Stages: Finding God Where You Are
Stages: Finding God Where You Are – Prepare For Your Exit – Talk 4
4th Stage: Age 60 and Up
Homily by Fr. Bob Mcconaghy
Cost of discipleship is detachment.
Leaving everything behind to follow Jesus.
Our God is a God of surprises.
Have you ever asked the Lord to surprise you?
Speaker: Bro Audee Villaraza
The rest of the year could be the best of the year.
If God did it before, I know he will do it some more.
Gratitude should not be silent.
Life is short
Don’t take life too seriously
Keep laughing some more
Big Message: The best is yet to come.
James 4:14
Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.
What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little
while and then vanishes.
Psalm 90:12
Teach us to number our days,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Teaches you how to detach
Life is a constant movement towards detachment
Detachment brings contentment
Life’s journey is about letting go
Life is temporary
There is nothing permanent in this world
The only permanent is Jesus.
Speaker: Bro Bo Sanchez
You are not just a physical body. You have a soul.
There is no end to spiritual growth.
You can grow more loving, more patient, more humble.
It’s important to start strong, but it’s more
important to finish strong.
2 Timothy 4:7
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I
have kept the faith.
4th stage is about letting go.
For Parents, there are 3 hats to wear:
1st Stage: Controlling hat
– You need to do this to protect your kids.
2nd stage: Coaching hat
– when your kids becomes teenagers
– Either rebel or not mature if you don’t change hats
3rd stage: Consulting hat
– If your sons and daughters are already married
– Do not speak unless you are hired to consult
– Don’t impose
Letting go is difficult
If you have family,
write a living will and last will
How to let go
1. Create a second act
Instead of focusing on your role, focus on your
mission.
2. Focus on your relationship with God
that you are loved, that’s who you are
2 Samuel 7:16-17
Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me;
your throne will be established forever.
Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire
revelation.
Yet even before David’s eyes, the promise is not
fulfilled.
We want our dream to be fulfilled how we want
it to be fulfilled.
God had other plans.
1000 years of David, Jesus was born.
And this Jesus and His Kingdom will last forever.
The promise that God has given to David, was fulfilled
in God’s time, and not on David time.
Some of your dreams will be fulfilled not in your
lifetime, but in heaven.
I am the beloved of God.
Watch The Full Video for this Talk Here:
Stages: Finding God Where You Are – Exact – Talk 3
Homily by Fr. Michael Laguardia
Feast of Corpus Christi
We may be deceived by our senses
When you look to that piece of bread,
after the priest consecrate it,
it becomes the body and blood of Jesus.
It does not look like Jesus,
does not taste like Jesus,
it is Jesus.
Not an ordinary bread, but Jesus Himself.
The Holy Eucharist is not just something,
it is someone.
The heart of the Feast is the Eucharist.
We are responsible for our brothers and sisters.
Speaker: Bro Audee Villaraza
Celebrate your stage
Focus
Eliminate so you can concentrate
Subtracting than adding
Know what you can do and accept what you cannot do
Don’t let others tell you what you can and cannot do
God gives you the power to do all things through Christ
who strengthens you.
Gratitude is the greatest response to God’s goodness.
Problem: Life is not always exact.
Your life could be in different stages in all your areas.
David as a King.
2 Samuel 5:4
David was thirty years old when he became king,
and he reigned forty years.
This is ideally your harvest stage.
But most of the time you judge your story
to somebody else’s glory.
Keep planting whatever season you’re in.
2 Samuel 7:8-9
“Now then, tell my servant David,
‘This is what the Lord Almighty says:
I took you from the pasture,
from tending the flock,
and appointed you ruler over my people Israel.
I have been with you wherever you have gone,
and I have cut off all your enemies from before you.
Now I will make your name great,
like the names of the greatest men on earth.
There comes a point in your life where you need
to recognize who brought you to where you are right now.
Your pride will also developed
We might be discontented about what we have right now.
But God might be telling you
This is exactly what you need in your stage right now.
Speaker: Bro Bo Sanchez
Big Message: God will turn it into good.
Genesis 50:20
You intended to harm me,
but God intended it for good
to accomplish what is now being done,
the saving of many lives.
Because of Joseph’s character.
Whatever your situation is right now, if you follow God,
He will turn it into good.
Our lives depends on our spiritual character.
What’s character? Who you are when no one is watching.
God turns your curse into blessing.
When does blessing become a curse?
Blessings are heavy. If your spiritual character is
not strong enough, you will be crushed by the weight
of your blessing.
Blessings comes with burdens.
Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit
is love, joy, peace, forbearance,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control.
Against such things there is no law.
The Holy Spirit bears the fruit.
If you are spiritually unprepared for the harvest,
it becomes a disaster. Because temptations comes.
Deuteronomy 17:17
He must not take many wives,
or his heart will be led astray.
He must not accumulate
large amounts of silver and gold.
When blessings increase, blindness increase.
2 Samuel 12:1-7
Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said to him: “There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”
So David’s anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die! And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.”
Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.
Temptations because of power
Greed
Pride
Entitlement (I deserve this)
4 ways to fight pride
1. Lead with a limp
All of us have a limp
Don’t hide your vulnerability
2. Protect with partners
You need accountability partners
3. Monitor your marriage
If you are married
4. Connect to who your really are
Connect to your creator
How’s your time with God?
If you have already fallen:
Psalms 51:1-2
Have mercy upon me, O God,
According to Your lovingkindness;
According to the multitude
of Your tender mercies,
Blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.
Whatever failure done in your life,
If you allow God to form your spiritual
character, your curses will turn to blessings
Even if you have detoured, God is still there
and will bring you back to the right place.
Watch The Full Video for this Talk Here:
Stages: Finding God Where You Are – Explore – Talk 1
Homily: Fr Alex Balatbat
Without the Spirit, the disciples cannot proclaim
that Jesus is Lord
By ourselves, we cannot.
By the Spirit, we proclaim that Jesus is Lord.
Forgiveness is a gift of the Holy Spirit
Short sharing: Dr. Michelle Alignay
Season called Mid-life.
Is midlife a crisis? Middle of life inventory
Middle of adulthood.
Where we are anchoring our self worth?
How do we love ourselves?
Are we loving ourselves the way God loves us?
Are we taking care of ourselves
that we can give more to others
Midlife is not supposed to be crisis,
it is supposed to be Christ is.
Honoring God through our talents.
Speaker: Bro Bo Sanchez
Ecclesiastes 3:1
There is a time for everything.
Time flies.
Big Message: God is right here right now.
4 Distinct Stages in Life
Stage 1: First 20 years of your life
– Goal: To explore
Stage 2: From age 20 to 40
– Goal: To expand your calling, your gifting
enter new territories
Stage 3: From age 40 to 60
– Goal: To be exact – to focus your calling
Stage 4: From age 60 and above
– Goal: To prepare for your exit
To pass the baton
To raise your successors
To ask God what is next
2 Common Things in all Stages
1. Ultimate Purpose
– One metric of success in all stages
–> Metric of spiritual growth
Am I becoming more humble?
2. Underlying Perspective
3 Kinds of Human Operating System
1. Living in your past – Stuck in the past
a. Nung panahon ko, nung bata ako, during my time…
Favorite lines – exaggerate the goodness of
the past and exaggerate the badness of the
present and the future
b. When the past is so painful, you get trapped
in the past.
Isaiah 43:18-19
“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
Forget that rejection,
forget the failure.
God is doing a new thing.
2. Living in your future
side-effect: anxiety
Matthew 6:34
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own.
3. Living in your now
Mark 1:14-15
After John was put in prison,
Jesus went into Galilee,
proclaiming the good news of God.
“The time has come,” he said.
“The kingdom of God has come near.
Repent and believe the good news!”
Speaker: Bro Audee Villaraza
Stage 1 – Explore
There are no cheat codes in life
Young shepherd boy David
1 Samuel 17 34 37
But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep.
When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock,
I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth.
When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.
Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear;
this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them,
because he has defied the armies of the living God.
The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion
and the paw of the bear will rescue me
from the hand of this Philistine.”
Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”
99% of the time, sheperds live ordinary lives
All day long they watch sheeps eat and sleep
1% of the time, they fight lions and bears
God was preparing David for his future calling.
Sometimes we see the gift, we don’t see the grind.
We don’t like the ordinary.
We look for the extraordinary.
But God works in the ordinary.
Be faithful to your ordinary.
Luke 16:10
“Whoever can be trusted with very little
can also be trusted with much,
and whoever is dishonest with very little
will also be dishonest with much.
It’s in the common places
where God is working on your gifting.
Your gift is supposed to glorify God.
Don’t keep it to yourself.
God develops also your character.
What you do might look ordinary to them.
It’s in the ordinary where God
is shaping your character.
Watch The Full Video for this Talk Here:
