Vastness of God's Love

Ephesians 3:14-21 is the scripture for this sermon. This scripture says "14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen."

The Apostle Paul prayed in Ephesians 3:14-21 for us to get tight with God. The Apostle Paul prays for others in most of his prayers. Paul uses his life as a testimony. He also uses himself as an example for us to follow.

I learned about this scripture when a friend of mine, Rex Brown, read it in Sunday school to describe how God had touched his life. He opened my eyes that God is so much bigger than we can grasp without truly spending time with God to learn God’s depth. Rex was giving his testimony how God’s touched in his life. He explained that God is indescribable. Today, I believe he was saying that we have to learn about God for ourselves to find out all of things that God can do in our lives. Words just can’t do justice to God.

We need to fall to our knees and pray to God. We won’t get to know God we unless really talk to him. It says that we need to “knell before the Father.” Knelling before the Father makes me think of the picture of a small child knelling by her bed to pray to God before she goes to sleep. Do we do that today? Jesus says that we need to have childlike faith. If the child is willing to knell before God, why aren’t we willing to fall on our knees to pray? It is okay to tell God that we can’t go through this world any longer without him. It is okay to tell God that you want him to be your best friend. It is okay. God wants to be your best friend, too. Our church alter is designed to have a place to knell. Do we use it or do we look at it?

I confess that I wrote my sermon listening to K-Love. I turn on the radio when I’m in the car. I turn on the television when I go into the living room. It is hard to hear God’s voice over the booming radio or television. What if God is screaming at us and we don’t hear his voice because of Fox News, Q-99 or the 10 O’clock news? Can we turn off the noise in our lives so we can listen to God? I admit that the music on K-Love inspires me. Sometimes God works through the noise in our life.

Why don’t we make it easy for God by reserving some quiet time to think about God? On Friday morning, I was about one hour early to a meeting so I had time in a place without TV or radio and nothing to do. It was a gift of time where I was with God. I didn’t have any distractions. Why can’t we plan to receive that gift of time with God every day?
The scripture mentions God’s glorious riches. What are God’s glorious riches? Is it eternal life? Is it being loved in a huge way? Does it mean sharing God’s love with others in a wonderful and unselfish way? Is it giving of ourselves without expecting anything in return? Does God’ glorious riches include silver and gold? Does God’s glorious riches include blessings from heaven falling down to us and our family?

Does God’s glorious riches mean being able to see the impossible become possible? Why don’t we find out what God’s glorious riches mean in our life? Many people search under the rainbow and in all kinds of unusual places for the pot of gold to change their lives. My belief is the pot of gold doesn’t really exist. We should search for a “pot of God.” If we clean up our lives, we will probably realize that the “pot of God” has been sitting in the corner of our lives waiting for the time when we open our eyes and realize that the future glorious riches was sitting waiting to be opened all of the time. Some of us call the “pot of God” a Bible. Jesus Christ is the truth. Jesus is the light of this world.

Jesus Christ can strengthen us through the Holy Spirit. We can go through this life relying on our own power or we can rely on the power of God to be with us. It is our choice. We usually wait until bad health hits us to consider asking God to be with us. Why don’t we invite God in when everything is going well and we are healthy? This scripture also indicates that our strength is not skin deep. Our strength comes from our inner being.

We think of God’s love as two dimensional: our love for God and God’s love for us. This scripture quickly explains that God’s love is so much bigger. This scripture challenges us to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Jesus Christ. This scripture challenges us to realize that God’s love surpasses our human knowledge and wisdom. God’s love is bigger than what we can write on a piece of paper. God’s love is bigger than a box.

The way that I relate to this scripture is to think of the Grand Canyon as a small ditch compared to God’s Grand Canyon. God’s love has thousands of Grand Canyons contained inside of it. Let me describe God’s love another way. God’s love is the size of thousands and thousands of Grand Canyons. God’s love is like Victoria Falls. Victoria Falls is the biggest water falls in the world. Victoria Falls could hold many Niagara Falls. It is impossible to see all of the water falls from one vantage point. God’s love is like the mist that comes off the water falls. The mist surrounds us when we least expect it. The mist cools us on a hot summer day. God’s love refreshes us just when we need his love the most. God’s love and presence covers us and renews us.

God’s love is bigger than the biggest Grand Canyon that we can imagine. God’s love is BIG! Jesus answered a key question about how to obey God’s commandments by talking about love in Matthew 12:28-31. It says, “28One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" 29"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all of your mind and with all your strength.' 31The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."

I’m not sure why it is so hard to describe love. First, there’s so many ways to love and be loved. I’m thinking about the love that gives without wondering what will be received in return. I’m thinking about the love that anticipates a need and gives fully to satisfy that need. The love that a mother shows to a newborn baby is like that kind of love.

It is hard to describe the love of Jesus Christ because he gave his whole life just for us. Jesus didn’t just give of his time. Jesus didn’t lose a leg. Jesus lost his whole life so that we could have eternal life. Jesus gave his life willingly for us. We hear about people who died in war so that a buddy could be saved. The soldier knew love when he laid down his life in the line of duty for a friend. Jesus knew love when he laid down his life for the whole world.

Verse 16 & 17 of Ephesians 3 help us to understand how we are able to grasp God’s love. The Bible says “16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” We can comprehend God’s love if we invite the Holy Spirit into our hearts through faith.

I cherish the “love chapter” in the Bible. It is 1 Corinthians 13. Susan and I read this chapter at our wedding. This chapter states that we can do great things in our lifetime, but if we have not loved we are nothing. [Please read 1 Corinthians 13 NIV]

In conclusion, we need to “continually remember before our God and Father our work produced by faith, our labor prompted by love, and our endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” [1 Thessalonians 1:3] And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom God has given us. [Romans 5:5] We learn in Galatians 5:22 that a few of the fruits of the Holy Spirit are love and joy.

Grace and faith help us to understand the vastness of God if we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. God’s love is so special. It is also so wonderful to share God’s love to as many people as we can. In turn, the love of Jesus Christ is returned to us in ways that we can only imagine. If we are looking for love in all of the wrong places, we are not seeking God’s love. Today is the day to open our hearts to the vastness of God’s love. Today is the day to be willing to ask for the strength from God! Amen!