Words from the Cross: Forgiveness, Grace, Trust

When he got through sharing that, one of the other guys in the car looked at him and called him by name and said, god really did something when he saved you, didn't And that guy looked at him and said, no more than he did when he saved you. We're all guilty before god. And this criminal was guilty, And the only way that any of us, him like him, like me, like any of us, the only way that any of us could be counted among the redeemed, among those who are saved, is because of the infinite mercy and grace of god. [01:03:13] (38 seconds)  #SavedByGrace

Stop and think about that for a minute. Can you think of anyone recently or maybe not so recently who hurt you deeply, someone who offended you deeply. Well, the question is, have we forgiven that person? Are we able to pray as Jesus prayed? Father, forgive them for they do not know what they're doing. Jesus is demonstrating for us and calling us to that kind of heart before him. [00:54:35] (37 seconds)  #ForgiveLikeJesus

We until the gospel came to us and we understood the severity of our sin and the helplessness of our own condition being lost before god, we didn't realize that the sins that we were committing was causing or caused the death of the lord Jesus Christ. He went to the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. And so we have this beautiful example of praying for your enemies there on the cross. The question comes to us as we learn from this, am I willing to forgive those who have hurt and offended me? [00:53:54] (41 seconds)  #GraceForEnemies

He didn't commit his spirit to the grave. He didn't commit his spirit to some infinite void nor into the dark unknown, but rather into the hands of a loving heavenly father who was waiting for him. So we can take heart. Jesus himself said, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. And when he said that to Martha at the grave of Lazarus, he looked in there and he said, do you believe this? So that's the question for us this morning. [01:10:34] (41 seconds)  #JesusIsTheResurrection

Actually, in second Corinthians chapter 12, god gave Paul more than he could handle. Paul begged god to take away the thorn in his flesh but god wanted to teach him that his grace was sufficient for him and that his power was perfected in weakness. So he allowed this and and even that idea of this too shall pass is not actually true because God doesn't always want difficult times to pass for us. He's always going to work all things together for good as we looked at, last Sunday morning. But he's he wants us to recognize that we must be totally dependent upon him at all times. [00:49:45] (43 seconds)  #GraceInWeakness

Now that is a misappropriation of a of a scripture that is in the Bible in first Corinthians ten thirteen that says, god will not allow you to be tempted more than you're able to bear, but will God will not allow any tempt I'm I'm quoting it correctly exactly. But God will not allow any temptation to come to you that is not common to man and will with the temptation make a way of escape. So it's in the specific context of temptation, not in the context of just anything that comes along with that that god's never gonna give us more than we can handle. The truth is all of life is more than we can handle. Amen. [00:49:00] (45 seconds)  #YouCantHandleItAlone

Now someone has said inevitably, people will ask, well, who who specifically was Jesus praying for on the cross? Was he praying for the Jewish leaders who had conspired to sentence him to death? Was he praying for the Roman soldiers who had nailed him to the cross and then then gambled for his clothing? Was he praying for the crowd, the rulers, as it said in verse 35, the soldiers and others who scoffed at him, who mocked him, taunted him, hanging there on the cross? The answer is all of the above. [00:52:38] (41 seconds)  #PrayedForEveryone

And even more than that, he's praying for every person who ever trusted in him because of what he did on the cross. There's this sense of which when when I or when you place, when we place our faith in the lord Jesus Christ as our lord and savior, there is this sense that this prayer, father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Can you can you see the knowing not what we do in light of our lives before we came to know Jesus? [00:53:19] (35 seconds)  #HisPrayerCoversUs