The Love Of God For Us

all right hey good morning everybody and uh everybody tuning in online let's go ahead and stand and let's uh sing praises to our everlasting light the lord jesus christ [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] how want to see [Music] my heart [Music] is [Music] yes [Music] i want to see [Music] shining [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] open the [Music] i want [Music] jesus i want to see you [Music] my [Music] my [Music] now [Music] you are which is [Music] [Music] [Music] my treasures [Music] my treasure now [Music] i love my own [Music] my [Music] me [Music] my vision [Music] [Music] worthy of every song we could ever sing weren't the involved praise we could ever [Music] worthy of every breath we could ever breathe we live for you jesus the name above every other name jesus the only one i could ever save worthy of every breath we could ever breathe we'll live for you lonely for you there is no one like you there is none beside you open up my eyes in one day show me who you are and fill me with your heart and lead me in your love to those around me [Music] [Music] we could ever bring [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] jesus the name of every other name [Music] jesus the only one i could ever say worthy [Music] there is no [Music] show me who you are [Music] around me [Music] i will build my life upon your love it is of a foundation and i will put my trust in [Music] in love to those around me [Music] i will build my life and i will fill my life upon [Music] did you pray with me please gracious father we thank you for this morning we thank you for the free gift of life we thank you for giving your son jesus thank you that you left and this morning lord i i i lift up pastor josh that you would anoint him and lord that you would give us ears to hear what the spirit has to say to the church in jesus name amen take a moment and say hi to everybody [Music] um so i want to start out this morning just just to say a heartfelt thank you to those of you who you know just blessed me and my family during the time when all of us were down with this coveted and lord you you guys really represented christ wonderfully and we are so grateful for the meals and the gifts and the cards and the text messages and and everything and it's really really good to be back at least fairly healthy so thank you guys and i want to be the do the first announcement myself this is one of my favorite times of the year and last year it didn't happen but this year the harvest crusade is happening at anaheim and it is on october 3rd and it is going to be only for one night and so my guess is we will they will pack out the stadium for this one night and if you have never been involved with harvest crusade before it is the most invigorating thing that could ever happen to you i i promise you if you if you've never been there and you're sitting amongst crap that crowd of thousands upon thousands of people everybody singing and worshiping the lord together it's just it's just a wonderful thing of course you can't go wrong we have um for king and country going to be there and uh and chris tomlin you know phil wickham and so it'll be awesome and so i just want to invite you to join us as a church for that one time there are many things that you can do but first off i'll let you know i've got a table out there we do have the bumper stickers we have two different styles of invites that you can pick up a stack of these and hand them out to people and invite him to the crusade there's also a smaller card that's more like a business card size but and and as far as things as a church body that we can do to help their uh you can be a dis decision follow-up worker on the field which i will be there and i've already signed up and they'll probably be calling me once again to be a pastor on the field you can be a usher you could volunteer in the prayer room to pray while the crusade's going on you can work the merchandise booth there's setup and tear down and then there's security also so i'll give you one of these sheets if you come by the table you go to socalharvest.org and that's where you click on what it is that you would like to volunteer to help and it'll believe me it's a really rewarding experience all right tam uh kim and em what's her name and suzanne is gonna come up and give you uh tell you about hi you guys um i'm kim and this is suzanne and and um we have a group of ladies in our church called single purpose and we meet together in different homes weekly and we've been on break for a little bit but we're starting back on september oh there's a picture of us up there september 10th yeah september 10th and we we eat together and we um pray and have fellowship together and um two times a month suzanne does bible study for us and sometimes we go and do stuff a couple weeks ago we went to the beach a group of us and and so we'll do different things that we um kind of have buddies to hang out together as we go and um so suzanne's gonna talk okay um and like kim said i uh lead the bible study i came out with a single purpose our bible studies are twice a month the second and fourth weeks of the month and um really our our purpose is summed up in hebrews chapter 10 verses 24 and 25 that says and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drying there and so we're just a group of single women who are following jesus together and supporting each other in prayer and stirring each other up to loving good works and so if you guys have any questions we'll be out there after service at the table to answer anything so love to have you join us thank you ladies my wife keeps wanting to join that group i keep telling her she's not single yet ashley has an announcement for women's ministry give her a hand [Applause] thank you thank you well good afternoon everybody it's an honor to be here alive and survive a survivor of coronavirus myself um i'm here to announce our women's bible study that's picking up on the 13th it'll be an opening night on the 13th 7 p.m in the fellowship hall and we'll get to meet the the teachers for this fall session and get to know each other the following monday night we will dig into our book the books are for sale and we have some in the at the table in the back if you see me if you weren't aware and you you didn't bring you know 13 dollars today you can buy it next weekend or you can buy it when you come to class we'll have them there as well they are 13 this is a study book written by cheryl broderson so it's going to be really sweet a great time together for us ladies our purpose is to love god and love people and if you know someone who maybe has never been to women's bible study please invite them and show them that our door is open we want to love those people as well and fellowship with them before i walk off i have to i have to repeat pastor russ and just say that there was such an amazing moving of the spirit in this church during our season of illness of the coronavirus so many of you wonderful christ followers gave your time your money i mean your effort to making a meal for my family and i'm so grateful truly i am so grateful and more than that your prayers really i mean they touched me so much and it was so moving to know that we were actually being prayed for and thought of because it is a very scary time so thank you to everybody it's really an honor to be part of this beautiful family here at victory and i feel beyond grateful for each one of you i the list is so long i can't even name everybody but i ask that you continue to pray for those who are still fighting coronavirus and are not 100 percent well it's scary so you know pray for them to have courage and strength and that the lord healed them with that i'm going to give it to the world's greatest pastor oh oh wait wait it's pastor she did that last time too so are you all ready to get into the word all right pastor josh give him a hand [Applause] morning everyone everyone feeling good okay good that's great it's good to be back after uh two weeks being sick give pastor mike a hand filling in on sunday mornings mike thank you buddy thank you pal you're awesome uh yeah just to echo really quick thank you you learn a lot about your church family when your whole family's sick uh so every prayer every text message everything it all matters really really thankful for you guys and yeah we we want to continue praying uh for those there's just been a sweep of coronavirus not just in our church but it seems like through the nation you just you hear it i i mean i watch espn i watch a college football game it's like it's just everywhere right now so uh be mindful protect yourself i have one quick announcement too before we get into the word um before this bout of coronavirus we had scheduled a uh all church um baptism and beach day for this saturday september 11th we're going to postpone that um coming out i mean i just want to go sleep i mean that's the lasting effect of covid for me is i'm just super tired and uh you know pastor ross too we just decided you know we'll we'll postpone and um we'll have a fall baptism uh for people later on uh with that we are in ephesians chapter three if you want to open your bibles if you're new here welcome super pumped that you're here to study the word of god with us we like to go verse by verse through books in the bible that's the main uh way it's the steady diet of god's word that transforms us and disciples us and we love to dig deep into it let's pray and ask god's blessing on our time father thank you for loving us with an endless everlasting love we're thankful that in heaven there will be no sickness no coronavirus no colds no coughs no pain no aches jesus we can't wait to see you face to face when the reality hits us what a moment it will be we can only imagine to have you look upon us to feel and touch physically you're now scarred hands to have a moment where we realize we are standing and falling to our face before the lord of all glory oh god we can't wait till our faith no longer exists when we'll be able to see everything we once believed in until then we desperately need you god to keep moving us and stirring us discipling us encouraging us healing us transforming us convicting us forgiving us lord we ask for forgiveness if someone's come in here just knowing you've blown it you can just pray for forgiveness right now ask god to forgive you he's so willing to do that god if there's people that have come into this room with heavy hearts broken hearts i pray that you'd heal that there'd be a a time of mending during this bible study god i pray that this study would not just stimulate our brain but that our hearts would be worshiping our way through the passage we would connect with you god holy spirit we give you permission to poke around in our hearts and to speak and do what only you can do truly within each one of us bless this bible study today lord i offer myself to you as an unworthy vessel who am i to speak on your behalf god it's an amazing thing that you've called people to teach the scriptures i'm humbled i'm appreciative i pray that i would do well before your eyes this morning god we also want to lift up our brothers and sisters who are sick still with coronavirus especially heal them heal rusty lord we lift her up to you there's others lord mend them heal them protect our church bless our time and your word now father we pray these things in jesus name and we say together as family amen you guys realize that the world is the way it is the injustice the pain the abuse of it all you can point to many factors but ultimately the root cause of why the world is the way it is is because of a lack of love a lack of love is why you've gone through such hard times a lack of love is why you've hurt people and why people have hurt you a lack of love is the problem of the world and it's god's love that's lacking when adam fell in the garden and when his love relationship with god was severed the sever went through all humanity and everyone who would come after him and so realize for a second that the solution to humanity's problems it's it's not anything else but we need a great insertion of the agape love of god into humanity into countries and nations and cultures it's the love of god that makes us better that makes us more helpful a lack of god's love is why you and i are so jacked up it's not it's not because of a lack of medicine it's not because of a lack of knowledge it's not a lack of science it's not a lack of resources we have all the resources in our planet to help every starving person per se it's not a lack of all of these things it's not a lot it's not because we don't have the right person elected in it's it's a lack of god's love and so no wonder that when paul here in ephesians chapter 3 prays for the church this is the central agenda that he prays for when he prays for believers a great comprehension and reception and an experience of god's love a couple weeks ago i got halfway through this prayer that paul's making i'll finish it today let's go ahead and read the entire portion of scripture as a refresher for you get you tuned in ephesians 3 verses 14 through 21 paul's writing and he's praying and he says for this reason i bow my knees to the father of our lord jesus christ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man that christ may dwell in your hearts through faith and that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of god now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us to him be the glory in the church by christ jesus to all generations forever and ever amen so a couple weeks ago we left off in verse 17. let's pick up there he he's he's saying you know if if you're going to be rooted if you're going to have the love of god just filling you and moving you first christ must dwell in your heart through faith remember that he needs to settle in christ dwells in your hearts through faith christ lives in your heart through faith you have encounters with the living christ intimately you hear him speak to you you know you're speaking to him and he's listening to you it takes place within the heart and it takes place through faith christ dwells in your heart through faith not through your performance you messed up this past week you probably all did at some point christ does not dwell in your heart through your performance christ does not dwell in your heart through your sinlessness christ does not rule it in your heart because of your ability to follow all the rules and outwardly to present yourself as this tidy extremely religious zealous person christ does not dwell in your heart in that way christ does not dwell in your heart because of your mental capacity it has nothing to do with your iq so what maybe you're a genius in your brain it could still mean you're separated from god for all of eternity when god wanted to come into our hearts he says you know what i'm not gonna make the avenue your flesh because our bodies always get it wrong i'm not going to make the avenue your mind which is your soul the will your emotion i'm not going to do it on a mental level there's one thing left then by which we're going to have relationship god says and it's going to be in the core chamber of who you are and so the great thing god has left us to do is believe it's your job it's called the work of faith because sometimes it's a lot of work to believe i mean when life's all great and god answers 10 out of 10 prayers just the way you want it to man it's easy that feels good right but when it doesn't feel good when he's not answering your prayers the way you want him to to have faith to believe listen pay attention very closely to this i've seen too many christians do this following god is not the same as following your good feelings about god okay i've seen a lot of people and they feel good about god and they want to be all about it but when a challenge comes when a trial comes when pain comes when life happens as god promised it would it doesn't feel so good anymore and now they don't have any more good feelings to follow are you going to press in through faith in those times that's a sign of maturity right as a believer when it doesn't feel good nevertheless even when you can't see it when you don't feel it when it's hard to see through the fog that's in front of your face christ will still come and he will dwell in your hearts through faith if god saw a million obstacles between you and him he removed all of those at the cross except for one and he's left the last step up to us every day and that's believe the one unforgivable sin is unbelief it's the one thing he's required of us is to believe to believe to believe it's why we're warned of having an evil heart of unbelief the great evil in the bible is unbelief unbelief and so to press in and to say i'm going to believe i'm going to keep believing no matter what is the door it's the entrance for salvation for christ to come into your heart and to continue to believe to press in by faith is the avenue by which christ begins to settle in more deeply more daily into your life and paul says okay if you got christ and you're believing in him then i want you to grow and this is how he says to grow verse 17 that you would be rooted and grounded in love you see if christ is coming into your heart on a daily basis then the byproduct is going to be love paul uses two different metaphors he says you'll be rooted in love it speaks of a tree with roots that are growing down deep enough and when that happens it won't be uprooted strong roots make a strong tree it won't be knocked over when the storm comes when there's a season of drought and not much is being given to your life the leaf will remain green as the prophet jeremiah said it will continue to produce because the roots are going down deep he also says i want you to be grounded it speaks of a pillar being driven beneath the service i had a in my backyard for the last couple of months my fence was just kind of leaning over so i had to pi you know drive piles down deep so it could rest and now the fence is nice and strong you know and so when the pillars are driven deep down beneath the surface the building won't come crashing down i mean the engineering behind skyscrapers is just amazing how big and how deep those piles go down into the ground paul is saying this should be you and in both metaphors the ground represents your heart your heart is the soil and the thing that goes underground is the love of christ which means god's wanting to go deep down into you that your roots will grow deep my question for you is how are you doing underneath the surface of things because i can only see what's going on on the outside all you can see is me up here but what's really going on in the places that are unseen is the love of christ in those places are you receiving the love of christ in the unseen part of who you are are you spending time with jesus christ when you're alone is the love of god growing deeper and deeper into you this is what paul's prayer is for the church he goes on to pray that we'd be able to comprehend the greatness of his love because we live in a world that doesn't comprehend his love and so we praise luke verse 18 that you would be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height you can just feel the passion coming off he can't just leave it at one he can't just say the height of it he's got to go four dimensional he's got to talk about it all this is just encompassing it's multi-dimensional the love of christ it just doesn't go one way it goes all four different ways it just wants to begin to take over it wants to grow it wants to take ground god wants to draw the battle lines forward in your heart that it would be more jesus and less of the world and less of ourselves christ's love has width and length and depth and height and this passage right here has mesmerized readers and scholars for the last 2000 years people have read this and just said oh my gosh i feel like i don't know what you're talking about paul but oh i want to so badly god bring me into what paul knew about you listen the apostle paul this is his prayer i mean if if this man who wrote half the new testament could walk into this room and lay his hands on your shoulders right now this would be his prayer for you no matter what you're going through this would be his prayer so for us in order to come into deeper places of being able to comprehend the dimensions of god's love there's one place where we look there's ultimately one place where the love of god is found and that's the cross of christ the ultimate display of god's affection god is not whispering sweet things into your ear from the cross he's not just saying i love you he's displaying this radical willful obsessive commitment of laying down his life and pouring out every last drop of blood from his body laying it all down pouring it all everything god had to give he poured it all out and he purchased us with blood and so as we look at the cross we see the crosses pointing in all four of these different ways think about it the love of jesus from the cross has width the width of the love that i see is found when i i imagine the soldiers you know they've crucified so many people these soldiers they were professional executors and they i mean if i was going down i'd probably try to get a few last punches in if i inevitably know it's coming i'm going to try to get mine in you know what i'm saying and i i just can't help but to think jesus was different you know they're getting ready and they look and he's already stretched out he's welcoming it it's almost like he's in control of it all and he stretched out his arms wide on the cross listen the width of god's love for you is it doesn't matter how much you've messed up no matter how filthy at your darkest lowest most sinful wicked moment if you bring that moment to the cross you will see the arms of jesus christ wide open to you you never see a crucified savior pull his hands out from the nails and do one of these not this one it's a door the message of the bible if you narrow it all down is come to the cross it's the door to heaven you cannot go to heaven without coming to the cross you will not go to heaven without going to the cross you have to experience the love of christ and the forgiveness of christ you have to look into the cross and know what is happening there it's too important to overlook entrance to heaven entrance to a glorious eternal father is readily available for you when you see the width of the love of christ his arms outstretched in a welcoming fashion inviting all to come amen but the love of jesus also has length maybe you've hung out with someone and initially you were like i really like this person and then you hang out with them for a while and you get to see what they're really like and i mean this is what friendship is right you rub on each other there's friction sometimes and you're just like man the more i hang out with you you just annoy me listen thank god he doesn't think that way about you the way you've thought about other people you see his love is so long it's going to last for all of eternity and maybe some of the things that you're going through that are hard that are shaping your character is god's way of saying you know what i'm going to make you into someone i actually want to hang out with for eternity i'm shaping you i'm molding you to be like my perfect son god will never change his mind about you you are eternally his the length of the love of god as jeremiah 31 verse 3 says i've loved you with an everlasting love his love for you is already into eternity in a trillion years from now god's not going to look at you and say you know i'm kind of bored with you i'm just going to like crumple the paper up and throw it away and do something new you are his most cherished creation forever period amen the love of jesus has depth it goes deep i mean jesus went from the highest of highs to the lowest of low to become flesh what a humbling thing to die on a cro a criminal's cross he went to the depths he even descended into hell during those three days when his body was in the tomb he descended to the lower parts his love is so deep and he took captivity captive and all of those old testament saints who were having faith but who could not yet enter into heaven because jesus hadn't died on the cross abraham moses all of them he went all the way down and he brought them up no matter how low you feel how gross how painful life gets underneath are the everlasting arms of god and then the love of jesus has height so high jesus is going to take us to the highest heights of heaven right now the highest place in the universe the ultimate place in the universe is the holy of holies and the centerpiece is the mercy seat the throne of god and on that throne is christ christ right now is seated in a position in the highest place of the universe and when we come to heaven jesus is going to share that glory he's going to bring us into that and he's going to bring us up with him into the highest of heights it's multi-dimensional and listen the text is not saying this is the love you're going to have for him because that would really stress me out because i'll never be able to love god like he loves me parents don't get so bummed out about your kids they'll never love you as much as you love them love always flows down you'll always love them more than they love you they won't get it until they have their own kids right and their kids will never love them the way they love you love them this is talking about his love for us guys in so many of my prayers i've prayed and thought about my love for him you know my pursuit of him and those aren't necessarily bad things but we don't see paul ever pray that way you see when you start to make your prayer about you and what you're doing many times that's going to lead to failure the bible puts way more attention and focus on his love for us that's the good news of the new covenant and the new testament it's not about you every great equation always starts with god first because all places where you get jacked up feelings and thoughts which lead to jacked up actions it comes from your lacking in an understanding of his love for you his love for you is so healing when you and allow that when bad things are happening trials and tragedies start to make us ask more questions trials and tragedies and pain start to make us really start to figure out what do i really believe here and through the good and the bad i hope you never question if god loves you or not if you're sitting here being through the fortress this is a true story and they go down into the dungeons and there they find a skeleton of a man he's the only person in the entire dungeon he's dead only the skeleton is there and before besides finding the shackles around his feet they found an inscription on the wall of a cross that this man had drew with a rock and around the cross were written the word the thorns and thistles of life and on a daily basis god reminds you of that on a daily basis some of you feel the the physical thorns the physical pains and aches of life that are not going away they're only getting worse some of you have mental thorns relational financial you know what god does a pretty good job doesn't he of reminding us every day that earth is never going to be heaven it doesn't feel good but in the long scope of things it's a gift it's a gift to get your eyes off of this world and thinking this world actually has what you need this world is fallen it's broken it's confused it tries to pretend like it knows the answer and it doesn't and the thorns and the thistles i know for my life many times god's used them to get me to drop to my knees and it drives me back to the cross of christ it drives me back to humility into confession into repentance into hungering and thirsting again for the righteousness of god this is what the bible says about god's love love does no harm to a neighbor love edifies and builds up love never fails love serves one another the fruit of the spirit is love love knits us together love covers a multitude of sins love is the fulfillment of the law you know what the fulfillment of god's requirements is not you following a list of rules when you come to a place of maturity which means you're just reduced to love you're fulfilling all the requirements that god would have remember jesus narrowed it down 613 laws he narrowed it down to two love god and love people you want to please god love but hey it's impossible for me to love on my own i don't got those kind of resources in me and that's why paul knows it's about us receiving his love it's about receiving his love out of that flows all the goodness that we could ever give to this world someone tell me what the opposite of love is biblically what is it fear fear the opposite of love is fear isn't that interesting see love and belief always are connected unbelief and fear are always connected you think the great evil of the earth is hate it's not it's unbelief the bible defines that out of unbelief will come fear and hate and mean-spiritedness and all of those gross things first john chapter 4 verse 18 says there is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment but he who fears has not been made perfect in love it's a fascinating verse to me so you know you're growing in love you know you're taking the time to receive god's love when you quit having fear and this is not an easy thing because the world operates through fear and guilt and manipulation and shame bosses manipulate employees through fear all the time politicians will try to motivate you through fear they do it a lot religion will manipulate people through their guilt all the time religion it's so gross it's so manmade it's such a horrible thing when man puts his grubby paws on the gospel and starts to put conditions on it religion is man's way of manipulating people because they they'll try to make people think that you know if you do this if you do our thing if you follow our little code if you'll come into our little tribe and it's our only little christian exclusive way it starts to make you think that god's dangling this carrot in front of your face and if you do the right things you get closer to the carrot and it's so anti-gospel it's so gross fear guilt shame it makes the world go round and god absolutely hates it when a human being controls another human being in this way because it creates a tendency within them to think that god's going to treat him this way god will never manipulate you through fear fear tactics are not god's way he will never motivate you to do something on fear his only way of motivation is through love if you feel like you have to do it god doesn't want it if you feel like you have to worship you have to read you have to serve you have to give yeah godzilla i'd rather have a cheerful giver it's when you realize by the grace of god i get to do these things you see it's all about a want god's looking at the motivation do you want to do it people who are driven by fear and guilt have the tendency to think that they're like always walking on a tightrope with god have you ever felt that way before like the will of god is so tight and you can't breathe and you feel like everything you do you're just messing up you're always getting it wrong if they do the littlest thing wrong then god's gonna get them and penalize them but the bible says there's none of that kind of fear with god's love so if you struggle with fear like me it just means we are really really imperfect people who need more of god's love to come into us that's okay if you really want to know what god is up to in your life right now it's that he's on a mission to take you from fear into love that's that's his big agenda from moving you from fear what comes along with fear unbelief being unloving isolation is a huge sign of fear i just don't want to be i don't want to get hurt i don't want to be around people i don't want to take the risk fear doubt isolation no community but when the love of god comes in through the gospel the gospel brings us back into healthy places of community i'll be around people i'll put myself out there i'm not going to be afraid i'm not going to be isolated i'm going to serve i'm going to give i'm going to look at people and not just think what can i get from them but what can i give to them this is what the gospel does is it works in people's lives so that's his deal for us right now on earth to reduce you to love if you could come to a place where you were just completely reduced to where you only see life through the lens of just love what a healthy place what a christ-like place so we're all in this process of being reduced to where the only thing that's left will be love you act on love your judgments are made because of love it's just all love look at verse 19. paul prays that we know the love of christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of god what a trip paul is praying that we would be able to know something that is unknowable to know something that surpasses knowledge this is what paul's praying for it makes a lot more sense when you understand the greek words that paul uses here look at the word no if you have a pen highlight it underline it where he says to know the love of christ the word know there is gnosco and it means knowing by experience it's nothing that you can get from a book you know the difference between experiential knowledge and book knowledge right paul's like no one can tell you this you can read it all you want you can read books about it that is not gnosco you you gotta under you gotta experience it it's an experience of god so when you reread it paul is saying i want you to experience the love of christ it surpasses human comprehension that's why when people only search for god based on just doing it with their mind they're going to miss him because the avenue god has chosen to fellowship with us is the spirit and his love is so great our human brains just can't grasp it that there's there's more capacity for your spirit to be filled than is your mind your spirit can go longer and deeper and wider and higher than your brain can go and god has chosen the spirit to be the place where you have experience with him it's reserved for your heart and so even when you experience it it's like it's not that you can quite comprehend it but you feel it you know it you know when god's descending upon your life eh you know when you're being baptized and overfilled with the holy spirit you know when that's happening to you so let me ask you a series of questions and it'll just help you know define the difference listen to this if i asked you hey do you understand the forgiveness of christ do you understand it or what if i ask you the question are you experiencing the forgiveness of christ big difference are you being forgiven today do you feel it do you experience the washing of christ over your life see that's an experience what about this do you get that god's presence can be felt do you understand god says we can feel his presence or or are you experiencing god's presence in your life it's the difference between this and this do you believe god loves you or are you experiencing his love inside you so yes i i want us all to have a smart logical apologetical reason reason-based relationship with god but much more than that to have a loving spiritual relationship with god and if you look at verse 19 the byproduct of experiencing truly experiencing the love of christ is paul says you'll be filled with all the fullness of god and as he fills your heart with his love we begin to experience his presence because god is love and when true love descends upon your heart the presence of god in reality descends upon your heart and guys gosh for me to try to describe and explain the presence of god i will never be able to do it justice none of us could because it has to be experienced right you could talk to a non-believer who's never really been overwhelmed with the presence of god before you could talk about it all you want but it's like it's just an experience that you've got to have for yourself but the bible does use symbolism to try and communicate what what god's presence and like there's places in the bible where god's presence is described like being a thick cloud of smoke a thick cloud of smoke now some of you remember what it's like to hop box don't raise your hand you don't need to but we're sorry we're talking about a holy hot box here okay we're talking about the fragrance of god the presence of god descending upon your heart google it no don't google it nevermind what about this our god is a consuming fire yeah you know what i'm sorry a consuming fire hey this is the best i could do on my own this is the best i could do to describe what god's presence is like if our hearts had taste buds if our hearts could taste then the presence of god would taste like the sweetest richest honey that's what the presence of god is to me i know it when he comes upon my life i discern it i know and it's him and i know when it's not and that's the best that's the best thing he is so sweet he is so good it's so rich it's like honey does that make sense to anyone god's so good man his presence makes the air change really it's like the air that i breathe that has no weight when god's presence starts to fill the space it's almost like it's so thick you can you can cut through the air with a knife there's something almost tangible there's just a weight of his glory air suddenly weighs like something and whatever is happening it's just there's a sweet heaviness a presence that falls upon your spirit man when he shows up that the whole atmosphere of your heart changes the whole vibe of the room changes so i just encourage you to hunger more for the presence of god i'll never forget the first time god really came upon my life and i knew exactly that something different was happening to me i knew it was from heaven and nothing on earth could duplicate it and i've tried all the drugs out there guys in my past i tried it all and i remember the first night when i realized that there's no high like the most high god amen i remember that moment man it was like wow i was searching for some high some utopia whatever stupid stuff from drugs and it's like man once you get a clear crisp taste of the sweetness of christ and you realize it's only a taste when we get to heaven and the fullness of who he is can descend upon our glorified body there's going to be nothing like it and we'll be together and we'll enjoy it together man it's going to be awesome hey verses 20 through 21 wrap up the chapter paul says now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us to him be glory in the church by christ jesus to all generations forever and ever amen i i love this thought i love this message that god's ability is above all that we could ever ask or think of him to do it's above whatever we think he could do for us and so it's like sometimes it's like if you're praying for five it's like why are you doing that why do you think you can bring the specifics to god when you're praying for five and he's like i have ten in my mind you're only thinking five i'm thinking dan what are you what are you doing remember jesus said to pray your will be done and so i've come to this place in my prayers with god that whenever i pray something specific i realize i'm doing it because i've entered into the courtroom of my heart with god and i've i'm thinking i know what god needs to give to me and so that's why i pray specifically sometimes praying specifically for me is a la is a sign of a lack of faith because i'm trying to steer god and you got to do this this is the thing you need to do for me and i'm trying to do that less that whenever i do pray for something specific i can take a step back and say okay you know my heart my desire but lord i'm gonna just say your will be done because your ways are deeper higher and better and i'm not gonna pretend to be like i know what you know right now and many times when you just pray that way you find out god's will is exceedingly and abundantly more than you could ever ask i i will never forget the moment that the night the whole day actually it was a series of events throughout the day when god spoke to me that he had a wife hand-picked for me it was it was it was amazing it was through my bible reading it was through three separate pastors laying their hands on me and prophesying over me it was at a pastor's comp it was it was it was just amazing and and i remember walking away from that moments and and i took this as my prayer this became like my theme verse where i i remember saying like i'm not i'm not i'm not going to look i don't know i don't know what i need and i'm not going to say she's got to be this or that i just said god i believe that you're able to do exceedingly more than what i could ever ask for and as i just began to pray that prayer god brings the most wonderful woman into my life and it was truly exceedingly actually is exceedingly more than i could have ever asked for more than i could ever deserve i have no idea why this woman loves me the way she does she's amazing and so that's an example a real example though of me just saying i i think what you could do is better than whatever i could think and when you let god take the pin and put it in his hands he usually writes a greater story than what we could ever think for ourselves amen so whatever your highest thoughts may be still he has abundantly more that takes faith to believe you got to believe that to live it you got to believe it also something i want to highlight look at verse 20 again now to him who's able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us a power that works in us you see here's another mistake so much of our prayers often of the time they're focused on what god's going to do for us when god says the exceeding power is going to be something i do in you you see god's not as interested in what's going on outside of your life as he is with you because you are the work of god when you say god i want you to work i want to see you work you are the work you are the thing he's working on and it's only as he works internally first then after that you will see the outward effects of god working in your life you got to start with what he says is most important and that's always working on the heart always working on your spirit always taking care of your relationship with god and when that starts to rock and roll and you get in a sweet spot in a nice groove with the lord that's when you start to see all this awesome stuff happening outside your life doors opening and things like that you know so romans 8 28 may this remind you we know that all things work together for good to those who love god to those who are the called according to his purpose what's the key we know paul says i know i know this that whether i'm imprisoned or beaten whether it doesn't feel very good i know god's going to work it all for good god is working out his plan now you have to have faith to know you got to experience that and believe that and as you believe it you will walk it so to wrap us up here's the main things paul prayed for in his prayer if paul were to pray for you if you were to say paul i i need god to do this and you don't know my finances or you you know this i hurt i got this pain and my body you know paul would come he'd probably pray for those things but his focus is to pray for spiritual strength the indwelling of jesus to where he'd settle in deep into the heart that we'd experientially and and and know the love of god for us and that we'd be filled with the fullness of god that god's love would take more ground that god's love would enlarge our heart as the psalmist wrote enlarge my heart i mean when the love of god's poured into you there's there's no way for your heart to go but to get bigger with goodness huh and these are things that belong to us as children of god however they must be received by believing prayer that's why paul is praying it will only happen through believing prayer as we transition into our time of worship let me remind you of this verse revelation 3 verse 20. many of you know it jesus is speaking he says behold i stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door i will come into him and dine with him and he with me i love this because again it's not talking about our love for him it's not about us going on some quest and finding the door of jesus and be like i made it jesus i'm knocking he shows up at our door this is the grace of god the initiate he comes to the door the only thing we have to do is hear his voice and open up to him when we hear him calling that's all you gotta do this puts the pressure off of you to perform this puts the pressure off of you to be something that you're not hear his voice open the door and jesus says i will come in and a very intimate middle eastern culture is to have a meal together there's a theme through the bible you see about a focus on the table the table of the lord ruth comes to boaz's table mithiba chef comes to david's table and jesus has a table we set up the communion table and jesus has left us the elements of bread and the juice the fruit of the vine to represent his body and his blood on the cross and it's not just about coming to a table i mean it's just a little plasticky table underneath that cloth it's not about that it's the symbolism it's the spiritual encounter jesus reserves for you when you don't just walk up to a table but when you come to the lord of the table i mean it's it's an interesting thing by faith i encourage you you know as you take communion you can you can really get a lot out of your communion time with the lord first we do it openly because we want it to be a get to not a have to we don't pass it around so that you feel like you have to it's your own free will you can get up and as you come have faith that you're not just coming to the lord's table but you're coming to the lord of the table there's something about the expectation of believing jesus has given us these symbolic elements coming to the lord of the table and it's hard to describe it man when i'm in a place where my heart my mind's right and i'm thinking on the cross as i take communion as i ingest these things into my body the love of god begins to pour in so take advantage it's a spiritual exercise a spiritual encounter let's pray father thank you for your love for us thank you for coming to us lord i don't want to minimize the thorns and thistles and pains and heartbreaks of this life i pray that you'd continue to heal all of us for for the things that we really struggle with in our minds and our hearts heal us god but ultimately we know the answer is found in comprehending the height the width the depth the length of your love and i pray that we'd be able to do that today jesus we open the door of our heart wide open to you come and settle in may the roots of who you are get deep into us we want to be like a well-planted tree oaks of righteousness as your word says that do not tip over and crash and burn that do not wither in a season of drought when it's dry but that what's going on underneath the surface would be deep and true and real jesus come deeper into our hearts there might be people here in this room today god who they have little chambers in their heart in the basement of their heart and they've locked the door to everyone including you and i pray that today they'd have the courage to open up those painful things from the past those doubts those fears those those things they've tried to just bury my friend you've got to open those dark places because the only thing god has is love and light to come in to take the darkness away to heal the pain lord may our time taking communion be so sweet holy spirit i just believe that you're chomping at the bit to come and reveal yourself to our hearts do that now we pray these things in jesus name amen [Music] on this thirstiness and ground in a drying bearing i need you now [Music] you are calling i will come [Music] living [Music] if i ever need you i need you now [Music] you're the star you can please [Music] how [Music] if i [Music] ever my god if i ever [Music] need you [Music] just like the days and needs the blessing of the rain just like the wind waiting for the sun again [Music] just like this [Music] if [Music] here [Music] if i ever near you [Music] i need you [Music] as we sing this last song uh just want to know this hebrew word it's called go well it means redeemer and jesus is our redeemer and our hope so let's sing this last song about how he is our messiah [Music] he became [Music] himself and he carried [Music] jesus [Music] bless him redeemer [Music] jesus messiah [Music] you [Music] god the light of the world [Music] jesus messiah [Music] the name of [Music] well [Music] jesus messiah [Music] jesus messiah [Music] [Music] thank you jesus that uh you are our redeemer and that you are true and that you are whole i pray that uh we continue to just keep our eyes focused on you be our vision week after week month after month year after year as uh we live in this dark world jesus continue to let us just be the pillar of truth standing on the truth of the gospel and giving the truth to lost sinners who are in need of a living hope [Music] let us uh give ourselves to knowing more of your love and knowing you more jesus and let us live for your glory in jesus name i pray amen well god bless you everybody and uh see you next time

Channel: Victory Calvary Chapel

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Id: 2F8ZvDWY9Fo

Length: 94min 14sec (5654 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 06 2021