In Season and Out of Season

Father Tom DiLorenzo: The word of God is a two-edged sword, cutting and healing. We do not know the word of God as Catholics. We need to pick up the Bible. We need to start with John's Gospel. We need to know it and we need to have it in our hearts. If you don't do it and pick it up, it won't get done.

Do it. The word of God has power, power to save and power to heal and power to bless.

Anthony: And Jesus said, "If you're not for me, you are against me. And those who do not gather with me, they scatter." I want to be for Jesus in every way. In being able to speak the word of God to someone with power, people should come or they should scatter. They should come to you or they should scatter. No more being lukewarm.

Jesus, the word of God, it divides spirit from soul. The message of Christ divides spirit from soul. If someone is not with Christ, they are against him. If they do not gather with him, they scatter. Ask someone who's not in Christ, "You want to come to church with me this week?" They're going to scatter. They're not going to come.

They need to have a witness to the Lord Jesus Christ and his love, his grace, his mercy, and his power. Jesus didn't come to "Kumbaya." He came with the sword. If people are offended, that has nothing to do with you. You are just called to speak the truth in love.

But to speak the truth, you need to know the truth. You need to have the words of life. You need to feed on the word of God. You can't just know what the priest tells you. You have to get into the word. That word is transformative. That word is healing. That word will give you victory and authority over you, over this world, and over your life.

It will show you who you are created to be, the promises that you are created to walk in. "Oh, I'm promised healing through Christ. I'm going to go through it." Jesus said, "I have come so that you may have life and life abundantly," spiritually, physically, emotionally, and financially.

The Lord wants you to have enough so that you can prosper and complete the mission that God has set for you and created you for before the foundation of the world. If we don't know the word of God, we don't know Christ.

Father Tom DiLorenzo: You know, the word of God says God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. Gave. Are you a giver? Are you a giver, not only of money? Are you a giver of the word of God to people? Are you a giver that cares for people that are not cared for?

Are you a giver who prays in a secret place for people that you love, but they don't know Jesus? Are you a giver? God's children are like him, like the Father. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. We're called to be givers.

We give the word of God. This is what we do every morning at 11:30, Monday through Friday. We're called to give the word of God. As a matter of fact, we not only give it to you, we give it to ourselves because we listen to what we're saying. We don't have it all together. We don't.

We need to hear the message ourselves. Sometimes we don't even know what to say, but we say it anyway and God speaks the way only God can speak. God has plans for you. Oh, I'm seeing a person who's desperate. I'm seeing a person like a hobo with carrying their clothes on a stick. I'm seeing a person who wants to walk away from it and is so disgusted. No more.

The Lord says yes, one more time. One more time. Just come back one more time. Don't quit. Don't be a quitter. I had on my refrigerator, "I wouldn't stop eating chocolate because I'm no quitter." Don't be a quitter of God's mercy, of God's power, of God's love, of God's revelation.

Don't be a quitter. Even though you've been falling flat on your face, even though people think you're nuts, don't be a quitter. Stay in the race. Maybe you need a little rest. Take the little rest you need, but don't leave the arena. Never, never, never, no matter how bad things have been.

Don't quit. Continue to believe. Be that torch of light to other people even when you feel you're in Death Valley. Don't quit. Do something for Jesus today. Do something for people today. Go touch a person. I know you don't feel it, but you want to know what? Do it anyway. It's not about your feelings. It's about doing things in the name of Jesus.

I tell you, on the cross our Lord Jesus didn't feel, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." He didn't feel it. He was suffering like a dog. He was absorbing the sins of the world, causing every man, woman, and child that would ever live to be drawn into his heart.

"When I am lifted up on the cross, I'll draw all men unto myself." Our Lord Jesus wasn't feeling forgiveness, but he knew that he would proclaim forgiveness and it would happen even though there were no feelings in it. He was suffering agony, torture, not only through nails, not only through a spear, but spiritually. He was absorbing you and me and every person into his heart.

Our Lord Jesus wasn't smiling at the cross when he said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." He wasn't smiling. He was in agony. And he knew that what he said would be done. Forgiveness for me, for me who put Jesus on the cross, me by my sin put Jesus on the cross. But what did Jesus say? Forgiveness. Amen.

Anthony: And as bad as the physical pain and torment that Jesus went through, it was nothing compared to the spiritual pain that he had to endure. The spiritual pain is always worse. And what did Jesus say? "Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do." He also said if you don't forgive others for their sins, I won't forgive you for yours.

If we have any unforgiveness in our heart, the Bible says unforgiveness will give us over to torment. So if we have unforgiveness, we're going to be tormented by the evil one, which God is allowing so that we can become like Christ and forgive those who have hurt us.

We think forgiving someone is releasing them from what they've done. It's not. It's releasing us. It's like us drinking poison and thinking it's going to hurt someone else. We need to ask God for the grace to walk in total forgiveness so we can walk in total freedom and we can begin to embody Christ.

So we can live not for ourselves but for other people. The Bible says no one should seek their own good but the good of others. I want to seek the good of others because I'm seeking Christ. I'm allowing him to put his love and his power into me. Because with my love, I don't have the ability to overcome myself. I don't have the ability to love others the way Christ loves them.

But as I get into the secret place with the Lord and I let him fill me with his love, I make sacrifices. I empty myself out. Then I'm filled with God's love and by God's grace we have the strength to do things that are impossible for man, to love other people as God would love them.

I've seen this firsthand in Father Tom. It's God's grace coming through him. It's God's love as he embodies the love of God. It flows out of him. We need to learn how to live in the river, not live in the flesh, but live in the spiritual realm, live in the spirit of God where the Holy Spirit, we're living off the overflow.

What we do in the secret place, God rewards us in public. The real reward, the only reward is Jesus himself. It's all about what am I doing when no one's watching, when the door is shut and it's just me and the Lord Jesus Christ?

Am I sacrificing, am I praying, am I telling the Lord how much I love him, am I asking him to fill me? So that I'm living off the overflow and I'm by God's grace beginning to embody Christ to every person I come across. Because I'm no longer living for myself. I'm living for Christ. On the day of judgment, the Lord's going to ask us, "Did you live this life for yourself and ask me for help, or did you live your life for the Lord Jesus Christ?"

Father Tom DiLorenzo: Anthony said something that stuck in my heart: by God's grace we do these things. We don't do them on our own power. By God's grace, we are on this radio program speaking. By God's grace, maybe one person will snap on the radio today and hear something that changes their lives.

By God's grace. We count on the grace of God. I count on the grace of God because I'm preaching all the time, not only here. Last night I was preaching. I'm preaching all the time. What about me being blessed? By God's grace, he could bless me too.

It's so important. I don't just want to be a preacher. I want to be a liver. That's what I want to be. I want to live what I proclaim. I don't just want the microphone to hear me and you hear me through your radio. No, I want to be what I'm proclaiming: the faithfulness of Jesus Christ who dwells in my heart by the Holy Spirit. I want to be that.

Am I perfect? Oh, no, I'm not perfect. Not even near. But you know what? One thing I do, St. Paul said: "I forget what lies behind and I press on to what lies ahead, life on high in Christ Jesus." Maybe you need to hear that word today.

I forget what lies behind, that sin. I forget what lies behind, that abortion. I forget what lies behind, that hate. And I press on to the ultimate call in Christ Jesus. Press on to him in the power of the Holy Spirit.

I forget what lies behind because you know what? Let me tell you a secret: we've all got a past. Nobody who is listening to me doesn't have a past. I have a past. And you know what? The devil wants to turn my past up and let me put my face in it.

But you know what I say to him? By God's grace, I am free from sin. I went to confession. I was washed with the blood of Jesus. I'm not going to listen to you condemn me because the Bible says there is now, not tomorrow, now, no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

Anthony: And I'm going to tell him: the word of God says all things work together for the good. So whatever the Lord took you out of, whatever sin, whatever trauma, you now have authority over that in the spirit.

And God is going to use you to take other people out of it by his power, if you're willing to be vulnerable, if you're willing not to live for yourself but for Christ, if you're willing to step out in faith, if you are willing to let your weakness be filled with God's power.

Wake up today and say, "Lord, I want you Jesus. Not even I want to be used by you. I want you. I never really, honestly, I never asked Jesus to use me once. But I said, 'Jesus, I only want you. I only want you.'"

And whatever I need to do—fast, pray, give—I'm going to dispose myself to receive the fullness of it. But there's a point in the spirit where you allow the Lord to fill you so much you can't help but begin pouring out on everyone else.

Father Tom DiLorenzo: What are you holding on to today? What are you holding on to? It's your God. That's your God. What you're holding on to.

Be like the people at the circus on the trapeze. Let one trapeze catch you to go to another. That you're in the middle of the air, but that trapeze is coming. Be like the trapeze artist that lives by faith that God could do something in the midst of my predicament.

Be that way. I don't know what it's going to be. And you want to know something? Sometimes I tell God in the midst of my predicament, "This is how you're going to work." Never happens. God's got better ideas and he's much more creative than I am.

I don't tell him, "This is what's going to happen." I tell him, "Here I am, Lord. I come to do your will. Do what you want to do." By grace, I surrender. And God help me to do it again tomorrow because without the surrender, I'm nothing, I have nothing, and I cannot preach anything.

Anthony: And it's not even the bigness of the act. God doesn't weigh what the act or what we do, he weighs the love that we do it with. So the littlest sacrifice, the littlest prayer, the littlest salutation to the Lord Jesus in love can change all heaven, can change yourself.

Today the Lord wants to give you as much as you are ready to receive. Sometimes the Lord asks us to give something up so that he can see if we're ready to receive more, to forgive someone to see if we can embody Christ.

So that we can be an embodiment of Christ upon this earth. That is what you, me, Father Tom is called to be, an embodiment of Christ on this earth. The first Christians were called Christians because they were like, "We don't know who these followers are. These people, they're out there giving, they're praying, they're healing, they're doing the works of God. And they do it because they say they follow Jesus Christ."

And that was it. So it's like we don't want to just claim being Christians, we want to embody Christ. So that when someone meets you, you're the embodiment of the living God upon this earth. And you draw them in by the spirit of God. Not by might, not by power, but by my spirit.

God taught me so long ago it's not about saying the perfect words. It's not. It's about exuding the perfect love of Christ. Because that is what everyone wants. They want to be loved as only Jesus Christ could love them. But we have the honor to let that love flow through us, to let that Holy Spirit flow through us.

And you know what the Holy Spirit does? He gives you the words. When you're surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ, he begins to speak through you. And he gives you the words, he gives you the love, he gives you the grace, he gives you the power.

When you allow the Lord to transform you into an empty and a pure vessel. Because the anointing flows through purity. And the more you confess your sins, the more you sacrifice for the Lord, the more you do things you don't want to do for the Lord Jesus Christ, the more purity and singleness of heart the Lord brings upon your life so that you can be used for his glory.

Father Tom DiLorenzo: You can be used by the glory of God. Not only me, not only Anthony, but you. But you say, "I'm so weak."

Listen, I can write the book on weakness. And I don't have to think about other people. But my weakness is not going to deter me from preaching the word of God.

Anthony: And it's really not as much weakness that stops us. We can be weak, but Father Tom has made the decision to live his life not for himself but for the Lord Jesus Christ in every area of his life.

And once that decision is made in my life, in your life, all we need to do is ask the Lord to help us gain fortitude. And as we sow seeds into the kingdom, we begin to reap the harvest.

So today I'm asking you: have you made the decision, the firm decision, that it's no longer I who live, but Christ Jesus who lives through me? From that moment you make that decision, the Lord will begin to purify you and prune you and begin to conform you into his image. But whatever you hold back, it just stays in ourselves.

Father Tom DiLorenzo: "I no longer live, but Christ Jesus who lives in me." That means when I say I no longer live, I see a casket and guess who's in it? Me. I'm in the casket. I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

And the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and cares for me. We do it imperfectly. No one does it perfectly, only the Blessed Virgin Mary. Not me, not Anthony.

But we're in the rink. We're in the rink. We're boxing with the devil every day and he's a defeated enemy. He's been defeated on the cross of Jesus. When Jesus was most weak, the old devil was destroyed through the power of that Holy Cross. Oh, we adore you Christ and we praise you because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

Anthony: We need to keep on preaching the power of the cross. We need to keep on preaching that our Lord Jesus went to the cross for you who are listening today. And if you were the only one, he would have done it for you.

Father Tom DiLorenzo: We need to keep on preaching that there is forgiveness of every sin. No matter have you had seven abortions. No, there is forgiveness for those seven abortions.

If you came to me, you know what I'd do with you? I'd welcome you, but I'd give a penance. You know what my penance would be? When you can do this without hurting yourself, I want you to name the children and give them to Jesus. That's all I want you to do. Name the children that were aborted.

But I don't know if it's a boy or a girl. Then it's Francis. Francis could be either a boy or a girl.

Anthony: Because those children, they're in heaven waiting for you. That's right. Those children, they're in heaven praying for you. They've already forgiven you. It's they're waiting and you'll be together again.

But you've got to forgive yourself and you have to allow the Lord Jesus in there to begin to heal you. And then guess what? The Lord is going to use you to speak to other women who are in the same situation that you were in.

Father Tom DiLorenzo: He's going to use you. Do you want to be used? I tell you, sometimes it's inconvenient, but I still want to be used. I don't want to be a person that wears black clothes and a white collar that's just called Father but doesn't live up to the experience of being a Catholic Christian.

I don't want to be that person that wears the right clothes but doesn't live the right message. I tell you, I do it imperfectly. I go to confession often. But you know what? Every time I've gone to confession, never once did the Lord Jesus say to me, "I told you so."

Oh, never once did he say, "I told you so." No. You know what he says? "I receive you. Your sins are forgiven." Do you go to confession and hear the words of absolution? "Your sins are forgiven."

Anthony: Because the Lord, he wants to take away everything that can't come to heaven with us. John 15: "I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you."

As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. We are judged by the fruit we bear. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. The moment we learn how to abide in the Lord Jesus Christ, we will begin to bear fruit that will last for eternal life.

Father Tom DiLorenzo: When I was in Winthrop, we had an apple tree. And the apples were all eaten by bugs. It was a bad fruit. What it needed, it needed to be sprayed. It needed to be taken care of. Not one apple was good enough to eat.

We never had it sprayed. So we got beautiful apple blossoms, but each apple was destroyed by some animal or some growth that grew on it. Not one was ready to be eaten. A good tree bears good fruit. Are you a good tree today?

Anthony: Because he who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. For without me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered. And they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned.

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you can ask whatever you will and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit. So you will prove to be my disciples. God bless you.