Wm Paul Young at the Gospel of Relentless Love Conference

[Music] I wanted to start with a poem from a friend of mine named David Tennyson te NECN and if you want to run into his stuff it's David tense and calm he's Ozzie young young fella but he writes really beautiful poetry and really pertinent poetry he's a singer songwriter also in pastures and and but he's a poet so this is called blessing for the hearts journey today fellow fallers recoverers rescuers winners losers famous and infamous i bless you the runners and the lame the bankrupt and the billionaires the Saints and the sinners the lost and the lonely I bless you I bless you with knowing that the journey of a thousand steps will be paved by potholes sinkholes and and whatever else it takes to make you whole because you are human I bless you today with knowing that the invitation to face the world with an unveiled face may be done at your pace or never at all because it's an invitation but know this that by love and choice Trinities unmasked face shines upon you and is gracious to you Trinity lifts up their faces towards you and offers you peace because you belong a blessing for the hearts journey I have a bunch of sayings by George MacDonald that I love but I want to start I'm gonna just want this one for now I'm sure George will come up George was the guy that led Lewis CS Lewis into and encounter with Jesus because he wrote adult fantasy books and one of them was called fantastis and luis said that when he read fantasti as his imagination was baptized and it took the rest of him 18 years to catch up and he said from that point forward I never wrote another thing in my life that George MacDonald was not in and George had a massive influence on the planet people like Mark Twain referred to George MacDonald as a primary influence and a lot of other poets and writers and George wrote this good Souls many will one day be horrified at the things they now believe of God they can make little progress in the knowledge of God while holding evil things true of him potent and I wanted to affirm you Mars with something that you said that and Baxter Kruger sends his greetings by the way so does Brad jursic we were all kind of hanging out here three years ago but Baxter had he's a comes from the PCA background so they don't have visions they have visuals and and he had a visual he was in he was in Colorado actually not too far from here and we were there for a gathering for operation restored warrior which was an organization that works with special forces guys and all they know to do is lead them into what's called a drop zone where they have a five-day encounter with Jesus and a lot of these guys have no background of faith at all and a lot of them have had guns in their mouths and so they they come pretty broken and in five days they're they're encouraged into an encounter with a living Jesus and out of I don't know a couple thousand of these Special Forces guys not one of them has committed suicide and it's a major major deal and because you know the highest rate of suicide is in Special Forces in the military and the military has 23:21 veterans and to enlisted men every day that killed themselves and the disassociation between the heart and the head it's pretty amazing well Baxter was we were up here for that and he said he saw a beaver dam you know beaver dam that beavers build and to cut off a water supply to create a lake and he saw a beaver dam that was big enough it spread right across the entire Colorado Vista and it would have dammed up the Mississippi River and he's having a conversation with the Lord about it and said what is that and because there's water trickling through here and there like there is in most beaver dams and and the Holy Spirit whispered to him and said that those are all the lies that have dammed up the work of the Holy Spirit in the Western world and he looked and he saw these big huge monster logs you know the kind where the circumference would be about the the size of this room and they were at the bottom and there were two or three of them but there was one massive one at the very bottom and Anne Baxter says what is that and the spirit said that is the lie of separation you take that one out and the entire dam will come down and so when you said separation I totally am with you on that and and I want to I want to talk to you about a Greek word I think it's going to be helpful I think where everybody I know that's in this conversation whether it's Peter Andre whether it's Baxter or Brad or John McMurray Katie's scourge all these folks were trying to find language that is helpful I don't know one of them that is trying to build a plough for more a brand you know it's notoriety and and all that it's it's all smoke and mirrors it's it's not real and and when it happens it's like so you're going to gain your identity from it or you're going to allow your identity to inform it right just like vocation either your vocation will inform your identity or your identity will inform your vocation and and it's and I know because I did ask for anything I didn't ask for any of this I was actually very content for the first time in my life I know I was not addicted to anything anymore including all the gold chain addictions like doing something great for God you know that's a goal change addiction and but also all that all the nasty addictions they were done and I was fifty years old working three jobs shipping out soldering tips cleaning toilets and I wrote a story for my kids for Christmas and fifteen copies did everything I wanted it to do part of part in the prayer thank you Peter in the prayer Peter referred to how we are all story we are every single human beings a story and and part of what I think my eternity will take so long is that we're going to unwind the thread of the story right we're gonna you're going to find out every single person and their story and how it intersected yours including people especially the Pentecostals who prayed for you and didn't know what they were saying yes exactly and and every human being is a story this is why story has such power why Jesus loves story although he never told any about carpentry you ever thought about that it's probably cuz he wasn't very good at it he he he told stories about things other people were good at and you know he didn't have a reputation for being like you know the carpenter it's like gotta go to now serves as a guy there that makes perfect doors I mean they always fit you know level tables now eight-year-old grandson says to his dad my grandson said to him my son so dad do you think Jesus ever made mistakes tell him I'm not available unless it's Kim right and Gavin says you think Jesus ever made mistakes and Chad goes well that's a really good question a lot of people have talked about that what do you think that's a that's a great response by the way and Gavin thinks and he goes yep I think he must have made mistakes because how else are you gonna learn anything and we are so sin conscious that we think mistakes are part of the fall you know we think it informs our identity because you know we have this perfectionist idea want to teach you a Greek word on toss a lot of you already know it on toss Ont OS the Greek word on toss means being bei ng being in your essential nature or the essential nature of God the being of God the ontology of God and that's where we get the word ontology or ontological it has to do with the being of something the essential nature of something then there is existential there's actually a big word phenomenological but don't worry about that one it's too big and but there is a there's an understanding of existentialism or experience so as there's experience and ontology and Baxter had has this line that I've been literally camping in for the last five years and has just grown and grown and grown as I've worked on it and that is wholeness which is another term for holiness because comes from the same root wholeness is when the way of your being matches the truth of your being follow wholeness if you want to become a whole person wholeness is when the way of your being matches the truth of your being now what is the truth of your being that's your ontology that's the truth that is true that is true that is true that is true that is true right what's the way of your being that's your experience and your existential experience and the truth of your being is what and here is another huge lie that has infiltrated our perception because we have we won we didn't know what the truth of our being was what is the truth of your being what is true about you it is true that it is true that it is true that it is true and nothing can change it what's the truth of your being that's the question I grew up with post piece of theology that that that's a that's a that's a word in scripture by the way Scoob Allah it's the Greek word for so when you say you're quoting scripture so get over it Paul uses it but you know the King James was too nice about it they put dung in there and then by the time new international god of it they said nothing you know like shits not nothing you know and it's like Scoob Allah that's what it says Paul says I consider it all Scoob Allah so if you sounds way better than defecation I think that's worse than you know so but we were taught Peter I already said the word so I'm good so we were taught I was taught in my people were taught that the truth of our being is were a piece of crap we're worthless we're totally depraved were were nothing right and then we were told but we know that's true about you but we've got to get you to get the way of your being to not match that you see we have a problem because what we were told was you've got to act in a way so that you can cover up the fact that the truth of your being is at your piece of right so give it your best shot you know and so it's like yeah we know you have no self control so we will we will give you self discipline right which is actually a work of the flesh self control would be something that comes from the inside out like anything that is ontological it has to exist in your very being this is why the law which is summed up in one word love has got to be written on your heart so that you can live it from the inside out you can't perform it from the outside in and all this performance you know what we're trying to do and we're trying to change our ontology we're trying to convince God that our ontology is worthy of letting us into heaven so that we don't go to hell I mean that's the way that I grew up so everything becomes about performance and at the same time that you are believing this that that's what the truth of your being is you feel like an absolute fake you feel like a hypocrite because you know what the real truth is and now you're just covering it up and hiding everything and so you've got a whole community of people who are all covering up the fact that they think they're a piece of and when you think that you'll act like it and then you'll let people treat you like that and then how do you get to heaven well I'm sure we have a solution here I know we'll call it imputed righteousness we'll have Jesus kind of unbeknownst to God the Father on the down-low Jesus will come and he will wrap you in his righteousness so he can he can sneak a piece of into heaven I mean it's got theological terms to this anybody else here this growing up so so that when God the Father goes I smell something you know and he looks at me he doesn't see me he sees Jesus and your guys Jesus just please cover me with your righteousness so that you know I get to stay here just don't go to the bathroom nothing you know it's right but that's because our ontology is false and you know what we did because our ontology was false we also began to smear the character and nature of God with the ontology that we believed about God what's the truth of God's being well it depends or it depends on something does it right what's the truth of God's being what's the ontology of God see God is holy that means the way of God's being matches the truth of God's being so if you get the truth of God's being wrong you're in trouble and if you get the truth of your ontology wrong you're also in trouble because as a person thinks in their heart so are they but what is that verse saying as a person are they saying whatever you think in your heart way of being right your existential experience as a person thinks in their heart so are they no that's not about on that verse is not about ontology at all it's if you think this way if you think this about yourself as a person thinks in their heart so is their experience it's it's not about ontology at all but if you think if you think in your heart this way then you actually are that way you're stuck wholeness is when the way of your being matches the truth of your being so what's the truth of your being I've child of God that is an ontological statement we're all God's handiwork were created in His image he lives in us but does he live does he who lives within us have a different nature and character than our ontology apparently only if what you believe is a lie because you said we're God's children which means your family of origin is the Father Son and Holy Spirit in terms of ontology do you know how important this is the implications of this are unbelievably powerful how about this verse this is this is like a week and a half ago we were doing a little Open Table Conference in Missoula and Baxter just you know he's doing the John thing which he does all the time because we we it's gonna take us you know a decade they start to understand the depth of what he's saying out of just the prologue of John and but he goes to this one passage and he says and men human beings loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil right let me tell you that if you begin to understand ontology versus existential experience a lot of passages of Scripture will just drop open for you men love the darkness rather than light and I'm sitting there going like well that's interesting I wonder what the Greek word for love is in that verse that human beings loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil what's the word love there now what would what would you not think it is agape you would not think that it's agape its agape yeah it's a copy how does that even work well it works because of this you're made in the image of God who is agape right that's the word God is love that's ontology God is love God cannot act unloving the way of God's being has to match the truth of God's being for God to be holy for whole right so we're made in the image and likeness of God which means that our ontology is also agape so what are we gonna do with this agape agape is other-centered self giving sacrificial love what are we going to do with it and it says that in our delusion we agape the darkness we are centered on that darkness we will give ourselves to that darkness and we will sacrifice to that darkness but it's agape agape is the truth of our being but our deeds are evil they're all broken and twisted up and so the way of our being does not match the truth of our being but that verse is saying it's still a copy it's still agape we are all children of God we're made in the image and likeness of God you know what that means let me tell you some of the things that are true about you you are good you are you are kind you are a forgiver you have self-control you are self-control you are pure of heart now immediately in in my mind if somebody had said that to me the way that I grew up what do they know no no nope you don't know me I'm just an impatient person liar you cannot say ontologically that you're just an impatient person yes the way of your being you may act impatiently but you are not an impatient person for you to act impatiently you have to go contrary to your nature and to do that you have to believe a lie about yourself have a young man I'm talking to him we're sitting at a restaurant I'm so pissed at him because he hurt someone that I really love and I love him too but in that moment I'm still furious and he starts he starts the normal you know narcissistic thing where you try to shift the blame on the other party you know and I listen for a while a few minutes actually and and then I say I'm so not impressed and I tell him why I'm not impressed and I tell I just expose what he's doing and he immediately drops into tears flowing down his face I'm just a piece of that's his exact words and I said to him if there's anybody on this planet that knows you're not just a piece of it's me but you are full of right I'm telling him his ontology is not that but his behavior and in what's involved in his life is full of it remember a lot of us grew up with the definition of sin being hamartia missing the mark was it defined in terms of ontology or was that defined in terms of behavior and experience almost all of it is missing the mark of perfect behavior right what if it's about ontology and that means missing the mark of who you were created to be missing the mark of the truth of your being so let me use a real overt obvious example of this and some of you probably have heard me talk about this I was addicted to porn for a good well I'm not quite to half my life being free from that so a little more than half my life and you know the you know my background you know that yeah there's a lot of things that fed into that sexual abuse and stuff like that I still own it but it owned me it owned me and I begged God repeatedly to break this in my life and I I could win for a little while because self-discipline right if you don't have any self-control how are you gonna build anything when you're just peace crap how are you gonna how you going to create any righteousness you got to just do it through grit and and we'll right and because discipline comes from the outside in self-control from the inside out but if I'm just a piece crap I got nothing i got nothing to bring to the table here you know so Holy Spirit please do something to me so that I got enough willpower to do what I'm supposed to do that's the mentality and no wonder we just get burned out and tired but it owned me and but I like I said almost half my life now I've been absolutely free from it absolutely free from it why did suddenly the Holy Spirit give me enough self-discipline where I was finally able to engage this monster and win the battle no because self-discipline is a work of the flesh was it because I found an accountability group that was so smart I couldn't figure out my way around him and I and I loved community don't get me wrong and it's essential because we're you know we're made in the image of a God who's never been alone guess what any concept of aloneness is foreign to the nature of God and therefore foreign to you it's not true you have never been alone you will never be alone smallest group you'll ever be in is for that's called solitude where you're only with the Father Son and Holy Spirit after that is community God's never been alone God has never done anything alone this is the basis for why community matters and why love even exists because you can't have love without another being involved this is the part of the beauty of the Trinity so no it was an accountability group was it that I was so afraid of hell finally but I got my act together well good luck with that none of us actually believes in Hell like I mean not really I know two women that are as close to believers in the hell that we taught you know eternal conscious torment as anybody that I've known in my entire life both of them took the lives of their own children before they reached the age of accountability which is 12 according to my peoples made-up mythology and you know 12 in a day sorry but 12 you know but the woman in Florida who took the life of her three children on the witness stand said don't you understand that this was an action of love I would rather exchange my life for the eternal destination of my three children I love my children so much I will give up my eternal destination on their behalf and pay the penalty sounds just like Jesus but it's all twisted up it's not right but if we actually believed in eternal conscious torment wouldn't we do that if you really loved your children and that's what faces them you know but that concept of Hell has so many problems anyway like what do you do with the unborn they never pray a sinner's prayer you know they don't know the magic yet where do they go heaven or eternal conscious torment well if they go to eternal conscious torment you have to believe that their ontology is what you believe or what you started your your conversation with right where you said I have these two sons and one of them is depraved and and worthless and and has an evil nature right we believe that we have a sin nature wrong that's really bad theology because you're saying your ontology is something deeper than the image of God in you and deeper than the likeness of God what do we do with unborn babies they get a free pass they get a free pass because we have this binary understanding of heaven in hell they get a free pass than what why are we opposed to abortionist they're putting more people into the kingdom of God than anybody on the planet they are their real evangelists here we have a problem what about the mentally ill what about my two cousins who both took their lives toddy and who's charlie but toddy and Jennifer whom I love dearly but they were schizophrenic what about the person who can't put a complete sentence together do they get special grace if they get special grace you're telling me that it's it's better to be mentally ill than it is to be of a sound mind what about those who never heard well in seminary we had a way to deal with that Romans one and we would say well you get judged based on the amount of light you have received and my question is why are we going to tell them anything it seems like the bar is lower if you don't tell them the good news is if you don't do this you're gonna go to hell they're screwed now but our whole concept was also messy so the reason the reason that I don't have an issue with it is it through all the work that I had to do to uncover the lies that had owned me there emerged a revelation not only of the character and nature of God but of my own and I found out that I was pure of heart I found out that I was pure of heart and I'd always been pure of heart I knew that when I was little and I found out that I'm a person of self-control and I can live from the inside out because everything that is true and real is from the inside out where is the kingdom of God in you so what's work of the kingdom it's the inward work and then rivers of living water flow from outside in know from inside out who lives in you the Father Son and Holy Spirit everything that is real and true and right and good inside out and talking about heaven and hell these days I've come I've come to this this is where I'm at today rather than seeing it as a binary destination I see it as a relationship to love because God is love God who is love is also a consuming fire do I believe in the judgment absolutely in fact I count on it what to punish those people no for my sake do you know that the early church had a view of God has judged that is markedly different from our view of God as judge you know why a bunch of lawyers got involved Agustin Calvin Luther these are all lawyers and so they decided to remodel the nature and character of God based on a forensic theology that is a courtroom scene so so if you want to sit in a courtroom and you you go in there and there's a judge what is the job of the judge in a general sense in a courtroom scene the job of the judge is to determine whether you are innocent or guilty right and so because we're all guilty we got to find you know somebody that'll step in and take our punishment for us and that's where we came up with penal substitution because of our commitment to a forensic theology where a God is not only does he do this but then he does what he passes sentence on you and if it's this what's the sentence eternal conscious torment there's hell to pay right that's a forensic model what did the early church had did they have did they have God as judge absolutely but you know what their motif was the Great Physician is our judge will not the judge of all the earth do right God is judge but what's what is this motif that God is the Great Physician so if you walk into a hospital or into a doctor's office what's the job of that doctor it's not guilty or innocent depends on your diet I suppose but but it is to determine what in you is not well what's broken what's sick and then he passes judgment it's called a prescription or it's it's a process by which you will be healed and restored that is the intent of a physician do you see how different the landscape is whether God is a judge in a courtroom versus God is a physician early church they didn't seek courtroom like what no this is a God who is a judge this is why George McDonald would say if you judge or if you if you believe if you trust that the character the character of God ontology is good you will run to him with your arms wide open and you will say please come and judge me to the core and burn out of me everything that keeps me from being fully human and fully alive there's an entire list of greek words for judgment of which one is the timber rail family which is retributive and punitive like a legal court it is never used for God every other family coal ASIS or gay all of these other our restorative in nature the intensity and intention of the fire of God's love is to heal you is to burn out of you everything that keeps you from being fully human and fully alive so guess what if you want to hold on to your crap if you want to hold on to your darkness and you're stuck with a God you can't get away from who is loved what would you call that that's hell having to deal with your stuff and what do they say religious people believe in hell but spiritual people have been there right there are so many stories in this room about the hellish process of dealing with our own brokenness and the brokenness of the world around us and this is a God you cannot get away from and this is why separation is so big of a lie I was I was in Germany earlier this year in a a young man he's he's at one of my people I mean is one of those where you you you as soon as you talk yes he asked you a question what about this verse because this is what you do you know because you're all stuck in your heads and it's like what about this verse and you go like well and you start to answer it and he goes well what about this verse and so it's like you know one of those things that you squeeze and it comes out all your you know you just like so so finally I just said hey I'll tell you what I will work through your questions if you answer one question from me first he said okay I said where was creation created he's like well what about I said no no no no no you agreed already you have to answer this question where was creation created is it outside of God like a soap bubble like that's a Baxter thing a soap bubble that disengages itself floats out there and screws itself up so Jesus is sent over to the soap bubble to bridge a bridge back to God taking tickets at the at that end and if you get your ticket punched you get to go back to God but otherwise you know is that what it is is that where creation is created is somewhere outside of God well though everything in scripture tells you that's not true not anything that has come into being has come into being apart from him who's him Jesus in the beginning was the word in the word yeah it's Jesus not anything that has come into being has come into being apart from him what does Colossians 1 16 and 17 says say everything both the invisible and the visible everything that has been created was created in him and then it goes on to say and it now moves and has its being for him through him by him there's no separation this is why Corinthians can then say so when he dies you died and when he rose you rose and when he ascended you ascended and this is why he can say nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus who's in Christ Jesus everybody the entire cosmos it's all in him so on to logically Jesus saved you and you didn't make a choice like you were saying in the video not your choice except to kill him I guess that's a choice but he did it and he did it onto logically now we who are being saved that's existential experience but we're so used to this binary thing where we talk about those who are perishing as if that's ontology it's not ontology it's experience which means your participation in this outworking of what Jesus has accomplished absolutely matters yes he accomplishes it but guess what he wants a relationship of love he doesn't not want robots because he could have created robots right the four things God could have done at creation one not create this would be a moot conversation mute conversation actually second he could have created a universe in which everything functions by natural law everything is a big machine then the third choice is create a big machine that functions by natural law and human beings who think they have free will but actually don't I mean that's a possibility the fourth one and I haven't never come up with a fifth one but the fourth one is where we're at we're in a creation which human beings have the right to say no to God and as soon as God creates Adam God is no longer in control in any kind of sovereign sense in the sense of like in control because a human being can say no why is that important because that's the only universe in which love can function love can exist so if God ever ever takes away one of your nose even for your own sake we're back to creation number three in which we think we have free will but actually don't you have no idea how powerful you are that you can say no you can say no to your ontology you can say no to the revelation of God in Christ you can say no to goodness kindness truth telling and God submits to it why because forced love is no love at all and does this have to be worked out do the choices you make in this lifetime matter absolutely but if you don't know how to play the piano now you're not gonna suddenly know when you walk through the veil right you won't be omniscient you're still gonna learn you're still gonna grow and you're still gonna deal with your crap there is the everyone gets salted with fire salt and fire both terms of purification and restoration everyone gets salted with fire why because we're broken and we're in a process you have a faith that is worth more than gold that perishes and now you are receiving process language don't you hate process language give me send me to Disneyworld fix me you know instant soul makeover that would be great you're two incredibly crafted for quick fixes you have a faith whose faith the faith of the Son of God who is in you who trusts the father you have a faith that is worth more than gold that perishes and now you are receiving the Telos the goal of this faith the the ultimate end for this faith which is the sozo of your soul translated salvation sometimes but healing same word the healing of your soul that's the work that Jesus is doing in you is to heal your soul and there has to be a point where the eyes of your inside world begin to be open so that you know the truth of your being so that the way of your being can match it be holy as your heavenly Father is holy the way of God's being matches the truth of God's being never not well what about so holy spirit can I talk to you about this sure what about you know God in the Old Testament oh yeah that's a problem in it well you know God the Father got saved during the four hundred silent years the intertestamental period you know what do you do with the fact that the way of God's being seems to be so different and divergent from the truth as revealed in Jesus what are your options you got two different gods you got Bale and Marduk and all those guys and you know the father of Jesus they're all those kind of gods and then you got Jesus so Jesus is on your side trying to protect you from the narcissistic abuse of God we split the ontology of the nature and character of God where Jesus is going like you've seen me you've seen the father ontologically right I and the father are one that's ontology maybe you can say you've seen me in terms of what I do you've seen the father because there's no distinction in terms of character in nature and we're holy therefore the way of our being matches the truth of our being so holy spirit what about what about Samuel oh do you mean the verse like second Samuel 14 14 where it says our lives are like water poured out on the ground that is absorbed but God never takes away life but always is planning ways so that the banished one will be restored you mean that verse God does not take away life no I was thinking about the Samuel one where he says kill all the babies and stuff God yeah that wasn't us it was reported that that's what we said but you know what they're stuck in their mythology they're trying to deal with the image of nature of God from a position of not knowing anything don't you see that that this is a God who climbs into our mess and doesn't wait for us to be perfectly whole before God participates in our lives and that been true for you has God been waiting for you to finally get your act together so that he could show up so that you know his reputation wouldn't be disturbed that's Scripture it's not the Word of God because I do believe in the inerrant infallible Word of God and his name is Jesus but that's a compilation of humans stories inspired yes the Holy Spirit you know it's like the shack I didn't write the shack by myself that's obvious but God didn't write it by himself either it has mistakes in it right and I'm not trying to put the shock on par with Scripture who you know I love Scripture but I don't deify it I didn't add scripture to the pantheon of the Father Son and Holy Spirit well it might denomination we just took the Holy Spirit out and replaced the Holy Spirit with the Bible you know follow the son Holy Bible you know and so right cuz Holy Spirit quit in the end of the first century yeah and we didn't have to deal with anything you know like speaking in tongues thank goodness that's gone you know so wouldn't want a mystical experience like God was actually real you know long as I can control my ideas of God in my head I'm good that's why we love religion you don't have to actually trust God you just have to know what you're supposed to do and so hell in heaven then become relationship to a love you can't escape what what what can separate you from the love of God well it says not anything present not anything future that's quite a bit just by itself and if all creation is created in him this is talking about the entire cosmos not anything present not anything future not life nothing in life and not death not death Jesus didn't even like to say the word death he'd say sleep but you know when he was pushed he'd go find death but as as if death was bigger than life that's our theology death is bigger than life I tweeted one time something that God would never say got me into a lot of trouble I tweeted God would never say I'm sorry you died there's nothing I can do for you now death wins because we think that we think you die it's like your curtains it's like you made a decision and you have that's why our this is the guilt and they not guilt so much shame and fear that motivated so much of our missions I'm a missionary kid preacher's kid I grew up in the highlands of New Guinea I know this world right and what was motivating it was the intention to try to win people and so their blood would not be on your hands that's the imagery that was used and you had to get to them before they died because once they died it's it's over and it's like well why did I get to to be 64 years old and somebody else gets to be 12 or 9 or 6 you know how does this work and if love is essentially linked to my ability to say no to God my ability to choose right because if my no doesn't matter my yes doesn't matter either I'm back to being a robot in a machine that means that post mortem there's no more love or relationship that means that God would just be a mad scientist seeing how much pain we could inflict because the question would be if he's going to take away our ability to choose why didn't he do it in with these are issues we were created in Christ that's our ontology let me read the let me read the passage oh this is a good one there's a few of them like this this is this is Paul right this is this is Paul who is the guy that talks about his own salvation this way his own conversion experience I was set apart from my mother's womb but when God was pleased to reveal his son in me that's his definition of the Damascus Road experience not to me in me this explosion happened from the inside out not from the outside in and he says and now I preach him in the ethmoid and the ethmoid our theologians had a little trouble when they translated this so they will say among the Gentiles no the word is in he's preaching him in the Gentiles so here's an example of him preaching Jesus in the Gentiles you know what this means this means you will not meet a person who's not already in Christ like the early church would say if you're not in Christ you will lapse into non-being because everything that exists is held together sustained is in him for him by him through him no separation separation is a myth it isn't true but religion needs it to have job security every religion has it they have separation they have magic and they have sacrificed those are the three things that religion needs to succeed and exist and Christianity has all three just so you know as a religion so Paul gets up with a bunch of pagans and he says this the God who made the world and all things in it since he is the lord of heaven and earth does not dwell in temples made with hands now listen to this nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything whoa there goes ministry right out the door the entire sacred secular divide is just destroyed in that one sentence on to logically God doesn't need anything from you doesn't need your praise doesn't need your worship doesn't need your adoration none of that is anything that God needs and he cannot be served by human hands how many of us want to be used by God no you don't if I asked your grandchildren do you are you excited to grow up so that your grandpa can use you you'd go like that's pretty sick well maybe you can grow up to be a tool that God can use right as if God needed anything do you understand this is a God who is good who is love that loves participation who's never done anything alone and so as an invitation to participate in what whatever is happening in your world and what you're dealing with and facing inside the grace of one day because it's the only real world that exists where God lives in you in this world nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything since he himself gives to all people life and breath in all things and he made from one man Adam every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth having determined boundaries and times that they would seek God if perhaps they might grope for him and find him though he is not far from each one of us for in him we live and move and have our being or like even some of your own poets have said and Paul quotes the hymn to Zeus for we also are his children being then the children of God we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver a stone an image formed by art and the thought of man and having overlooked the term the times of ignorance God is now decree 'never II where change your mind this is Paul speaking to pagans and he's not making stuff up that should be enough to change our cosmology completely why he is telling them two things they are children of God and they live and move and have their being in him they just don't know it and neither do we we have glimpse of it right but a lot of times religion has absolutely bound us in paradigms that blind us and we're looking like Moses at the law and it puts a veil over our inside eyes instead of looking at the face of Jesus and paradigms are very very powerful I'm watching the Holy Spirit lift the veil from so many people so fast and nobody's in charge of it it's happening all over this planet this conversation I was telling someone someone that Baxter used to when he spoke he would put on the incarnation of the Word of God by athenais she's written in 3:21 by a North African brother black man who saved the early church really next to it was a TF TF Torrance or a JB Torrance book so that in a room like this he knew that there were at least two people in the great cloud of witnesses that had his back to even begin to declare what the early church had declared across the board the same thing that you've heard tonight that Jesus Christ is the savior of all mankind we all got included in that and he does it by love you're his children and by choice he has adopted you in the Greek in the Roman culture you could disown a biological child but you could not disown an adopted one since it was adoption indicative indicative of choice and God loves you both by birth as a child of God and by choice he took our betrayal and turned it into our adoption this gospel this truth of being both for ourselves and for the character of God begins to dismantle what we have thought was our own ontology and the ontology of God is God a consuming fire absolutely is God ever against you never this is a God who will always and forever before you this is why you cannot escape the love of God and the presence of that love if you want to give up your crap will be heaven to you and if you want to hold on to it and fight it which God will submit to but he's not leaving that will be held to you this is a God who is good all the time why because that's God's very nature and being that is ontologically true of God and anything that would indicate that God is not like that is not true this is the gospel of the early church this is what is being proclaimed again in the midst of Western rationalism and this is what's changing people it is a transformation from glory to glory not cruddy to glory not even glory to glory err it is when everything that is not true not right not beautiful not good gets burned away with your participation your turning your face to the Father Son and Holy Spirit who constantly lift their faces to you and you see in the face of Jesus the truth of who you are so that the way of your being can match it to the praise of the glory of a God who is good all the time who is love whose actions only are loving seen fully expressed in the character and person of Jesus amen you

Channel: Peter Hiett

Views: 2,035

Rating: 4.826087 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: qRdfR--aiUA

Length: 63min 42sec (3822 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 16 2019