00:00Is there a God?
00:03What if we were to ask that question of Jesus Christ?
00:07What do you think his answer might be?
00:10What if we could channel him and hear his voice?
00:14Maybe it would look something like this.
00:19You have been carrying more than people know.
00:23You smile when you have to.
00:25You answer messages when you are exhausted.
00:28You get through the day, but inside you are tired in a way that sleep has not fixed.
00:36You have prayed and still hurt.
00:39You have hoped and still waited.
00:42You have tried to believe, but when the room gets quiet, the question rises again.
00:50God, are you really there?
00:54Come close for a moment.
00:56I'm not angry at that question.
01:00I know why you ask it.
01:02You are not always asking because you wanted an argument.
01:07Sometimes you're asking because the weight has become too much.
01:12Sometimes pain makes the heart wonder whether heaven has gone silent.
01:18Sometimes disappointment makes faith feel like a small flame in a strong wind.
01:25I see that.
01:28I see the grief you carry.
01:30I see the fear you try to hide.
01:34I see the family strain, the financial pressure, the regret, the loneliness, and the tired place inside you that does
01:44not know how to explain itself.
01:46You may think no one notices how close you have come to breaking, but I notice.
01:54If you want to know whether God is real, look at me.
02:03I did not come into the world to give people cold ideas about God.
02:08I came to reveal the Father.
02:11I came so you could see what God does when he steps into human pain.
02:16I came so you would not have to guess whether God cares about broken people, the ashamed, the grieving, the
02:28sick, the lonely, the rejected, and the exhausted.
02:34Watch me with them.
02:37Watch me touch the man nobody wanted to touch.
02:41Watch me speak with the woman others avoided.
02:44Watch me stop for the blind man when the crowd wanted him quiet.
02:50Watch me weep outside a tomb.
02:54Watch me feed hungry people before teaching them.
02:58Watch me forgive people who had nothing left but need.
03:04Watch me stand near sinners without becoming sin.
03:09Watch me correct the proud without crushing the weak.
03:14That is the heart of God in front of you.
03:19Many people misunderstand me.
03:22They think I came to make religion heavier.
03:26I came because people were already crushed.
03:31I came because the lost needed finding, the sick needed healing, and the weary needed rest.
03:42And the fearful needed a shepherd who would not run when wolves came near.
03:49When I said the kingdom of God was near, I was not giving people a church phrase.
03:57I was telling them that God has stepped close.
04:01His mercy had entered the street.
04:04His authority had entered the room.
04:07His light had become ordinary lives where shame, fear, sickness, and sorrow had been ruling for too long.
04:19That is why my proof is not only in words.
04:23My proof is in the way I came near.
04:28God is not proven only by thunder.
04:31He is proven by holy love that walks into the place where people are hurting.
04:37He is proven by mercy strong enough to tell the truth and tender enough not to destroy the broken.
04:46He is proven by the cross.
04:49Where I carried human sin, human shame, human cruelty, and human sorrow in my own body.
05:00Do not rush past that.
05:02The cross was not just a symbol.
05:06It was God saying,
05:08Your pain matters to me.
05:11Your soul matters to me.
05:15Your sin is not too deep for my mercy.
05:19Your death is not stronger than my life.
05:24And the empty tomb is God saying,
05:28This is not the end.
05:30You may say,
05:32But I prayed and it still hurts.
05:35I know.
05:37You may say,
05:39I believed and I still lost something.
05:43I know.
05:45You may say,
05:48I tried to trust God, but I am tired.
05:53I know that too.
05:55I am not asking you to pretend the wound is not real.
05:59I am asking you to bring the wound to me.
06:03There is a kind of faith that looks strong in public, but hides from me in private.
06:11That is not what I am asking from you.
06:14Bring me the trembling part.
06:17Bring me the question.
06:19Bring me the little faith you still have,
06:22Even if it feels small in your hands.
06:27You have heard,
06:30Blessed are the pure in heart,
06:32For they shall see God.
06:35Many think that means only perfect people can find him.
06:39But I am not calling you to pretend you are perfect.
06:44I am calling you into the light.
06:48A pure heart is not a heart that has never been wounded or confused.
06:53It is a heart that stops hiding from God.
07:21Some of you have been measuring God's love by one unanswered prayer.
07:26You have been looking at one painful season and saying,
07:30Maybe he's gone.
07:32But I am telling you,
07:35The Father has not turned away from you.
07:39Silence is not always absence.
07:42Waiting is not always rejection.
07:46A hard season is not proof that you have been forgotten.
07:52Look at me again.
07:55I came into a world that rejected me.
07:59I was misunderstood by my own people.
08:02I was betrayed by a friend.
08:05I was abandoned by people who said they loved me.
08:09I was nailed to a cross by hands I created.
08:13I know what pain feels like from inside human skin.
08:20So when you come to me tired,
08:22You are not coming to a Savior who is untouched by suffering.
08:28You are coming to one who entered it,
08:32Carried it,
08:33And overcame it.
08:35And that is why I can give rest that the world cannot give.
08:41Not always an easy life.
08:44Not always a quick answer.
08:47Not always the timeline you wanted.
08:51But my presence can hold you when everything else feels uncertain.
08:56My peace can steady you when your circumstances have not yet changed.
09:03My mercy can meet you in the same place where shame told you to hide.
09:12You ask,
09:14Is Jesus enough for this kind of pain?
09:18Yes.
09:19But not because your pain is small.
09:22I am enough because I am not small.
09:27I am enough for the grief that still catches in your chest.
09:31I am enough for the fear that wakes you up at night.
09:35I am enough for the regret you wish you could undo.
09:40I am enough for the pressure you cannot explain to people.
09:46I am enough for the prayers that feel unfinished.
09:51I do not ask you to carry tomorrow, today.
09:56Come to me with this breath.
09:59This moment.
10:01This heavy place.
10:04Let me be enough here, first.
10:08You do not have to solve your whole life before you reach for me.
10:12You do not have to clean up your heart before you speak my name.
10:17You do not have to understand every mystery before you trust the one who is standing near you.
10:26If you want to know whether God is real, do not begin with the noise.
10:32Begin with me.
10:34Look at my mercy.
10:37Look at my wounds.
10:39Look at my tears.
10:41Look at my patience with weak people.
10:44Look at my courage before death.
10:48Look at my forgiveness from the cross.
10:52Look at my life after the grave.
10:55I am the proof that God has not stayed far away.
11:01I am the face of the Father turned toward you.
11:06So, come.
11:08Not when you feel strong enough.
11:11Now.
11:13Come with the tired faith.
11:16Come with the honest question.
11:19Come with the pain you cannot fix.
11:22Come with the prayer that has no beautiful words left.
11:28I am not far from you.
11:31I have been closer than your fear has told you.
11:35And I will not leave you in the dark.
11:44My name is Douglas Vandegraaff.
11:47And I believe in Jesus Christ.
11:51God bless every single one of you.
11:56Every single one.
12:01Bye-bye.
12:04Bye-bye.
12:05Bye-bye.
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