00:01So, when I was growing up, I belonged to a popular religion.
00:07My family went to church every Sunday, and we did the gymnastics.
00:12You get up, you kneel down, you get up, you kneel down, you say the same things today that you
00:19said last year on the same day.
00:21It's the repetitive nature of it that keeps people in their wallets coming back through the door.
00:27You know, you had to confess your sins to some human being who gave you a set of prayers that
00:34needed to be accomplished.
00:35And if you didn't complete all those prayers, well, then God wouldn't forgive you.
00:41And Jesus, Jesus had this special set of rules as well and prayers that needed to be said in order
00:49for certain tasks or certain wants and needs to come to fruition within your life.
00:56It sounded like witchcraft to me.
00:59You know, you go to the altar, you say prayers to the specific God or saint or whoever it is,
01:06and then based on the fact that you said the right words, they manifest whatever it is that you desired
01:13or needed.
01:14They solve your problem.
01:16I cannot believe in 2026, people still believe God works that way.
01:22God is not an ATM.
01:24He is not a computer.
01:26He is not a method of transaction.
01:29You give so much of this, and he gives you the same thing in return, but answers your prayer, solves
01:36your problem.
01:37It's just like the craziest thing.
01:42I have been through the New Testament with a fine-toothed comb, and I don't know where some of these
01:47religions or major churches come up with some of the things they teach people.
01:52It's not in the book.
01:54God never asked for those things.
01:57It's not one of the truths.
02:02It just blows me away.
02:03You can see it frustrates me a little bit.
02:05But when I sat down and wrote this one, I was touched, and I needed to get this off my
02:11chest today.
02:13There is a truth so simple and so beautiful, so liberating, that many believers walk right past it without ever
02:24letting it sink into their bones.
02:28Jesus does not love you because you behave well.
02:34He doesn't love you because you pray a certain set of prayers perfectly or that you pray to his mother
02:41or to any of his buddies.
02:45He doesn't love you because you check all the religious boxes and follow all the rules your church says you
02:52have to follow, you know.
02:56Jesus doesn't love you because you finally got your life cleaned up enough to qualify.
03:02He loves you because love is who he is.
03:06Did you hear that?
03:07He loves you because love is who he is.
03:12When you start talking about Jesus, you're not talking about a God whose affection rises and falls with your personal
03:22performance.
03:24You're talking about a Savior whose very identity is love itself.
03:30And when love is someone's identity, it cannot be negotiated, manipulated, or diminished by your failures.
03:40It is steady, unchanging, unearned, and unstoppable.
03:46The more you let that reality settle into your spirit, the more you begin to understand the freedom God always
03:54intended his children to live in.
03:59For so many people, faith becomes a kind of moral treadmill.
04:04You run harder.
04:05You try more.
04:07You discipline yourself.
04:09You push and grind to be accepted by a God who never asked you to perform for him.
04:17Men have asked you that through their religious rules.
04:21God himself?
04:23Get the New Testament out.
04:25Read it through a couple of times.
04:27It's not in there.
04:28He never asks you to perform.
04:31He just loves you.
04:33You see, somewhere along the way, the joy of the gospel gets replaced with an exhausting project of self-improvement.
04:42Because Jesus never invited anyone into a performance.
04:47He invited them into a relationship.
04:52He didn't come looking for the put together, the polished, the flawless.
04:58He came looking for the weary, the wandering, the wounded, the willing guys who wear band t-shirts because that's
05:08what they love and own.
05:11He came looking for the weary, my friends, the ones that aren't even sure if they belong in the story.
05:20If Jesus' love depended on your behavior, the cross would never have happened.
05:28If his love waited for you to get your life in perfect order, cavalry would still be in a deal.
05:37But love moved first.
05:40It moved before you.
05:42You see, grace spoke before you ever answered.
05:46Mercy ran toward you while you were still far off.
05:50That is why this truth carries so much weight.
05:54His love is not a reaction to your goodness.
05:59Your goodness is often a reaction to his love.
06:04You know, you can see this in every page of the New Testament when you slow down enough to notice
06:11it.
06:12Jesus keeps moving toward the wrong kind of people.
06:15The people today that we would look at and say, oh, they don't belong here.
06:21The broken people.
06:22The unclean people.
06:25The people everyone else avoided because they didn't meet the religious standards of the day.
06:32Boy, we still do that stuff today.
06:34Can you believe it?
06:35And he touched the leper before the leper was healed.
06:39He welcomed the woman caught in adultery before she changed her life.
06:44You know, think about that.
06:47The woman caught in adultery was thrown at Christ's feet.
06:54He wrote something in the dirt and the stones dropped one by one and they all left.
07:00And he asked the woman, where are your accusers?
07:05Are they not still here?
07:07And she said, no, Lord, they've all gone.
07:11He said, then neither do I condemn you.
07:14He forgave her right there.
07:17Note, she never asked for forgiveness.
07:20She never went to a church and confessed her sins to some priest.
07:25And now she's forgiven because only God can move through the hand of man, which is totally not true.
07:33He welcomed this woman caught in adultery before she changed her life.
07:40And he called Matthew while Matthew was still sitting at a tax booth doing the very job that made people
07:47hate him.
07:49You know, these moments aren't exceptions.
07:53They're revelations.
07:55They show you what love looks like when it comes from identity rather than condition.
08:01Jesus wasn't afraid that loving the wrong people would tarnish his reputation because his love didn't flow from reputation.
08:11It flowed from his nature.
08:14And when your identity is love, you don't wait for people to get it right.
08:20You step into their mess, speak life into their shame, and call out the treasure that is still buried under
08:28all of their brokenness.
08:29Because no matter where you've been, where you've come from, or what you've done, God's put something beautiful in you
08:37too.
08:38And one of the most beautiful parts of walking with Christ is realizing that transformation comes from being loved.
08:48Not from trying to earn love or completing a set of tasks that some religion has designed for you.
08:57Most believers have it backwards.
08:59They think, if I change enough, God will love me more.
09:06You know what the gospel says?
09:08It says, because God loves you perfectly, you will change.
09:15Not out of fear, not out of pressure, and not out of religious obligation.
09:22You change because love softens what bitterness once hardened.
09:27I used to be an atheist.
09:28I don't go to any churches.
09:30No religion changed my life.
09:33Jesus Christ did.
09:35And you change because grace loosens what shame once tightened.
09:40You change because mercy washes what guilt once stained.
09:44And you change because the love of Jesus reaches places in your heart that rules and discipline never could.
09:55That's why some people try for decades to fix themselves, only to grow more frustrated.
10:02They're trying to do God's work without God's love.
10:08But the moment love becomes the foundation, everything else flows from there.
10:15You know, many Christians live like spiritual orphans, feeling tolerated by God instead of cherished.
10:24Feeling like a project instead of a son or a daughter.
10:29But listen closely.
10:32Jesus doesn't love you because you are lovable.
10:36He loves you because he is love.
10:39When that truth finally breaks through, it shifts the entire way you see him and the entire way you see
10:48yourself.
10:49You stop striving for approval you already have.
10:54You stop hiding the parts of you he already died to redeem.
11:01You stop fearing that he will change his mind about you because other people did or what other people have
11:10said.
11:11And you begin to see that the love of Jesus isn't fragile.
11:17It's unbreakable, my friends.
11:19It doesn't evaporate when you stumble.
11:23It doesn't evaporate because some religious leader said you didn't check all the boxes.
11:27It doesn't contract when you doubt.
11:31It doesn't withdraw if you fail.
11:36The love of Jesus confronts the very places you think disqualify you.
11:41And it whispers, I am still here and I'm not letting go.
11:48Now, I want you to let this settle into your spirit.
11:53Jesus didn't come to modify your behavior.
11:56He came to resurrect your heart.
12:00He didn't come to manage your sin.
12:03He came to break its power.
12:07He didn't come to recruit better rule followers.
12:10He came to restore lost sons and daughters.
12:15When love is someone's identity, they don't measure you by what you've done.
12:21They measure you by what they can heal.
12:26Jesus sees your past without flinching.
12:29And trust me, you hide nothing from him.
12:31He sees your wounds without backing away.
12:34He sees your struggles without shaking his head.
12:38And he loves you not because of who you are, but because of who he is.
12:46This is what makes his love holy.
12:50This is what makes grace unbelievable.
12:53And that is what makes the gospel worth giving your entire life to.
13:02So today, let's let this truth breathe a fresh wind through our souls.
13:08Let it break the change you've secretly carried.
13:12Let it dismantle the lie that God is disappointed in you because he's not.
13:18Let it silence the inner critic that keeps telling you that you are not enough.
13:25Jesus' love for you is not fragile and it's not conditional.
13:31It's not performance-based.
13:34It is rooted in his divine identity, which means nothing in your past, nothing in your
13:42present, and nothing in your future can alter it.
13:48When you finally believe that, I'm going to tell you right now, everything changes.
13:53You start walking differently.
13:55You pray differently.
13:57You forgive others differently.
13:59You treat yourself differently.
14:02And you begin to live not as someone trying to become loved, but as someone already held by
14:09the greatest love the world has ever known.
14:12And if you let it, that truth will heal you today.
14:18It will mature you today.
14:21It will steady you and it will draw you into a life where obedience flows from love, where holiness
14:29grows from intimacy, and where your identity finally aligns with the one who has loved you all along.
14:37Not because you behave well or check all the boxes or kneel at the right prayer or do whatever
14:46they say you have to do, but because what God says and his love is the truest thing about
14:56him and the truest gift he has ever spoken over you.
15:05My name is Douglas Van der Graaff and I believe in Jesus Christ.
15:10God bless you, my friends.
15:16God bless you, our friends.
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