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The Love of Christ
Ephesians 3:14 - 19
This is a phenomenal passage. Let me read it again. I love this passage. It is so inspirational.
We have a sample of Paul's prayer life. I reread this passage so that I can incorporate some of these concepts in my prayers. I want to tell you that I need to grow in my own prayer life. Today I want to share with you some of the things which I have been challenged with over the last while. I am not pointing fingers at anyone but trying to reflect the word of God for us in our world today. As we move toward Christmas, this is the first Sunday of Advent. We would like to in part reflect this morning on the love of Christ.
Note that Paul talks about kneeling before the Father. When is the last time that you knelt before the Lord in prayer. Kneeling is symbolic with humbling ourselves before the LORD in intercession and petition. The last corporate prayer meeting where we were encouraged to kneel at our seats was when I was in a large auditorium with about 8,000 - 10,000 people present. The speaker was encouraging us to intercede for the lost. He was near the close of his message and he fell over with a heart attack and died. The man had practiced what he was preaching. We were encouraged to practice what we had just heard as the medical personnel were trying to revive him before the ambulance arrived. What a shocking experience, knowing that our life was short and that we should be interceding before the Lord while we have time in this short life.
I read an article in a publication a couple of months ago after which I wept. It was a weeping of joy and conviction. I trust that you will bear with me if I find it difficult to control my emotions this morning as this story still captivates me. I would like to share that with you today to illustrate the power of God through prayer when we are completely trusting in God. God works in a mighty way - above and beyond our own abilities.
This story illustrates the mighty power of God to guide through the power of the Spirit of God. Oh that we would have the simple faith which was demonstrated in these two Chinese young women.
Paul prayed that out of the glorious riches of God, he would strengthen believers with power. When is the last time you have prayed this kind of prayer for others. I want to remind you and myself that we have a time of prayer here at the church on Wednesday evening to practice obeying this kind of prayer.
As I read this passage I asked myself the questions, "How rich is God?" How big is the universe? What kind of wealth does He possess? What is true wealth? Is it just money or does it extend into the realm of the spiritual? How wealthy am I? Do I share my wealth with an materially, emotionally, socially, and spiritually impoverished world? We are to share the riches God gives including those which come from our innermost being.
The agency which God has chosen to strengthen us with power is through His Spirit. Do you experience the filling of the Spirit daily.
God wants to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine according to the power that is at work within us. Have you been surprised by God's mighty power at work within you lately? If not, why not? Is it because God is not capable of empowering us or is it because we are not holy vessels to receive that mighty blessing?
Need to know the love of Christ. The width- how wide? The length may refer to how long God continues to love us even when we are unlovable. He is long suffering - patient with us and does not deal with us as our sins would deserve. Christ showed the depth to which he would go for us. That of dying on the cross for us each personally, and was separated from His Father and the glories of heaven that moment when he became the sacrifice which took away the sin of the world. He bore our iniquities on the cross. How high is His love for us? Christ will take us up to glory. His love will lift us above the problems we have here on earth. Christ wants us to scale the heights of His glorious love and make Him our lover and friend.
What impact can that have on our life? After Moses spent 40 days with God his face was glowing. Does our face, our countenance reflect that we have been with God? Jesus loves us. How much time to we spend with our lover? Is Christ the only one who dwells in our heart or do we allow ambition, anger, greed, lust or even evil to live in our hearts.
Paul prays that believers would be rooted and established in love so that we might have power. When we see the great Sequoia trees in California we know they are big. They are up to 40 feet across and tremendously high. They would not be able to survive winds and drought however if they did not have the miles of root system which support it. Before it can get big it has to go deep and wide. The term "established" here is an architectural figure of speech. We need to have a rock solid foundation of love of Jesus our cornerstone within the church if we would want to experience the power of God in our midst.
Christ said that if we love him we would keep his commands (Jn 15:10) I love Jesus but find the commands of His Father a challenge to keep. I struggle with I John 2:15. Love not the world neither the things in the world, if any one loves the world the love of the Father is not in him. How does this apply to my music, my choices of entertainment, my activities, my vehicles, my home, and my mission in life.
It is a challenge to follow the commands to demonstrate my love for Christ. I believe that every Christian needs to obey the ten commandments for starters. I have been working on re-structuring my life so that I obey the four command. It is the longest command in Exodus 20 and for me one of the toughest. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
In our modern world there are many allurements which tempt us to disregard this command. In our comfortable western culture we scarcely think about how we obey Christ's wishes. I personally have come to the conviction that we should be striving to minimize our Lord's Day activities and try to make it a day of rest and worship of him. This focus on God one day a week and resting is a challenge for me. I have come to believe that if I feel that I cannot accomplish everything in 6 days then I am too busy. The second part of this command is also a challenge to obey. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. Most of us have been able to relax on the Lord's day but we get others to work for us.
I think that if true Christians would refuse to get the alien to work for us on Sundays, they could come and worship with us. Instead many of them are working to get our Sunday dinners ready, working to make money in their business establishments, or entertaining us on Sunday afternoon and evening TV including sports celebrities. The evil one is using these diversions in our life to distract us from focusing on God.
Just because our government allows Sunday shopping or businesses to be open does not mean that Christians are to take advantage of it. Some of you men have a desire to be kind to your wives on Sunday noon and this is commendable but if we did not support business on Sunday there would not be the profitability to remain open and workers could be free to attend worship services instead of having to work and violate God's commands. Will their blood be upon our hands in the day of judgement? Nehemiah found this to be one of the toughest things he did in Jerusalem - far greater than building the wall. Read Nehemiah 13:15 - 22. When will we take a stand in society against the violation of the Lord's Day? Instead most Christians have fallen into the trap. I want to say that I am not immune to these temptations. I am not perfect nor have I all the solutions. At this point I have more questions than answers but I am bearing my soul in an attempt to understand with you the challenge God's word should have in our lives.
Paul completes his prayer with a benediction which fills me with hope and power. Remember the Chinese ladies just prayed. And God did immeasurably more than all than we can ask or imagine. Their love for Christ lead them into service which nearly took their lives but OH the joy of seeing thousands come to know Christ. What about each of us this morning - Do you love Christ? Have you experienced his power? May we continue to bring Him glory as we make him our Lover and our Lord.
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11/29/98 Leamington MB