Would you please W um join me in welcoming Braden Johnson AR for [Applause] speaker I’m very grateful to get to be here with you all today it’s inspired to be with a group of men where each of you are here intentionally wanting to grow in your faith to grow in your
Relationship with God but part of what makes this group so special is that each of you are here for a reason that goes beyond yourself and you guys truly are the spiritual leaders in your parishes your families your dases your workplaces and so it’s so cool that
Today we get to be together to grow as brothers in Christ grow in our faith and be sent out for Mission this message I have for you today is focused on understanding the hearts of young people and it’s sad to see the struggles the wounds that so many young people have in our
Culture but what’s beautiful is that God’s still doing such amazing things and there’s a way that God can work through us to be inspiring them towards towards virtue and so the Insight that I share it’s not coming from that I think I’m an expert on parenting I’m not a
Parent but it’s been a blessing getting to serve in college Ministry for over two years but now through full-time speaking where I speak to young people all throughout the country and it’s a lot of fun but it’s also really sad you know lot of these talks I give all have
Kids KS come up after and they’re literally in tears and I hear the struggles the wounds the confusion so I’ve spent a lot of my life trying to really figure out how it is that I can be speaking into those places of their heart to be drawing them
Towards the life that God wants for them and you’ll hear through the talk I have a lot of inspiration as well from people like St John Paul II Catholic evangelists like um Jason ever Christopher West um there’s also a Christian counselor and author named John Eldridge that’s been a big
Influence on me so kind of just format for the talk real quick I’ll start and I really want to help us to to connect with this call to Mission that we have I’ll share a story that kind of help us to helps us to understand the Brokenness and the suffering within our
Culture but then sharing principles for mission that have been really foundational to my Ministry efforts then all speaking to specific topics like um like chassity social medias as well as why sadly a lot of young people have been leaving the church so let’s start with a prayer in the name of the father
Son holy spirit amen amen Heavenly Father our perfect dad in heaven such a blessing to be with this group of men today that you have called and chosen after your own heart there’s so many needs out there within the culture within the world and what the world needs is men men
Authentically living their faith receiving life from you but then giving life to a world that’s in much need of it Jesus in a special way we lift up these intentions that we have for these young people that we know and we serve maybe family members of ours that may be
Struggling our faith help us to really entrust entrust these young people to you knowing that you are their Savior and you love them so much Holy Spirit please continue to work in an amazing profound way today please lift our hearts to Jesus and to the father Pope John Paul II pray for us
Name of the father son Holy Spirit am amen a few years ago I learned that the largest sea evacuation history H happened after the 911 attacks in Manhattan so there was about 500,000 people saved in less than 9 hours and I want to share this story with you
Largely focusing on how all these people were saved so that that morning September 11th 2001 there’s this sailor on this on the Sea by Manhattan he’s about to dock his boat he describes it being this this beautiful perfect Manhattan day blue skies and if he’s looking up then he sees over his
Shoulder this plane that that’s flying in this really odd Direction and this plane’s coming closer and closer into the city until he finally sees it as it hits the World Trade Center when the plane hits it just just kind of stuck there in the building so this sailor as well as
Everyone in the town they’re confused they’re not sure what’s happening but then it starts like raining papers almost and these invoices checks these things that had been on people’s desk they were now flying all throughout the city so then about 5 10 minutes later people are confused still but then they
See a second plane and this plane takes this this odd turn and when it hits the World Trade Center it looks like a bomb goes off it looks like a bomb goes off it’s know everyone in the city is in full Panic now they know this first attack
Wasn’t an accident they don’t know if more attacks are coming to make everything worse it was less than an hour later that the World Trade Center Falls I wasn’t old enough to remember the day of the happening but every year you see those really sad videos of the Tower
Falling and it’s interesting because it looks like the tower is falling slowly but the tower is just so big that as it falls there’s this dark gray cloud of debris that goes all throughout the city and at this point people can’t breathe people have died many people are dying they’re suffering they’re scared
And they’re not really sure where life can be found the United States Coast Guard they were going to be the people in charge that day of getting all these people to safety because all the roads in and out of the city were closed and like this wasn’t just a few hundred people they
Were needing to save this wasn’t just a few thousand this was about 500,000 people that were going to be need that were going to be needed to to be rescued from this island so the United States Coast Guard that they do it on their own and finally
For the first time in history they go on What’s called the VHS if you don’t know what the VHS is it’s essentially the communication system that happens between all the different boats Sailors on the sea and they make this announcement they say all available boats this is the United States Coast
Guard anyone who wants to help with the evacuations of lower Manhattan report to Governor’s Island they make this announcement and like what they were needing was not just people with trained military P like trained military experience they weren’t just needing people with military type boats they were needing anybody that had
An ability to be able to reach these people where they were at and their suffering and their struggle and to be able to bring them to where life could be found and yet you wouldn’t really know what the response would be right everyone knows Manhattan is a dangerous
Place to be now but it’s inspiring to see in this picture there’s all these different boats these different Sailors all different people different backgrounds all rushing to this island to help these people you can see there’s these big sightseeing boats these little fishing boats but so many people going outside
Of their own comfort zone really going outside of themselves to be reaching these people where they were at I mean we look at the culture that we’re living in today you know I see a similar way this struggle that so many young people have as they’re questioning if really life’s
Even going to be possible if there’s something more to be hoping for and what our world desperately needs is men like you all I mean you guys are stepping up to the plate but it’s men that are receiving life from God but then giving life to a world in
Much need of it on that day of 911 there’s a man named Vincent ardolino Vincent it’s actually a picture of him he wasn’t on Manhattan’s Island when these attacks happened he wasn’t on the island he was safe he didn’t live far from there though and that morning he
Was watching the news with his wife and he’s saying all this the suffering take place and the sadness and the Vincent’s watching this and eventually he just can’t take it anymore eventually he looks at his wife and he says I’ve I’ve got to do something his wife looks back at him and
She says what are you get to to you maniac he said I’m going to take the amberjack which is the name of his boat he says I’m going to take the amberjack up into the City and help and his wife she she says to him concerned well what if they attack
Again Vincent responds and says well then that’s something I’ll have to live with I have to do what I have to do nobody can stop me right now even if I save one person or rescue one person that’s one person less that will suffer or die it’s beautiful the way that Vincent
Really reveals like the authentic masculine heart as he’s reaching these people he’s wanting to bring them to where real life can be found and it’s S as we see all these young people in the culture and you some they’re looking for life but just looking in the wrong areas not
Really knowing that there’s more possible you as I mentioned I I worked in college Ministry for about two and a half years in my last year working at St Paul which is the Newman sen witch State I worked for a priest named father Drew Hoffman father Drew Hoffman’s been in
College Ministry for years because he was at St isidor’s in Manhattan before with Father Gail and father Drew he describes the college campus as the wild west he says there’s good things that happen but there’s also a lot of crazy a lot of sadness F Drew says that well typical
Camp campus culture may not always be very open to God he says that on Ash Wednesday there’s a lot of this this unique Grace that DWS a lot of young people back into the church father Drew describes one year’s Ash Wednesday when he’s at K State and
He says that between him and father Gale they said seven different masses that day but they also heard 252 confessions father Drew said was crazy like there’s the these long lines of students and line for confessions all different students from campus from different fraternities and and clubs and
Sports and he doesn’t say what any individual said in the confessional so he doesn’t break the seal but he says that there was this common theme through the day he says these young people they go up to him and they say father you’ll never guess then they’ll go through this list
Of things they’ve been doing and say I’ve I’ve been going to these not good parties I’ve been drinking too much I’ve been smoking I’ve been in this not good romantic relationship they’d go through this list of things they’d been doing and at the end of it they’d look
At father Drew and they’d say but it’s not working like I’m not happy they would say for all these other people it it seems to be working for them but I guess for me it’s it’s just not it and what’s so revealed within the story is each of us each of these young
People they’re made for so much more and when they’re really honest with themselves their hearts are truly Restless until they rest in God you think that that philosophy that Insight of St Augustine they’re made for more but sometimes just just putting that their hopes into things that just lead to
Disappointment for a period of time I lived in in Stubenville Ohio and in Stubenville I got to help lead this Bible study at a public high school and it was through f so the way it worked is that no students actually had to go to the Bible study just whoever wanted to
Go could go and kind of this random kind of group of students that show up sometimes well one day that this girl came to the Bible study that I hadn’t met before but she comes and she she’s very kind she introduces herself to me and she’s like oh just so you know I’m
Pagan I was like what do you mean by Pagan and she’s like well I don’t believe well she’s like I believe that there’s multiple gods out there that have multiple genders and look so crazy that Jesus draws her into this Bible study but it’s she said something within
That Bible study that reveals how so many young people really feel I asked the group of them what do you feel like our culture says about hope there wasn’t really an answer at first and then the girl she she shares and she says I feel like our culture just
Doesn’t want us to Hope because if we hope it’ll just lead to disappointment and so people that they they put these their hopes their dreams into these things that lead to disappointment but truly the problem isn’t that they’re wanting too much it’s so often that they’re just they’re just
Settling not really knowing that more is possible they’re trying to convince themselves that this is it but they’re made for what this world can give them C Lewis talks about this in his book the weight of glory and I love this quote of his he says if we consider the unblemish
Promises of reward promised in the Gospels it would seem as though our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak we are half-hearted creatures fing about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite Joy is offered us like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a
Slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at Sea we are far too easily pleased it’s sad to see in the struggle a lot of young people have because there’s this fulfillment that they want this life that Christ is offering but they don’t really think
That life can really be found in God but Jesus he speaks about this in in John’s gospel he says I came so they may have life and have it more abundantly and this fulfillment that Christ is offering this doesn’t mean that everything gets easy in our lives when we become a
Disciple but it’s even in the midst of of suffering of a broken world we can still have this Joy it’s really found in our faith one of the Gospel passages that’s been a really big influence on my mission efforts is the story of the woman at the well and if you’re not very
Familiar with the story there’s a woman that she’s been through a lot of different relationships through a lot of husbands now with a guy that’s not her husband but she seems to just have this this guilt the shame she doesn’t want to be around the other people from the town
So she goes out to The Well in the middle of the day when it’s hot and it’s uncomfortable cuz that’s when people want to be there well Jesus very intentionally meets this woman there at the well and he’s talking with her and eventually he’s saying he wants to give her the living
Water and she can’t imagine what he’s talking about she’s like you don’t have a bucket and the well is deep where then can you get this living water and it’s beautiful through that passage because all of a sudden it’s understood like what she all she could
Imagine is these Wells that she would go to where she’d go to draw water but then she was really satisfied eventually Jesus reveals who he is that he’s the Messiah she’s the one he’s the one that she’s been searching for you see this amazing beautiful conversion this woman has and even
Through her Jesus really works to draw so many people towards himself but really focusing on that part that she didn’t know that something more was possible so kind of with this understanding to Mission that a big part of what we’re wanting to do is we reaching these young people where
They’re at but we’re helping the discovered that really more is possible that there really is this fulfillment this this call to life in the faith so with the understanding moving into the realm of Chastity what draws so many young people towards lust towards not good relationships is that they really don’t
Know that Love’s possible they’re looking to be loved to be valued to be cared about but so often just missing the mark in settling when I worked at St Paul at WSU a lot of times I would go on campus and I would ask God I was like God if
There’s someone you want me to talk pray with just just help me to be open and there was one day particular I was working on a talk I was going to be giving to high schoolers about love romance and chasti so I’m walking on campus that day I’m kind of wrestling
With that talk and as I’m walking on campus there was this girl that I thought God wanted me to talk with I didn’t know why I didn’t even really know what I was supposed to say at first but I started talking with this girl on campus and about 2 3 minutes into the
Conversation I asked her this question that had to do with a talk I was working on I asked her I was like what do you think high schoolers need to know about dating we talked about it for maybe 20 minutes or so then about 20 minutes into that conversation there’s this point
Where she she’s she’s sitting across from me she’s her hand covering her face and she looks up and she looks like she’s about to start crying you could hear it in her voice too she says honestly I’m asking you I’ve been dating a guy for about a
Year he’s cheated on me three times twice with friends of mine she said this he tells me this is how all guys are he says that there’s not really a guy that would treat me better which she had such a hard time believing was that there was really something more possible for her
Life and it was crazy how God worked in the conversation CU similar to how a lot of my youth talks go I’m really asking questions and telling stories help them to discover what is that they’re made for and what God wants for them and at one point she says that
She’s Catholic so at the end of the conversation I uh I was like we’re about 45 minutes in I asked her can we say a prayer together before we we part ways and at the end of the prayer her eyes were super big and she was frozen and
She looks at me she’s like thank you thank you for that I’ve had a really hard Mom thank you for that but a lot of which so needed is to validate those deep longings within them because these young people they’re made to be loved to be valued and so they’re
Going to the world they’re going to these relationships looking for this fulfillment yet there’s this infinite all powerful God that Waits right there at the door of their hearts wanting so much more for them than they may even know is possible and this really isn’t an isolated story at all and I’m telling
You like all the time and everywhere that I speak these young people will come up after and a lot of them struggle with these very similar relationships where you it’s obvious that it’s lust happening and when they’re honest with themselves they know they want more they’re just not confident with it
They’re just not really confident that more could be there it’s not just a girl problem either I I’d say the kind of Testament to that is how often guys kind of try to prove themselves in a way like you kind of hear like um you know by the
The amount of girls that they’ve been with or something they think this is some validation of what their worth is but truthly they’re never going to find this worth that they’re looking for in these relationships and so so much of what we’re wanting to do is help them to
Discover that this life that they’re made for in this relationship they find this from God so all of a sudden when they go into relationships they’re able to be a gift to the other person so how is it that we can really be drawing and inspiring these young people towards
Chastity I say the first part to that is really we’re teaching and forming these young people we need them to understand that Chastity is a virtue and a gift Chastity gets sadly so misunderstood that’s why Pope John Paul II said that the word chastity needs to be
Rehabilitated and I I see this struggle happen like I remember in high school me and my friend Jeremy we we at chipot it with these two girls and one of them asked this very odd question she was like how many people have you been with
Or how many girls have you been with my response was well I’m into that whole Chastity thing the girl that asked the question she was confused she looks at her friend she’s like what does he mean and her friend’s like it means he’s a virgin and the girl asked the question
She’s like like a virgin for life but even even all young people that may have a maybe more direct sense of what chassis is in some ways so often what they think is that Chastity is preventing them from loving it’s restricting them well what Chastity
Allows us to do is to truly love a friend of mine that’s from Florida he had this big conversion when he was in college and before he had this conversion and really as the conversion was happening there was a girl he was dating so as he’s opening up his life to
God he discovers that for him to really love God and for him to really love this girl that he was dating you were going to have to live with Chastity in this relationship so my friend he he sits down with the girl he was dating at the
Time and he shares with her this desire that he has for them to be chased in the relationship and she as he’s sharing this the girl she starts to get really upset and frustrated she says to him I don’t know how to love you if I can’t love you with my
Body and it’s sad because all these young people they’ve they’ve grown up around so much lust that they don’t even really know what true love is and as we’re wanting to inspire young people towards Chastity a lot of what I think the real Focus needs to be is the
Goodness and the Fulfillment that’s found in it and it’s s a lot of the consequences that can obviously happen from un chased relationships or just different things with that but it’s like when they understand that goodness and Beauty that’s possible it gives them something to Aspire to and to desire and
To long for the second part to how can we really be pointing and directing young people towards Chastity is they need to be know they need to know really the healing that’s possible in God a few years ago as I Was preparing for another talk on love romance and Chas asked a
Friend of mine asked her what does she think that high schoolers need to know about chasty and relationships she thought about it for a second and she recalled a memory in her life where during her sophomore year of high school there was this the speaker that came to
The school and the speaker was saying these really good things and saying like you you should wait until your wedding day to have your first kiss and she’s like that that all sounded great but I wasn’t even a virgin and it just made her feel like that it was too
Late you know crazy how God’s been working in this girl’s life now what’s needed is for them to know that whatever mistakes have been there what other wounds there are maybe whatever’s been done to them that doesn’t Define them a few years ago another friend of mine I
Knew her as we like acquaintances in high school then you know how Facebook like tells you when people’s birthdays are well sometimes I text people when it’s their birthday and I uh I text this friend of mine happy birthday and she’s like oh I’m not working as much anymore
We should hang out sometime so I asked her if she wanted to go with one would to go pray with me at the chapel so there’s this one day we go to pray at the chapel and all lot of times when I pray with people I really kind of ask
The holy spirit to guide the time but it’s leading into this time of Silent prayer where it’s really just allowing our hearts to be open to Jesus trusting that whatever is there we can truly bring it before Jesus who is the Divine physician so we praying in silence for a few
Minutes then I look over at her and there’s these These Tears that are going down her face and then there was a scripture passage that I had read through out loud and after the scripture passage she’s now just full out crying I didn’t want her to feel
Obligated to share anything but I asked her I was like is is there something you want talk pray about and she shared that during her freshman year of college um she was raped in really sad situation in what happened and there was these wounds from what had happened but then I would
Almost call him like secondary wounds in a way but there was the these deep lies that she believed about herself it was so sad she uh you a big part of what that was is she felt like that now she didn’t have as much to offer her future husband it’s like her
Worth was taken away and there’s all these lies that were there and again crazy the healing that’s possible in Christ you I told her I was like if if You’ want I I have friends that lead like these like Unbound prayer sessions or if you want just based on what you
Shared we can go through the five Keys together and really what the five keys are it’s just this process of surrendering everything to Jesus and in the name of Jesus renouncing these lies that can be there and so you we go through these five keys I remember is
Crazy at the end she’s literally looking at her hand and it’s almost like she’s seeing her hand for the first time and she says like I feel like like lighter but again there’s so much healing that’s truly possible in Christ and these young people need to know it
Cu no matter how far past you know as far maybe away they’ve gone from what God’s calling them to in that realm God’s all always calling them back towards himself towards himself and kind of third part to this Chasity part is especially where a lot of you are
Parents I think what’s so important is for young people to be grow up having these conversations with their parents about Chastity you a lot of us maybe have not didn’t grow up with parents that maybe talk to us about this stuff I know my dad I don’t think he really had
Conversations about that from his parents so my mom was the one that gave me and all my brothers to talk and my mom’s awesome in a lot of ways there’s still just a lot of questions that we had a lot of unknowingness and I think parents can be really well-intentioned
At times in wanting to preserve kids innocence like we don’t want them to know about the evils that are within the world and while that’s true we also don’t want to leave young people unequipped and unprepared for the way that these evils of the world may be attacking them these conversations like
You know we can say a lot without saying much at all even like you know first second graders you could say to you know you know your your son or your daughter you know if if you ever see like people without clothes on on on the iPad on the
TV just just come tell me right away I won’t be mad at you but just come tell me right away but as these conversations become more mature you it’s like especially like high school it’s really important to be revealing that that goodness and that beauty that’s found within within Chastity and just an
Example with that like with pornography you know is teaching informing it’s like why it is that we’re called to be avoiding pornography we’re not saying that the body is bad but what pornography does is it reduces a person to sex sexual object it doesn’t reveal too much of person it reveals too little
There’s so much more to that person to love and to value and it’s once they can kind of see through this lens it gives them a lot of clarity it gives them that that sense of this is what it is that I really want and kind of moving now into
That part of uh why are young people leaving the church it’s interesting and sad to see kind it’s kind of a broad question in one way because you know there’s a lot of different directions young people are going as they sadly may be leaving being the Catholic Church some are going to
Different Protestant churches and some are going to um yeah other faiths like even like anti-christian Faith some of you like atheist agnostic and while there’s a broadness to the different directions they may be going I said the underlying theme I see my experience of serving is still what
They’re really looking for is life they’re looking for where it is that they can be seen and known and loved and sadly there just isn’t that connection at times that that’s so needed um they haven’t really discovered the beauty that’s within the church but it’s kind of within the experiences and
Stories within people that you can hear kind of what this dilemma is and where they’re going like I uh I remember this past fall there was well there was a bunch of high schools I got to speak at in Louisiana but one of the high schools
Asked if I would come back to speak for their senior class retreat they told me going into the retreat that a lot of the seniors they’ve already just formally rejected Christianity altogether many of them are identifying as being like atheist agnostic and really sad to hear about
All of that but honestly I relate to the struggle a lot of them go through so super cool opportunity to serve but during that Retreat there was this this girl in this guy I was talking with and the girl if she was really honest in where What’s led to her having such
Confusion now she said at one time in her life it was a lot easier for her to be Catholic she said all of her friends were catholic in middle school she went this Catholic school and the teacher he was so nice he was amazing at telling
Stories and she said when she got into High School it got really confusing because you know these people that you know would say that they’re Christian or say they’re Catholic lot of times they weren’t even very nice she said and she’s going on she’s like some she’ll go to these Protestant churches
With her friends and you know she says she likes the music there these people seem to really care about her then she said she has a Buddhist friend and she says he’s so nice and she goes to this Buddhist temple with him you know how does she know that that’s
Really the true place to go and so sad within these stories and especially where we see these lies within the culture that are there that you know people have are deeply formed in these lies saying that there isn’t a God is that there isn’t more to possible
Even a few weeks ago I one of the high schools I went to was a Catholic school and a friend of mine that very intelligent he graduated from there I think at one time in high school he was like 36 in the country for debate but
It’s sad because he became so formed in these lies saying that there was no God you know he knew so much about the faith but it’s like he didn’t really know what the faith was and so kind of with these two different parts of sadly why a lot
Of young people have been leaving the church it can kind of be these experiences that have led them to question it but also these deep lies within the culture so what is it that we can be doing to be drawing these young people in really to the church and
Helping them discover the life that Christ wants for him and the church that he founded was first part one thing I think that’s been very helpful for a lot of young people that I’ve seen I’ve gotten to know is when they have these experiences where they authentically
Experience the faith and they don’t feel like they’re alone in it you know things like Stubenville conferences or super cool Benedict and college has a ton of amazing things happening there with their youth Outreach office um but really helping young people to go into those spaces where they see the
Aliveness that’s within the church and where they can have these messages given to them that are really creating that connection between the Fulfillment that they long for and life that Christ is calling them to the second part to that is I think where a lot of you may be um
A lot of you may be like PSR teachers or catechists at your parishes even just as parents a lot of what’s very needed right now within the culture is to continue what’s happening with like sacramental preparation where they understand the specifics to confirmation and then the beauty and teaching of like
The source and Su of summit of our faith in the Eucharist but it’s also very needed is to start at those foundational philosophies of like like does God exist you know I think it’s really cool within the church because you know people like St Thomas aquinus they have beautiful
Insights on this like does God exist and even us also kind of giving Clarity to what is it that makes Christianity different you know there’s all this Insight that’s there but forming them and that will really prepare them for when the culture throws these lies at
Them and it may may lead them to question their faith the kind of last part and what can really help them and draw them into um the liveness that’s within the church is if you can help them to find Community around them that they can be with daily and weekly with
Friends that are also pursuing virtue it’s beautiful to see where just a lot of you with the amazing families that you have but even have like family friends where you you guys are all walking with the kids together and even just one friend can make a big difference for a young person it’s
Wanting to grow in their faith so this kind of last specific subject for this talk is with social media and I was thinking about this it’s like two or three months ago I was at IHOP with my youngest brother and a few of his friends my youngest brother is a
Junior in high school and they all pulled out their phones and they’re looking at their screen time one of the guys that my brother’s friends with he literally had I think 4 hours a day just on Tik Tok as an average and I’m not even sure that was counting the other
Social media apps he was on and like everywhere I’m speaking like these young people they’re just immersed into this world you know immersed into these social media apps and YouTube and while a lot of adults a lot of us you may be using Facebook and YouTube a lot of it
Can seem like completely different worlds that we’re living in like just random question but how many of you know who Mr Beast is you raise your hand to some of you uh you know what’s interesting is Mr Beast like if you were to ask who is the biggest influential
Person to middle schoolers and high schoolers around the world it’s probably Mr Beast this dude is arguably accomplished more than what any individual has in history in media he has I think it’s like 236 million subscribers on his main YouTube channel like it used to be a big deal if a
Person would have 1 million subscribers or or especially like 10 million subscribers but I looked at this thing the other day I think it’s 10% of the world’s population has now seen his videos and you might think well what’s the harm in that well the sad thing is
Is a lot of these people like Mr Beast they’re just buying into these lies that the world’s telling them one of the the key people in his videos from the beginning is a friend of his named Chris Chris got married he has a kid and really sad now because Chris is now in
The process of quote unquote transitioning where he’s now left his wife and you know these young people what they’re thinking what they’re being told is if you really care about Chris if you really care about people that you need to be supporting this like I was
Helping at that youth center in Ohio I was volunteering there and I remember hearing that this fifth grade girl and she’s she’s processing out loud she’s like how could people not be supporting Chris in this don’t they really care about them again there’s these deep rooted lies and what it means to care
About them or what the best for them you think in the whole realm of social media you these apps a lot of what they’re doing is you know they’re playing on these these insecurities that these kids have they’re claiming that they’ll feel better by getting these different likes
And things but sadly just leads to more insecurity more anxiety and while the discernment may be may look different for you know how social media’ be used in each family or each kid’s life and a few things I would say that um you know kind of just with
The perspective that I would have is especially the app Snapchat I’m not a fan of that at all you just in the way that the app’s designed it really draws these young people into temptation a lot of times they send things or receive things that are just really really not
Good and even if a young person doesn’t get drawn into that Temptation aspect of the app even if you just go on to I think it’s called like the explore page of it like just what every person has on the app there’s these horribly pornographic images and like news things
That come up so you know if you’re a kid wouldn’t be using SnapChat I mean at the very least I think it’s really important to equip them to know that that’s not the app’s not drawing us closer to Holiness and even with other apps you
Know I I think one thing that’s been sad to see is you know ideally I wish that YouTube in these places where where kids that places that kids could just go and be fine you they’d be just good healthy content but a lot of like elementary school kids you they’re seeing these
Videos on there they’re hearing music on there and it’s planting these really sad um these really sad seeds in their life and so what I just encourag is just in a discernment there for what is this supposed to look like in terms of moderating what our kids are watching
Seeing what they’re doing and the um kind of very last part just as we’re recapping this talk is again what our mission is is we’re reaching young people as we’re reaching them in their suffering but then helping them to discover the real life that’s found in the faith and so
Many of them they don’t know that More’s possible they really think that the most that they could have in their life is you know to to be on some social media app or they think that like you know some unhealthy relationship but they’re called and made for so much more and the
Kind of last very last thing that um was really on my heart to share with you all is it’s incredible the way that you know God The Father’s Love is reflected through you know our Earthly fathers and even we each of us even if not in a
Biological way each of us are called to be fathers in this world you think when we’re wanting to cultivate and draw these young people to sainthood or wanting them to to receive in this unconditional love to know what that looks like I really hearing this this beautiful story of uh is well this
Religious sister that tells the story but she was outside of in McDonald’s with Mother Teresa it’s kind of funny to First think about like Mother Teresa eating a Big Mac but this religious sister she’s outside of this McDonald’s with Mother Teresa and uh she looks at
Mother and mother appeared to be in deep thought and she’s not sure what what Mother’s thinking about pondering so she looks to see what Mother’s staring at and what she can see is this Dad and his little daughter walking out of McDonald’s together and the little girl she’s wearing this big beautiful dress
But she was also holding this this big ice cream cone and the dad he can tell that the little girl’s about to spill this ice cream all over herself so he’s trying to help her but she didn’t want help she said she can do it on her own and
Eventually the girl does spill the ice cream all over herself and the dad responds and he doesn’t start yelling at her he doesn’t say just clean it up yourself but he so lovingly and gently and patiently just helps the little girl clean up the mess and little girls even crying during
That but there’s such a gentleness and patience with her the religious sister shares this story she says she looks back to Mother Teresa and she hear mother say to herself that’s how God is with mother so it’s inspiring to be with you all today where like you guys are the men that
This culture needs I mean even just in meeting a lot of you today and I’m seeing like you guys are made in the image of God but like truly Chosen and called after God’s Own Heart so I’m excited to see how God continues to work
In your lives and in the lives of your family and so please if even if you have any prayer intentions anything please come tell me today I’m will be intentionally offering up all the different intentions and adoration in the upcoming weeks um I know we have a
Few minutes I think for Q a so I don’t know what that looks like though so I’ll awkwardly look to the side and see if they tell me what to do okay there’s some microphones coming around so raise your hand if you would have a question I think we have like
Seven minutes I see a hand raised in the back I think no thank you for those great words uh my name’s Pete I have a question uh cuz I couldn’t hear very well you talked about a survey where they um the kid the young people today talked about Hope and they didn’t
Um I’m not sure if I heard it right but it’s almost like they don’t want to hear about Hope because it be you know can you just kind of repeat the take home on that because that’s I think a really critical opening to talking to kids anybody the story that I I’d reference
There and the experience I’ve seen with a lot of young people is well I I was at that Bible study and the girl had said I feel like our culture just doesn’t want us to Hope because if we hope it’ll just lead to disappointment and it’s the experience that’s there is that they’ve
Put their hopes into things that just lead to disappointment over and over whether it’s yeah social media relationships and then there’s this Dee rooted lie that’s there it just says to stop hoping because nothing more is possible um and the takea away from that is what we’re calling them to do is to
Hope again but really put their hope in their fulfillment in Christ so thank you for the question speaking of Hope also says over the Gates of Hell abandon hope all you enter here but my question was uh you were talking about social media sites and if I heard you correctly did you say
That the gentleman’s name was Mr Beast yeah well the name says it all doesn’t it sir it is an odd name I think it was his gamertag his I forget his real name I should know off the top of my head but that’s just the name that most people
Know him as is Mr be I think that’s very symbolic and speaks volumes to me what what more needs to be Said hi there um I was just wondering um you briefly mentioned uh Unbound and five Keys there’s probably a lot of people don’t know what that is maybe you could just briefly mention what that is for people yeah thank you um so Unbound it’s a Ministry that focuses on um inner healing and
Non-confrontational Deliverance Ministry so again it’s not Deliverance Ministry where they’re seeking like manifestations anything but it’s just this real focus on Jesus in The Prayer SS as they give everything to Jesus so like starting with this surrendering and giving our lives to God but in the name
Of Jesus renouncing lies that would be there in the name of Jesus forgiving people um is this real process that helps us to understand and claim the freedom that that God would be wanting for us I there might be like an Unbound a group around here I know in witchat
It’s a big thing my home dases thank you yeah one more question yeah yeah that’s an amazing question thank you for sharing those parts of your own story um yeah I think a lot of times where there’s a book with it’s like Dr Gregory popek I think is his name um it
Talks about like what is the the Christian cult how do we approach desire and longings and what’s sad is one of the categories he calls it is the addict where there’s this constant Indulgence in wherever kind of pleasure can be found but if we look at the way that St
Thomas Aquin and different people talk about saying it’s like like aiming for good but then missing the mark and and so a lot of what we’re looking for in in modeling virtue and really inspiring this kind of self-control and discipline is it’s not saying that like all
Pleasure all goodness is bad but it’s looking for what is God’s design and how are we called to live that to find the Fulfillment that we’re really seeking see thank you I think that was the last question so yeah thank you [Applause] guys thank you very
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