God the Father, through his son the Lord Jesus, has reconciled us to himself and sent us the wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit.

And the Holy Spirit wants to bring about—I don't know if the word is revival, I don't know if the word is renewal—but I know the word is to do something radical so that we change and bring the gospel out to those that are rich, to those that are poor, to those that are empty, to those that are full, to bring the gospel out to children and old men and young men and old women and young women. That's what God wants to do. But what do we do? We say, "Well, you know, we don't..." No, you know nothing. God wants to do something and he wants to use you.

And let me tell you: you know why he wants to use you? Because you're the only one he has. You've got to step into the shoes that the Lord has for you. I know you feel you're unable. I understand that. I'm unable too. But I'm going to step in the shoes of what God has for me so that God would bless people and bring people to Jesus and Jesus to people. I'm not worthy. I know I'm not worthy. I'm not going to fight about that. But I know who is worthy: worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive wisdom and power and glory and honor forever and ever. He is worthy, not me.

And in his worthiness, if we are open to him, he will do in us wonders. He will do for us wonders. He will have us do things that only the saints did. Because I'm going to tell you this: God's looking for saints. And a saint is not a person with their hands folded. A saint is a person who has not compromised the gospel of Jesus Christ and has given Jesus liberty in his or her life totally. And when they fall from that liberty, they repent. They go to confession and they say, "I've repented. I joined the world for the last six months."

The world has nothing to give you and nothing to give me. It has nothing. What I want comes from God himself. And if God wants to continue to bless me so that I can bless others, I say to him, "Here I am. I come to do your will." And I'm going to tell you: sometimes it's very dark. Oh, sometimes it's very dark. It's not only flooded with light, but sometimes it's very dark. And the only thing you have is a little bit of faith to continue walking. So what do you do? I use that little bit of faith in the midst of darkness.

In the midst of darkness, believing that the God that I serve, the Word of God says, "God is light and in him there's no darkness." You see, when people did something for the Lord Jesus Christ, they were facing the enemy of their soul, the devil himself. But not only the devil himself, but many times people in the church. "You have no right doing that. You're not a priest." Oh, that's true, you're not a priest. But you can raise up people to give their whole life to Jesus Christ. You don't have to be a priest. You have to be a convicted Catholic Christian.

Would that all priests, including myself, were totally sold on Jesus Christ? Would that it happened that I was completely sold on the person of Jesus Christ? Oh, I know I hold back. I know, I know, and I keep on asking: I need complete grace to surrender. I want to give you everything, even when I hold back things. You see, I try in my own weakness to make a place for myself apart from faith. But you know what I've told Jesus and I'll tell him again now: when I do that kind of stuff, don't let me be happy. Let me suffer so that I'll change my life and change my heart.

It's better for me to suffer now than to suffer in purgatory or to suffer in hell. It's better. I tell you, if the church were faithful from Jesus Christ's call to the church to go out and baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, to proclaim the Word of God—if we were totally into that, we would have changed the world in the year 500. Changed the world, because we've got the message to change the world. It's the Holy Spirit.

But because we've compromised, we're still unconverted, many in the world. Because we've compromised. As one bishop said to me, "We can't expect all that from people." I never contradicted him, but I never agreed with him. I never agreed with him. Jesus expects from us that we give our lives to him. That's what he expects. And in that offering of our lives to him, he's able to do things that only Jesus can do. God expects his people to be a surrendered people. Not a people of compromise. Not a people having one leg in the world and one leg in the kingdom.

No, God expects his people to give their lives to him and to say, "Here I am. I come to do your will." Oh, I've said those words sometimes not feeling anything other than desolation. I've said those words sometimes when it was the darkest, darkest, darkest time of my life. I said those words. I want to continue to walk in faith. When my mother broke her trachea when I was driving to Waltham, the devil came to me and he said to me without words, "You see? Because you..." It was my birthday too, that it happened. That was my birthday present from hell.

But he says to me, "You see, God's not worthy to be trusted. On your birthday, you broke your mother's trachea." I tell you, I remember hearing that. I was at Sacred Heart in North Quincy. I remember, maybe those were not the words, in the middle of the night something happened that was just about that. "Look what's happened to your mother. It's no good that you've given your life to Jesus." You know what I did? I got on my knees—I never get on my knees. I got on my knees that night when I was hearing all those lies.

And I said, "Jesus, I want to follow you despite whether my mother is healed or not. I want to follow you because I've compromised after the accident. I want to follow you." And guess what? I had the ability to do it. Oh yes, after her accident I was miserable. I was driving the car. It was my birthday, with my birthday present from hell. My poor mother's throat. She, at the end, could barely talk. You could hear her. You see, the devil couldn't get my throat, but he could get my mother's throat.

But you want to find something? We were in Plymouth one day having dinner with Mary Wilkerson, and with her was her cousin who worked for the Eye and Ear Hospital. And she gave us the name of the best doctor of throats: Dr. Montgomery. We brought our mother to Eye and Ear Hospital. Dr. Montgomery did the wonderful job. My mother was blessed, my mother was healed, my mother had things happen because that night in Plymouth, that woman that worked with Dr. Montgomery told us about him. We never would have found him, but it was the act of God. God has a plan for you. Don't say no to it. God has a plan for you. If he showed us Dr. Montgomery, he wants to show you something. Just say, "Here I am, Lord. I come to do your will. Plant your word in my heart and let me receive it in faith." God bless you.