TITLE: God’s Love Defeats Discouragement
TEXT: Ephesians 3:14-21
THEME: Experiencing God’s Love defeats discouragement
Today we're going to focus on a theme that has come up before in the book of Ephesians: experiencing God's power. One theme throughout Ephesians is Identity: knowing who you are in Christ. Another theme is Unity: understanding who the church is and how we are to relate to one another. Another recurring theme in this book is Power: how to live in God's strength.
A couple of weeks ago (in the "Getting Connected" message) we touched on this theme of connecting to God's power. In chapter one, Paul prays that we will know who Christ is [1:17], that we will know who we are in Christ [1:18], and that we will experience his power [1:19]. He refers to God's...
...incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength...(Ephesians 1:19)
In this single verse, Paul uses four different words for power. I'm sure a sermon could be preached on each one; the main idea, however, is that God's power is absolute, and it is available to you.
Some might say, "I've heard that all my life, so where is it? I've never experienced it. My life is one flop after another, one lapse after another, one failure after another. If God's power is out there, available for the benefit of his people, where is it? How do I get it?"
Today's text zeroes in on that question. How do you experience God's power? We find the answer to experiencing God's power by looking more intently at God's love...
1. God's greatest resource is love.
(v. 16) I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you a mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit.
Paul uses the phrase "glorious, unlimited resources." Think about that for a moment. God has it all. He owns it all. As Psalm 50 says, all the animals of the forest, the cattle on a thousand hills, every bird of the mountains... "All the world is mine and everything in it." (Psalm 50:12) He can give you anything he wants—money, possessions, prestige, success, a life of privilege—he can give you anything he wants to give you, and Paul makes it clear throughout the book of Ephesians that God wants to give you the very best. So what does he choose to give you? Look at verse 18...
(v. 18) And may you have power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is.
He can give you anything, and what he wants to give you most of all is the ability to know his love. Love is God's greatest resource. He takes love so seriously that he defines himself by it. The Bible says God is love. To experience the fullness of God in your life—which includes experiencing his power at work within you—you need to begin to develop at least an inkling of the awesomeness of his love. I say it this way because in this lifetime we will only, at most, scratch the surface of understanding God's love. As Paul said...
(v. 19) May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it.
His love is beyond comprehension, and we will never fully understand it, but we can at least begin to understand it. Here's something that will help. August Hare once said (and I'm paraphrasing here) "Love flows downward. The love of parents for their children has always been far more powerful than that of children for their parents. In the same way, no man has ever loved God with more than 1/1000th of the love that God has given us."
Think of your children. Think of how totally dependent they are (or, at one time, were) on you—how vulnerable, how helpless, how fragile, and how you wanted to be everything in the world to them. There were times when you had to say no and they didn't understand. There were times when you had to correct them, and they didn't want to be corrected. And there were times, if you're like me, when you thought, "If you just understood how much I love you, you wouldn't question why I think it's so important that you take the garbage out."
God loves you far more than any parent could love a child. As Augustine said, "God loves each of us as if there were only one of us." Paul's prayer is that you will grasp it. God's greatest resource is his love. Here's a second key point.
2. God's love is your life.
When I was in college I did a summer internship with a church's youth group and young adults group. And though it was, overall, a valuable experience, I had the feeling throughout the summer that there was a missing element in the ministry-related work that we were doing.
The leadership of this church took discipline seriously. To them, proof of spirituality was found in consistency: daily Bible study, daily prayer, witnessing to at least one person a day, memorizing at least 2 Bible verses per week, being involved in a weekly one-on-one discipleship relationship, and so on. This attitude spilled into other areas. It was taught implicitly, if not explicitly, that other proofs of spirituality included how clean you kept your house or your car, how well you maintained your physical appearance and your weight, and how sharp your organizational skills were. In fact, since the pastor had given up soft drinks years before, it was considered a little less than godly to indulge in a Dr. Pepper.
Most of these things you really can't argue with. Yes, we should strive for consistency. And you've heard me say countless times how crucial daily prayer and Bible study are to a dynamic spiritual life. Yes, a person should keep his house clean and his yard mowed and his life organized. All these things are good...and yet I sensed something was missing from our ministry. I was learning and doing work that I love, but I had the nagging idea that, somehow, we weren't doing enough....we weren't really fulfilling the work of the church. I would think of other types of groups—such as a grass-roots political task force, or a winning sports team, or a successful business—groups that were driven by hard work, discipline, consistency, and organization, and I would think, The only difference between them and us is the name on our sign. Something was missing.
Later, back at school, I found the missing element. I was reading from the book of Philippians, where Paul writes...
I pray that your love each other will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in your knowledge and understanding. (Philippians 1:9)
Though there is no empirical evidence to support this, I am certain that when I read that verse, a little light bulb appeared over my head. I don't remember exactly what I said, but I think it was "Eureka." I had what the 12-steppers call "a moment of clarity." I suddenly realized that in the midst of all my good works throughout the course of the summer, the missing element in my ministry was love. Good, old-fashioned love. This concept that I had come to equate with liberalism and easy-believism, was, I discovered, just as fundamental as the doctrine of the virgin birth. We are to love one another.
In the excitement of my revelation, I pounded on my roommates' door; he had served the internship with me during the summer. "David!" I said. "Do you know what makes Christianity unique? Do you know what separates us from all the other religions and organizations in the world?"
His curiosity was contained, but he did manage to say, "What?"
I gave him the answer. "Love."
He paused a moment, then said, "Interesting. I'm going back to bed."
I said, "No, wait, David. This is important! Without love, we're just robots...organized, disciplined robots. Love puts us in a league of our own, and it is the best thing we have to offer the world." Eventually, after he had gotten some sleep, David and I talked about this idea at length. In fact, years later, he told me that this conversation helped shaped the direction of his ministry. It did mine, too.
Discipline, consistency, and organizational skills are great to have—I'm not saying otherwise—but I want you to realize that they are no match for love. Given a choice between having a staff member that is organized and having a staff member that loves people, I'll choose the one who loves people every time. This is how Pearl Bailey said it. "What the world really needs is more love and less paperwork."
The Christian life is a life of love. Love should permeate every aspect of our life. Paul says,
Rooted in love. Understanding his love. Experiencing his love. The goal of the Christian is to be immersed in God's love.
How does that happen? The key is in two Latin words: meditatio, contemplation—meditation and contemplation. Meditation is thinking in a specific direction; contemplation is thinking for an extended duration. That's how you get immersed in God's love. Think about it intensely, and think about it extensively. Do you know how I do this? In my quiet time, I open my Bible to a verse that reaffirms God's love for us. As I read it I pray, "God, make these words real to me." I ask myself, "How would knowing that I am loved by God affect what I think about myself, or what I say about myself? How would it affect the way I respond to insults or criticism? How would it affect my need for recognition or approval? How would it affect my life's work?" And then I pray, "Lord, make your love real to me." And then I think about times that I experienced a special touch of God's love through his mercy, through a spiritual blessing, or through the ministry of one of his people. And I say, "Lord, help to me know always what I have known in the best moments of my life—that I am your beloved child." This is meditation and contemplation. It's not a snappy 60-second formula, it's a lifetime process. The longer we meditate on his love, the deeper we are rooted in it, the better we understand it, and the more we experience it. This brings us to the third key point.
3. Living in God's love is the key to power.
To the extent that we understand his love, we experience his power in our lives. Listen to what Paul said...
(v. 19) May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
What kind of power are we talking about here? The most important kind. Power over sin. Power over weakness. Power over fear. Power over shame. Power over despair. Power over rage. Power over lust. Power over greed. Power over pride. Power over doubt. Power over guilt.
These are the things that beat us down. These are the things that make our lives miserable. We don't have to live under their tyranny any longer. God promises his power. It's available to you. It's all available to you. To receive his power, you only have to yield to his love.
CONCLUSION
Spurgeon said, "He is truly great in power who has power over himself." If you want to experience power over yourself, power over your emotions, power over your circumstances, there are two ways you can go about it. You can try the boot camp approach: discipline, discipline, discipline. Or you can try the biblical approach: love, love, love. Guess which one works.
(v. 20) Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.
Do you want to experience the power of God? Then get immersed in the love of God. Pray about it. Think about it. Meditate on it. Contemplate it. Believe it. Receive it. When you know his love, you will experience his power. His power at work within you will revolutionize your life.
V, 29 To him be the glory…