Questions Jesus Asked Part 3 | Yertle The Per-able with Stephen Dunn

Welcome to Hub City Vineyard.

To get connected or to give online, go to connect.hcv.church or give.hcv.church.

If at any point during this message you feel called to make a change in your life, text

change me to 970-00.

Thank you and enjoy the message.

All right, so I'm going to invite Stephen to come out.

There he is.

For those of you that don't know him.

This is our youth pastor, Stephen Dunn.

It is youth takeover.

So he will be sharing with you this morning.

Hi, everybody.

I don't know about you, but I'm sweating.

Where the AC at?

My name is Stephen Dunn.

I'm the youth pastor here.

I don't have a, I'm not ordained.

I don't have a college degree in Bible.

I have a bachelor's in special education, K through 12.

That's what I did for a while.

You're clapping because you know that I've been through some stuff.

And this, I say that to say that this week as I was preparing for this message, I was

like, man, I just don't think that what I have to say is going to change anybody's life.

Then I was reminded in Genesis 1 where it talks about how God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit,

and the Trinity were there and they created and spoke and then created all things.

And then I'm often reminded how the same spirit that created the heavens and the earth is

the same spirit that dwells inside of us.

So I'm going to say stupid things.

I'm going to say things that Chris probably won't like.

But I'm also through the glory of God, hopefully I can say things that can create life in your

soul today.

Does that make sense?

So if the Holy Spirit is speaking through me and creates life, that would make you the

void, right?

What did the void do that allowed life to be created?

It received.

So your job today is to sit there, look pretty, and receive.

Can you do that for me?

Can you lock in?

So here's what I'm going to do.

This is Youth Takeover and the whole point of this is to show you that we have a growing

and thriving youth ministry at Hub City Vineyard.

I don't care about attendance because numbers don't matter.

Quality over quantity.

And I'll tell you what, we have lives that are being changed from sixth to twelfth grade.

And one of those students, his name is Drew, he's an eighth grader, I'm super proud of

him, and I asked him if he could come out and pray for you guys to get ready to receive.

Is that cool?

Can an eighth grade young man pray over you today?

Because not to be offensive, but some of you old people can learn a thing or two about

the reckless faith that some of these youth have.

You know what I'm saying?

All right, Drew, you there?

Yeah, I'm right here.

Everyone say, what's up, Drew?

All right.

Do your thing.

How's everyone doing?

Hey, that's good to hear.

That's good to hear.

So, is that okay?

Can you just pray?

All right.

Everyone bow your heads up.

You know, I just thank you, Lord.

Thank you for being so good that you've just done so many great things and you just empower

us to show your glory, Lord.

I just give all glory to you, all praise to you.

And you know, I just pray that Stephen can have a good sermon here and that we can all

just learn many things and that we can just hopefully learn how to give glory to God.

And I just pray that we can all be protected by God's shield and that his glory can just

shine on us, Lord.

I just thank you so much.

I just pray that many of us that may be dealing with injuries may be healed and that they

could just be protected by God's spirit and that your love can just shine down on us.

Heavenly Father, I just thank you.

With that being said, I pray that we have a good day and that we just give thanks to

you.

In the person's holy name, amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Good prayer, Drew.

Good prayer.

Thank you.

All right.

Questions Jesus asked.

Guess what this series is about.

It's about questions that Jesus.

Wow.

All of the ones that remain silent probably went to Smithsburg.

All right.

Here's what I need you to do.

Can you take your phones out for me?

For real.

I need you to set a timer on your phone for anywhere in between 15 and 25 minutes.

Can you do that?

Which means some of you will set it for 15, some of you set it for 20, some of you set

it for 25, some of you will set it for 18 and 30 seconds.

And I want your phone to audibly ring when the timer is over.

Does that make sense?

Every time that I get the opportunity to speak, my goal is to say something that you've never

heard before.

To teach something that you've never heard before and to show you something that you've

never heard before.

And that can be challenging because some of you old heads have heard everything in this

Bible preached five times.

So does everybody have their timer set?

Do you guys actually have your timer set?

Okay.

So here's what we're going to do.

Now either you can follow the Sky Bible or you can get your own Bibles out and we are

going to be in Matthew 13.

Matthew 13.

Smithsburg people.

Who do you think wrote Matthew?

Yes.

Matthew.

Wow.

Matthew wrote Matthew and this is an historical eyewitness account of the life and ministry

of Jesus Christ.

Whether you're a Christian or an atheist, we all agree or we should agree that this

is a historical writing.

The key difference is, is this a Hebrew man that's off his rocker?

Or is this actually the Messiah and the Son of God?

Whenever you look at it this way, it changes how you read the scripture.

Does this make sense?

So whether you're struggling with your faith or you are a follower of Jesus, all of us

can respect that this actually happened.

Does that make sense?

Matthew 13.

I'm going to get my Bible out.

It's large print.

So let's read.

I'm going to sum up some of the beginning.

Matthew 13 starts off with the parable of the sower.

Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake.

So as you can see, and this isn't exactly what I have yet.

By the way, real quick, just so everybody knows, we have a ninth grader running pro

here.

Look back here.

Look back here.

Come on now.

Come on now.

So Jesus is preaching to such a big crowd that he has to go onto a boat that's docked

by shore.

He gets on the boat, most likely with his disciples, and he starts to preach to the

crowd.

This must have been one of the best days of Jesus' life.

My dad always told me the two best days of a boat owner's life, the day you buy it and

the day you sell it.

Am I right?

So Jesus goes on to tell the parable of the sower.

And I'm not going to go into it.

You can read that on your own time.

But what I want to take in to advice is that verse 10, you see Jesus preaching on the boat

and the disciples cut Jesus off.

They cut him off.

Can you imagine?

And they say, Jesus, why do you speak to the people in parables?

Why do you speak to the people in parables?

I think we oftentimes ask that question as well.

Parables is this fancy word that has become Christianese, and we almost think that it's

more fancier than what it actually is.

Am I right?

So the first thing that I did when you don't understand what a word is, is you look it

up on the internet.

The dictionary definition of a parable is a simple story used to illustrate a moral

or spiritual lesson as told by Jesus in the gospels.

Does that make sense?

In the original Greek language, parable actually means to come alongside, meaning that Jesus,

through these teachings, is coming alongside his followers to help them learn and understand

the things of God.

Does this make sense?

For my Smithsburg people out there, I'm sorry Smithsburg, I don't know why I'm hating on

you.

Parables are simply biblical allegories.

The definition of an allegory is a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to

reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.

Does this make sense?

Most common allegories that you've probably heard in your life is animal farm, the tortoise

and the hare, the little engine that could, and Dr. Seuss's Yertle the turtle, the book.

That's why the title of this message is Yertle the parable.

Come on, that's funnier than what you give me credit for.

Come on guys.

So a parable is simply a story or a metaphorical thing that teaches invisible things.

Why does Jesus tell parables?

That leads us to our first point.

Jesus used visible things to teach invisible truths.

Jesus used visible things to teach invisible truths.

All right.

I don't know about y'all.

I kind of need y'all to like participate with me.

You know what I'm saying?

Right now I would rate the awkwardness level in here at about a homecoming.

Okay.

I hear some of y'all doing worship.

Can you like give me a little amen or something like that please?

Because like, you know what I'm saying?

Let's try that again.

Jesus used visible things to tell invisible truths.

Now let's look real quick at Jesus's answer to the disciples' questions.

Back in Matthew 13, you see the disciples came to Jesus and asked, Jesus, why do you

speak to the people in parables?

Jesus replied, because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been

given to you, but not to them.

Skipping down to verse 13, this is why I speak to them in parables.

Though seeing, they do not see.

Though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

This is Jesus' response.

Wives, Jesus must be talking about your husband.

You say it.

You say it.

You ask him to do it, and he doesn't hear it.

If you absolutely don't understand what a parable is, if you absolutely don't understand

what a metaphor is or what an allegory is, Jesus is simply mansplaining to the crowd

about the things of God.

Does that make sense?

So why does Jesus speak in parables?

To mansplain.

Now that'll preach.

So in Matthew 13, after the disciples have this conversation with Jesus, Jesus goes on

to tell three more parables, and then they get off the boat, they check back into their

Airbnb, and then they have a private conversation, the disciples and Jesus.

Are you tracking?

While they are in the Airbnb having a conversation, Jesus asks a question, wow.

And this question, I would argue, is the most important question that Jesus has asked.

Seriously.

They go on and they have a conversation, and in verse 51, Jesus asks them, have you understood

all these things?

Don't let the weight of that question fool you.

As I said at the beginning, I'm a certified teacher in the state of Maryland, and this

is what's called a structuring question, meaning this is also called a knowledge check.

Jesus is genuinely asking his disciples if they understand.

What this does is this shows care and compassion on behalf of the teacher.

Jesus could laugh and gawk at how idiotic these disciples are.

But rather, he takes the time to carefully walk them through and explain to them the

invisible truths of the kingdom of heaven.

This makes sense?

So that picture that you might have of God sitting up in his throne room laughing down

at you for being an idiot is simply not true.

You might think like God is trying to play a game of clue with you.

He's looking for him and he's hidden.

The questions you're asking God might not be answered because it's above our level of

understanding.

If you can understand the truths of everything, God isn't that great.

Right?

I can barely calculate taxes when I'm checking out, let alone understand the deep and dark

invisible truths of the things of God.

Nice.

We're going somewhere with that.

But do you see what I'm saying though?

And I think the reason why this question is so important, main point number two, Jesus

wants his followers to understand the things of God.

Jesus wants you to understand, but he only wants you to understand the things that are

the foundational truths of your faith.

Jesus wants you to understand the basics of salvation.

Jesus wants you to understand the basics of what he means by Jesus' blood covers a multitude

of things.

Does this make sense?

Jesus wants us to understand these things and this is why he speaks to his disciples

in parables because he genuinely cares about their understanding.

The God that cares about you is the God that cares about you and he wants you both to know

what you're talking about.

He doesn't want to trick you into salvation.

He wants you to have a genuine understanding of what salvation is.

Does this make sense?

Now let's keep reading in Matthew 13 at what Jesus follows up with.

Of course, knowing Jesus, he asks the question and then he follows up with another parable.

So we read in verse 51, Jesus says, have you understood all these things?

He checks for understanding.

The disciples say, yes, we do.

Once Jesus sees that they understand, then he moves on and challenges them.

Are you following?

Here's what Jesus says.

For every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like

the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.

Jesus is equating disciples, followers of Jesus, to the owners of a house that like

to display and show off new items as well as old.

Let me explain this to you.

Anybody know what Pokemon is?

And if you're like, oh my gosh, it's of the devil.

Show me the Charizard cards.

This card on the left is the original holographic foil printed in 1999.

That's when I was born.

On the right is the reprinted version of the same card with minor changes.

Make sense?

How much do you think the reprinted card is worth?

It can be sold and bought for anywhere in between $40 to $400.

Just the one card.

Now how much do you think the original 1999 version is?

It has been sold at auction for $420,000.

So here's the thing.

The reason why it sells for so much is because it's old and it's the original.

It is the original copy of the Charizard card and we must hold it to a high standard.

But we must understand that for some people, unless you have $420,000, the card is simply

inaccessible.

You can't get your hands on it.

So we reprinted and we understand that the new card is more accessible to the younger

generation.

This makes sense?

The old card is inaccessible but we must hold it to a high standard.

The new card is accessible and we still must appreciate it for what it is.

This is what Jesus is saying here.

We must hold the standards and the teachings in the Bible as holy, high, and priceless.

But we also must be willing to create and understand new ways of teaching that will

make sense to the younger generations.

Does that make sense?

Does it actually?

So my goal for the rest of this message, we've got about 23 minutes, is to give you five

modern day parables or metaphors that either I stole or that I came up with for two reasons.

One, for some of you to help you understand the invisible truths of God in a new way of

explaining things.

For others of you, I want to give you tools and equipment that you can use to share your

faith with other people.

Does that make sense?

Because let's be honest, I'm a pastor and it's still awkward for me to say, do you believe

in Jesus as your Lord and Savior?

Come on.

But if you go up and you say to them, you know what?

God is like a, it's an easy conversation to start with.

Does this make sense?

And I'm mirroring the principles that Jesus taught in Matthew 13.

As far as I'm aware, the only full length sermon that Jesus preached was the Sermon

on the Mount.

Every other time that he taught was either in a list of many parables or conversation.

Right?

So for the rest of this message, I just want to give you five quick parables.

And I'm going to preach it to the best of my ability.

And I ask, let's have fun.

Let's hype it up.

Make sense?

Whenever I was 16 and I first started being in my faith thing, I had one question that

was burning on me.

Is there any sins that are worse than other sins?

It's hard to understand questions.

Because I couldn't understand how sexual immorality was the same as murder.

I couldn't understand it.

It made no sense.

I read commentaries.

I watched YouTube videos.

I talked with pastors and nothing made sense.

So one day I talked to one of my youth pastors.

I had two youth pastors growing up.

That's how much Jesus I knew.

His name is Fees and he explained it to me like this.

He said, Stephen, sin is like dog turds in brownie mix.

Anybody like brownies?

I love them.

And then Fees went on to tell me, what if I told you that I put a dog turd in this brownie

mix?

Would you still eat it?

No.

Maybe Smith's Bird.

I'm sorry.

And then what we find out is it doesn't matter how little or how big the dog turd is.

I can't believe I'm talking about this.

The turd has gone all throughout the brownie mix and the entire mix is contaminated.

This is why sin is the same no matter how big or small because it contaminates the whole

being of a person.

Make sense?

Make sense?

And then he was saying in the same way that you wouldn't even touch the brownie because

it's contaminated, God doesn't even want to touch you because you're contaminated by little

or large.

You see what I'm saying by the metaphors, the modern day new reprints?

It's the same message reprinted in a way that you understand.

I don't know but none of you are 3,000 year old Hebrews.

Whose alarm was that?

So can we go ahead, focus in, and can I just give you these five metaphors?

Is everybody tracking with what's going on?

Okay.

One of the foundational pillars of our youth ministry is everyone's a pastor.

And it's the belief that whenever you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit

lives inside of you which, like I said at the beginning, allows you to then have the

ability through the Holy Spirit to speak life into people.

Does this make sense?

I believe that everybody is a pastor and a teacher in their own capacity.

We encourage all of our youth students to share during group because it's again under

the faith belief that it doesn't matter who you are or what background you have, God can

use you.

So that's why even if you're like, I'm not going to listen because I'm never going to

tell anybody about Jesus.

Shut up.

You are more than capable.

Someone has to take their medicine.

All right.

You ready for this?

All of us start life off, not like this.

All of us start life off with a clean slate.

Does this make sense?

If you read in Genesis, the book of Genesis, God gives Adam the power.

Camera team, I'm going down here.

God gives Adam the power to name the animals that God had created.

This makes sense?

But if you notice, God never gave Adam the permission to name Eve.

We like to take our original calling of naming things and we like to label things that don't

belong to us.

Does this make sense?

We like to say things like, you'll never be good enough.

Then we like to label it and we like to put it on people.

We say, I have the right and ability to name you.

This makes sense?

Then every person goes around and we like to label and we say things like, you can't

be used in old age.

It's the truth.

I'm sure some of you have heard this.

And then we go around and we label things just as we do.

Are you tracking with this?

And we write our temporary labels onto these things.

We'll say things like, you're not smart enough.

You're not good enough.

God can't use you.

And we'll just give out these labels.

Are you tracking with this?

And we like to just give our labels out.

But as we go through the Bible and as we read about who we really are, we see things like

in Romans, Eli, I'm going to need the scripture up here, where God says, who are you?

A human being to talk back to God?

Will what is form say to the one who formed it?

Why did you make me like this?

Does the potter not have right over the pottery?

We write in pencil because we do not have the right to permanently identify the things

of God.

But God, the creator, writes in permanent marker.

You see what I'm saying?

So as we start to read things like Ephesians 2 10, we start to understand that our labels

and our identity is found in things like Ephesians 2 10.

We're a masterpiece and it covers over the scars of the pencil is still present.

And no matter how many times you write more pencil on my label, the fact that God said

that I'm a masterpiece is who I really am.

Does that make sense?

We the next time that you're talking with somebody that struggles with identity or bullying,

all you have to say to them is remember, we write in pencil.

But God writes in permanent marker.

Does that make sense?

And then you can start filling them in.

Well, here's what Jesus says about you.

Does that metaphor make sense?

Can I tell you about a label that I put on certain foods?

I absolutely hate baked macaroni and cheese.

I do.

I do.

Baked macaroni and cheese and baked spaghetti are absolutely disgusting.

They dry out the best part and that's the ooey gooey cheese.

You put baked macaroni and cheese in my mouth and I'm spitting it out.

And by golly, if you put ketchup on that baby.

It's almost like my brain forgets how evil and disgusting the baked macaroni and cheese

is.

And all that I can taste is the goodness of the ketchup.

Don't you know that in Revelation 3.16 God says he's going to spit out lukewarm Christians?

No matter how well you're prepped, no matter how hard you try, you'll always never be good

enough.

It's called sin nature.

But whenever we allow for the ketchup to be poured on our plate, whenever we allow for

the blood of Jesus Christ to cover us, the goodness of Christ's blood covers over the

horribleness of our sins and we become good in the taste buds of the Father.

Make sense?

Does it actually make sense?

That was a structuring question.

One of my favorite songs of all time, nobody really knows this about me.

One of my favorite songs of all time is, what can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Rhett I'm coming for you.

My worship might have been off key, off tone and off rhythm, but what if I told you that

to God it sounded beautiful?

You see whenever we worship from our most honest and most desperate, genuine places,

it is a sweet smelling fragrance to the Lord.

Some of my middle school boys need to understand what this is.

Deodorant.

And the truth of the matter is, whenever you sweat like I am right now, it produces odor

causing bacteria in your armpit.

And when you have deodorant on, it uses and kills the odor creating bacteria and creates

a sweet fragrance.

Whenever we go through things, it creates hurts, shame and sinful bacteria.

And whenever we worship from our most honest transparent places, God can use the most dirtiest

parts to create the most beautiful smelling praise.

Does this make sense?

The stink activates the fragrance.

Your shame, your genuine worship activates the best and most beautiful praise.

Stop caring how you sound.

You heard me sing?

If I can be a pastor and sing like that, God is good.

Right?

So let's sing again and it's going to be beautiful.

All right?

My favorite song is, what can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

And then it's like, oh precious is the flow that makes me white as snow.

Oh, other fount I know.

But it's beautiful to God.

Make sense?

All right.

All right.

Two more metaphors for you.

You tracking along?

This next one isn't a metaphor really whatsoever, but it's my favorite part.

I'm going to share with you, it's my absolute favorite part in the Bible.

All of you soon as though my favorite book of the Bible is Job.

I love it.

A man who had everything and then lost it in a matter of days.

It's Job.

And Job goes on to have some of the most boring conversation in 30 chapters with his friends.

He calls them windbags.

And then he gets on his knees and he yells at God.

Says, God, why?

If I'm a good man, then why do bad things happen to me?

Why?

It makes no sense.

I have no understanding.

God is so, or Job has become so wise, he has surpassed the understanding of the basic principles

of faith.

And now he's trying to understand the things that are in God's realm.

Does that make sense?

God does not answer Job exactly.

God answers by taking him on a virtual trip, not actually virtual, on a trip showing him

different animals, different beings, space and time.

And in the King James Version, here's what God says to Job.

Are you ready for this?

This is my favorite part in all the Bible.

God says, canst thou, can you bind the sweet influence of the Pleiades or loosen the bands

of Orion?

Can thou bring forth Maseroth in its seasons?

Or can thou guide Arcturus with his sons?

Do you know the ordinance of heaven?

Can you set the dominion of the earth?

My middle name is Kirk.

And I'd like to introduce you to the most handsome man on the planet, the one who I'm

named after, Captain Tobias, James Tobias Kirk.

Wow.

Now that is a specimen of human.

I love the stars.

I love sci-fi.

I love Star Trek.

And what we need to understand here is God is talking about star constellation.

You following me?

If you scientifically look at how the stars are acting, God says, can thou bind the sweet

influences of Pleiades?

Pleiades is actually a star cluster, often called the seven sisters, that are all bound

together by mutual attraction.

So Pleiades, what God is talking about, can you bind them?

They're scientifically bound together.

Isn't that cool?

And remember, Bible scholars believe that Job was created before the book of Genesis.

And that Moses wrote it.

Moses wouldn't have known these things.

Job wouldn't have either.

Does this make sense?

God goes on to say, can you loosen the bands of Orion?

Eli, can you show me the picture of the Pleiades real quick?

So if you look here, the Pleiades, the seven sisters is up there, and those are the ones

that God is saying are permanently bound together.

Does this make sense?

Okay.

Can you see Orion's belt, Eli?

I'm sure all of you have seen Orion's belt in the star constellation.

Does this make sense?

If you look at Orion's belt, it's the three right there.

Scientifically, the two stars on the outside are permanently traveling away from the middle

star.

And scientists believe that in a few thousand years to millions of years, the Orion's belt

star constellation will no longer be visible, almost as if God has loosened the belt.

You see where I'm going with this?

God goes on to say, can you bring out Maseroth in its seasons?

We're unsure exactly what he's referring to, but some think it's the Northern Lights.

But then we go on, and God says, can you guide Arcturus and his sons?

And Eli, if you show me the picture of Arcturus, Arcturus is this giant bright star.

It'll probably be one of the giant brightest stars in the night sky.

And if you look at the Big Dipper, you just follow the end of the Dipper over to Arcturus.

And what if I told you Arcturus has 52 other stars that are constantly following behind?

It's called the Arcturus Stream.

Does this make sense?

So whenever God says, can you guide Arcturus with his sons, it's literally a thing.

He's literally, Arcturus the star is guiding 52 other stars behind it.

The Arcturus Stream!

You see why that's cool?

And the reason why this is so important, and the reason why I love this so much, if God

is in control of the universe, why can't I trust him with my little life?

If God is in control of all things, if he formed the Pleiades and he keeps Arcturus

on track with its sons, and he knows every detail of how they work, of course he's going

to love you when he knows every detail of how you work.

Action step number four, let the stars remind you of your size.

The next time it's night out, I challenge you to look at the stars, even if you don't

understand them.

Look at them and remind yourself that the problems that you think are so big are nothing

compared to God.

Oh, I know cancer seems like the end.

But the God that promises that he's in control of all things is in control.

If he can watch over the stars, he can watch you as you sleep.

Make sense?

So anytime that somebody is struggling with the loss of a loved one or something that

doesn't make sense, sometimes you can say, hey, I heard this in Job.

Stephen said it.

I can't say anything to you while you're grieving, but I can remind you our job isn't to know

everything, but it's to know the person that knows everything.

Make sense?

For the last metaphor, and then we'll close out, I've been having you set timers, right?

Which have been a fun experience.

Please bear with me as I try to sit down.

Oh my gosh.

Oh my gosh.

Oh yeah, baby.

The reason why the medieval church, okay, I'm talking like the medieval times.

The reason why the medieval church was so powerful and grew at such an amazing rate

is because it was for the creation of modern medicine.

Does this make sense?

The medieval church would have been a church and a hospital.

Make sense?

And the reason why people came to their faith at such tremendous rates then is because you

can only talk about eternity when you understand how fragile life is.

Does this make sense?

I wanted every timer to represent the fact that you'll never know when the person around

you will die.

It's a dream.

You just never know.

It could be your dad.

It could be your neighbor.

It could be your kid.

But that's why it's so important that you have the faith to talk about what happens

after.

Stop hesitating.

Does this make sense?

When you set your timer, you know when it goes off.

But yet you get so distracted with what's going on around you that many of you got surprised

by your own timers.

Don't get surprised when your time is up.

Think that death is a real thing and do everything you can today.

Drew was over thinking.

It was so hard.

And I said to him, just be genuine.

Tomorrow is never promised.

Try your best today and worry about tomorrow when it comes.

Make sense?

So the last thing that I wanted to share with you is in Romans.

How does a person get saved?

It's easy.

Easy.

Paul says if you believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and you confess with your mouth

that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

I think oftentimes growing up I watched the Passion of the Christ with my grandma and

my mom.

Get with me.

Intense.

But what if I told you that the reality of how bloody the end scene is, is actually still

nerfed down?

In our youth group we read an article of the scientific feelings or that what it actually

would have felt like on the cross.

While Jesus was hanging on the cross, all of his weight would have been down on his

diaphragm, meaning he would have been unable to breathe.

So the only way that Jesus Christ could have breathed is if he lifted up on his nailed

feet, inhaled and then let himself go.

Does this make sense?

Gosh how painful that would be.

And what's crazy to me is how God did that and he still looked at me and said you will

be with me in paradise.

It's crazy.

It's crazy.

My final challenge and then we'll praise no matter what you've been labeled, God writes

in permanent marker that you're safe.

No matter how bad you are, what you've done or what your past is, Jesus' blood can cover.

No matter how dirty you are, it smells good to God.

God is in control.

He knows you.

He knows everything you've done.

He still says that he loves you.

Does that make sense?

Listen to this Miss Berg people.

Can we just pray?

And if you've never accepted Jesus before, it's easy.

We always pray this prayer and you can repeat it after me.

God, I'm broken.

I don't deserve your love.

I've been labeled.

I've been beat down.

Truthfully, I'm not good enough.

But you love me and I accept you that you died on the cross for me.

I may not know when my time is up, but at least I know where I'm going.

God, I might not be right.

But I do love you.

I believe that you are working now to pour it out.