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Book: Ephesians
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Ephesians 3:17
I. "That you being rooted and grounded in love"
A. That our roots go down deep in the love of Jesus Christ.
1. It is through the roots that the tree draws its source
for life. Moisture and nourishment are drawn from the
soil by the roots.
a. Nourished in the love of Jesus.
2. The roots anchor the plant to the ground.
a. Otherwise the tree could never stand.
b. The plant would blow away.
3. We draw from the love of Jesus our life sustaining
power and our stability.
4. In the next chapter he is going to talk about those who
are carried about with every wind of doctrine.
5. The Psalmist speaks about the chaff which the wind
driveth away.
B. Some thirty years later, Jesus wrote to the church at Ephesus
through John in the book of Revelation Jesus said, "I have this
against thee in that thou hast left thy first love."
1. The very thing that Paul was praying for them within a
generation was gone.
2. When God is zeroing in on an area in your life, it is
because he knows where Satan is going to launch his
attack against you.
3. They say to be forewarned is to be forearmed, but this
is only true if we heed the warning.
C. Paul is praying that they may also be grounded in love. Love
is truly the foundation of Christianity.
1. Jesus said, "By this shall men know that you are My
disciples, that you love one another."
2. Without this love all my spiritual confessions and
manifestations are meaningless.
3. John tells us that it is not just verbalizing. There
are many people who know the right things to say. They
have the spiritual jargon down pat. The problem is that
it is all words.
a. To hear some people talk, you would think that
they are spiritual giants.
b. All talk, no walk.
c. John said, "Let us not love in word or tongue,
but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know
that we are of the truth, and shall assure our
hearts before Him."
4. The reality of your Christian faith is proved by your
love.
a. "We know that we have passed from death unto
life because we love the brethren."
1JO 3:11 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we
should love one another.
1JO 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love [of God], because he laid down his
life for us: and we ought to lay down [our] lives for the
brethren.
1JO 3:23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the
name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us
commandment.
1JO 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every
one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
1JO 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
1JO 4:9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that
God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live
through him.
1JO 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and
sent his Son [to be] the propitiation for our sins.
1JO 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
1JO 4:12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God
dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
1JO 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us.
God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and
God in him.
1JO 4:19 We love him, because he first loved us.
1JO 4:20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar:
for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he
love God whom he hath not seen?
1JO 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love
God, and keep his commandments.
1JO 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and
his commandments are not grievous.
1JO 4:21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth
God love his brother also.
JOH 15:17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.
D. Let us pray that God will root and ground us in love.
II. That you may be able to comprehend with all the saints, what is the
breadth, and length and the depth and height and to know that love of
Christ which passeth knowledge.
A. In looking at the breadth and length, we see the horizontal, in
the depth and height we see the vertical, and thus we see the
cross.
1. It is at the cross that we see the love of God.
JOH 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life
for his friends.
ROM 5:6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died
for the ungodly.
ROM 5:7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure
for a good man some would even dare to die.
ROM 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us.
EPH 5:2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given
himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a
sweetsmelling savour.
1JO 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and
sent his Son [to be] the propitiation for our sins.
JOH 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life.
B. It is the desire of God to bring you into a loving relationship
with Him, so He initiated this relationship by demonstrating
His love for you in sacrificing His Son for your sins.
1. We love Him because He first loved us. 2CO 5:14 For the
love of Christ constraineth us;
TIT 3:3 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient,
deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and
envy, hateful, [and] hating one another.
TIT 3:4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man
appeared,
TIT 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and
renewing of the Holy Ghost;
2. We are drawn by His love for us to loving Him.
C. "And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge."
1. It is through knowing the love of Christ manifested in
His willingness to give His life for our sins that we
begin to comprehend the depths and the heights of God's
love.
2. The word know here comes from the Greek word gnosko
which is to know by experience.
3. He wants you to experience this love of Christ.
4. The love of Christ for you is so vast that it passes
your ability to comprehend it. (Passeth knowledge)
III. That you might be filled with the fullness of God.
A. When Solomon was dedicating the temple in his prayer to God he
recognized that the heavens of heavens were not vast enough to
contain God.
B. In chapter 1 Paul speaks of the church as the fullness of Him
that filleth all in all.
C. God's presence fills the universe.
1. You cannot go where God isn't.
2. Isaiah speaks of Him meting out the heavens with a
span.
3. The psalmist asks,
PSA 139:7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee
from thy presence?
PSA 139:8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou [art] there: if I make my bed
in hell, behold, thou [art there].
PSA 139:9 [If] I take the wings of the morning, [and] dwell in the
uttermost parts of the sea;
PSA 139:10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall
hold me.
D. Yet Paul prays that you might be filled with the fullness of
God.
IV. No wonder Paul ends this prayer with the words "Now unto Him that is
able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think."
A. Paul has asked God to do some impossible things for them.
1. To know things that are beyond knowledge.
2. To be filled with the fullness of the One who is so
vast that even the Universe cannot contain Him.
B. Is God able is the question we must ask of every situation or
problem.
1. One of the keys of Abraham's faith was his belief that
what God had promised, He was able also to perform.
2. When Amaziah the king asked the prophet what he should
do about the hundred talents that he had given to hire
the mercenary soldiers from Israel, the prophet
answered, "The Lord is able to give you much more than
this."
3. The three Hebrew children answered Nebuchadnezzer, "Our
God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the
burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of
your hand."
4. The King asked Daniel if the God that he served was
able to deliver him from the lions.
5. When Jesus was talking the Jews, He declared that God
was able from the stones to raise up children unto
Abraham. Later in Matt. He asked the two blind men if
they thought He was able to heal them.
7. Paul told the Corinthians that God was able to make all
grace abound toward them
8. Paul told Timothy that he knew in whom he believed and
was fully persuaded that He was able to keep that which
Paul had committed to Him.
9. The book of Hebrews tells us that because Jesus
suffered temptation, He was able to help those who were
being tempted.
10. Again the book of Hebrews tells us that He is able to
save all that will come unto God by Him.
11. Finally Jude in his benediction declares, "Now unto
Him who is able to keep you from falling, and present
you faultless before the presence of His glory with
exceeding joy.
C. When I face situations where I know I am not able to cope or
deal with them, I know that He is able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that I can ask or think.
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