Wm. Paul Young - Session 2 - REthink GoD

I was thinking about being with you and you know was this event 2008 the first time I met Baxter face-to-face in fact it's at the Clarion that we met at the airport and then we spent the next two days at the Clarion talking theology because he wanted to know where in the world I came from it took two days did slayed it but I was thinking you know how how thrilled we are to be here and and and I want to tell you and I want you to hear this carefully I want to tell you why Vanessa and I and John McMurray and Baxter are here we're here because God loves us God loves Vanessa Baxter me and John we get to be with I'm and I'm serious about that we're not here because while Baxter's pretty smart and John's really smart and and that's true and we have a heart for this and we don't a lot of times you don't understand actually a lot of most of the time we don't understand why we've been given a platform and and we actually resist the platform in some senses because it's not a true statement about you know it's the world thing and I value but it surely it's not the kingdoms because the kingdom is all upside down and and so this is really an honor to be here I spent the last three days at the Cistercian Abbey of the Mississippi sisters I think that's pretty close to right um a group of nuns in outside of Dubuque Iowa and and I went there because I got invited to a friend but one of the nuns has done a pencil color pencil drawing of of Marian e-meeting that's just and I have I'll show you a copy of it at some point but it's so connected when I was working on the book II and it almost entered the discussion of being the cover so but I got to meet grace for these grace and got to spend a couple hours and then got to have a big conversation with the gathering of the nuns and I tell you and they're all praying for us by the way that's part of what they do they work they have a big candy factory in the about 15 15 minutes away or that there's a monastery Cistercian order of the monks and they have a casket building company and but they work and then they but all through the day they are praying not just for in terms of petition but for whatever the Holy Spirit leads them to pray on behalf of and so they're constantly listening to you know who is the Holy Spirit putting on my heart and then they carry that person or that group of people and and that's what they see their their lives are and and so when you talk but you're talking to them they'd say you know in many respects you're doing the really hard stuff being out inside the activity of the world we get to in a sense have a much simpler life and simpler reality and but they have to deal with all their personality conflicts and all you know it's it's just you put a group of people together it's like it's like what I say about marriage it'd be a lot easier without another person involved you know the thing about relationship is that it just kind of messes up the whole universe and and that's part of the beauty of what we're involved in is that we've been included in everything is about relationship everything's a drive back toward relationship I want you to have a little conversation you can be you're just sitting next to spouse or somebody you don't know or whatever but I want to ask a question and I love good questions if you know anything about me I'm I kind of love questions because a good question and this is this is a quote from Eve one good question is worth a thousand answers because a lot of time there are so many ways to look at an answer to it and and those different perspectives really matter they say that we have this universal addiction and the universal addiction is to being right and at some point we have to break that and a good question will help us do that and so there are a lot of different ways to to respond to this particular question that I want you to think about for a minute and I'm going to I'm going to I'm gonna focus on one of those ways right because a lot of times people think well it's like a test right so there's got to be an answer somewhere at the bottom of the sheet if you turn it upside down or something and but when you look at Jesus and how Jesus related to people a lot of times in fact almost every time that someone asks him a question or makes a statement to introduce a question that they have Jesus responds with a question almost I think there are two situations in the Gospels where that's that doesn't happen but it's always and then it's why well part of it is questions are an invitation to relationship and Jesus is more focused on the person that he is on the question that they brought because a lot of times if you're inside especially religious environments they're going to bring intellectual questions are going to bring some kind of you know quoting Moses or something you know and that's not the question that's in that person's heart but they're doing it because this is part of the system this is part you know it's part of their their job security or something so they want to bring a question and then Jesus will just go right it's almost like he ignores their question in some respects but he asks a question and it invites them into something because the person is always more important than the question that they initiative close and in this one situation there's a young guy who comes up and has a question for Jesus and he thinks his question is about eternal life all right he's a rich young ruler right now anything's this question is about eternal life and he starts by saying good teacher and that's as basically as far as it gets then Jesus says why are you calling me good why does Jesus ask that question he says why are you calling me good there's only one who's good and that's God that's how that whole conversation starts everything is framed inside that statement why are you calling me good there's only one who's good and that's God so that's my question that I want you to talk about for about three or four minutes with whoever's next to you why did Jesus say that and what does that mean because when you look at answers the implications are astounding so I want you to talk about it for a couple minutes and then I want to I want us to talk about it and that's going to lead me I think in a direction that that I want to go in terms of story and um but again I'm going to just talk about one element of it and I'm sure you're going to come up with a whole bunch of different things but why does he say that and what did he mean by it what do you think right you have three or four minutes no so big shot okay I'm kind of overhearing some things and I love it I love the statement well that's one way to look at it I love that right because that's true there are these different ways to look at it and you know what soon as Jesus says that you know the guy's thinking like I was just trying to be polite right so what are some of the thoughts that you have just share them what kind of did you you're trying to butter him up yeah you just like yeah yeah well yeah and I think it's protocol he's a rabbi you know and that's but why does Jesus then turn around and and stop him at that point say get him off the script I think that's true I mean it's it's an interruption it's like hey you know your words actually matter and and you just fallen into the routine of your addressing and you don't even realize what you're saying so I want you to think about what you're saying right get him off script that's great to make him think hey Beast he's calling his bluff in a scent that is so true because he's he's thinking this is about performance right he's thinking about anger there's got to be a way that I can do whatever I need to do and his script is about performance Maryann says if you see something good in me it's gone god is good there's only one why are you calling me good young man young brother are you acknowledging that I'm in the Father that's excellent I couldn't agree more yep I think that's right I think it is it is he changed the whole script change the whole script by introducing something different right off the bat why are you calling me good young man young brother because only one who is good now now think about that state and you'll find it in other places like every good gift comes from God right so goodness is always an expression of God all goodness originates in God there's only one who's good then even if this is not a statement about understand that I'm in the father implicitly it's saying you're acknowledging by your by your words that I am an expression of God so let's stop there why are you calling me good there's only one who's good and that's God but think about what that means all goodness originates in God all of it wherever you see goodness wherever you see it you are seeing an expression of the character in nature of God does anything that is not good originated outside of the very nature and being of God not according to Jesus this is a God who like this is good this is good this is good it's an expression of good this is very good so when you are interacting with human beings who are doing good things you can recognize that they are making expressions of their very being that is made inside that relationship of the Father Son and Holy Spirit so where it is not good originate or let me ask a different question prior to the creation inside this eternal loving great dance of the Father Son and Holy Spirit was there suffering no who brought suffering to the table we did we did right we did because and think about this that we chose to turn our face away from good and declare the good ourselves remember what that tree is called uh-huh in doing that we stole God I'm sorry you're not good I want to declare what the good is and in fact in the Hebrew inside the Genesis story when it says that they hid in the bushes that's what it says in English in the Hebrew it says they hid themselves in the tree and they covered themselves with the leaves of the tree and so now they were covering over themselves there's this there's this fantastic expression that happens in that passage where when the Father Son and Holy Spirit confront Adam in particular with what he's done the question is who told you you were naked remember what's the answer we just skip over it like huh make it must be bad we had a whole bunch of history that told everybody like and now I've stumbled on to a nudist beach and I'm very appreciative for clothes ok that's not what it's talking about right but the question is who told you who told you you were naked you know the answer is ID that's the only possible answer to the question that's rhetorical because there's no indication that the serpent sent it or anybody else said who told you who told you because they were they were created to be naked and unashamed and naked then becomes open no secrets unguarded unfettered right uncovered and now they've just covered themselves who told you you were naked I did you're designed to be this way you're designed to be open in relationship not all covered up not you determine the good and evil right you're created and if you're around children who have not yet been taught that the trust is dangerous they live in the open life naked and unashamed sard is art but we live in a world we live in a universe a cosmos in which it is an expression of the goodness of God and we brought to the table a turning away declaring our own good and it creates a huge amount of suffering and so god climbs into the middle of that suffering in order to create good out of it even what we bring to the table this is one of the most beautiful things as we begin to understand the work of God does God originate suffering does God originate evil does God originate anything that is not good no God is light and in him there is no darkness at all there is no shadow of turning with him we turn our face away Psalm 22 right my God my God why have you forsaken me halfway through it says but you don't despise the affliction of youth but the nor will you turn your face from him and when he cries you'll hear so we end up as we come to and move toward healing we end up facing crisis of one sort or another it's like our lives are sort of a deck of cards you know and we've been it's been shuffled up and and and all the wild cards have been taken out and the Holy Spirit and the Father and Jesus are the wild cards they come they come and join that deck of cards so that they can then match whatever that combination is to begin to move the game in the direction for the wholeness of the person there is this let me I only give you a story to illustrate this and this is a really recent one like a week ago today many many many years ago there was a man and woman who conceived the child and it shuffled the deck right because one of them provided half the DNA the other provided half the DNA but each one of them got half the DNA from their mom and from their dad which was a shuffling of the debt right so you got this really amazing shuffling of what what's really crazy is is that that deck does not then exist in isolation it gets shuffled with all the other decks of that family and the history of that family and all these other elements go into this wild crazy pile of cards and you and a lot of us we kind of had the deck stacked against us in one form or another and it could be genetics it could be whatever but those two human beings that then conceived this child that child becomes a manifestation of what they have brought to the table and and into to play off of something that Baxter's talking about with Caroline every single and being is this unbelievable creation and those two people whether they knew it or not whether they had the right intentions and motivations in this case there had already been a number of children born before she was and and they wanted her they wanted and so that God submitted to them they brought a choice to the table and God submitted to them and submitted to the deck of cards that they each brought God is not the originator of Down syndrome he's not of mutated genetics is not cause of suffering and we've got to declare this whole and sure but we don't understand what a magnificent creation of human being is of how our Dominion has impacted the planet and such ways is that we have taken all the Aces out of the deck we've done all kinds of things with the genetics with the planet itself with our lack of care and our greed has replaced our care and consideration for the planet itself so that we don't we don't understand it as terms of a creation we don't we don't yeah if you're around any of the First Nations people they have original tribal people who had a much greater sense of the earth and the sky and the water and the existence of this planet and their integration with it and understood their Dominion as participation and an expression of love when I wrote Eve Eden becomes the place where where the Dominion of love reigns and the point of Eden was it was to expand until the whole cosmos was under an experience a Dominion of true other-centered self-giving love if you remember Adams created outside and then placed in it when she is brought forth she has brought forth from with whom we'll get into some of those things probably tomorrow so this girl is born now in her genetic code and the shuffling of the deck it included a predisposition to some heart issues in fact it runs in that family that's part of the part of the shuffling of the deck that God cementited now part of it is that we are a high order of being and not only do we bring to the table you know what my what my parents brought to the table but what their parents brought to the table and their parents and we're beginning to understand there's a whole field called epigenetics that the experiences that we experience actually impact our genetic coding and so inside of that for her she has this potential for some heart issues of physical heart issues and and so let's see in in 2006 2006 she had a minor heart attack just minor but we ended up in the hospital I'm talking about Kim one marriages okay we ended up in the hospital and and and they say you've had a minor heart attack right this is this is a number of years ago between then and now she had one experience where her heart began to go into a flutter and if you know anything about how the heart works you have two chambers in the top you have the chambers in the bottom and and in the top left chamber is the origination of the electrical impulse and the electrical charge is fired down into the bottom and it and it creates that section and you hear this Roku 4 cool right and that's because the upper chamber is originating the electrical charge that goes down and squeezes it so that the blood is then sent out well in a flutter you get the electrical charge getting stuck in a circle inside that one chamber a fib is when it's going crazy in the top and then once in a while at fires both flutter and fib it fires a charge down to the body so her heart would start beating and racing and and yet the bottom part is not pumping near as fast right so a week ago she went into a flutter and she knew that they would in fact before that she did and she knew that there was something wrong because her heart started to race and things like that and so she'd gone to see her doctor and she was put on a particular drug that slows the rhythm of the heart down and for a couple days she was waiting to see if that would take effect and it did so last Friday she says she called the doctor up and says he says you know I should go into ER and just get it checked so she's going to go to ER and he said you don't have to go with me and I said I'm going and so we get in the car and we go down there and she is in a flutter for the her heart is beating at about 300 beats a minute and the bottom part is beating at about 50 all right so this is it's just in it's a flutter so it's this big circular activity that's going on and it's firing as one charge down into the bottom every once in a while so it's beating the bottom part about fifty or forty five and a venom it looks like a hundred and on the on the EKG it looks like 175 but the combination of it is close to 300 so so they're concerned I mean we're in right away and you know they've got they put those paddle things on and just to have it there in case you know because this can be egos and it's not that uncommon people live with some of this but it's just this particular thing is going on this is part of being human this is part of the deck of cards that we got that God is now in the middle of that God did not originate our problem is that if we make God theory later of these things we're in big trouble right because if he is not good all the time then you can't trust him I'm sorry you can't as you cannot trust a God who is not good all the time we're just arbitrary and this is part of what Jesus this is the great statement that Jesus is making for this young man don't you understand that you're just tripping right past this you're talking about goodness and you're recognizing it in me or are you not is it just a polite statement and you're going to go on to performance stuff which it ends up being for the young man it's remember how he loved him and it says he loved him but the young man is not at a place where he can break out of the cycle and Jesus invitation for him to go and sell everything he has is an invitation to break the cycle of performance orientation that he has and he's missed the whole issue of the goodness of God right from the get-go so here Kim is inside this and so we spend the next five hours as they put an idea in there and they're using they're pushing different kinds of drugs hope that will slow the heart down the problem is is that when it starts doing that the chamber collects blood because there's not pumping through properly and that can throw a clot and it could kill her right so that's how come everything is like all right we're really watching this and of course I mean the hospital folk are incredible the nurses are incredible the doctor you know doesn't come in very often but when he does he's very kind that he's very calm and you know and but they at the end of by nine o'clock that night a week ago they said we're going to have to put you in in ER a not ER in ICU I see because and it's not because she's you know unconscious or anything like that it's because they need to monitor her until they can get this down into some range of control because she the monitor showing in 65 over 45 you know in terms of be enter enter blood pressure these drugs can drop or blood pressure to the point where it's dangerous so it's this real dance looking for the right medications and trying to find this so we're not going to spend the night in ICU okay but I can't sleep in her room because it's ICU so I get the couch on just outside in the waiting room and I don't know if you know anything about ICU beds you know Kim's first complaint is you know these really have lousy television stations here and the nurses among of the patients here don't care you know just true they also have really uncomfortable beds for the same reason so so that night and she is what they want to do is they want to get her to the place where her rhythms are down and then she can take oral meds and if it's stable enough then she can go home right and and then she can you know continue the oral meds so she has a very restless leg in the middle of the night for about five hours her heart drops into normal sinus rhythm is what it's called it's still beating at about 125 but it's now doing the right thing right it's called normal science and so it's and and she was asleep and awake and didn't realize that but they monitor it so they know exactly what's going on and but by morning time and it dropped into a 1/5 now not a flutter a flutter is the circle a fib is this thing up in the top you know so which is actually more common and so it's now in afib and it's you know so whew they are continuing to work with it and they and they at about mid morning on Saturday it drops into normal science and they told her when it happens you're going to feel better you're going to feel like normal everything is going to calm down right and it did and she felt really good and and so for about six hours it was and it dropped to about eighty five her heart rate was down to about eighty five her blood pressure was staying right from the zone they stopped with the push IVs they were now on aural and trying to find the right balance and all this and it was looking really good and and and there was for about a minute it was a conversation about sending her home maybe we'll maybe but but at least we're going to put you into the open ward they have a lot better beds and you know and then because we because it looks really good but I think we're going to probably want you to stay another night so the shift change happens at 7 p.m. and about about six we had our son Andrew was there our friend Scott and Lisa Klausner and their Lisa's comes one of two Kim's best friends and Scott's one of my best friends and so they're there how our daughters came in and stopped in to visit and and Kim drops back into a flutter and it is so discouraging for her right so she's thinking like oh my gosh you know and I mean it emotionally is so disappointing and she's like because it's back and it's now racing again and not quite as high about 165 over about 50 you know but it's still a mess and and that means and the doctor says you know what we're going to have to keep you we're just going to have to keep you another night in IC but we're going to get a new bed for you so they got a ward bed and brought it in and switched her over which was great and all this and right before seven o'clock she drops back in the normal sinus alright so the episode only lasted for probably half an hour but it was really difficult an hour and emotionally really difficult and and because everything has she been feeling so good and then BAM so now but they're now they're going to go like okay we're going to keep you another night but at least you'll be in a more comfortable bed and we don't have to have the IVs all hooked up and so you're going to be able to turn and so seven o'clock shift changes and this guy comes in as the night nurse and he looks like Santa Clauses brother and you're gonna met I mean he's portly got a white beard balding I mean if Santa Claus that a brother this is him and and he pulls up a chair next to Kim's bed and he says hi my name is Scott I said hey Scott meet Scott you know because my friend Scott is standing in it's nice to nice and he sits down and he takes Kim's hand and he says Kim Hamrick Kimberly what would you prefer Kim Kim I'm Scott and I'm the night nurse and I want you to know something I want you to know a little bit about Who I am and I want you to know that I've done this a lot of years that I I used to live in New Jersey but I've got a daughter here and and so my wife and I followed her out here to be close and I've been in ICU as an ICU nurse and I love what I do and I'm really good at it but I have three rules and he says now these rules are not true you there for me but I want you to know what they are and my first rule is and again there's nothing you have to do about this this is about me so my first rule is that I believe that every single human being is created by God and is worthy of all the attention that they need and I'm here to do that my second rule is that I believe you belong to God I don't I'm not about you know asking you what you believe that's this just I'm telling you what I believe and I believe that in my relationship with God I need to to respond to you because I know how precious you are to God and the third thing that I want you to know is that that people come in here and obviously they've got physical hurt and physical pain but a lot of people it's not the physical heart that's hurting it's their emotional heart or their spiritual heart or they're hurting in their in their minds so I want you to know that if you have any question if you're worried about anything if anything is bothering you that if I don't know the answer I will find someone who does and and these hurts if they're not you know they're about confusion or about things that are going on in your world and you want to talk about them he said I'm really good at helping people heal in those ways - I just want you to know who I am and we're standing there going like this is a hospital you know I'm serious right and and we're just kind of blown away and Kim's kind of over way and I mean he just was this huge presence in settling influence so a few minutes later by this time now we're almost to nine o'clock and and so Andrews leaving Scott and Lisa are leaving the girls have already gone and and I said to Andrew and Scott lays out I'll walk you out to the parking lot and them and I'm thinking like you don't I wonder if Scott the night nurse has ever read the shot and I got a copy in my car so I'm going to go out the to go get it get him get him give him a and I just it was one of those nudges you you know those nudges right those nudges that you learn to listen to because you find out that that's where the Holy Spirit plays a lot yeah so I was like oh that's a good idea must have originated with me right so and and the part of the beauty of this interaction in this relationship is that we get to participate as children and this is like come on so I go out there and you know kiss my son goodbye and and go out to my car and pick up a copy and I take it back in in them and it's Scott the night nurse who lets me in to the ICU and he comes forward to me and I got the shack in my hand and I say hey Scott have you ever read this book he goes oh my gosh I have been looking for my copy of that all day long he says he says you won't believe this he says but there's a nurse here that works with me if I'm this ship he lowered his voice her name's Jennifer and and Jennifer is um she's really going through a hard time and I've been telling her all day about Jeff but I can't find my coffee so I gave her my copy of Yves he said I'm ready to but I still think this is his best book and I said have you read crossroads he says what's crossroads right I said well he's got a second book too and and and I and he goes oh man I wish I could find my copy he said it's gone I went and got this out of the car because I wanted to give it to you he said you want to give me a copy of the shaft and I said yeah he goes off this is so like God right and and he and he said why I said Scott I wrote he goes what I said I wrote this he said you wrote this Jack said yeah he said I can't believe so I cannot begin to tell you how many people I've given this to in the course of being here and being present and talking to them it's given me a language to talk with people about I said hey I'll sign it for Jennifer said would you do that in fact sign it for Jennifer and then I'll give it to her and I'll also introduce her to you so okay so so he goes in and tells him Connor what's going on in about ten minutes later around the corner comes Jennifer and he goes hey Jennifer you know what that book I've been telling you about all day you eat the shack he goes yeah he said I got a copy for you oh she said that it's so great and he goes and gets it and he said and it's even signed she said it's sign he says yeah and here's an even better gift here's a guy who signed it because he wrote it and she burst into tears later that night she spends about an hour with him telling her about all the crisis sort of she's going through in her life about what's happening and but I mean she just hugs and cries and Scott's going like you know I don't know if you know this he says but mine oh nice Paul and Scott Hall of course it is so so Kim drops into normal sinus rhythm we spend the night in ICU and the next day we go home and she's never dropped out of normal sinus rhythm since then and that night ken looks at me and she says you know in the middle of all of this when I was so discouraged if that had not happened we'd have been sent to the open ward and none of this would have happened none of this would have happened timing is the sandbox of the Holy Spirit God who is always good climbs into the middle of what we have brought to the table whether we knew it or not and he's always working to build good with us out of every situation we find ourselves in Saturday we go home no Sunday Monday we go home two days later I get a text and that's from a guy that I'd met at New Canaan society it's a big men's conference in Washington DC right and and he had we had had this great conversation and he sends me a text and he goes hey Paul does this guy look familiar to you and it's a picture of Scott the night nurse and he says I'm at a family reunion in Louisiana and my brother Scott is here of course yeah eatin crawfish well he's and he says and Scott has just been telling us how he met the author of the shack right I mean there is so many things about this little and this is inside of our world in the last week and I just step back on these kinds of things and I hear Jesus say there we go thank you and I hear Jesus say little brother why are you calling me good it's only one who's dead can you see the twinkle in his eye you see the depth of what he is saying and the little brother can't see it yet and it's okay and when he leaves he's grieve for him but it's not over that story's not over it's not the end of that story we only know a little piece of it we don't know about maybe when he went back I mean Jesus or who knows who knows one day we'll go what that story was but right at the heart of everything he was acquiring let me tell you about a God who is good all the time you see good in me it's because I'm created in the middle of that in the sense that of the God and son right but all human beings are created in the middle as expressions of the goodness of God and we participate whether we understand that or not and this is what Baxter is saying about that in terms of the of the cross remember Jesus constantly said I only do what I see the father do remember that this is mantra for him here's the question does that apply to the cross Jesus says I only do what I see a father you does that apply it across my declaration is absolutely because I am the father or what you see him you see the father and jump and Paul sign you want to know where God the Father was for God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not counting our sins against for God the Father was in Christ I only knew what I see the father Union participation the goodness of God inside the messiness of our stories inside all of these deaths that have been folded together and God Father Son and Holy Spirit become the wild cards and they introduce opportunities and and movement and change and transformation that is not otherwise possible stories not open and that doesn't fine nor does darkness no sickness they don't divine anything it's the goodness of God character God is the love of God the kindness of God's patience is the fury of God opposed of everything that is not of Love's kind in us that keeps us from being fully free and fully alive so we as our eyes become unveil begin to see the goodness of God that surrounds us in the activity of human beings whether they know they are participating or not because for any of the damage they were very good creations and in Christ they are new ones every good comes from God to the praise of his glory amen

Channel: Richmond Grace

Views: 25,239

Rating: 4.659193 out of 5

Keywords: wm paul young, paul young, the shack, rethink god, jesus, sermon, richmond, virginia, va, 2016

Id: G26GXoFHTjk

Length: 46min 34sec (2794 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 30 2016