Ephesians | Week 3 | Full Service

Have any of you ever had, like, bad roommates? The bad roommate experience? Some of you are, like, thinking about your spouse and going, I'm going through it right now. But, no. Anybody honest enough to say you were the bad roommate? You were just terrible and you regret it or don't care anymore?

Or maybe you still are, you just don't know you were.

Yeah. I remember, I, when I was getting married, I rented a house. We were gonna rent a house that my father-in-law owned, and he was gonna give us a great deal on it so we didn't have to live in an apartment. But he had to throw the people out that lived there before.

And so since we weren't getting married for, like, six months, he said, if I help clean it, he'll let me live in it before we get married for that six months for free so I could just save money. And I was like, good. Because I don't have any money for a honeymoon or anything, so I'll save it up. Well, then I got smart and said I had two friends that were, like, really looking for a place, but they were kinda broke at the moment. They didn't they couldn't really afford a full place. So I said, I'll I'll do a win win. I'll help them out. I'll let you live here and only give me, like, 200 a That includes everything.

And, which is about a third of what it would've cost to to to live in this place with with with me. And, then they can live there for six months, then I was gonna save up that money, and, that would pay for the honeymoon. It was a perfect plan if they would have paid me.

And, well, one paid me about 100 each time. He goes, I'm a little short. I'll get in a few weeks, and then the next month would roll around, and he go, I only have a 100 again. So he's basically paying me half rent. So so a couple months in, he's he now owes me $200.

But the other guy never paid me at all. And he kept saying, I promise I'm getting this tax thing. Whatever. He said he's getting a check. And he's basically he's going all wimpy from Popeye. I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today. And and I believed him. And then all of a sudden, two months in, owes me $400.

There goes me 200. And I'm being cool, but I I got I I need the money. And so I see that he got his check. He comes rolling in from work. The the guy hadn't paid me anything, and he's just carrying in all these bags and boxes of shoes and clothes.

He went on a shopping spree. And I'm like, oh, wow. You got your money. He's like, you got clothes. He's, oh, yeah, man. It's awesome. These are so gnarly, and that's gonna be cool.

And he's all saying this stuff like, okay. Get to the point where you hand me my check and my money. I go, oh, so then you can pay me. And he goes, no. I can't, man. Why? He goes, well, because I had to be responsible, so I budgeted my check. Then I realized I just had to get these closed. That was on my budget. So so he says, so so I can't pay you yet, and it's okay because I'm responsible because I made a budget.

And I go, but you forgot to put at the top of your budget place to live. And then he got mad at me and thought I was being unrealistic. Like, you're my friend, man. Why are you doing this? Blah blah blah. And he he leaves. And then he was shocked when he came back that night, and I was sitting on my front porch,

and all of his stuff was in the front lawn. And he's like, what what's going on here? And I go, it's easy. According to your budget, you chose to live in your new clothes. And I kicked him out. And I made him leave, and he was none too happy. The cool thing is when I walked back inside, the $200

that the other guy owed me was mysteriously sitting on my bed waiting for me. Message received. Well, from one perspective, I'm a jerk that I was throwing this guy out, and that's the perspective he took. Ten years later, he thanked me for it because I was trying to help him out.

I did give him the grace and gave him the the discount, and I didn't bug him and make him pay me upfront. I was waiting for him to get. I was working with him. And then when he did something so irresponsible as not to pay, I said, well, choices have consequences.

And the the the the one uncool thing I did do is, I found his he left his surfboard in my garage, and I sold it, I did get my $400. So that was cool for me.

Well, today, why why I bring this up about roommates is is we're gonna be in a passage in Ephesians chapter three. And and and what we've seen so far in in Ephesians is the first chapter is about this incredible redemption that we have in Christ.

Chapter two, we talked about that love and what does that mean and how how we need to live through grace, from grace, not goodiness, that our lives need to be lived from that grace of God's love. Well, in chapter

three, Paul opens up that talks about this incredible mystery he has the privilege of preaching and teaching people. That mystery is the church, that God's plan was for God so loved the world. It wasn't just a select group of people. His love was so much wider, and he had this incredible plan for how to love us and and transform us and redeem us. And and and he's so moved by that that it all of this that he's written so far, that the last part of chapter three that we're gonna look at today is a prayer

that he prays for for Christians, for believers. It's the same prayer for us, and it's God's word. And in it, it basically talks about this idea that God is going to move in to our hearts, into our lives, and make a home. The love of Christ wants to move in, and then from that,

to to to to to transform our lives. In other words, this prayer, actually, as we walk through the verses, kinda gives us a better understanding of what it means to live from his grace. How do we live this life? And what we're gonna see, the big idea, is simply this. Jesus has to move in before you can move out.

Jesus has to move in and realize where I can move. Not not in the way I made the other guy move out. He's not kicking us out of his But it means when he moves in, he's not just a roommate. We may have our house, our home, but it's his house. And what he wants us to do is he wants to move in and do some things in our life

with his love. And because of that love,

we can now move out into our lives and live the life he died to give us and experience the real joy, peace, contentment, the things we're really going after. But he's gotta move in and set up shop in the way he wants. And we gotta understand, can we gonna see there's really only one thing we need to do in all this. He does the rest. So as we read through this, there's four things I just wanted to point out. Starting in verse 14, it says the first couple of verses says, when I think of all this, everything he's written so far, everything about this love of Christ, this mystery called the church, he says, I fall to my knees and I pray to the father,

the creator of everything in heaven on earth. I pray that from his glorious unlimited resources, he will empower you with inner strength through his spirit. So the first thing he says that he wants that he's praying that what God does when he comes into our lives is that he will, from his power, will empower us

with inner strength. In other words, the the first step I gotta understand that in living this life of understanding God's grace, of really knowing how to just live out my life is it starts in the heart.

Everything we're dealing with, God, is is is outside in faith. The idea of goodiness. All these things I've been saying is would say in in using the big idea for days, we tend to live our lives, especially even when it comes to, I'm trying to to follow God. I'm trying to come here and be a spiritual person. I want a relationship with God, so I'm going to church. We tend to think what that means is I move out into my life and I do things that God would like.

So he'll move into my life and give me what I think I'm hoping and wanting and needing. He'll love me. He'll provide for me. I move out. He moves in. No. It's he moves in that transforms us, and then we move out into this life that he's he's empowered us to live. So everything we're dealing with starts in the heart.

So if I'm gonna deal with anything in my life, I gotta go back to the heart. And what does he wanna do in our heart? What does it say that the Holy Spirit comes in and transforms when Jesus moves in? How does how does this happen? And it's those two words. He empowers us with inner strength. That word empowered means to he makes us resilient.

And what that means is resilient means the outside in way of living, the goodiness, all these ways we try to describe it,

everything is controlled by your circumstances when you live that way. Your joy, anything. Everything is controlled. You basically your heart becomes a thermometer. Your life it's just it's just reading what's happening out there. Inner strength, this this this this this idea of this empowerment

is it it makes it the thermostat. Meaning, you are now resilient to the outside effects. What happens in here spills out there, and out there doesn't control what's going on in here. It makes us makes us be able to live a consistent life, a stable life.

And that inner strength it's talking about, that word for inner strength is really talking about the core of how we would say it in our culture in English languages is talking about your mind, your soul, and your will. It's where they all combine. That's your inner self,

the inner strength. And what it means is that God renews us and transforms us at that level. And that's what happens. And as that happens, the inner strength, as we trust it, it then allows us to move out into our lives,

is what he's saying. So the first thing is it starts in your heart. Anything you're dealing with, if you have a hard time with this, God love me, is this or you're struggling with something, is you just gotta sit in your heart and go, what is going on in my heart right now?

And and it starts there. But what's supposed to happen? That's what it says next. Verse 17 through 19. He says this. Then see, it says then. Once you understand this is going on, then Christ will make his home in your hearts and when you put your faith in him.

But he says, as you trust in him. So the only that's as you trust him, you're by you can underline that. That is the only thing in this whole passage that says that we're responsible to do.

It's the only thing. So he says, as you trust him. What does he mean by that? Trust him in what way? As your trust in him, your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong.

And and may you have the power to understand as all of God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully, then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

So he says, as we trust in God, as Christ moves into a make a home in our heart, he says, this is what we need to trust him with, and his is where our roots need to go on. So it starts in your heart. But I would say this next point is we stay rooted. So

if we stay rooted, he says to he he will move in, and we will have our roots grow down as we trust him. What does it mean to stay rooted? Well, I'm just gonna walk through some definitions of phrases here. I think they mean more in the Greek than what we hear in the in in in the English. That word for roots

is it's a farming term, but it signifies being deeply planted, drawing strength and nourishment from.

So he says if we're rooted in Christ's love, what he's saying is the act of obedience isn't I root myself in this love. And then he's like, the act of rooting myself in that love is what'll result in me being able to trust him because I will draw the strength, the nourishment, the understanding from his love.

So we stay rooted in his love. And this is what I'm gonna camp on a little bit here because, guys, I think this is the point what many of us miss. We obey God as we understand his love.

If I'm having a hard time trusting God, it's probably I gotta go back in my heart and go, what do I know about his love, but what do I really feel and have experienced about his love? What does that mean? What does it look like? Because what he's saying is

we have to operate of what we see happening and then what we choose to do in our lives from the perspective that God loves me. So I need to understand what that means and what what it looks like. Otherwise, I will make decisions from a skewed perspective.

I I can come to church and try to serve God, but I will have this really skewed perspective. For example, I wanna show you an idea of perspective what I'm talking about. I wanna show you a picture of a a lion a mother lion with a with one of her cubs. And here it is. Picture of mother lion with cub. Mother lion with cub.

Mother lion with cub.

Alright. Maybe I won't show the picture of the mother lion with the cub. Something happened because the screen in the back just went off. So eventually, that'll pop up. I'll just keep talking about the love of God, and then you tell me when it shows up. If you see it, just make a lion's roar, and then I'll know.

And then I'll explain the perspective of it. But he says you have to understand this. And and and that word for understand because the strong is an architectural term referring to foundation, stability. Without the rootedness in this, you will not have a stable foundation for living.

And it'll cause you to have a hard time trusting God. And so in that, we need to under oh, wow. I'm like, what's wrong with you people? I forgot what I told you to do. I'm like, wow. That's a really weird reaction. Alright. Here's this mother lion. Finally. Look at that. Isn't that tragic?

I mean, why is this mom biting her cub's head off? Now I get it. A lot of you that are moms, you you relate. If you're honest, there's days when you would rather bite the kid's head off and usually include your husband in in that too. But here's from this point of view, it looks like that seems like a terrible thing.

But there was another photographer right on the other side that took this exact same shot.

Perspective. See, this mother wasn't biting the head off of her cub. She was loving it and protecting it. Because we all know that any animal that's taking care of its young that doesn't have opposable thumbs like we do and no hands, that's how they carry them and care for them. Yes. In both pictures,

their teeth are around its neck. But they mean something very different when you see the right perspective.

You know that that's sweet. Because you know why? We know that's what they're doing. You see puppies and dogs, they do it, and cats do that. And and and what that means is she is either helping that cub get over an obstacle that will they can't get over themselves

or most likely half the time taking you away from a dangerous moment that'll keep you alive. And oftentimes,

the moment they're pulling you away from is what they were choosing to pursue, and they didn't know any better. So the cubs probably like, I don't know what's going on, but you know what? I'm just all along for the ride. And here's the problem. God will grab you by the neck

out of his love and take you where you need to go. But if you don't understand his love, your perspective is you just see your head getting bit off. And you're gonna freak out. So that's why we have to understand his love. That word for understand

is probably it's not a good one in English. Because when we say I understand, we always think that's just intellectually. Like, when I say God loves you, I think everyone in this room can intellectually get the point. We intellectually but do we really fully the word there in the Greek doesn't mean just fit

comprehend intellectually. It a better English word means apprehended, to grasp, to take hold of. It's an it involves intellectual understanding, but it also involves this idea of the word literally means not just to intellectually know, but to grasp fully, not just intellectually, but also experientially to trust,

to know it to a level that you've trusted it and felt it and experienced it. This love of God.

Okay. So he then describes how it's wide, long, high, and deep. It's a beautiful illustration. But some of us stop at just the illustrate. Oh, that's so so cool. It's like talking about the depth. It's using this four dimensional idea to describe how

God's love is so complex that we'll never completely fully understand it. But it means something more than that. Each one of these descriptions means something. And if you step back and look at it, I believe each one of these descriptions brings truth to attack a lie that we tend to believe. We can say, intellectually,

I know this in my head. But in my heart, where it starts, I'm feeling something very different because I haven't embraced this fully. What do I mean by that? Well, first, wide. Wide. The Greek word platos.

It means with or expansiveness.

What it's trying to say and he starts with it was interesting because he starts this chapter with, I cannot believe this mystery of the church, meaning God didn't just call the Jews, didn't call he literally wants Gentiles, and his plan to love was so much broader. He John three sixteen, for God so loved the world,

it meant that his love is wide enough to include everyone. And everyone means you too. So the first thing he wants to understand is God's love is wide enough that he loves you.

He loves you. And you know what? I think intellectually, everyone goes, I get that. I understand what the Bible says. I could see how God loves everybody.

But how many of you are sitting here struggling that you have this thing called cognitive dissonance is what they call, where you can know one thing but still believe another thing. That's the opposite of the one thing. And you don't even get it. You are happily living in this. You've separated the two to a point that you have enough jumbled thoughts in your brain and in your heart that you literally it makes sense to you. Like, you could say, god loves everybody

except me. Why would you feel that way? Well, a lot of it is because of the perspective that every time he's trying to help you, you don't trust it, so you think he's biting your head off.

Because we have an outside in. We if we live from that perspective of goodiness, as I said, we live from this perspective I talked about last week, which if you weren't there, go back and listen to it. This will make more sense.

Is is this idea that if I live a life that says, I move out and do good things or I force myself to move out into my life and try to do these things, then God will move into my life because he'll love me, and he'll move in and and be and be my roommate and help me.

The problem is that perspective is the perspective of how I was the owner of the home, and I wanted these guys to move in

and help me pay rent and help me pay this stuff. Many of us, when you have the move out to move in mentality, you think, I moved out and did this, so God will move in. And then you know what he's gonna do? He's gonna help me pay my rent. He's gonna give me the things I want and need. He's gonna then, you know, be my buddy when I'll ignore him most of the time. But when my girlfriend breaks up with me, then we'll hang out.

You know? And then we'll, you know, we'll we'll have some fun together, but then we'll go do our own things.

You know, and and and we think of it differently. Move out versus move in has a different perspective. And when you move out and God doesn't move in like you expect him to, you feel like he doesn't really love me and he's rejecting me. And even the things I think he's letting happen to me is that he's biting my head off.

Does that make sense? What is it in your life right now that you could say, for God so loves the world, but right now, I don't feel like he loves me. Because the perspective is he loves you. He loves you. He already said he does. He's proven it.

He loves you. So what's causing you to think he doesn't love you? Is it the wrong perspective? Is it the selfish move out? Like, he's not giving me what I need. He's not giving me what I want. That's roommate Jesus. That's not it's his house.

And you're not trusting his love. When when when when you you have that difference, you don't trust that he loves you. It could be your own maybe you're really owning your shame and your guilt and all this stuff. He loves you. Like we said last week, God loves you because of who he is, not because of what you do.

I can say that. I can say I intellectually understand what you're saying. But what is in your heart that's preventing you from seeing that, experiencing that, embracing that? What's the lie? What's the noise out there? Because not only is it wide, it's long. Makos is the word.

And it's what that means is the word means length or actually duration of something. And it's often implying a continuous and far reaching span unending and enduring throughout time. And even God's love is wide enough to include everyone, even you. And God's love is long enough to last forever.

He won't stop loving you. Because that's the other one. Some of us go, okay. I know he loves me, but now what your problem is, you're concerned with, I think he stopped or he or you're afraid he might stop loving you.

You feel that pressure all the time. Like, you're just waiting for the other shoe to drop. You're waiting for that. There's a lie. And I think there's a lot of us in the room that struggle with this one. And you know why? Because a lot of how we try to view the love of God is stuck on how we view how love works in our world.

We get this problem with with comparing the two. So our experience in this temporal life that's broken, sometimes all we experience is we don't experience unending love. Matter of fact, a lot of the examples that we see in love is a lot of the things we saw that started off as love. There was promises made and maybe some actions taken, and then it stopped.

Like, I I guarantee there's some of us in this room that your struggle with trusting God, you're in, you're out, you're upset, you're depressed, you're sad, you're always wrestling with this relationship with God, is because of this. Your experience in life has been a lot of people leaving you. Broken promises,

not lasting love. Maybe parents were terrible. Dad left. Maybe both left. Maybe they didn't leave and they were abusive, there was no love, but they said they loved you but then acted differently.

And then maybe that messed up you got in, and now you've experienced some relationships. Maybe you've had a marriage fall apart. Someone left you. And maybe it seems like you get close friends, and it leads it creates this self propagating cycle that you're just you're built in that that because of what's happened to you, like I said, outside in, the things out there are controlling your thermometer in your heart.

And so then you just can't help it. And I guarantee some of you that have been through all of that, that is why you struggle emotionally trusting that God loves you. You're just afraid that is God gonna be just like everything else I've seen.

And here's the beauty of why God's love is so amazing that we can never fully understand it. His love is eternal because He loves you because of who He is, not because of what you do or what's happened to you. He will not abandon you. He will not. Can you embrace that and know that

and understand that that's how he sees you now? It is wide enough for you and it is long in that it will never stop ever.

And then it's also high and not the medicinal kind for your glaucoma. Hipsos. It means height or elevation. And it is almost often associated with something that is exalted or supreme.

As in if you read a lot of that Psalms, a lot of scripture says, the Lord most high or high seated and exalted on his throat. It's that word. It's this idea that it's an elevated in as far as holiness and high into the heavenly,

as we would say. It's it's it's it's got a fullness and a height to it. But when applied to us, what it means for us is it means that God's promising because it says this love will empower you and change you. And that means his love is high enough to lift us to the heaven. In other words, it elevates our identity.

Meaning, we've all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We all struggle with sin. We all struggle with brokenness. And then all of a sudden, Jesus came and he says, my love has transformed

you. It's elevated your identity. See, and then and and and and what it means is I've made you my child. I've made you into this. And you gotta understand that that's who you are now. When you when I move into your heart, when you put your faith in me, I have not just we think redemption is just forgiveness is, okay. You're a sinner, but I'm gonna let you into heaven anyways.

That's not what it is.

We were dead and separated from him, and he brought us back to life. He recreated us. I mean, that's what we just celebrate, those baptisms. It's symbolic. When the people go under the water and come up, it's Jesus died, buried, resurrected. So we, our old self, the sin, the death, the things that make us disappointed, the things that make us not trust God, the things that make us live outside in, that make us trust.

I know that God says this, but I need this. That's what Adam and Eve fell for. I need to ignore God because I need more money or I need more time or I need more of this. I can't do what God wants me to do because I have to have this. All of that, he says, that's been buried, and the new life comes out.

And guess what? That's who you are now. His love has elevated you and transformed you and me. That when you put your faith on, guys, that is who you are now.

In other words, when God looks at you, if you have put your faith in the death of Jesus Christ, his burial, his resurrection, you have put your faith in him as your Lord. Do you know what he sees when he looks at you?

He sees a saint, not a sinner. He sees his son in you. He sees us in the image of himself in the way he created us to be in the first place. And it's not God being like this myopic parent that thinks their kid is perfect even though they're not. It's who we really are.

You see, the lie we listen to when we don't understand the height of God's love is, we think his love was, I'm just not gonna hold you accountable for your sin and let you into heaven, warts and all, because I died for it. No. His love is what gave your your identity.

And so the Romans talks about this. Paul struggled with this when he says, hey. Why do I know this is what God did for me, yet I still find myself often doing the thing that I just don't wanna do

and not doing the thing I wanna do. What he meant was I'll still do the sin even though my there's part of me, this this voice that says,

I want to trust God in this. I want to fully believe him. I wanna do that, but I don't do it. I still do this. What's going on? Then in chapter eight, he explains, you know what? I realize I've disconnected from the Holy Spirit's power in me and the love of God that what he's really redeemed. In other words, God does not take myopic goggles

and look at us and say, letting you even know you're knucklehead. And and then when we take that view of God's love, how we view ourselves is you think that what it means to trust God is I have to force the sinner to do the right thing. You think you're reforming your old self.

You think that that part of you that doesn't wanna trust God, like and I'll just put it practical. The part of you like, I don't wanna love my wife because she's not being very, respectful to me. But God says love her anyways. I don't wanna do it.

You think that's you. And so you think the answer is when you hear messages, well, I guess I gotta force the guy that doesn't wanna love his wife to love his wife Or the vice versa. I don't wanna respect my husband because he's a knucklehead. Well, I guess I gotta force the part of me that voice that doesn't want to, that's afraid of to just just force it to happen, then God will love me. No.

Same thing. Giving money. Well, I don't wanna give money to a cause of Christ. Because you know what? I want the money for myself. And I'm afraid about what's going on. And I guess I gotta force that guy. I gotta force the guy that wants to do it my way to do that. No. That's not what he's saying.

What he's saying is, every one of you, if you know Christ, you know what any one of these moments the bible says, trust me on this because I love you. You may still wanna follow the sin. But if you actually know Christ, you know there's a voice in you that says, man, I really wish I could do that. I really want to do that.

But then there's a reason why. You can't. Here's what he's saying the height of his love is.

You think that's just some weird voice. Maybe it's my throat punching voice rattling around in your brain, or you think that's only the Holy Spirit. And you think it's this Holy Spirit calling to that sinner in you that doesn't wanna do it and say, force him to reform.

That's not who that voice is. That part of you that wants to do that, here's the beauty. Because of the height of his love, what it says his love does. I'm gonna come way out the edge. That's actually who you are now. That's not a voice in your head. You're not the one that doesn't wanna do it,

that should feel more shame and guilt and force yourself to do it.

The part of you that wants to do it is who you are. When we either Jesus comes to get us or we go to him, you know why we'll be free of sin in an instant when that happens? It's because that's who goes. The part that you think is you isn't you.

And when you listen to the olds, when you live a dead man's life or a dead woman's life, when you live out that life of death, even though you say you believe in Jesus, you still operate like the world. We live in the temporary. We run after those things. And so we think, I still have to have the money. I have have this. I have to you know why? Because you're still the dead part of you is still seeking for an identity. Because the world says you gotta go find out who you are. You gotta go make out make up who you are. You gotta go find something that this is who I am. And the world has all these temporal things that we say where it says, you know what I am? I'm a wife, or I'm a husband, or I'm a father, or I'm a mother, or I do this for a living. I'm a businessman,

or or we find our identity in that, or the things we have. I'm wealthy or I have this stuff. Or we find a lot of it is now it's been turned in. Find my identity in the color of my skin or my sexual preferences. That's my identity. Do you realize none of that is who you are?

It's not found in how you vote or what government you believe in or none of that is our identity. Those are just things we live out, those are things that are there. But that is not who we God's height of his love says, my identity is I just made you my child.

And you are a saint. And you know why he said that? It's because we were built for eternity.

And when we live for the temporary, we're trying to fulfill the eternal longings with the temporary things. And that's the mess up. And you could be a Christian that believes in Jesus and be just as messed up because the perspective of not understanding the height of God love and who you really are now.

That who you really are is the one that wants to do it. So why not just let that person live the life?

You're listening to the shadow, the whispers of a former life, and you're and we get afraid. We have the power.

And then we think of ourselves as the idiot that has to force myself so that when I say, here's what we ought to do. And you're like, if that guy says money one more time because you're so freaked out about your money

that you're mad at me for bringing it up because you're like, he's telling me I'm an idiot. No. I'm telling you, listen to who you really are. Don't listen to the idiot that's dead because that's not who you are at all. And when you believe that, it transforms you from the inside out.

When you embrace that, it transforms you, and you realize, I can go do this. I'm a saint. I'm a child of God. That's who he sees me as, and that's the life he died to give you. Otherwise, I'm gonna run after these other things. I'm gonna move out. And then when I pray to God, like and then I don't get those things,

especially if it's something you think you need to have that you don't have, like money or a relationship,

and you're like, I've been praying for a husband. I've been praying for a wife. I've been praying for this. I've been I just wish I had could get a home. I wish I had a house. Then I'm praying. I'm being a good boy or girl. I'm going to church. I'm going why is God not giving me what I need?

Because you're running after the temporary thing, thinking he's gonna fulfill an eternal longing. Let me put it. Just yesterday, I was doing my devotional reading, and I was in the book of Ecclesiastes chapter three verse 11.

And it says this, God planted eternity in our hearts, yet we still don't understand what God is doing from one moment to the next. That's a really deep, simple statement. You know what he said? We were built for that eternal love of God,

the never ending eternal love of God. We were made to be eternal beings in an eternal relationship and be about eternal things.

But then we're born into this finite world with a finite lifespan because of death, and this world is against God. It focuses on all the finite things. And when I forget that I am that new person, I am the eternal person that God eternally loves, that is now the saint, that has been made for eternal things, sometimes I forget that, and I still chase after what the whole world because all I've seen is what the world offers. So I keep chasing after those temporary things thinking that's gonna fulfill me. And then it's this weird rat race we get called it. Because you either think you get it, and then it's not enough. And then you think it's something wrong with me, or there's something wrong with God, or it's not working. And you keep thinking that these things that you're gonna get are gonna somehow finally make you content. More money, more stuff, a different relationship, all that. And you keep thinking. But the problem is what that passage is saying is,

we are built for eternity, yet we try to fulfill those longings in the temporary. And that is why we don't understand what God is doing for a moment over the next, because we run after the temporary. It doesn't work or we don't get it, and then we go, why does God not love me? I'm confused about what God is doing.

Embrace the eternal love of God.

Embrace that he just made you as an eternal being. Embrace the identity that the part of you that wants to trust God with all this stuff and not get mad and not get hurt and not feel left out and not get sorry for yourself and not get all that and understand that is the whispers of a dead life that was never

going to bring you what you're looking for.

So what happens when we get that? We then understand the depth of God's love. That deep, it means profoundness, and Christ dying for us is profoundly deep because we do not deserve this, but God did it for us anyways. And when I engage in that, I then go to what the last

the second part of verse 19 says. He says, then when I understand the glove of God and I embrace it, he says, then you will be made complete with all fullness of life and power that comes from God. You'll be complete and full. Complete and fullness. In other words, it starts in your heart. We stay rooted. Rooted in what? In

comprehending what God's love really is. And then out of that, we become filled. Start in your heart. Stay rooted. Be filled. God does that. That word for completeness means totality, signifying the entirety of God's character and power.

You now have the dunamis power of the Holy Spirit. Dunamis, that's the Greek word for power there. It means dynamite is where we get it. It's the same power that raised Christ from the dead. You have the power to trust God. You have to trust the love. That's all you gotta do.

And then you will have fullness. As we trust God's love, it says that fullness. And the word fullness means to be made complete, but it also it means as in fully saturated to the point of overflowing.

So it's not for like you have just enough to survive life. He says that love of God will fill you up so much, it's gonna spill out. Kinda like Thanksgiving. You know, Thanksgiving meal isn't over when you're full. It's over when you hate yourself. It's

over when you realize, I put so much in, I think some of it wants to spill out now. It's like Brian Regan when he talked about going to the ER, comedian. He says, what's going on, Brian? He says, all I know is everything that's on the inside wants to be on the outside.

That's the bad version of this. He's saying when you get so filled and rooted in how God's love is is is wide

and and it's long and it's high and it's deep and you understand what that really means and you let that love attack those lies and you embrace it to the point that you become rooted in it, he says, then you're gonna be complete. You will have that power and understanding of God, and you will be filled to the fullness. And it says, all that goodness that is now percolating in you can't help but spill out and move out from you. And the decisions you make in your life, and the purpose of your life and the things you go after in your life and how you choose to love others in your life will just automatically

come from that. So if you don't have that spilling out, it's because you haven't been filled up. You've probably got the wrong perspective of how faith works, the wrong perspective of what God's love is. And you think that when God says, trust me, I'm going down this path,

that outside in view, that sinful temporary thing to fulfill internal longings view, that that view will say, if God tells me to go in that way, he is taking something from me I need. And you're missing the whole point.

It feels like he's biting your head off when he's really wanting to pick you up and take you to some place you desperately need to go. Because that's where life will be experienced. And it's weird. It's when you get there that all those things you thought all the other things were gonna give you the feelings of,

you'll experience even more than you thought you could of those things because that's what the last two verses say.

It says when that happens, it says in verse 20, now all glory to God who is able through his mighty power at work within us. Guess this. Look. It's his mighty power at work within us to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

So glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever. Amen. I believe is what that means. That part there. Now glory to God who is able through his mighty power. And where's the power working? Within us

to accomplish infinitely more than we might think or ask. See, outside in, when you're thinking it's, I do these things, and then he works in my life, we that view makes us misinterpret scriptures like this all the time. When you hear he'll do mightily more than anything I could possibly imagine or think,

you think that means I'm gonna get blessed in all the ways I wanted to get blessed.

I it's the idea that says, if I give my money, God's gonna make me rich because I really wanna be rich. So I'm gonna do what he wants just to get what I really want. And so when you hear these things, we misapply them. And then when we misapply them and God doesn't do it that way, then you go like, God doesn't love me or I'm mad at him. And you because you misunderstood it. It's kinda like the most often misquoted,

misused scripture, which sorry, many of you probably have done it. You probably have a plaque or something on the wall in your house that says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

And what you thought that meant is I started my essential oils business. And if I trust Jesus enough, I'm gonna get rich. I'm gonna supply for the needs for my family. God promised I'm gonna do everything through my Mary Kay business and this and that or whatever it is. I could do all things. And what you think it means, I can do anything I want

and get a success at it as long as I trust Jesus and say, Jesus is gonna help me do it. That's not what it says. Read the context. What it's really saying is you can do everything God's asked you to do,

and he will give you the resources and the ability to do what he's asking. If he asks you to give money, you can give it, and you will survive. If he asks you to serve, you can serve, and it'll work. If and and he says, and when you do that, not only does he supply it, this passage is saying is, you will then experience far more than you ever thought to ask or think. That's why it says ask or think because our natural old sinful self does never thinks that doing that would ever get us this.

Because it actually asked us to do the opposite of what we think we need to do to get what we want. That's what it's saying, guys. You are missing out on life and joy and contentment and eternal fulfillment because you refuse to change your perspective and embrace and understand how

long, high, wide, and deep God's love is for you. And so we claim stuff. So here's the secret. I'll give you the cheat code. You wanna know to always get what you want?

It's like, Pat, I'm gonna help you cheat. Get around the system. Here's how you always get what you want. Get ready. This is real. It'll work. Trust me. Works 100% of the time. It works every time.

When you want what God wants, you always get what you want.

And I'm just saying that sucks to be you as long as you get what God wants. But you know what you really want? The things you're not trusting God on? The way you just worry about materialism or relationships or this or getting something that, and you think that's gonna make you happy?

What this is really saying is what you really want, you will never get from that. So when you trust God and he'll ask you to do something that seems the opposite,

you then get surprised that you got more than you could ever ask or even think of because you never knew that that's what you really wanted, because that's who you really are, because that's the God who made you and knows that. In other words, the final result is you trust big. That's the only thing we're supposed to do,

is trust big. Where are you holding back? Where do you not trust God's word? Where are you doing? Because you see I guarantee, if there's a thing you're not trusting God with, it's your perspective and your understanding of his love for you. It's starting in here. 100%.

It's not God needs to do this on the outside for me to be able to trust him on this. It's you trust his love on the inside, and then you will choose to trust him big on the outside.

So you need to ask yourself, what's going on in my heart? Do I really believe and understand how much he loves me? Do I or am I just wanting what I want still and I'm stuck? And here's the thing.

Here's a way to know if you're an actual Christian. If you're like, nope. I don't have that voice in my head that even makes me wanna do that thing. When you clearly read a scripture that says, here is the way to live life. Here's what I've called you to do, like, a part of the great commission. Be a part of a church. We are called to be a part of a church,

to engage, to be in community, to know, to grow, to go. We are called to that. And if you're like, I believe in Jesus, but I don't even have a voice in me that wants to do that. You might not be saved, to be honest. You might not be.

Because if you got the Holy Spirit and you're working in your heart, you're gonna have that new life that at least you might be getting overwhelmed by your old life. You might be getting beat down and listening to the wrong voices. But, man, if you don't even have that voice,

you don't understand what it means to even know Jesus. The Holy Spirit ain't in you. And the first thing you need to do is say, do you want him in you? Do you want the do you wanna know the love of God? Put your faith in it, and then root yourself in it.

And when you struggle with trusting him, go back to his love. Don't just force the sinner to do the right thing. Go back to the love and go, hey, God. I want the power to let out who I really am in this moment. In other words, let me close it with this.

I've used this story before, but it fits perfectly. There was a guy named Charles Blondin.

He was a tightrope walker back in the day. He was known as Blondin the Great, and he was fantastic. His biggest show, what he liked to do was he would walk across a tightrope at Niagara Falls. I'm actually have a picture of how his show would start. He would start off by just walking across old school normal. Like, that's impressive enough to and not only would he walk forward, he'd walk backwards and do it a couple times.

And what makes Niagara Falls harder is it's not just, you know, a height point, but it looks scary. It's deadly. But it's also windier around Noah and really noisy. And have you ever noticed how loudness makes you see worse?

Like like when you're driving somewhere new and you're like, turn down the radio. I can't see where I'm going.

You ever thought, like, noise can clutter your vision. It can clutter how you see stuff. It can freak you out. It can get you confused. So he then and imagine the noise over the I've been there. If you ever been there, it's like, it's loud. Those

let's go there. What? We can't hear nothing. It's scary. So when he does that, that's impressive. But to to the the people would be just astounded in that. That's just the opening act. He then would do more things. I got two more pictures of other things he would do. He'd walk out there with a table.

That's him over at Niagara Falls, sitting on a table. He can balance himself to sit, and he drinks wine and toasts the crowd. I mean, you're probably sitting to go, I'm gonna watch this guy die.

And then after that, he goes, hey. You guys think I could take someone across? Yeah. And he and he gets his agent. His agent trusts him so much, he would take his agent across on his back.

So he's and he'll walk forward, backwards, and do all that. So they're like, this guy, this is a no brainer. He can do this like there's no tomorrow. So then his last thing he does and that actually looks like it's easier than the other stuff he did, he gets this wheelbarrow out.

And he starts pushing a wheelbarrow across. Then he throws some sandbags in it to make it heavy, throws it back and forth. And they're like, well, that's that. Yes. That's easier than the the the carrying the dude and the other thing. So then he gets done, and he comes over to the wheelbarrow. Goes, hey. Well, that seemed easy enough. Yeah. How do you think I could do that again? Yeah. How many of you think I could do that with a person in the wheelbarrow? And everyone cheers, yeah.

Everyone 100% believes he could take a person across the wheelbarrow. So then he goes, good. Who wants to volunteer? In his entire career, you know how many people volunteered? Zero. Why? He had proved to them over and over. It was obvious that was a no brainer easy thing for him to do. And that's that cognitive dissonance.

They said, I believe you can do that, but not with me. You know why? Because they do the same thing we do with Jesus. In that moment when it became personal, get in the wheelbarrow, we stopped looking at blonde and the great or Jesus, the Messiah, and started looking at the fall and listening to the noise.

The noise made you stop seeing, and the fall terrified you.

Even though you can see how much he he this guy could do it.

All we're called to do is get in the wheelbarrow. He takes us someplace new. And everything we really wanted is not found on this side of those falls. It's not found in the job, the money, the stuff, the this, the that. What we were built to long for, the eternal things, is on the other side of the falls.

And Jesus could actually walk on the water with you. He doesn't even need a tightrope and a wheelbarrow. What

wheelbarrow that he says, I love you enough that I know you need to be over there. I know you want to be over there. I know your soul really longs for being over there, but this is the way.

What's your wheelbarrow? And what is what is the noise in your head and your heart? I get it. I'm like you. I sometimes can't sleep at night. You ever have one of people like you just you can't shut that brain off? And and and the and and your day sounds like this.

Love Jesus. What? Get in the wheelbarrow. Bone marrow?

And you're trying to love your family. You're trying to do these things. You're trying to live this thing, and you and you're trying to trust God's love, but the noise the world is noisy. Our hearts and our heads become noisy,

and that's why we come to church. It's why we need to be in the word on our own. It's why we need to be in community, because those things is how you take the

And that's why in Psalms, it says, Be still and know that I am God.

Quiet and root in God's love

because God's not trying to bite your head off. We need to be rooted in His love because He's actually rooting for you.

Get in the wheelbarrow. Father God, I thank you, Lord. I thank you that you love us more than we can love ourselves. And so, Lord, my prayer is simple for myself, everyone in this room, anyone watching online. Help us see your love and engage with it and be rooted in it in our hearts so deeply

that the noise will get quiet. We'll look at you and not the fall.

And whatever the current wheelbarrow is, I need to get in.

Through your love and my transformed identity, I'll get in a wheelbarrow. Thank you. I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Hey. Love you guys so much. Thanks for being here. And that was fun.

Hey. Thanks for joining us for service online this weekend. Be sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on the Rock Point Church app for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.