Participants: Ty Gibson
Series Code: AOT
Program Code: AOT000004
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00:13 Welcome to "Anchors of Truth".
00:17 The Extravagant Love Series with Ty Gibson. 00:22 What do you think of when you hear the word Love? 00:26 I suspect if we asked a thousand different people, 00:30 we would get a thousand different answers. 00:34 Because there is no word I suspect 00:37 in the English language that has been more misunderstood, 00:41 misdirected, misinterpreted, maligned than the word love. 00:46 It has so much meaning and yet so little meaning 00:49 in our language today. 00:52 And isn't just like Satan to take a word soulful of beauty 00:57 that is at the foundation of the government of God. 01:00 So, nuanced a word and turn it into 01:03 can't get enough for your love baby. 01:06 Ooh, baby, oh, baby, 01:07 she loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah. 01:12 So the word doesn't have meaning in many places, 01:15 and in other places the meaning 01:17 has been totally obscured, 01:19 but during the last several nights, 01:22 we've gotten a new respect for love and for what love is. 01:27 And let me employ a Stinsonian locution. 01:30 We've gotten a view of love from God's point of view, 01:34 from heaven's point of view. 01:37 We've seen the great condensation, 01:39 particularly in last night's message, 01:41 what a powerful message? 01:42 Christ coming down here to be not only with us, 01:46 but part of us, powerful message. 01:49 And today, we expect no less than the blessing 01:52 from the hand of God, as we move through 01:54 this series called "Extravagant Love. " 01:57 Part of our Anchors of Faith series. 02:00 Our speaker is our friend, our pastor, Ty Gibson, 02:03 who has been doing a wonderful job, 02:05 used by the Lord to teach us these things, 02:09 the deep things of love. 02:12 Melody Firestone is coming to bring us music, 02:14 but before she does, I would ask you 02:16 to bow your heads with me in a word of prayer. 02:20 Gracious Father, we just praise You 02:24 and thank You for Your powerful love, 02:28 a love that simply will not let us go, 02:32 a love that reaches all the way from heaven to earth, 02:37 from Your heart to ours. 02:40 We thank You for these meetings where we've been 02:43 refocused and redirected 02:45 and our minds has been elevated 02:48 to the nobility of heavenly love. 02:51 And the lengths that love will go to, 02:54 to call and capture its own. 02:59 Oh! Father, this day, 03:00 we submit ourselves to You yet again. 03:05 We ask for open hearts, open minds, 03:08 open ears to receive the word of God. 03:12 We ask that You would bless Ty with Your spirit, 03:17 with Your power, with clarity, so that he will be, 03:21 but a conduit of Your grace to our souls. 03:27 Bless Melody, as she sings, may we sit in heavenly places. 03:31 Oh! Dear God, bless us this day, 03:34 not only those of us who sit here 03:36 in the Thompsonville Church, but those who 03:39 around the world worship You and worship with us. 03:45 We thank You, we praise You, 03:47 we love You in Jesus name, amen. Happy Sabbath. 04:13 In the beginning of creation 04:22 When the world was found 04:30 The God in His splendor 04:34 This world He had render 04:39 Still the best was yet to come 04:47 God waited slowly 04:55 The world's love story, 05:03 written just for me 05:13 Jesus has got greatest glory 05:38 From His birth in a manger 05:43 to His death on Calvary 05:49 He fulfilled the Father's plan 05:56 Jesus Christ thou sacrifice 06:03 The sacrifice! 06:06 Giving hope to every man 06:12 God's greatest glory 06:22 The world's love story, 06:29 written just for me 06:39 Jesus has got greatest glory 06:56 Jesus has got greatest glory 07:20 Amen. Thank you Melody. What a blessing? 07:25 I tell you what, music just 07:27 penetrates the heart in a way 07:30 that no other medium of communication can. 07:33 I'm often reminded and love to bring to the attention 07:38 of congregations that the Bible actually teaches 07:43 that God Himself is a songwriter and the singer. 07:49 You know that, don't you? 07:50 In Zephaniah 3 and verse 17, the bible literally says 07:55 that He that is the Creator of the Universe 07:58 will rejoice over you with singing 08:01 and quiet you with His love. 08:03 So if God's doing the singing, 08:05 I think that it is a logical next step in our reasoning 08:10 to believe that He is writing His own lyrics, right? 08:15 I don't think He downloaded the lyrics from the Internet. 08:20 I think God is a songwriter and a singer. 08:23 And we know this in many other ways as well, 08:25 because the Bible says that Holy men of Lord 08:28 spoke as they were moved upon by who? 08:31 By the Holy Spirit and you'll notice that the scriptures, 08:35 the Bible just happens to be filled with song lyrics. 08:39 The most obvious example is the Book of Psalms. 08:43 These are songs that were inspired by who? 08:47 The Holy Spirit, obviously. 08:49 Then you have the Song of Songs, 08:51 the Song of Solomon, right? Amen. 08:54 Who wrote the Song of Solomon? 08:56 Well, Solomon, but the Holy Spirit 08:59 moving through Solomon? 09:02 Much of the Book of Isaiah is a composition of song lyrics. 09:07 So it's just beautiful to realize that God 09:12 not only thinks, but He also feels. 09:16 God is an emotional being and He expresses Himself 09:21 through songs, so that we can know Him in that way. 09:25 Well, I'm so excited about our time together. 09:27 We have entitled our series, "Extravagant Love". 09:32 Now that word extravagant, 09:33 some people have been struggling with that word. 09:36 I thought it was a very common word. 09:37 Somebody last night said is it, what is it? 09:39 Is it excruciating love? I said, no, no, no. 09:43 It's not excruciating love, although, 09:45 we learnt last evening in our message of the charts 09:49 that there was a point at which this love 09:53 was excruciating for God, right? 09:57 Someone else said, is it the exceptional love series? 10:00 No, no, no. 10:01 It's extravagant love, extenuating, is that? 10:06 No, no, no, extravagant love, 10:09 of the charts over the top 10:12 extreme radical posh luxurious love. 10:16 That's what we're talking about? 10:17 We're talking about the fact that God's love 10:20 is the most beautiful and powerful 10:24 reality in all the universe. 10:27 And this morning, we're going to talk about 10:30 the fact that we as human beings are to receive 10:35 God's love, as a living reality, 10:39 and as a practical reality into our hearts 10:42 which you receive it? 10:44 We're going to talk about what it means 10:46 to receive God's love. 10:48 How do we, how do we get it out of 10:50 the realm of mere theory, concept, idea, theology, 10:58 and bring it to the inside to the interior 11:02 of our hearts and minds? 11:04 How do we, how do we drink it in? 11:07 How does it get from God in to our hearts? 11:12 That's the question this morning. 11:13 Now in order to get there, I've to call your attention 11:17 to something that you probably know, 11:19 but we just don't think about it a lot. 11:22 And that is that, we as human beings 11:26 by nature because of what we are by nature, 11:28 we as human beings are permeable 11:32 and habitable creatures. 11:35 We're what kind of creatures everybody? 11:37 We're permeable and we're habitable. 11:41 In other words, we were made 11:44 or designed to be occupied. 11:47 Are you with me so far? 11:49 Now the Bible speaks of this in many different ways. 11:52 You're familiar with the words of Jesus 11:54 in John Chapter 15 verses 3 and 4, 11:56 where Jesus said, abide, where, 11:59 in me and I will abide, where, in you. 12:03 There is some sense in which the human being is habitable. 12:10 You remember where Paul said in 1st Corinthians Chapter 6, 12:15 "Don't you know that you're body is the'...what everybody? 12:18 'It's the temple of the Holy Spirit." 12:20 There is some sense in which the human mind 12:23 is a citadel, if you will, a throne room. 12:27 Let's put it that way. 12:28 That the mind is to be inhabited by God. 12:34 Now, not inhabited in the way a person inhabits 12:40 an automobile and pushes the pedals 12:43 and shifts the gears and steers the steering wheel, 12:46 not in a micromanaging control sense. 12:51 We're not to be inhabited by God the same way 12:54 a man or a woman inhabits a plane and pushes the buttons 12:59 and controls the entire flight process. 13:05 We're not puppets. We're not to be controlled. 13:09 God is in the business of inhabiting us in the way 13:15 that a person, one person inhabits another person's 13:19 heart through friendship, 13:21 through interaction, through fellowship. 13:26 Now this idea that is pervasive throughout 13:31 scripture that human beings are a habitation 13:35 for the Holy Spirit to be in throne, 13:37 to occupy the human being, comes even clearer 13:41 to our understanding when we realize that there are 13:44 essentially two dimensions to human nature. 13:48 There is the physical dimension 13:49 and then there is the spiritual dimension. 13:53 We're not fundamentally, listen carefully now, 13:55 we're not fundamentally physical creatures with a spiritual part. 14:02 We're fundamentally spiritual creatures with a physical part. 14:09 In other words, as human beings, 14:11 we're not merely of an animalistic nature. 14:16 We're not just physical brute bees. 14:20 There is a spiritual dimension to our identity. 14:23 We were made for interaction with God 14:27 on the highest imaginable level. 14:30 And we're going to get into that in greater detail 14:32 this afternoon at 2 o'clock, but right now I just want to 14:36 point out that our physical bodies 14:40 are the medium through which the mind, 14:43 the spirit, the character, 14:44 the personality is in fellowship with God. 14:49 Think about it for a moment, if you and I were to die, 14:54 rather recently, I don't want to be morbid, 14:56 so I won't say today. 14:57 But we're going to eventually die, 14:59 every one of us, when we die what happens to us 15:03 when we die, what happens to us physically? 15:07 Well, there is immediately a decay process that occurs 15:10 and the Bible says it far more poetic, 15:13 it doesn't say we become composed, 15:14 it says, basically that, 15:16 that dust you are into the dust, 15:19 you will return, right? 15:23 So the physical dimension just blends with the earth again. 15:30 Now, I've a question for you. 15:33 When you come forth in the resurrection, 15:36 are you the same person, same character, 15:39 same history, same personality, 15:43 same person when you're resurrected, yes or no? 15:47 I mean, when I'm resurrected if I should die 15:49 before the second coming of Jesus, 15:52 and I meet my mother, for example, who is deceased. 15:56 Will I know her? 15:57 Is she still the same person I knew her to be? 16:01 Yes, but does she have a different body? 16:04 Has according to scripture, has God given her a new body? 16:09 Yes, a new body. 16:10 Think about it this way, 16:12 there is a lot of transplant surgery 16:14 going on in our culture now. 16:15 Medical science has just gone crazy 16:18 with what it's capable of doing. 16:21 And so let's just say that on Monday, you go in, 16:24 you have-to-have a heart transplant? 16:28 Is that a surgery that's going on and can be done? 16:30 Can you get a heart transplant? 16:32 And when you get a heart transplant, 16:34 where do they get the heart? 16:37 I hate to say it this way, from a Cadaver, 16:41 from another person's body. 16:43 They're paying attention, they have all this going on 16:46 in a communication network and somebody across town dies, 16:50 they call you immediately we've the right heart 16:52 for you, get to the hospital quick. 16:54 You go in then the person's whose job 16:58 it is to be the organ harvester. 17:02 Some people that's their job description, 17:05 he goes across town, she goes across town, 17:08 she gets the heart out of this other body, 17:11 take it to the doctor, the doctor does what with it. 17:14 Opens you up and puts the new heart in, question. 17:17 Are you the same person? 17:20 Yeah, but life's not going good for you 17:22 because on Tuesday, 17:23 you have -to-have a kidney transplant. 17:26 And sure enough they find the right kidney 17:29 and somebody else's kidney is put in your body. 17:33 Are you the same person? You're the same person. 17:36 And they're even doing forehand transplants now. 17:41 A number of them have been performed successfully. 17:44 And you've been in a terrible accident on Wednesday 17:47 and your hand has been separate, 17:49 but you're in luck because a guy 17:51 who is serving a life sentence in prison 17:54 has just passed away and so they separate his hand 17:58 and this is horrible, isn't that? 18:00 Should I even? And they run across town 18:02 and they put his hand on yours. 18:05 I'm not talking science fiction, this is happening. 18:08 You look down after the hand transplant 18:10 which I think we're at Wednesday now. 18:12 And there are scars, you're not familiar with 18:15 and even a little tattoo. 18:19 Maybe even the hair color is different 18:22 and it's a fully operable hand. 18:26 Is it your hand? Is it a trick question? 18:30 It's his, but now it's yours. 18:33 And are you the same person? And the answer is, yes. 18:39 And I hate to make your week so bad, 18:43 but on Thursday, you need a full face transplant. 18:49 And I remember when the first full face transplant was done. 18:53 It was a French woman, and she had been in a 18:57 terrible accident and she needed 18:59 serious cosmetic surgery and they said that 19:02 the reconstruction would be so complete 19:05 that we may as well give you a whole new face. 19:08 And so they literally, do you want me to tell you? 19:11 They literally cut off another person's face, 19:15 peeled it off, aah! 19:21 And then they peeled her face off 19:23 and put the new face on this French woman. 19:28 She went through the healing process, 19:32 she came through the surgery successful. 19:34 She looked in the mirror for the first time and said, 19:37 wow, I thought I was better looking than that. 19:43 And she proceeded to pick up her bad habit of smoking. 19:47 And the French people were criticizing her 19:51 in the public media, how dare you smoke 19:54 with someone else's face? 19:57 But the truth is that now it was her face, question. 20:03 You've been through all these transplants surgeries 20:06 all week long, new heart, new kidney, 20:09 new hand, new face. 20:11 Are you the same person? Yes. 20:14 You're the same person because what defines personhood. 20:19 I mean, seriously, the Bible says, 20:21 that we will die, we will return to the dust 20:25 and then we'll be resurrected and receive 20:29 what the Bible calls a glorious body 20:33 like unto His glorious body 20:35 in the Book of Philippians Chapter 3. 20:37 That is we will receive a glorified body like the body 20:41 that Jesus presently has, as a human being 20:45 and as fully God, but glorified, right? 20:48 So there is something more to you and me than appearance. 20:54 There is something more to us than merely the body. 20:58 And some of us quite frankly, we're done with this model 21:01 and we're looking forward to the new one, aren't we? 21:04 Yes, I can't believe it just recently I noticed, 21:07 I said to myself, wow, I used to wake up 21:10 in the morning and come to immediate consciousness 21:14 and hit the ground running. 21:15 And now I have to sit on the edge of the bed 21:17 for a good, I don't know 30-45 seconds 21:20 and get some momentum and just kind of wander around 21:23 the room a little bit to get it going. 21:27 We're changing, we're in the process of dying, 21:32 but praise God there is a resurrection from the dead 21:38 and a new body, but there is something more to you and me. 21:42 The Bible tells us very clearly in 21:46 Colossians Chapter 2 verses 9 and 10, 21:50 that in Him, that is, 21:52 in the Lord Jesus Christ in His human form, 21:54 in Him dwelt all the fullness of the God 22:00 had in bodily formed, you've read this? 22:04 But then the next verse says and King James, 22:06 New King James Version, "And you are complete in Him." 22:11 But the Greek is the same as in the previous verse. 22:14 It literally reads that in Him dwelt all the fullness 22:18 of the God had in bodily form 22:21 and you are made full of the God had in Him. 22:26 In other words, the human being was made 22:30 to be inhabited by God. 22:34 Now the question is at this point, 22:38 what does that mean in a practical sense? 22:43 In what practical way, do we become inhabited by the Lord? 22:49 Turn your Bible to Ephesians Chapter 3, 22:52 this is our text this morning, this is our key text 22:54 and we'll be looking at a number of them, 22:56 but this is the bottom line here. 22:59 Ephesians Chapter 3, starting with verse 14, 23:03 the Apostle Paul is engaging in a marvelous prayer 23:06 for all believers for you and for me and if you ever, 23:11 if you ever have a prayer block and you don't know 23:14 what to pray about and you're at loss for words 23:18 open to Ephesians Chapter 3 and makes this your prayer 23:21 for yourself and for anybody else that you care about. 23:26 Verse 14 of Chapter 3 of Ephesians, 23:29 "For this reason I bow my knees 23:32 to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." 23:34 So you see here that Paul is on his knees, 23:36 he is in prayer from whom the whole family 23:39 and heaven and earth is named. 23:40 In verse 16, here's the prayer, 23:42 "That he would grant you, according to the riches 23:48 of his glory, to be strengthened 23:52 with might through his Spirit, 23:53 where everybody, in the inner man, 23:56 in the inner person." 23:59 So Paul is beginning his prayer by asking 24:01 that the Lord will give you and me strength 24:06 in the inner person. 24:08 Now he goes on in verse 17 and explains 24:11 the practical ramifications of this strength 24:15 in the inner man, where it comes from 24:16 and what it is? Verse 17, 24:18 "That Christ may dwell, where, in your hearts." 24:23 Is that a statement about the physical organ 24:26 we call the heart that pumps blood through the body. 24:30 No, this is the word heart as the centre of life 24:34 in the body being used as a metaphor, 24:37 as a symbol for the mind, for the emotions, 24:42 for the perceptions, the thought process, 24:45 the motives, all of that inner stuff 24:48 that makes up the identity of the human being 24:51 because everyone of us we have a personhood, 24:58 a character, a collection, 25:01 a whole history of thoughts, and feelings, 25:03 and experiences, and memories, 25:04 and we all have a history, don't we? 25:08 We've all have things said to us that registered 25:10 deep inside us maybe words that were not positive 25:14 like you'll never amount to anything and it registered 25:17 and it directed some part of our life 25:21 or maybe positive words, you are incredible 25:23 and I love you, and I'll never ever, 25:27 ever stop loving you. 25:29 And those words register and they shape your identity, 25:34 they shape your character. 25:37 All of these outside influences through our 25:39 relationships make us, who and what we are? 25:44 But the Bible tells us that God wants us to have 25:47 the ultimate relational encounter with Him. 25:53 So that in relationship with Him, 25:55 He will feed into our minds, into our hearts, 25:59 the truth about Himself 26:01 and about how He regards us in His eyes. 26:06 And the Bible says that the truth of God's love 26:10 for you and me will set you free. 26:14 There will be liberation from all the bad data, 26:18 if you will that's been downloaded 26:20 into your hard drive so of speak. 26:23 You've been told things, you've been treated certain ways, 26:26 you've been hurt, some of you have been 26:28 through the horrific rejection of divorce. 26:34 Some of you have had children you loved 26:36 with all your heart and they walked away. 26:42 Other ones of you have experienced what it's like 26:47 to love somebody only to not be loved in return 26:52 and it's shaped you, it's defined you, 26:56 it's made you in some serious degree 27:02 who you are and God says, no, no, no, no, 27:05 I am going to enter into a process of erasing all that 27:10 bad data until there is no more remembrance of sin. 27:17 The shame and the guilt both true and false. 27:21 Sometimes there is guilt that we feel that is valid, 27:25 we've done wrong and we will feel bad for it 27:26 and we need in repentance and confession 27:30 to have that guilt resolved, right? 27:33 Other times even though, we know God has forgiven us 27:36 because His word promises that He has for some reason 27:41 because of our negative relationships 27:43 we can't even imagine that God has genuinely forgiven us, 27:48 and yet He has and He says, 27:51 I want you to have an encounter with me. 27:54 So that I can heal the deep wounds and hurt 27:58 that you've experienced through life 28:00 and so that I can define you in my eyes 28:04 and you can begin to believe about yourself 28:07 what I believe about you and what I believe about you 28:10 is that you are my son, you are my daughter, 28:13 and I love you with a love that has no bounds 28:19 and I will safely lead you to the other side. 28:23 This is what's happening as Paul prays 28:26 that we would be strengthened with might by His spirit 28:29 in the inner man that Christ will dwell in your hearts 28:34 through faith, that's the believing process. 28:37 Faith is the mental process of agreeing with God. 28:42 It's the process of saying, yes amen, I agree, 28:47 God's opinion is the valid one. 28:50 Jesus died for me and I trust 28:54 that that sacrifice is for me, for me by name. 29:02 So Christ was in our hearts through faith, 29:06 but now watch where Paul goes 29:07 because this is just absolutely brilliant. 29:10 He says verse 17, ''That Christ may dwell 29:13 in your hearts through faith, that you being 29:19 rooted and grounded in something, 29:22 in what everybody?" In love. 29:24 He is using an agricultural metaphor here. 29:27 Did you catch it? Rooted and what, grounded. 29:32 There is a sense in which you and I as human beings, 29:34 we've a root system. 29:37 In other words, there is a part of us 29:39 that takes root that reaches down in to the soil 29:45 of the surrounding influences in our lives. 29:49 I come from the pacific north-west 29:51 and we have what are called ponderous pine trees. 29:54 Some of them are just massive, 29:57 they are huge and I remember learning, 30:01 one simple little fact and that is that 30:04 one ponderous of pine tree during the process of 30:08 the hot summer months, each day, 30:11 each 24 hour period one ponderous of pine tree 30:14 will draw up through its root system, approximately, 30:17 five bath tubs full of water, up into its foliage, 30:23 in its upper most branches. 30:24 It's drinking, it's drawing. 30:27 All of those roots that are reaching down 30:29 into the soil are like straws. 30:32 Can I put it that way? 30:33 And the tree is, this isn't a great word, 30:36 the tree is sucking. 30:38 The tree is drawing up into itself the nutrients 30:44 that are in the liquid, that are in the water, 30:49 that its drawing up, that are free floating molecules, 30:52 vitamins, minerals, drawing that all up. 30:55 Paul says, you as a human being, 30:58 you have a root system. 31:00 Mentally, emotionally, you have a root system 31:05 and you need to plant yourself, 31:07 you need to root yourselves specifically Paul says 31:11 in the love of Christ. 31:14 This is the most concentrated form of spiritual nourishment 31:19 you can partake of, the love of Christ. 31:23 And he says, "Become rooted and grounded in love." 31:26 And then he unravels the metaphor, 31:29 the agricultural metaphor, 31:31 he's speaking symbolically so far, 31:33 roots and get grounded and draw it up, 31:36 but then he tells us in more practical straight forward 31:39 non-symbolic language how it happens? 31:42 Verse 18, "That you may be able to." 31:45 What's that word in your version? 31:47 "Comprehend with all sins, what is the width and length 31:53 and depth and height and to know the love of Christ." 31:56 To what? To know it, to comprehend it, 32:00 to understand the love of Christ 32:03 which passes knowledge, now watch this. 32:07 "So that you maybe filled with all the fullness of God." 32:14 There is our habitation language gain. 32:17 There is this idea that the human being 32:19 is a habitable creature and that God is to fill us 32:23 to the full with all His fullness. 32:28 And how does He do it according to Paul? 32:30 By His love, taking up space in our hearts and minds, 32:37 by his love crowding out all the negative history 32:42 and the negative memories and the sin and the guilt 32:45 and the shame, His love is to take up space 32:49 in our thinking and feeling process. 32:52 And Paul says that this happens through 32:55 comprehending it and I want to just, 32:57 I just want to emphasize this. 33:00 This is a very practical thing we're talking about, 33:02 it's not mystical, it's not distant, 33:05 it's not, it's not just a theory. 33:07 If you want to know where you and I can engage 33:10 with God in the most practical level 33:13 actually do something. 33:14 Okay, we can't do anything to earn our salvation. 33:18 We can do anything by way of good works 33:22 to merits His love, we can't save ourselves, 33:27 we're not saved by works, but listen, 33:29 there is something you and I can do is free more relations. 33:33 We can root ourselves in the love of God. 33:37 We can intentionally, deliberately engage our minds 33:42 and our hearts in a process of 33:45 comprehending the love of Christ. 33:47 What is the meaning to comprehend something? 33:50 Throughout some synonyms, to understand it, 33:53 to grasp it, to wrap the mind around the subject. 34:02 Now here's what I believe Paul is saying 34:05 and this is testified to throughout scripture. 34:08 And that is this. 34:10 To the degree that I know and believe that I comprehend 34:16 the love of a God for me and for all others. 34:19 To the degree that I comprehend God's love 34:22 to that same degree precisely will my heart, and mind, 34:27 and life be filled with the fullness of God, 34:33 and to the degree conversely on the negative flip side 34:38 of this to the degree that I belief lies about God 34:45 and about His love, to the degree that I harbor 34:48 false conceptions about His character 34:51 and His attitude toward me, His feelings, His thoughts 34:56 to the degree that I harbor any falsehood 34:59 about the character of God. 35:00 To that degree, I will find myself distant from Him. 35:07 Now I may go to Church, I may hold an office, 35:11 I may have employment even in a Christian work, 35:15 I may be a missionary in the mission field, 35:16 I maybe going through the motions, 35:20 but listen, it's possible to be engaged 35:25 in all the external activities of religiosity 35:30 and disconnected from God at the heart level 35:35 because quiet frankly, I'm not totally comfortable with Him. 35:40 Why am I not comfortable with Him? 35:41 Because I believe things about Him 35:43 that are not true because I have distorted concepts 35:49 of Him that lead me to be dissent, I mean, 35:51 think about it this way, all relationships work this way, 35:55 all relationships work this way. 35:57 Intimacy is engaged in to the degree 36:03 that a person feels trust. 36:05 Am I right? Yeah. 36:07 But trust is predicated on knowing that the 36:11 individual is genuinely good. 36:14 That the person is trustworthy we might say, 36:18 but even if you believe I lie about someone, 36:20 let's just say hypothetically it's not even true. 36:23 One of your, one of your friends comes by 36:27 one day and just whispers to you, 36:28 I saw your husband with another woman 36:33 and it didn't look right. 36:36 Now you don't even know, if it's true, 36:38 but here is the power of information, right? 36:43 Immediately what do you feel in your spirit? 36:45 Especially if you and your husband, let's say, 36:47 had a bad argument the day before, 36:49 let's just say there is some context, 36:51 let's say there is some history, 36:53 and in every marriage there is, 36:55 unless you delude it. So there is history. 36:59 What is going on in your spirit now 37:01 when you hear those words? 37:04 Well, there is fear, there is insecurity, right? 37:06 He comes home that evening from work 37:10 and is there some degree of emotional wall 37:12 between even if you don't know it's true. 37:14 Yes or No? There are some kind of 37:16 wall there, and then he just casually says and passing, 37:19 hey, I don't know where I, I saw my Aunt Millie today. 37:24 Aunt Millie? Yeah! 37:26 How, we're just, I was just got 37:28 and walking down the street to get lunch, 37:30 out of the office and there she was, 37:31 I haven't seen it for years and we began interacting, 37:34 she gave me just the most affectionate hug, 37:37 I just can't believe. 37:38 Aunt Millie? Yeah, Aunt Millie. 37:42 Why? Nothing. 37:45 The truth shall set you? Free. Free. 37:49 All of the sudden, what happens to the emotional wall 37:51 she was feeling. 37:52 It's gone, she realizes that she had believed 37:55 or was tempted to believe a lie. 37:58 Now to the degree relationally that we believe 38:02 the truth about God to that same degree 38:05 we will enter into intimacy with him. 38:10 Trusting, loyal, openhearted intimacy, 38:14 now our world is filled with false conceptions 38:17 of the character of God. 38:19 I want to share with you a series of 38:23 seven dimensions of God's love that will have a 38:28 liberating influence on your heart and mind 38:31 if you believe them. 38:33 A series of how many? Seven. 38:35 Seven, you're saying, wait a minute, 38:36 I thought it was almost done a whole seven, 38:38 can't you do three? 38:40 Can you narrow it down? No! They're seven. 38:43 Actually there is more and I did narrow it down, 38:46 but you noticed something in this text in 38:49 Ephesians 3, didn't you? 38:51 You noticed that God's love is a multidimensional reality. 38:56 Did you see that? 38:57 He prayed that we would comprehend with all saints, 39:00 what is the-did you catch it? 39:02 The width and the what, 39:06 length and the depth and the height? 39:10 God's love isn't a one dimensional reality. 39:12 It's not seeing an image on a television screen. 39:16 It's not even a three dimensional reality, 39:18 so that if you put on 3D glasses, 39:20 have you seen one of those movies? 39:23 And every thing is kind of jumping out at you. 39:25 No, God's love is four dimensional, 39:28 it's multidimensional. 39:30 God's love has a deep contours and color, 39:34 it's living, it's a beautiful thing, 39:37 and the more we understand it 39:39 from every conceivable angle, 39:42 the more we will be liberated in that love. 39:45 So I'm gonna share with you 39:46 seven dimensions of God's love. 39:47 If you're a note taker, I encourage you to write 39:49 all seven down as fast as you can and then I'll back up, 39:52 and I'll cover each one. 39:53 Number one, God's love is universal. 39:57 It's what everybody? It's universal. 39:59 Number two, God's love is personal, 40:01 that's the intimacy dimension. 40:03 We'll look at in just a moment. 40:05 Number three, God's love is pursuing. 40:08 It's after you. 40:11 Number four, God's love is changeless, it's unalterable. 40:16 Number five, God's love is non-condemning. 40:22 Number six, God's love is, and this is just mind boggling. 40:26 God's love is selfless. 40:30 And Number seven, God's love is empowering. 40:34 It's what everybody? It's empowering. 40:37 First of all, the universal dimension of God's love, 40:41 by universal I mean that God's love is 40:46 total and complete in its embrace of the human race. 40:54 Everybody is included nobody is excluded, 40:56 God doesn't love some and not love others 41:00 as the extreme forms of Calvinism 41:03 would have us believe. 41:05 That God's love is limited because 41:08 He from eternity past chose, whom He would love 41:13 and whom He would not love. 41:15 According to the Bible, what ought to be 41:18 one of your favorite Bible verses 41:20 and the one you should know like your 41:21 social security number unless you don't know 41:23 your social security number and then you should know like 41:25 your phone number and that verses John 3:16, 41:31 notice the language, for God so loved, 41:35 what are the next two worlds, words? 41:37 The world, that's the universal scope of God's love. 41:41 It takes in everybody. 41:44 You have a very narrow circle as a human being 41:48 of intimate relationships, right? 41:51 It's very narrow by comparison to 41:53 God's larger scope of relationship 41:57 with people, right? 41:58 You know a few people on an intimate level. 42:03 Beyond that, it's a lot of names, 42:08 a few faces, you see people on the news, 42:13 what about the little boy and his face is indelible edged 42:17 in your mind in Afghanistan that you saw 42:21 on the news three nights ago. 42:24 What about that haunting little girl 42:28 with her piercing blue eyes on the cover of 42:31 National Geographic back in the 1970s? 42:35 That iconic face, that eventually after many years, 42:41 National Geographic went searching for her 42:43 and found her as an adult woman. 42:46 Does God know her name? Does God his name? 42:50 Yes, and that bring us to the second dimension 42:53 of God's love, it's personal. 42:56 Not only is God's love universal taking in all, 42:59 it is personal in the sense that it is focused on each. 43:04 Now you need to make sure, I need to make sure 43:06 that we don't allow the big idea of God's love 43:10 for all to crowd out the intimate 43:14 idea of God's love for each. 43:17 God knows you, in fact, 43:18 when you woke up this morning, 43:21 it was probably a slow process of coming to 43:26 consciousness of your surroundings 43:28 and if you're like me, I travel a lot 43:30 is the weirdest thing in the world to wake up 43:32 and for the first few seconds, 43:34 wonder, okay, where am I? 43:38 Oho, okay, and all of the sudden you realize, 43:41 I mean, this city at this hotel 43:44 and you get your bearings and you get out 43:46 on the right side of the bed or the side you happened 43:49 to be closest to and you know what to do. 43:53 It's a slow process waking up, 43:55 but I want you to know something that 43:56 according to scripture God is hyperconscious 44:01 of you every nano second of the day. 44:04 In your first few seconds of consciousness 44:06 as you open your eyes in the morning, 44:09 His eyes are upon your face. 44:12 The first time that you crack a smile in the day, 44:17 He is elated and He is perfectly aware 44:19 of whatever it is that made you happy. 44:22 The first time in the day that you feel 44:24 a sense of frustration 44:28 or maybe your eyes well up with tears. 44:32 The Bible says, he collects those tears 44:34 discard in a bottle. 44:36 He has them all numbered which is a beautiful, 44:39 biblical poetic way of saying that 44:42 God takes note of every tear you ever shed 44:45 and he knows the emotional condition 44:48 that brought forth those tears. 44:50 He collects them in a bottle. 44:52 So God's love is universal, but it's also very personal 44:59 and this is because love by nature. 45:03 Now follow carefully, love by nature is not, 45:08 how can I say this? 45:09 It is not a divisible quantity, 45:13 it's not a divisible sum, it is a exponential quality. 45:21 Did you catch that? 45:22 Love is not divisible, it's exponential. 45:26 Let me illustrate how this works, okay. 45:28 Let's just say for example that you have ten children. 45:32 The first question of course would be, 45:33 why did you do that to yourself? 45:36 The second question however would be, 45:39 do you know all of their names? Do you? 45:42 Yes, I mean, if you take the illustration too far 45:47 you'd lose track and you have to start assigning numbers 45:49 and just throwing spaghetti 45:51 on the middle of the table and saying, 45:52 come and get it because we are finite as human beings. 45:58 But tens are a good number, you have ten children. 46:01 You know all of their names, but here's the real question. 46:04 Do you love each one of them? Yes. 46:06 Question, do you love each one of the ten 46:09 with a 10% strength love because, I mean, 46:14 there is only a 100% to go around, 46:15 so 10% for you, 10 for you, 46:17 10, is love divisible? 46:19 No, you don't love each one of the ten 46:23 with 10% of your love, you love each one of the ten 46:26 with 100% of your love. 46:31 So the human heart has the capacity to love 46:35 more than one person with all the love you have to give. 46:41 Yes or No? Yes. It's exponential. 46:45 What God's love is just like that, 46:47 but on an infinite scale? 46:50 He literally knows every person by name, 46:53 each person's history, 46:54 every thing that's ever touched them 46:56 and he loves each one get this as if he was along 47:02 with that individual in the universe. 47:04 God loves every person as if they were the only person 47:08 in all the universe to love. 47:11 His love is universal and it's embraced in its scope, 47:15 and it is personal, very personal, 47:20 it's intimate, it's hyperaware of the individual. 47:23 Now the third dimension of God's love 47:26 is a favorite of mine because I experienced it 47:30 and I was very aware of the fact that I experienced it. 47:32 God's love is pursuing or we might say pursuant. 47:38 God's love is chasing you. He's after you. 47:43 Psalm Chapter 23, you know, Psalm 23, right? 47:47 The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. 47:50 He makes me lie down in green pastors 47:52 and it goes on and then it comes to the end 47:54 to the climax of the song. 47:55 Surely goodness and mercy, the word there is he said, 47:59 the Old Testament ought for love, unfailing love. 48:02 Surely goodness and love shall, 48:06 do you know the rest? 48:07 Follow me all the days of my life. 48:10 I mean, you and I, 48:11 we are in His sights and He is after us. 48:17 He's pursuing us, He pursued me. 48:20 And finally, got hold of me 48:23 as a young man of 18 years of age. 48:26 He'd been pursuing me all along, 48:29 but I only became aware of it, when I was 18. 48:33 Then I turned to him as it were, 48:35 I was running and then suddenly I stopped 48:39 and I turned around and bumped into him. 48:41 He was running break neck sprint toward me 48:48 and finally got hold of me. 48:49 Number four is changeless. God's love is changeless. 48:52 What does that mean? 48:53 Well, God's love is unalterable, 48:56 think of it this way. 48:57 The Bible says in Jeremiah 31:3, 49:00 "Yes, I have loved You with what kind, 49:02 what quality of love, you know the, 49:04 you know, the modifying word there 49:06 and everlasting love, that's right. 49:08 I have loved You with a certain quality of love. 49:12 It's a love that is everlasting, 49:14 change that around for what does that mean, 49:15 if it's everlasting, it means, 49:17 it last for ever, right? 49:20 It doesn't have any edges, no ceiling, no floor, 49:23 you can't, don't misunderstand me, 49:26 you can't sin yourself. 49:28 Yes, I am. You can't sin yourself 49:30 out of the parameters of God's love. 49:33 There is nothing you can do to make Him love you less. 49:38 By logical extension there is nothing you can do 49:40 to make Him love you more because 49:42 He already loves you with a totality of His love, 49:45 with all His heart. 49:47 God's love is everlasting. 49:48 James 1:17 says, that with Him there is no variableness. 49:55 Not even a shadow of turning. 49:57 He doesn't change, He is the same yesterday, 49:59 today, and forever. 50:01 In Malachi 3, you know this verse, 50:04 no doubt where he says, I am the Lord, I change not. 50:07 That's sounds pretty immutable, 50:09 pretty immovable, but you know 50:10 the rest of the verse, have you ever looked? 50:12 I am the Lord I change not, 50:15 therefore you are not consumed. 50:18 What's he saying? 50:20 If I were to change my attitude towards you, 50:25 you would be annihilated in an instant. 50:27 I love you with a love that never changes 50:31 and your rebellion and your sin 50:32 can't even alter my heart towards you. 50:35 God is not dependent 50:36 on external circumstances to love. 50:41 God is love and He loves you and me with all His heart. 50:44 Number five is that God's love is non-condemning, 50:47 back to John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, 50:52 that He gave His only begotten Son, 50:54 that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, 50:56 but have everlasting life." 50:57 But then verse 17 actually defines that love. 51:02 "For God did not send His Son into the world 51:05 to condemn the world, but that the world 51:08 through Him might be saved." 51:10 So grammatically the word love in verse 16 51:14 is modified or defined by the lack of condemnation 51:19 in verse 17. 51:21 "For God so loved the world that 51:23 He didn't condemned you.'' 51:25 He could have by all rights, but He simply profoundly, 51:29 chooses not to. 51:32 Could God hold us accountable for our sins, 51:34 if we win His heart to do so? 51:36 Could He just call us to account? 51:38 Yes, but the Apostle Paul says, 51:42 that if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature, 51:45 "Old things are passed away, behold, 51:47 all things are become new and all things are of God, 51:49 who has reconciled us to himself through 51:52 His Son Jesus Christ and has given to us 51:55 the ministry of reconciliation to it that God 51:59 was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself." How? 52:04 Not imputing their trespasses onto them 52:10 or New International Version, 52:12 not counting men's sins against them. 52:16 How does God reconcile us? How does He save us? 52:19 By not counting our sins against us, 52:22 by choosing not to condemn us. 52:24 First John Chapter 3 verse 20 says, 52:26 if your heart condemns you and will it? Yes. 52:31 Do you feel this stink of guilt and shame? 52:33 Yes. John says, if your heart condemns you, 52:38 God is greater than your heart 52:40 and He knows everything that is to say, 52:42 He knows everything about you and He still loves you. 52:47 His love supersedes your guilt and shame. 52:51 Number six, God's love is selfless. 52:55 This is amazing, if you think about it. 52:57 God is the only person in the whole universe 53:02 who literally has proved in a demonstration, 53:09 a living demonstration that He loves all others 53:12 above and before Himself. 53:14 Chapter 9 and verse 26 of Hebrew says that, 53:16 "He appeared once at the end of the world, 53:20 get this, to do away with sin 53:23 by the sacrifice of Him self." 53:27 How does God save you and me? 53:29 By self sacrifice. 53:31 We don't witness a pageant sacrifice at the cross. 53:35 This isn't a third party whipping boy. 53:37 This isn't God wanting His wrath on someone else. 53:41 This is God absorbing your sin and mine, 53:44 and giving Himself to suffer the consequences of our sin. 53:50 This is God loving you and me 53:53 to the nth degree of self sacrifice. 53:58 He hung upon the cross in Mark Chapter 15, 54:01 and they said, marking Him. 54:03 "He saved others Himself He cannot save." 54:08 If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross 54:10 and save yourself. 54:14 Three times that marking chant was hurled at Him. 54:19 Save yourself, save yourself, save yourself, 54:24 and prove that you are the Son of God. 54:26 But the irony and the paradox says that 54:31 in choosing not to save Himself, 54:34 He proved that He is the Son of God. 54:38 But remaining on the cross, Jesus proved that 54:43 He loves you and me more than His own life. 54:46 And do you know what that does for you and me? 54:49 If you're really comprehended, it arouses a response. 54:54 It arouses an outreaching adoring worshipping response. 54:59 It causes us to say wow, if God loves me 55:03 like that I can't help, but love Him in return. 55:07 First John 4:19 says, "We love Him 55:10 for only one reason because He first loved us." 55:16 His love is primary. 55:18 We don't have any natural love to muster up and give to Him. 55:25 We love Him only because He first loved us 55:28 and His love as a creative force has aroused 55:33 and recreated in us a responsive love to Him, 55:39 which brings us to the seventh dimension 55:41 of God's multifaceted love. 55:45 It is empowering. 55:48 You know Second Corinthians Chapter 5 verse 14, I'm sure. 55:54 Think about it in our context right know though. 55:58 Where the Apostle Paul says, the love of Christ, 56:03 first let's do the King James Version, constraineth us. 56:08 King James Version, New King James Version, 56:11 the love of Christ compels us, Amplified Version, 56:16 the love of Christ urges us on. 56:20 The idea here is that God's love is the empowering factor 56:26 in our spiritual experience. 56:28 God's love awakens in us a new energy and power 56:34 that we've never known before, 56:35 a moral power and energy we've never known before. 56:38 He says the love of Christ compels us to 56:42 seize living for ourselves and to begin living for Him 56:44 who died for us and rouse again, 56:47 but my favorite empowering statement in scripture is 56:51 Galatians 5:6, where we are told 56:55 that faith works by love. 57:00 And the word works there is the word Energeo, energy. 57:05 Paul literally says that faith is energized by love. 57:12 My friends, we this morning and throughout this series 57:16 have been spending our time in an effort 57:19 to encounter God's love, not for the sake of theory, 57:24 but so that it would impact our hearts and life. |
Revised 2014-12-17