00:01i want you to hear me today if you want proof that jesus is not standing there waiting for
00:08you to perform your way to his love you know the ladder that religion makes you climb you
00:14got to say this prayer you got to do this you got to talk to this guy who's on staff
00:19with our
00:19company and you got to tell him all everything you've ever done wrong and you've got to pray
00:25to jesus's mother and light candles at the feet of wooden statues and then maybe if you're really
00:34really good and you deserve it and you make the book you get to go to heaven but i'm going
00:42to prove
00:43that's not the case i want you to look at the thief on the cross the man had nothing left
00:50to offer
00:51he did not have time to turn his life around in a visible way he did not have time to
00:59build a good
00:59reputation he did not have time to attend church or do all the gymnastics your church wants you to do
01:09in order to earn your place into heaven he didn't know any religious language at all
01:15he didn't clean up his image he didn't make amends to everybody or stack up enough good behavior to look
01:23worthy in front of other people he was dying and in the middle of that he turned to jesus and
01:33said
01:35jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom that's all he had folks he didn't give anything
01:45more than that no polished prayer no religious track record no second chance to prove himself over the
01:55next 10 years this was just a broken man at the end of his rope looking at jesus and reaching
02:05for mercy
02:06and jesus well jesus did not say it's too late for you or you didn't confess all your sins and
02:15receive
02:16absolution he did not say you should have lived better he did not say let me see more from you
02:24first
02:25he did not say let me check whether you followed all the rules jesus said and i quote truly
02:38i say to you today you will be with me in paradise my friends that matters because that man did
02:51not get
02:52saved by performance he did not get welcomed by religious rule keepers he was not accepted because
03:02he finally had an impressive spiritual resume there was no book to make he was accepted because he turned to
03:13jesus in faith that's it he didn't do anything else he just did that and that is such an important
03:23thing
03:24that i want you to hear today because a lot of people still live like they need to impress god
03:30before they
03:31can come close to him they live like love has to be earned they live like mercy is only for
03:39people who have
03:40already done enough to deserve it but the thief on the cross well he destroys that whole way of thinking
03:51he had no ladder left to climb he had no time left to fix the story he had no religious
03:59performance left to
04:00offer and jesus our jesus still received him now that does not make obedience meaningless don't get me wrong
04:12it just puts obedience in the right place you see obedience is not how you buy the love of god
04:20obedience is what starts growing after you have been met by the love of god the thief on the cross
04:30well he shows you that the door opens because of jesus not because of your performance or ability to follow
04:40all the rules and that's why this matters so much for the person listening right now who feels behind
04:49maybe you feel disqualified or ashamed or maybe you're just spiritually exhausted you know what i've been
04:57all those things i've felt every single one of those things and as a former atheist i used to think
05:06that i
05:06had wasted too much time maybe you think your past has already said too much about you
05:14i know i did maybe you think that you have failed too many times for this to still be true
05:20for you
05:22and maybe you think other people look more worthy than you do but the thief on the cross
05:29he had none of the things religious people usually lean on and say you have to have
05:36and jesus jesus jesus still gave him paradise why you may ask because jesus responds to a real faith
05:49because jesus welcomes the one who turns to him because grace is actually grace
05:58and maybe that's the part some people have trouble accepting
06:03you know we say we believe in grace but deep down a lot of us still want to sneak performance
06:10back into the story we still want to think there has to be one more hoop one more requirement or
06:19one more
06:21test we always seem to be placing one more layer of worthiness before jesus can receive us
06:29but the cross says otherwise one criminal mocked him the other turned toward him and the one who turned
06:39toward him was met with mercy right there in the final hours of his life and that tells you something
06:46about the heart of jesus he's not looking for polished people he's not he's just looking for honest people
06:55he's not waiting for a perfect record he responds to a real turning of the heart
07:01he is not saved for the people who seem religious on the outside he's available to the person who knows
07:12they need him so if you're listening to me right now and thinking i do not know if i have
07:19done enough
07:21that is exactly the point you have not you have not done enough nobody has neither have i
07:31the thief on the cross he had not either and that's why jesus came you see friends not to reward
07:40human
07:40performance but to save people who could not save themselves the man on the cross could not come down
07:49to live a better life for 20 years he could not make up for everything he had done and he
07:57had done a lot
07:58he could not build a cleaner story all he could do was place his hope in jesus and jesus said
08:09that should take the weight off of somebody today because jesus said yes because if love and mercy of jesus
08:21can reach a dying thief in his final hours then the love and mercy of jesus can reach you right
08:29where you are you do not need one more religious achievement you do not need one more rule to be
08:37accepted
08:37you do not need one more polished version of yourself to receive his mercy you just need jesus that's it
08:50and jesus receives people who come to him all of us every single person and that's the hope
08:59that's the freedom that's why nobody gets to brag and why nobody has to despair
09:10jesus loves you he proved it over and over again in the new testament don't take some religion's word for
09:18it go out and read the rule book for yourself it's not even really a rule book it's just
09:26the greatest story ever told and it's called the new testament of the holy bible
09:31picking up i have a playlist on my channel here i go through every single chapter of the new
09:38testament of the holy bible each once a 10 minute talk i explain it so simply that an eighth grader
09:46can
09:46understand it go out and check that playlist out i'll put a link to it in the description for this
09:52video
09:54i'm telling you right now if anybody in this world has your back
09:59if anybody loves you it's jesus christ and my name is douglas vandergraaf and i believe in jesus christ
10:11god bless every single one of you every single one
10:19bye bye
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