00:01You know what? Did you know that Jesus loves you on the days you feel hard to love?
00:08You know, some of you woke up this morning with a weight on you that you could not even explain.
00:14Nothing dramatic happened and nobody called with bad news.
00:19The sky did not fall.
00:22You just opened your eyes and felt tired in a place that sleep did not fix.
00:27You looked at your life or maybe you looked at yourself and something in you got quiet.
00:35Not peaceful quiet, but heavy quiet.
00:39The kind where you start wondering what's wrong with you.
00:43The kind where you still believe in God, but your heart feels far away from everything else.
00:51That is where I want to begin today.
00:54Because I think a lot of people know that feeling.
00:58I think a lot of people love Jesus and still have days where they do not feel very lovable.
01:05And that's why this matters so much.
01:08When people say Jesus loves you, it can sound nice, but far away.
01:15It can sound like something meant for a greeting card or something people say when they don't know what else
01:22to say to you.
01:23You hear it enough times and it can start to lose its weight.
01:28But when your heart is worn down, when you're disappointed in yourself, when you're carrying regret, when you're tired of
01:39your own thoughts,
01:40those three words either become real or they mean nothing at all.
01:45And I want to tell you as plainly as I can today, Jesus loves you for real.
01:53Not the clean version of you and not the version that finally got it all together.
02:00Not the version that smiles in public and hides the rest.
02:05He loves you right where you actually are.
02:11And I think a lot of us make the same mistake without even realizing it.
02:15We start acting like the love of Jesus is something we have to stay worthy of.
02:21We know we did not earn it in the beginning, but somewhere along the way, we start living like we
02:27have to manage it.
02:29We think maybe he loves us more when we are strong or more when we pray better, more when we
02:37act right for a few days in a row,
02:40or more when our attitude improves, more when we stop struggling with the same things.
02:48And when we fail again or fall again or get discouraged again, something in us pulls back.
02:56We do not always run from God in some dramatic way.
03:01Sometimes we just go quiet.
03:04We stop expecting kindness from him.
03:07We stop believing he would still want us near.
03:13But that is not Jesus.
03:16I want to say that again.
03:18That is not Jesus.
03:21That may be how people love.
03:24That may be how shame talks.
03:28That may be how your past has trained you to think.
03:33And it may even be how you talk to yourself.
03:37But hear me clearly.
03:38That is not Jesus.
03:41Jesus is the one who moved toward people nobody else wanted.
03:45Jesus is the one who touched the people others avoided.
03:49Jesus is the one who sat with the broken, the embarrassed, the rejected, the guilty, the confused, and the worn
04:01out.
04:02He did not look at human weakness and pull back.
04:06He stepped closer.
04:08And that's not a small detail in the story.
04:15You see, some of you need to hear this in a very personal way today.
04:21Jesus is not done with you.
04:24He's not rolling his eyes at your slow progress.
04:27And he's not tired of hearing from you.
04:30He's not tired of hearing from you.
04:35He's not keeping score in the bitter way people do.
04:39He sees the whole battle.
04:41He sees what happened to you.
04:43He sees what you carry.
04:45He sees the places where you are trying harder than anybody knows.
04:50And he sees the nights you hold it together just enough to get through.
04:56He sees the parts of your heart you cannot explain to anybody else because you do not even have words
05:04for them yourself.
05:06And knowing all of that, he still loves you.
05:12And that matters because a lot of people are not suffering from a lack of information.
05:19They're suffering from a lack of rest.
05:22They know the verses.
05:24They know church words.
05:27They know what they're supposed to say and when they're supposed to say it.
05:32What they do not know is how to sit still long enough to believe that the Son of God could
05:39look at them with tenderness right now.
05:43Not later.
05:45And not after a breakthrough.
05:47Not after you change.
05:49But right now.
05:52I think some people would rather believe that Jesus is powerful than believe that he is gentle with them personally.
06:01You see, power is easier to admire from a distance.
06:05Love?
06:06Well, love gets close enough to undo you.
06:10And maybe that's where you are today.
06:13Maybe you're not doubting that Jesus is real.
06:16Maybe you're doubting that his love still reaches all the way down into the places where you are living right
06:25now.
06:26Maybe you're carrying mistakes or carrying grief.
06:30Maybe you're carrying habits you hate.
06:34Or maybe your faith is felt thin lately.
06:38Maybe your joy has been gone for a while.
06:41Or maybe, just maybe, you're just tired of being you.
06:47I want to say something simple that I hope stays with you today.
06:52Maybe your struggle does not make you unlovable to Jesus.
06:58It makes his love even more necessary.
07:02Sick people, well, they do not need less of a doctor.
07:06And wounded people, they don't need less care.
07:11Lost people do not need less direction.
07:14The whole reason his love means so much is because it meets us where we cannot rescue ourselves.
07:23Now, I've learned over the years that people can survive a lot when they know they're loved.
07:29Not flattered, used, or tolerated, but loved.
07:33You see, real love steadies a person.
07:37Real love can pull somebody back from the edge.
07:40Real love can help a person breathe again.
07:44And the love of Jesus is just that type of love.
07:49It's not soft in the shallow sense.
07:52It's the kind of love that tells the truth and still stays.
07:57The kind of love that does not excuse what is wrong,
08:01but also does not walk out on you because of it.
08:06The kind of love that can look straight at your mess and say,
08:11I am still here.
08:13And that's why I think this Simple Sunday kind of truth today is so important.
08:20You do not have to spend your whole life trying to earn what was already given at the cross.
08:26You do not have to wake up every day
08:29and wonder whether heaven has changed its mind about you overnight.
08:34You do not have to measure the love of Jesus by your mood or anybody else's mood.
08:42Your feelings are real, but they are not always telling you the truth.
08:48Some days your heart will feel warm and full.
08:52Some days it will feel numb and tired.
08:55Neither one of those days changes who Jesus is.
09:00He does not love you because you feel spiritual.
09:05He loves you because that is who he is.
09:10And I know there are people listening right now who have been harder on themselves than anyone else has.
09:17I do it to myself as well.
09:20You know, you say things to yourself you would never say to another human being.
09:25You replay your worst moments.
09:27You stare at your flaws until they start to feel bigger than anything else in your life.
09:33You keep thinking that one day, after enough improvement,
09:38you will finally be able to relax and believe that God loves you.
09:43But that day is never going to come if you keep making perfection the doorway to peace.
09:50You see, Jesus did not say, clean yourself up and then come close.
09:56He said, come to me.
09:59That means tired people can come.
10:02Ashamed people can come.
10:05Confused people can come.
10:07Weak people can come.
10:09People who have carried the same prayer a hundred times over and over and over
10:15are welcome to come too.
10:18You see, there's something deeply healing about finally stopping the performance.
10:24Not because holiness does not matter, because it does.
10:28And not because growth does not matter, because it does.
10:33But because love has come before change, if the change is going to last.
10:40Fear can force behavior for a little while.
10:44And shame can push people around for a season.
10:48But love, love reaches deeper.
10:52Love makes a person want to live.
10:55Love makes a person lift their head again.
10:58It makes somebody believe that maybe their story is not over.
11:03And maybe they are not ruined.
11:07Maybe Jesus is not standing far away, waiting for them to become somebody else.
11:14And I think some of the strongest people are not the ones who never struggle.
11:19They are the ones who keep turning back toward Jesus in the middle of the struggle.
11:23They keep showing up.
11:26They keep being honest.
11:28They keep saying, Lord, here I am.
11:32Not impressively or polished, just, Lord, here I am.
11:37And that kind of faith may not look flashy, but you know what?
11:42It's real.
11:43And I believe Jesus honors that.
11:46I believe heaven sees that.
11:48And I believe there is something beautiful about a person who has every reason to quit and still whispers the
11:56name of Jesus.
11:58So today, let this be simple.
12:01Jesus loves you.
12:03He loves you in the middle of healing, not only at the end of it.
12:08He loves you while you are learning.
12:10He loves you while you are grieving.
12:13He loves you while you are still trying to understand what God is even doing in your life.
12:19He loves you when your prayer is strong.
12:22He loves you when all you can manage is, help me.
12:26He loves you on the ordinary Sunday when nothing dramatic happens and all you need is enough light to take
12:35the next step.
12:36Do not make the mistake of thinking you have to feel worthy before you receive that love.
12:43Nobody does.
12:45That is what makes grace, grace.
12:49Let him love you in the real place.
12:51Let him meet you in the honest place.
12:54Let him sit with you in the tired place.
12:59Stop running from the very one who already knows everything and stays with you.
13:06And maybe that's the line to carry with you today.
13:11He already knows everything and he stays anyway.
13:15That is Jesus.
13:17And that, my friends, is love.
13:20That's your hope when your own heart is all over the place.
13:27Excuse me.
13:28That is your strength when you feel weak.
13:31That is your peace when your mind will not slow down.
13:35The love of Jesus is not a fragile thing.
13:39It is steady.
13:41It is faithful.
13:42It is stronger than your shame, stronger than your past, stronger than your fear, and stronger than the lies you
13:51tell yourself.
13:55It can make you feel too far gone.
13:58But you are not too far gone.
14:01You're not forgotten.
14:03You are not messy for mercy.
14:06You are not too late for grace.
14:09Jesus loves you.
14:12And that love is not small.
14:14And it's not thin.
14:16It's not just passing through.
14:19It's here, right now.
14:21And it's reaching for you.
14:24So, breathe.
14:26Lift your head.
14:27Take the next step and let yourself believe.
14:31Maybe more than you did before this talk started.
14:36That the heart of Jesus is still turned toward you.
14:44My name is Douglas Vandergraaf and I believe in Jesus Christ.
14:50May God bless every single one of you.
14:56Every single one.
14:58Bye-bye.
15:01Bye-bye.
15:03Bye-bye.
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