00:00Hello everyone, this is William Chambers. It is good to be here with you all.
00:04Shout out to my YouTube family. I really do appreciate you guys more than you know.
00:08Our God is a great God. That being said, let us dive into the text.
00:13Today, if I had a title for what I'm going to talk about today, I would call it Love in
00:19Pain.
00:20The prayer that shook the cross. Oh, that was a prayer that shows God's love.
00:29Like the cross shows God's love. And we're going to talk about that today.
00:34Can you imagine being in unbearable pain? Betrayed. Mocked. Nailed to some wood.
00:43And your very first words is asking for your forgiveness for your enemies that put you there.
00:50Can you imagine? That'd be your first thought. They nailed you to the cross.
00:55And you're asking for forgiveness for them. Oh, goodness help us.
01:00Oh, at the cross there are two sounds that you hear. You hear the hammer striking the nails.
01:07And you also hear the Son of God praying for his enemies.
01:13Two sounds. Which one of these sounds would define our life?
01:18One was the sound of revenge. We want to get him back.
01:21He shouldn't have been preaching about that God.
01:23He shouldn't have been upsetting the religious leaders. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
01:28And the other one is the sound of mercy.
01:31Forgive the Father, for they know not what they do.
01:34Which one would define our lives? Help us, God.
01:38Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
01:42And they parted his raiment and cast lots.
01:47That was the prayer of Jesus while he was nailed up on the cross.
01:51He had a love that still called out on the Father.
01:58When the nails were driven into his arms, when the nails were driven into his feet,
02:02and the blood was still flowing, he did not question God.
02:06He didn't turn away from God.
02:07I've seen people, when it got really deep on them, they turned away from God.
02:12I've seen it. I've seen it happen.
02:14Oh, God, they went out from us because they were not of us.
02:17For had they been of us, they would have continued with us.
02:20But I've seen men turn because God had allowed certain things to happen in their lives.
02:25Oh, Lord.
02:26But Jesus still called the Father.
02:29Father.
02:29That's intimacy language.
02:32When you are wounded, when you are betrayed, when you get health situations or lies circulate around you,
02:40when injustice happens to you, what do you call God?
02:46Do you still say Father?
02:48Do you still speak intimately?
02:51Oh, we're talking about the love of God.
02:52Or do we call God distant?
02:55Do we wonder where was he?
02:57Do we think he's unfair for allowing this to happen to us?
03:02Or do we call him Father?
03:04This is what Jesus did.
03:06We're looking at the love of Christ.
03:08He had love that was still called Father, Father, no matter the circumstances.
03:13Then he had a love that forgives before it is asked to.
03:17Oh, my.
03:18We're talking about the depth of the love of God.
03:20A love that forgives before it is asked to.
03:22Meaning, nobody apologized to Jesus.
03:26He is in pain right now.
03:28Nails are still in his hands.
03:32Nobody expressed any sorrow.
03:35If anything, they expressed indifference towards him.
03:39The nails were still fresh.
03:41Yet, he is up here requesting forgiveness.
03:45Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
03:48Look at this love.
03:50Look at how he loves.
03:53The cross shows us that there is a love that does not need an apology first.
04:00There is a love that does not need to explain yourself first.
04:04There is a love that does not say, make it right first.
04:07There is a love that says first, Father, forgive them.
04:13This is the kind of love that will change the world.
04:17And it will guard your heart against bitterness.
04:20Oh, God, help us.
04:23Oh, it will guard your heart from getting hardened by this world.
04:26Because you're not holding on to nothing.
04:28Father, forgive them.
04:30They know not what they do.
04:32Then, what we see in Jesus is a love that understands human blindness.
04:37He said, for they know not what they do.
04:40Basically, he's saying that these people are blind to what they are doing to me.
04:43Therefore, I'm not going to excuse what they're doing.
04:46They're still guilty.
04:47However, I do understand that there's a blindness.
04:50It's not just that they're guilty.
04:51They're also blind.
04:53Many of the wounds that we take were by people that did not understand their actions.
05:01This does not erase what they did.
05:03It does not make it right what they did.
05:06But it explains why we should have some compassion.
05:08They didn't know that they were being used of the enemy.
05:13Help us.
05:14Many wounds that we have inflicted to us were inflicted by people who did not know the depth of what
05:18they were doing.
05:20They didn't know it was going to lead you like it did.
05:22They didn't know it was going to hurt you like it did.
05:24They didn't know the ripple effect of how many years and decades it would take.
05:27They didn't know.
05:28They didn't know the spiritual weight of what they did.
05:32They did it in ignorance.
05:37What am I trying to say?
05:40Jesus had a love that recognizes that some harms flow from ignorance.
05:46Some harms flow from fear.
05:49Some harms flow from deception.
05:52Not calculated malice.
05:55Meaning, they did not calculate all that was going to happen and understand all that was going to happen when
06:00they did it.
06:01What I'm saying is, help us God to have compassion like Jesus did.
06:06Knowing that they didn't know.
06:09That's what Jesus said.
06:10Forget them, Father.
06:11They know not what they do.
06:13Oh, think about how many things you've done.
06:15And you didn't know that it was going to be what it was.
06:19Or there's things you've done that you don't know what kind of pain you've caused.
06:23Oh, you need the same forgiveness that you need to give other people.
06:27Help me, God.
06:28I hope I'm making sense.
06:30Meaning, Jesus sees ignorance where other people will just see offense at.
06:36Jesus will recognize spiritual blindness where other people will only see cruelty.
06:41But love sees a bigger picture is what Jesus is showing us here.
06:45It was bigger than the soldiers.
06:47It was bigger than the mockers.
06:48It was bigger than the religious leaders.
06:50It was spiritual darkness at work as well.
06:53Forget them, Father.
06:55They don't even know.
06:55You know how if you have children, they do something, and it really messes up some stuff.
07:02I had my son.
07:02He broke two of my televisions.
07:05Talking about hot?
07:08Talking about hot?
07:11He broke them because he pushed them over.
07:14But I also had to keep in mind, he's only two.
07:18He's only three.
07:19He didn't know what he was doing.
07:22Help us, God.
07:23Help us.
07:25He didn't do it out of malice.
07:27When we understand that blindness drives much of human cruelty, our hearts become guarded against bitterness.
07:35It wasn't calculated malice.
07:37Let it go.
07:38Forget them, Father.
07:39They don't know what they do.
07:41So Jesus had a love.
07:42So look at this love.
07:44Jesus had a love that still called God Father.
07:46He had a love that asked for forgiveness before it was asked of.
07:50He had a love that understood human blindness.
07:53And he had a love that gives while others were taking.
07:56Jesus was praying and they were parting his lots.
08:00The Bible says, and they parted his raiment and casted lots.
08:04Jesus was praying for them and they was gambling over his clothes.
08:08Jesus was praying for them and they was leaving him naked at the cross and seeing who's going to get
08:13his stuff.
08:14Jesus was bleeding and they was dividing his spoils.
08:18Look at this indifference.
08:19In the midst of indifference and cruelty.
08:21And we live in an indifferent, cruel world.
08:24Jesus was still loving.
08:26He didn't use it as an excuse not to love.
08:28His love wasn't growing cold.
08:29He was still loving.
08:30He continued to love.
08:31And we are to continue to love in the midst of a cold, cruel world that's indifferent towards us.
08:36He had a love that was giving.
08:38He was giving himself while others were taking.
08:41Meaning he had a love that wasn't calculating what am I getting in return.
08:46Look at this love, God.
08:48This love is wonderful and amazing.
08:50It's hard to comprehend.
08:50He had a love that wasn't calculating the fairness of it.
08:54He kept on loving even though it wasn't fair.
08:56Even though he was getting nothing in return.
08:58He kept on loving it.
09:00It did not stop him from giving because other people were selfish.
09:04Look at this love.
09:06It continued.
09:07He had a love that continues.
09:10This is a love at the cross.
09:13Christ's love is a love that I can't comprehend.
09:15This love at the cross I cannot comprehend.
09:17This is a love while he was in pain.
09:23Help us, Lord, to love while we're in pain.
09:27While people are doing us wrong.
09:29This is the love that shakes the cross.
09:32My title.
09:34Praise be to God.
09:36Help us, Lord.
09:37We are in need of you.
09:38Help us to love like you.
09:39In Jesus' name we pray and say.
09:41Amen.
09:42Amen.
09:43Amen.
09:44Amen.
09:48Amen.
09:49Amen.
09:50Amen.
09:52Amen.
09:57Amen.
09:58Amen.
09:58Amen.
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