Transcript for:
Ephesians 3:14,21 -Power To Love- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2026-02-08

Ephesians chapter three verses 14 through 21. Would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word together? For this cause, bow my knees under the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would give you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and the length and the depth and the height. And to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that he might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that work within us. Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Father, thank you. Thank you so much for these promises. Thank you so much for the empowering of your holy spirit to love. And Lord, we just pray that you administer unto us. We pray that you just just go down deep within the deep recesses of our heart and transform and change us, Lord. We pray that we would yield to your Holy Spirit as we leave here today, and and that empowerment of your Holy Spirit being filled to overflowing, Lord, that love would make us different than the world. The love that we have would make us different, that we'd stand out from the world, that we wouldn't seek popularity to be like the world, but Lord, that, the difference is a is a noted, clear, move of the Holy Spirit, an agape love that only we as believers can possess. Lord, we have a choice to live the Christian life in carnality, in the flesh dominated way, or we can live the Christianity that you've given us, that you've gifted us with in the power of the Holy Spirit as evidenced by love. Lord, we pray this love would be real, an authentic real love that they'd know that we're Christians. In Jesus name we pray, amen. Would you please be seated? Paul now intercedes in prayer for the Ephesians that they would be empowered to love. This is a prayer of enablement whereas previously he prayed in chapter one for enlightenment. And so Paul finishes his doctrinal chapter one, two, and three, his doctrinal section with prayer knowing the application in chapter four, five, and six. That's what we're gonna do with it, with what he's taught us in the first three chapters. The next four, five, and six, it's in our court. Now, take what you've learned and apply it to your life. So let's say we're in chapter six and we're facing some spiritual warfare. Paul's gonna teach us as he's chained to a Roman soldier, he's gonna take the imagery of the the soldier's helmet and the sword and the breastplate and the shoes and the whole thing, and he's going to teach us how to do battle with principalities and powers. So he's he's gonna give that practical application in chapter four, five, and six. And so the application in chapter four through six will require that God's power to love. We need God's power to love. In chapter four, five, and six, we're gonna need that power to love. It's one thing to know that we're supposed to love. If we read first Corinthians 13, we describe what love is, but that's that might just be head knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. Love builds up. And so many of us know theoretically or or theologically the right thing to do, but Lord, I lack the power. Lord, I I I I'm like I'm like, king Jehoshaphat in, second Chronicles 20. Lord, I see the enemy, and man, that enemy is huge. They're much bigger than us. Lord, we we we don't have the power, Lord. We we and we don't know what to do. But Lord, our eyes are on you. And then the Lord gives them instruction what to do, and the what to do is to keep your eyes on the Lord and to worship the Lord. And as they worship the Lord, the Lord disconfitted, you know, their enemies, killed themselves and such. And so, there's many many times we don't know what to do, or we know what to do, but we don't know how to do it. We don't have the power to do it. And so, maybe it's just a prayer away. Maybe it's an admission as you'll notice that we pray every week. Every week when we're here, Lord, fill us overflowing with your love. Because without love, we're nothing. Doesn't matter how much you learn today about prophecy, if we're not gonna love, if we're not gonna love those around us and those in the community. If we don't have a love for the lost, you know, we're watching a great divide between Republicans, Democrats, between gays and straights or whatever, between ICE and, you know, the young it's so sad, you're watching the high schoolers run around picketing, they hate ICE, you know. They don't have a clue what they're talking about, but they've been they've been influenced, you know, to run around there and do these sort of things. And so you see the country dividing, Christians dividing. I I watched one of my one of my teachers is on there all the time saying, if you're a Trump hater, and then he goes in this whole denigration of if you're a Trump hater, how bad you are, you know. And, and then they boost up the Trumpers, and they boost up the Republicans, and and then they they demonize the, you know, the Democrats. It's kinda like we're gonna demonize Iran, the leadership, you know, all of Iran. They got the fastest growing church in the world. There's revival breaking out in the Mid East, and we're gonna go do war. That way, you're gonna meet with the board of peace, we're gonna go do war, you know. And so there's oxymoron, this crazy time in which we're living, and we forget to love. I mean, I I can tell you straight out that God saves homosexuals. Is that is that the group that you hate? What's the group that you hate? What's the group that you hate more than anything? Can God save a democrat? I mean, republicans are really hating democrats. Can he save a democrat? So if I take you to first Corinthians six and Paul says, know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither idolaters, you know, neither adulterers, neither thieves, nor the effeminate, nor lovers themselves with mankind, you know. And in that list, he's got all of us. All of us are somewhere in that list because he uses the word covetous also. So you so you got the the the gays, the lesbians in that list, but you also got you and I, the covetous. Are you covetous? What is it you want God to do for you as an American? Is it not make America great? Protect your bank account, your assets, everything you've worked for? Is that a bad thing? No. It's a good thing. But what if God says, I'm gonna take it all and I want you to still worship me because the devil's watching and he says that you're all gonna curse me or you're gonna follow a false god that's promising to lead you to nirvana, to lead you to a utopian age, a golden age. I'm testing you with these false prophets. I wanna see where your heart's at. Will you deny the discernment in your heart and follow lies and follow the fraudsters because deep within your heart, you're covetous? A man's life doesn't consist in the abundance of things which he possesses. And so we get so angry at the gays and lesbians, but we don't see the fingers pointing back at us as we're pointing to them. And Paul concludes in first Corinthians six, and such were some of you. God saves gays and lesbians, if that's what you're looking for in that list. He saves the covetous. He saves rich people. He saves thieves. He saves liars. He saves murderers. And so we we get so caught up in presently this division that's taking place, this this pointing the finger and being angry, this self righteous indignation toward a certain group and all, and we don't realize we're being played. The devil's laughing, playing us with the with the media and the social media, getting people all angry over all these different groups and things and such. And it's a ploy of the devil to divide and conquer, to bring about civil war maybe, to get everybody against each other, especially in the church today. How come the church can't love one another? Why are we so against? Why can't you love me? Why am I so hated? You really love Trump more than me? Do you love the truth more than Trump? Do you love Jesus more than Trump? You you gotta ask yourself these things. I mean, we're getting divided over so many strange things going on. People getting they're ready to fight over these things, you know? And so Paul is on his, he he's praying. So notice God's power to love. Number one, his posture for power. What's your posture for power? Notice verse 14. For this cause, bow my knees under the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul's on his knees. He could have been sitting to pray. He could have stood to pray. The danger of standing when you pray is when you fall asleep, you hit your head, you know. He could have done a prayer walk, those are real good, as you're walking and taking your walk in the morning or the afternoon. You know, you can pray as you're walking, you can pray without ceasing, you can pray out loud. You can lay down on the ground as Jesus did at Gethsemane, prostate before the Lord, your face on the ground. And, it doesn't matter the posture, the outward, God's looking at the posture of your heart. Where's your heart? Is your heart knit with him, or you're trying to pray with a phone in one hand? Beep. You know, oh, I I gotta stop praying, you know. The other day I was talking to Kathy, and and she was, really talking to me. I mean, she really had a lot to to talk to me about, and, I made the mistake of interjecting a question, and it just totally blew the mood, you know. She she got her heart offended, you know. And I was trying to multitask, you know, and I should have just I should have just listened, you know. And there's a time where we are trying to multitask when we're praying, the Lord says, you do draw near to me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me. You're really not praying. You're really not interested. You're just throwing up words, but I want your heart, your heart somewhere else. And so is your heart proud as a Pharisee or as humble as a publican? In Matthew 15 verse eight, this people draw nigh to me with their mouth, but they honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. I mean, you can just give them lip service. You can go through the motions, going to church and singing, doing all that when you walk out here, there's no application. You're like a person that looked into the mirror and forgot what manner of person you are. You're not a doer of the word, you're just a hearer only, and you're building your life on sand. And when the storms come, the storms are gonna reveal that you really didn't listen. You really didn't apply these truths to your life. You didn't make any changes in your life. In Isaiah sixty six two, the Lord says, to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembles at my word. Do you tremble at God's word? Think about that. Is God's word so holy and absolute in your heart and mind that you tremble at his word? Or are you such that you're going to move with the YouTube prophets and just throw this page out? Throw that page out. There's no rapture because I don't think there's a rapture, you know? And these aren't people that tremble at God's word. These aren't people willing to study the book of Revelation and allow God to speak to them. These are people that are bigger than God, bigger than his word. And to this person will I listen to, the one that trembles at my word. God resists the proud and he gives grace to the humble. And as we talked about earlier in Isaiah 38 verse five, as we prayed, as I was reminded of this study, King Hezekiah reached a point where Isaiah the prophet came to him and and told him he, as he was sick, that prepare your house, get your house in order because this sickness is unto death. You're not gonna live through this sickness that you have. And Hezekiah, his reaction was to go against the wall and to begin to weep and to pray unto God. And so he's the biggest kahuna in the world, you know. He's the king, but a sickness and ailment can really humble a person. Right? And so he he puts his face toward the wall and begins the prayer, and he says I and and he's weeping before the Lord, and and the Lord sends Isaiah the prophet back. He says, I've heard your prayer, and I've seen your tears. Behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years. So God's gonna give him fifteen years. And to make sure that Hezekiah knew that this was gonna happen, the Lord set the sundial back 10 degrees. That's fascinating. I mean, you're gonna set the sundial back 10 degrees for me as a sign to me that you're really gonna, you know, gonna heal me and all? And then Isaiah came to him and Hezekiah went in this beautiful prayer to the Lord and this praise unto the Lord for, you know, doing this for him, worshiping the Lord. And, and then Isaiah says, he comes back and we would look at it as medical science. We look at it as a practical, something that people learned what to do, or the Lord revealing it. So take some figs and make a paste of it and put it on that boil and it'll heal the boil. That's amazing. That's just amazing. Before the Rockefellers took over, maybe there was lots of homespun, homeschool methodology of bringing healing to people and, as God reveals these things. And so that's very fascinating. You have the balance of both. You have the miracle, you got the son going back, you've got him praying, and then you've got this means of showing, your allegiance unto him by applying the fig paste. It's like when Elisha told Naaman the Syrian, second Kings five to didn't even go out to greet him, just said, go over to the River Jordan and dip yourself seven times and your body will come clean like a small little child. You won't have that leprosy anymore. And Naaman the Syrian was a mighty general, the Syrian army, all the rivers of Paphar and Dambar, they're much better in Syria where I'm from. Oh, it stinking, you know, River Jordan. This is so idiotic. This is so stupid, a man of my caliber. And then this guy said, hey, if he'd asked you to do a big thing, you'd have done it. Right? This a little thing. Just just go do it. Humble yourself as a child. Go over there and dip yourself. So he humbled himself as a child. He went over there and dipped himself, and the Lord healed him. There's that humility. God resists the proud. He gives grace to the humble. And so Hezekiah exhibited that humility. Paul's humble before the Lord. We should be humble before the Lord. And he says in verse 15, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. And so a a loveless life for a church is scandalous under God and under our family in heaven if we don't have love. The Ephesians, they they worked hard. They worked hard. But the letter to the church of Ephesus in Revelation chapter two, the Lord says, you're working hard. You got a lot of things right. Your theology is good. You're attacking the false prophets, which I like. You're exposing the false prophets, and you're you're you're exposing them as liars. You're doing good in a lot of ways, but this one thing I have against you, you've left your first love. So I counsel you to go back and do the first things, you know. Come back to that that vertical relationship with God. If your life's out of balance, trying to serve the Lord in your life, and your marriage and life is out of balance, the problem's vertical. Go back to your first love. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things be added unto you. Always prioritize and put the Lord first in every decision, every thought. Bring every thought to captivity to the obedience of Christ. Test everything. Cause everything to come through the filter of the almighty sovereign God whom you claim to worship, whom we claim to worship. Don't listen to men. Don't listen to Fox News. Don't listen to these pretenders. And and think of yourself as in Psalm one, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law does he meditate day and night. Day and night. You're you're that Psalm one person. And you're gonna be like a tree that's planted by the rivers that's its leaf shall not wither and it'll bring forth its fruit in its season. Whatsoever you do, it shall prosper, but the ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff. When you're when you're beating the grain, the chaff gets blown aside. That's the ungodly. They their lives don't bring forth fruit. You want your life to be fruitful? Be a doer of God's word. Just just listen to the Lord. Be a doer of his word. Do do what he tells you to do, which is to love. In a loveless church, they may be doing a lot of things, but without love, we know in first Corinthians 13, we're nothing. We're just a tang and gone or a banging of a symbol, you know. And this one thing I have against you, Jesus said in Revelation two verse four, Paul's writing to the church of Ephesus. Jesus is speaking to the church of Ephesus, you know, forty years later. As John is about 95 years old, thirty years later. And it's one thing I have against you in Revelation chapter two, you've left your first love. Don't leave your first love. And so God's power to love, his posture for power. Secondly, his petition for power. In four areas, we see this. What's what's he asking for? What's his petition as he petitions God in this prayer? Number one, to be strengthened with God's love. Notice verse 16. That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man. Now, if I wanted to build a church today, if I wanted the secret of really dominating and building a church today, the very first thing I would pray for is money. Lots of it. Because we can build a church with money. We can draw a crowd. We can figure out what they want, and we can do it in such if they want a coffee thing upfront, we got a coffee thing. If they want smoke, we got smoke. If they want lasers, we got lasers. If they wanna eat a real nice gourmet organic food after church, we've got a restaurant over on that side. And we've got the coolest tables, We can do it. I need money, Lord. And I look at the early church, Peter, James, and John walking by, you know, James and John walking by a paralytic, a guy that's begging for money at the Pool Of Siloam. And they say what? They say, silver and gold, have we none? They didn't have any money. But they had the power. In the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and walk. Hey, we need the power. Why are we lacking power today? Is it an area of compromise in our life? Are we dependent too much on the methodology of men? You know, Psalm a 127 says, except the Lord build the house, they that labor labor in vain that build it. Upon this rock, I'll build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Lord, are you wanting to build your church? Cathy and I are powerless, Lord. We got nothing to offer. Are you gonna keep building your church, Lord? Gonna keep providing for your church? Gonna protect your church? You're gonna bring people that want to know you, that want to study your word because, Lord, we don't have a plan b. This is it. No compromise. It's gotta all be about you, Lord. To be strengthened with God's love. God wants to give you a grant. People, in the downtown Bremerton and the various Christian ministries around here, they're based upon grants. They get government grants. And so the Salvation Army starts out with William Booth outside of bars and stuff singing songs and sharing the gospel with people. And pretty soon, they're feeding the homeless and the drunks and getting them sober and all that. And the next thing you know, they need funding, not just the at the front of the store at Christmas, ringing a bell and people putting change in. They need funding. They need the money. So they get a government grant. But they're told by the government that you can't share the gospel anymore. You can let these guys come in and receive that meal, but you can't share the gospel with them. Because that's a separation of church and state. We'll pull your funding if you do that. And so when we had the daycare, the same thing happened with us. You can't teach these kids with the Abeka curriculum. And they didn't say it. They didn't say they pulled their funding, but when they did shut us down, that was the purpose. That was the reason they told a lawyer that was gonna restart the the building was they pulled us into a precept meeting and twice told us to put the kids in the head start reading program, which doesn't work. Our kids were two grades ahead, and their parents were jazzed, and I thought the parents were the bosses. I didn't think the state was the boss of these kids. And if the parents want their kids to learn about Noah's Ark and Jonah and the whale and and biblical stories and stuff in addition to reading, writing, arithmetic, and they're two grades ahead of the public school when they go back in the school, I thought we were doing a good job. But apparently not. So that's that double edged sword of receiving that grant money, and you you see a lot of these nonprofits, and you see a lot of these churches that are very successful and have lots of money, they want more money. So they're figuring out ways to get more grant money to expand their kingdoms on earth. But what we're talking about here is God is the one granting. God is the one granting love for those who simply ask. So God wants to give you a grant according to now close distinction, not out of, according to the riches of his glory. Strengthened means to be invigorated. This, might speaks of dunamis, dynamic power. Jesus said, you shall receive power. The dunamis, power. We get our word dynamite when the holy ghost comes upon you. And it's that power to love. All of us know what it is to not have the power to love. All of us know what reciprocal love is. When people treat us good, you know, we treat them good and we call that love or whatever. We before we were saved, we might say, you know, I'm in love with her, but really you're in lust with her. You're in lust with her. You wanna satisfy your own desires because you're attracted and, you really don't love her. You're not willing to lay down your life for it. It's not a biblical love, and so let's define love. We've got Phileo love, which is the city of brotherly love. Right? And the Eagles aren't in the Super Bowl today. Bummer. Right? We've got we've got the Storge love, which is a family love. And we love the family. We we admire the family. You know, I'm not going to church today because it's family day. And we're gonna go do soccer today because my family, my kids, they like soccer. Well, that's true. There's a love there for your family. I'm a go camp. I'm a do this every week. We can do church in the woods. We're gonna yeah. Okay. You're making your own rules up. You're doing your own way. Nobody denies it's a family love, but love is doing the highest good. Wouldn't it be the highest good for you to be with the ecclesia, those called out from the world to gather together at least one day a week, you know, for a couple hours, you know? Maybe four hours at Calvary Bremerton. I don't know. Wouldn't that seem plausible? That Jesus would die on that cross for you and say, upon this rock, I'm building my church. You're part of his church. So yeah, you could you could run with your store gate, but it's not the highest form of love. You could look at the eros, the erotic love, or you can go to the spiritual love, which is agape, agapeo, which is the love that only you and I as Christians can have and possess. And so when I met Kathy, I I thought I loved her, but I knew I lacked real love. I knew at the core of my being, I loved myself more than I loved anybody else. That's the greatest love I had was for myself, and it was to protect myself from any kind of vulnerability or harm. But when God came into my heart, he gave me the capacity to truly love, and that's a spiritual love. And that's what Paul's praying here. He's letting you know he's petitioning, hey, there's a love available for you, Ephesians. Now why would you leave your first love when God is granting your request to give you this love? Why years later would you misconstrue busyness as a church person with loving and allowing God to love you? Without love, we're nothing. So I wanna strengthen you that you might have the might of your spirit and your inner man. This dynamic power, this abiding, this inner source of love, not the external but this inner source. And so the second area, four areas of power. The second area is stability. The stability of God's love. Verse 17, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye may that ye being rooted and grounded in love, and so that he may dwell to settle down to be at home in our hearts. Are you unstable? Now we've had people that we've baptized here, out there, out there, and they appeared to be brand new believers. The objective is to get them rooted and grounded in God's love before a flat earther deceives them. But if you don't get them rooted and grounded in God's love that they know that they know that they know, and it it isn't a knowledge thing, it's inward and they know that they know that they know, then we missed the chance. We missed the chance of discipleship to try and help them, but a brand new baby is drawn to milk. A brand new baby, a brand new believer, as my heart as we tried, if they don't have an affinity and appetite, a craving for the milk of God's word, then we have to question their profession of faith. But we know leading up to it that, hey, the devil's gonna try and come and take that seed and suck it away. Gonna try and deceive them. They may become a victim of the wicked one, and they may have a whole lot of people around them trying to convince them they're going in the right way. And we're like, no. No. There's a train wreck heading that way. You know? It's not gonna bear fruit. So you do the best you can, but, god, you gotta get them rooted and grounded in God's love. It's essential. It's not just the numbers, the nickels, and noses, and signing them up to give money. Hey, now I need to disciple these people. Jesus said, go make disciples. Now I need to take them through the basics of the milk and the meat of God's word. I need to help him. I need to I need to do the the office of a pastor, the pastor teacher. What's his what's his job description? Do you love me, Peter? Feed my sheep. Tend the little lambs. Be innocent of the blood of every person in Ephesus as Paul spent three years establishing this church in acts 20. He he said to the other pastors, I'm innocent of their blood, of of the people's blood because for the space of three years, night and day with tears, I gave the full counsel of God. Now the ball's in their court. But you're still there to restore them if they fall. It's essential. It's so important to pray. Lord, help them become stable. And we see so many unstable men in the church today because they're not men of the word. Then it forces their wives to try and be provide the stability in the home and in the family. And and it takes a real work, a real hard to get the husbands willing to even come to church and attend a bible study and to look interested in the things of the spirit. And the marriage becomes unstable because as Kathy always points out, she always says this, Rick, the devil looks for the weak link. If the devil can't come in through the wife, the devil might try to come in through the son or the daughter in that family. The devil may crush your heart as he comes after your son or your daughter. Rips them off, takes them as a captive of war. Now they're a prisoner in this war, and you're praying, you're seeking God that they'd be released. But it breaks your heart or people attacking, betrayal, fighting all the time. You lack stability. Unstable as water and the double minded man, he's unstable in all of his ways. Do you believe or not? If you believe, then be a spiritual leader. Get your family rooted and grounded in God's word. There's nothing more important. Watching little little Toby sing Jesus loves me, he's 14 old. These these songs stick with your kids the rest of their lives. They could be in jail as a criminal, and those songs are there. And that's the word of God is there. The truth of God's word, there's no greater truth than Jesus loves me. Do your best. I always ask the kids, hey, where's Jesus? Where's Jesus? Is he in your heart? Is he in your heart? You've lost Jesus, papa. Don't blame that on me. Stability that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that you being rooted and grounded in love. So to settle down, to be at home, Christ is at home in your heart. He and the father come make their abode with you. Is God comfortable in your heart? Are you unstable? If Jesus came through your house, would there be things that he needs to remove from your house to be comfortable in your house? And you say, Lord, Lord, you can you can you're free to hang out and sofa surf and no. I'll even give you a spare room over here. You make yourself at home, but there's this one room, Lord. This one room upstairs over to the left. It's got a lock on it. Don't go in there. And Jesus says, Rick, I can't make myself at home here until I go clean out that secret room you got. That secret room of porn, that secret room of whatever it may be in your life. You're carrying two phones, you guys? You got two phones? You playing around? You got a girlfriend, a boyfriend on the side. You messing around. You're not gonna go deep with the Lord until he cleans that up, and he wants you to pray and say, Lord, I can't do it. God, make me holy. God, clean this room. Scrub it. Lord, I yield to you. I've I've tried everything. I can't change my own heart, Lord. I need you to change my heart. I need you to strengthen me. I'm so unstable, Lord. There's a cycle in my life. I cycle in and out of these lusts, these these sins in my life, Lord. Set me free. Help me, And he will. As long as you're not in denial, as long as you're not hiding, as long as you're not concealing, or as long as you reach a point where it's even worse where you begin to accept it. You're no longer ashamed of yourself. You go to a church that says you're a victim. It's not your fault. We've got a 12 step for you. That's a description of going in and cleaning the house, removing the demon, and that demon goes out and finds seven demons worse. That's what self reformation is, reforming yourself. That's what the whole prison system is based upon, trying to reform criminals. Make them better. Do gooders with psychology or whatever. $67, you can become a Christian counselor now. You can have a certificate that you're a Christian counselor. We'll get to that in chapter four, where God appoints men and women to the church to serve. Not men. You can be ordained by men, appointed by men, doesn't mean that God's called you. And your methodology can be of the world and be accepted by the world, and you can get a degree from the world, a doctorate in that methodology, but it's still not what God's prescribed. And that methodology can't go into the heart and transform and change the heart, change the person, to transform us with by the renewing of our minds. Only God can do that. Only God's word by his spirit can do that and bring that stability into a person's life. Are you unstable? Is your love fickle and erratic? Is your heart divided? Are you in love with the world? Are you Lot or you Abraham? I wouldn't even know that Lot is saved if I didn't see Peter say, and righteous Lot. As I read the story, I can't even see where the guy's saved. Offering his virgin daughters, going into his daughters with producing the Moabites and the Ammonites with an incestuous relationship in a cave. The apocalypse that happened there at Sodom and Gomorrah? That that's hard to wrap my head around. Father of the year? Honey, did you leave the porch light on? She turns into a pillar of stone. I mean, what a guy. And Jesus said, remember Lot's wife. What's he saying to us? Remember Lot's wife. No man having put his hand to the plow looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. Always looking back to the world, Looking back to the spicy foods of Egypt? Moses, we don't like you anymore. Take us back. You brought us out here to kill us. So do you love Lot more than you love Abraham? Do you love Rick more than you love Trump? That's an easy question. That should be a no brainer. Of course, I love my pastor more than Trump. Of course, I love the truth more than I love a lie. But Jonah two eight says, they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. When you come to the truth, the acknowledgement that that you're following a lie, you're observing lying vanities, the idolatry that's presented to you as a American nationalistic Christian, mega, those are lying vanities. You're being deceived and you're forsaking the mercy that God would pour out upon this nation if the nation was called to repentance like the nation of Nineveh was called to repentance. And God gave him a reprieve. But we wanna do it ourselves with princes, with icons, with the idolatry presented by the world. And the world's smart. They know they can Christianize the world and the evangelicals won't even see it. Why? Because their craving is so great for comfort to go back to normal. So all you gotta promise, I'll take you back to normal, and they'll do anything to get back to normal, whatever normal was. This pedophilia has been going on for a long, long time. Don't say anything normal about it. God wants to grow deep with you. A shallow love is an unstable love. God wants your love to be like a deeply rooted tree, able to withstand the storms of life. Those deeply rooted trees that are on the precipice or on a cliff, the winds come and bend them over. And the reason they don't fall over, I mean around here when it rains a real lot and then the winds pick up, I'm worried about trees falling. Because the root system's so shallow. Right? Because the water's so available. But in a more arid climate, those trees gotta develop a root system that goes deep down for the nourishment, but also the stability to withstand the storms and the winds that come and blaze through there. Right? And the Lord wants you and I to go deep, as deep as we can with the Lord. When the storms of life come, we remain standing. Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for you know your labor's not in vain. You need to know that you know that you know that you're called to this. You're called to this time for such a time as this, that you're in God's will. That he didn't say oops with you and I. That you're not an accident. That you would be grounded, which means to be settled on Christ the rock. Your life is built on the rock, not on the sand. And so four areas to be strengthened with God's love. Number one, to receive that stability of God's love. And thirdly, to seize the vastness of God's love. How big is God's love? Verse 18, that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the depth and the height of God's love, the dimensions of God's love. Paul wants us to be strengthened, to be stable, and to to grab hold of, to seize, to grab hold of, to grow in God's love, to make his love our own, to discover the greater dimensions of his love. Now bible commentator, bible teacher John Stott, he's this is a quote from him. God's love is broad enough to encompass all mankind. Salvation is of the Jews. The priorities to the Jews, Jesus is a Jew, but God so loved the world. Every single ethnic group, every single person. For God so loved that he gave his only begotten son demonstration. So John Stott, God's love is broad enough to encompass all mankind, long enough to last all eternity. He's not gonna click it off. You don't reach a point where God says, time's up. I'm off with a new experiment somewhere else. Deep enough to reach the most degraded sinner. Can't go so deep that God's love can't go deeper still. Right? His grace is sufficient. High enough to exalt him to heaven, God's gonna get us to heaven because of his love. Love never fails. In verse 19, tend to know the love of Christ with which passes knowledge, a limitless love, which surpasses knowledge. A lot of people misconstrue knowledge pops up, but love edifies. This love is growing that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. The word filled means total dominance, completely saturated in, filled overflowing in God's love. You remember Lucy. Lucy stood up there with that commercial, and she said, are you tired? Are you listless? Do you are you not popular? Do you poop out at parties? Try some vitamin a vitamin, whatever. It's got vitamins, it's got meat, it's got vegetables, and it's got minerals. Try this. And she goes through it, you know, and then she's like, it's tasty too, you know. It tastes like candy, you know. And people are looking for something to fill their hearts and lives. They're looking for something to satisfy. And Jesus purposely met with a woman in John four at Jacob's Well. He was wearied from his journey, you know. He had to go through he was headed into Galilee, and he had to go through Samaria, and he sat down at Jacob's well. And there's this woman there, and he he and the and the scripture says he was wearied. It was twelve noon. It's hot out. He's thirsty. In his humanity, he's tempted in all points like we and yet without sin. He knows the frailty of your humanity and yet he's still God. And he has a urge. He has a physiological desire for some water. But there's something even more important, and that's to rescue this woman from the empty, empty life she was living. And so he said, hey, can you get me some water? And she says, no. You're you're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan. You Jews don't have any dealings with us, you know. And Jesus said, if you knew who I was talking to you, you know, he'd give you water, living water, you'd never thirst again. And she said, sir, you don't even have anything to draw the water with, you know. How are you gonna and this well is really deep and our father, you know, Jacob, he's the one that gave it to us and the whole thing, and she goes through this whole thing. And Jesus lets her know that that I've got water, you'll never thirst again. And she says, Lord, give me this water. I want this water that I'll never thirst again. I'll never have to draw again. And he said, go get your five husbands. Go get your husband. Said, no, I don't have a husband. Because you rightly spoke. You've had five husbands. So the guy you're with now, you see what he's illustrating? This woman is thirsty, and she's been trying to fill that thirst, that love, that craving for love in relationships with men. And it reminds me of Hannah when God denied her having a baby, and Elkanah, her husband, you know, is having babies with with the other wife that he had. And Hannah's just dying inside because her womb is closed, and God will close your womb. God will close the door, keep it shut, so that he can get you to yearn for something greater, something more. And she's goes to the temple, and she's praying, and she's crying, and she's weeping, and Eli the priest, he comes and he says, you're drunk. You know, why are you here sobbing and and all that? I'm not drunk as you suppose. I'm grieving. I'm grieving because I I can't I can't get pregnant. I can't have a child. And my husband's wife is always, you know, chiding me with it, and I feel I feel goated and all. And and and it bothered Elcana or her husband because he didn't want his wife Hannah, whom he loved, to be so despondent, so bummed out. And he said to her, aren't I better to you than 10 sons? Guys think like that. And she says, no. Not even close. Not even close. I only married you so I could have a son, you know? And so, you know the story, the Lord brought forth Samuel, and, then he became a Nazarite, he became a prophet and a priest, a judge. And year by year, she'd go and visit young Samuel and got to keep him during the weaning years, first four years, and then she'd make him a super cool coat and go visit him and all, and think how hard that would be. So the Lord denied her, so that he could give her a son that she would dedicate back to the Lord, give him back to the Lord, and the Lord would make him a judge and a prophet, the prophet Samuel. And so that craving inside that God placed in our heart, and Romans eight says that God placed a God shaped hole in our heart. There's a vacuum within each and every person's heart that only a relationship with Jesus Christ can fill. And it's it's love that he places there. God has created you so that you could love him and you could know his love. And your life is running on two cylinders. You know, you're to be body, soul, and spirit. You need the third part, the the baptism of the holy spirit. You need the indwelling of the holy spirit. You need God to dwell within you. His love to dwell within his person. And this woman was craving, and Jesus gave her the vitamin to have vegermen that she was craving. To know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge. And so we continue to know, to experience, to seize more and more, but never exhaust him. And then fourthly, to be saturated with God's love. Verse 19, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. Word filled means total dominance, completely saturated, filled to overflowing. The be being experience, be being on drunk with wine, we're in excess, but be being filled with the Holy Spirit. The overflowing of the Holy Spirit in our lives, not a one time thing. In John thirteen thirty three, Jesus said, a new commandment I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall I know that you're my disciples, if you have love one to another. Do you stand out from the crowd? The crowd of humanity? What makes you different? What makes you different from the pedos? What makes you different from Sodom and Gomorrah? How are you any different? Is there a big contrast? Or is your objective to blend in, to be liked, to adopt the world, to bring the world into the church so that the church will grow, so that the church would be liked? This craving for love. We've tasted so often and seen that the Lord is good. We've tasted this love, but then we run dry. We find ourselves mechanical in a bad marriage, lacking the capacity, the power to love. We just got married too young. We were in love, but it was too young. We didn't know what we're doing. You know, now, we drifted. We're not in love anymore. What happened to that love? What happened to that passion? Where'd it go? How do you reclaim it? How do you reinvigorate it? How do you restimulate it? I would suggest to you vertical. Everything stems from your relationship vertical. Get serious about Jesus. If you're not in love with your wife or your husband anymore, there's a problem in your relationship with Jesus. Because in your relationship with Jesus, he's gonna flood your heart no matter how unloving, how unlovable your husband is. I came home the other day, and Kathy was getting something out of a cupboard there, and she's lifting it up and getting in there. And I honked the horn, and she went And she didn't think that was very funny. And she I could hear her. I don't think she was cussing, but I did I did hear her. And she she said, that's why your name is dumbass. And it's biblical. I'm like, okay. Alright. Alright. But, you know, she just didn't think it was that funny. Where's her sense of humor, you know? I guess when that stuff happens to me, it's not that funny either. But we've been married forty five years and I just love to try and get her to laugh, you know? And she just she says, you're the only one that thinks you're funny, Rick. You're the only one. You're not funny. You're not funny at all. The church of Ephesus left their first love. Has America left its first love? What kingdom are we wanting? Jesus' kingdom is distinctly different than man's kingdom. He said to Pilate, my kingdom is not of this world. Is that the kingdom we're seeking? Is the kingdom of Jesus that he's speaking of? Or do we want to Christianize man's kingdom to bring Jesus back somehow? Dominion theology, the golden age, Christian nationalism, the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches, they choke off, and we don't bear the fruit that we should. The fruit of the spirit, which is love, be continually filled. Jesus said, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believes in me as the scripture said out of his belly shall flow torrents of living water. Do you thirst? Do you still thirst? Can you ever drink of Jesus and reach a place of being satisfied? Don't you need to keep drinking? Keep drinking? Because we're leaky vessels. The feeling you're receiving now, you're gonna leak out. I guarantee on the way home, you're gonna get in a fight. I'm just kidding. Just kidding. Maybe that's too transparent. The things we argue over. Where are we gonna eat? No. We're not eating there. Not there, you know. So Paul's prayer that we would be empowered to love, his posture for prayer, his petition for prayer, and thirdly and finally, his praise for prayer. He says, now unto him that is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, these superlatives. Right? Exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us. God is at work in each of us exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we could ask or think. Lord, heal Sally. Exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or think. Do you think we love Sally more than him? Do you think that we know what's best more than father knows best? So we pray with all of our heart, believing with all the faith we have, knowing that God can do and will do exceedingly, abundantly above all we could ask or think, but we also know, father not my will, but thy will be done. Because we don't have all the facts. He's sovereign. He's in control. And we pray believing. We don't pray half hearted. We pray the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. We intercede. We keep asking. We keep seeking. We keep knocking. We don't give up. And then when the Lord makes his decision, whether he heals her or him, or the Lord takes that baby home as David's fasting and he's praying, and he's a sinner, he's a filthy sinner. He's a murderer. He killed Uriah the Hittite. He's an adultery. He took Uriah's wife. And Bathsheba's pregnant, and he tried to cover it. And Nathan, the prophet says, you're the man. You've given great occasion. The enemies of Lord will blaspheme his name. What did David do? He appealed. He knew the mind of God. He knew the heart of God, that God is merciful. And so he dedicated himself to praying and fasting on behalf of this child, even though he was told by Nathan the prophet the child would die. He's like, no. No. I'm I'm still gonna pray. It ain't over yet. The baby still has breath in him. And David's praying with all he's got. Is that how you pray? You praying like a dying man? You praying for someone dying? Or is it half hearted? Have you lost sight that he can do exceedingly? He wants to do exceedingly, abundantly above all we could ask or think. And then when the baby did die, David washed himself up. The guys that are attending to him are like, why is he all okay now? What what what? And David has a eternal perspective. Well, I can't be with the child now, but we're gonna be joined again one day. Right? That little baby's in heaven right now. That baby's doing good. No longer suffering. We can't play God, but we can sure appeal to God. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's a God who heals. Lord, heal Sally. Heal Nick, Lord. Heal Nick. Do a miracle of healing, Be glorified, Lord. Glorify yourself in healing Sally and Nick. And heal Richard, Lord. Heal heal Kevin. Heal my sister Karen. Heal heal, Lord. You're the same yesterday, today, and forever. Lord, you heal the gifts and the calling of God are with not without repentance. Lord, we're not cessationists. We don't think the gifts have ceased with the death of the apostles. Lord, you're still healing. There's still gifts, plural, of healings. Do with figs if you want. I don't care. Just tell us what we need to rub on it, what we need to put there. Lord, maybe we'll use some spittle. Maybe if she'll let me, I'll take some spit, and I'll put it in the dirt and rub it in the guy's eyes. Methodology. Everybody's looking for a methodology. Do you think Jesus changes it up once in a while so that we just trust him? Unorthodox ways of of healing that only he gets the glory. Because people will formalize it. People will make a formula out of it. They'll make it into a business. Simon Simon y asking Peter, I wanna buy this gift where you lay hands on people and they receive the holy ghost. I could use that. I can make a lot of money off that. They call it Simonie. Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Man, I miss my dad. I got this camera, this picture thing where pictures come up. I used to call him every day, every day, every day. He'd call me, and I miss him. He's he's in heaven. Yeah. But I have to tell you this, he taught me how to go. He taught me as I observed his illness, as I observed him at the hospital and all, he taught me how a Christian man knows his time's up, and how to go with dignity, and an excitement, and a joy of knowing he's gonna be with Jesus. No whining, no complaining, totally praising and worshiping the Lord, thanking the Lord for his life, thanking the Lord for what awaits him. Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. He wants to empower us to love like he loves, that he might be glorified in us. David said in Psalm seventeen fifteen, as for me, I will behold thy face and righteousness. I will in the, you know, future. I will behold your face and righteous. When I see you face to face, I'm gonna be righteous. And first John says, beloved, now are we the sons of God. It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And he does has his hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. That's the hope of the rapture gang. That's the hope of his coming. And David says, as for me, I'll be I will behold your face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. I hate who I am. I hate my humanity, my frailty, my God's not done with me. It's I want him to finish this. We're reminded every day of what wretches we are. And as we look to the future like David, it's so comforting to know that when I see Jesus, he's gonna be finished with me. That I'm not gonna be the wretched man that blasts the horn at Cathy anymore. That I'm gonna have the power to love. As Toby sings, Jesus loves me, this I know, for the bible tells me so. Jesus said, except you be converted and become as little children, you shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. I love being papa. I love how my grandkids love me. I'm sure you do too. And I fear that point in time where they grow older and they're like our children as teenagers, they don't have time for us anymore. And one time I was swinging Evie on the on the swing and she's got this beautiful dress on and on. I said, you know, Evie, I just gotta take pictures of you and I you know, Evie, you know, you just know how much I love you, Evie, and I'm gonna hate that day when when you don't love me anymore. Something along that line. And she said, oh, papa. I'll never stop loving you. Papa, I'll never stop loving you. That's how God's love is. He'll never stop loving you. Let's pray. Father, we love you Lord because you first loved us. And Lord, we pray that you would give us this power, this power to love. This dunamis, dynamic, agape love that can come only from you, Lord. That kind of love that just floods and overflows our hearts and minds where nothing, nothing that we face even compares. We don't care if the world's ending when we're filled with your love. And you give us the capacity to love our enemies, to love those that persecute us and despitefully use us and say all manner of evil against us falsely. Lord, we just love them. It just it's like water off a ducks ducks back, whatever that means, Lord. But it just runs right off because we love them. And it's you loving them through us, Lord. You love through us. And so Lord, we pray evermore that we would yield, that we'd surrender unto you, that it's no longer us living, but Christ living through us, that you'd fill us and and love through us, Lord. Help us to love our grandkids, which is easy, to love our kids, Lord, which is a little harder, but easy. To love our family members, to love those in the body of Christ, to love the lost. Lord, to just love those who you bring into our path. And Lord, that we would never hate. We'd never justify hate. We'd never explain and build hate. Lord, I pray that the hatred that I see, the the kids exhibiting against ICE, against the rule of law, there's people involved. It's so so convoluted. It's so chaotic. But Lord, help us to love both sides and all sides. Let there always be a solution based upon love. Help us in the church to love, Lord. They'll know that we're Christians by our love. While your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed, if you don't know Jesus Christ, if you don't have a love relationship with Jesus, he wants you to know that he loves you, that he went to the cross to die for you, that he'd have gone there just for you. He wasn't into numbers. He died for you. Before the foundation of the earth, he knew you. He's drawn you here today in his foreknowledge, his predestination, in his calling. He's wanting to save you. He's wanting you to receive him into your heart and life, that love would be meaningful. He hasn't made you an Elon robot. You're not pre programmed. He's given you the predeterminate power of choice, the free moral agency to make a choice for him or against him, to love him or to hate him. As many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. He's asking you, knocking on the door of your heart, will you receive me? Will you let me in? The doorknob's on the inside, I'm not gonna kick it down. If you turn that knob, if you open your heart unto me, I'm gonna come into your heart and life and change you. I'm gonna transform you. I'm gonna make you new. I'm gonna show you how I can do exceedingly, abundantly, above all you could ask or think. I'm gonna do miracles in your heart and life. I can teach you to love that abusive father, that mother. I can teach you to love that husband, that wife. I can teach you to love those that have mistreated you. I can give you the capacity to love the way that I love you. Greater love has no man than this than a man lay down his life for his friends. Anyone here this morning, just lift your hand up. We wanna lead you in prayer as you receive Christ in your heart and life. Don't miss out on his love just flooding your heart and life. This is what you're made for. This is your moment. This this is eternity right here. He made you so that you would know him, that you'd know his love, that he'd fill your heart and life with himself. Anyone here this morning? Don't live a life half hearted. Don't live a life of emptiness, trying to fill that void with the things of the world that cannot satisfy. Anyone here this morning? Father, thank you once again. Thank you that you put a love in Kathy's heart that's inexplicable, Lord. That woman, she has loved me through thick and thin. And Lord, when I look at her, I think, man, that is Jesus. Only explanation is Jesus. That's a God thing. And Lord, I thank you that there's so many people in my life that love me that way, that you've sent to let me know how much you love me. And Lord, I pray that my love would be Christ like, that you'd help me to love, that you'd love through me. Let them know that we're Christians, Lord, because of our love. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.