Equipping Season: Dimensions of God's Love

All right, so we are in equipping season. There it is. Who was here last week for the message on the fullness of God? Was that good?

That was just good. This week I want to talk about Pastor Fred touched on a few things that I really want to go deeper on. And it's the love of God. And I don't know if you've experienced the love of God, but I'm hoping today that we go just a little bit deeper in it.

Who knows in here that God is love? Amen. That's his nature. Just saying that doesn't that do something?

God is love. Wow. That excites me. Our new mission statement we launched, we are going to continue to talk about the next slide.

Equipping the one that knows Jesus, everybody say this with me. Equipping the one that knows Jesus to reach the one that needs Jesus. How many of us know that's super important? Amen.

Christ needs us. He wants us. He's going to use us to reach those around us. And we've got to be equipped with everything.

Do you want to be equipped with the fullness of God? In every aspect. Like if God is love, don't you want to love to the fullness? And I don't know about you, but I want to learn God's love because that's the love that transforms.

I don't want to just, you know, I don't want to take the worldly definition of love that's been tossed around and there's been so many different examples of it that we just don't know what to believe. I want to take the true meaning of love that has been presented to us and I want us to grab ahold of it to where we start walking in it. Amen, Church? Because that's the goal.

So today I hope we leave here a little bit better in learning how to walk in love. See the foundational truth that as believers we are rooted in Christ's love. We learned that last week. We are already rooted and grounded in love.

You're not convinced. We're already rooted and grounded in love. Amen? All right.

Listen, we got to get this before we can launch further. We're already rooted and grounded in love. All right. On the same page.

So if we're truly rooted in his love, the fruit of our life should be what? If we are truly rooted in his love, the fruit of our life should be, did y'all just wake up? Is coffee back there? Did my wife make it on time?

We should be rooted. Come on guys. If we're truly rooted in love, the fruit of our life should be love. There we go.

Come on. So Ephesians 3, 18 and 19, it helps us understand the dimensions of God's love. How wide, long, high, deep it is. And how this equips us to carry his presence.

Amen? So as we walk in submission to the Holy Spirit, the degree to which we submit is the degree to which the love of Christ will manifest in our lives. Amen. You guys are looking up there.

It ain't not fair yet. I'm just reading what pastors taught last week. So I hope you, I just want to refresh your memory before we dive a little bit deeper into it. So if you have your Bibles, we're going to go to Ephesians 3.

Turn there with me. If you don't have your Bibles, no worry. It's going to be very big up on the stage. And today we're going to talk about how wide the width of God's love.

And like Pastor Fred said, I was doing the study once it was brought up and my one message turned into about five of them. So I broke them down. So we won't be here but for two and a half hours. So Ephesians 3 starting in verse 17, this is an amplified version.

So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through your faith and may you, having been deeply rooted and securely grounded in love, be fully capable of comprehending with all the saints, which is God's people, the width and length and height and depth of his love, fully experiencing that amazing, everyone say this, endless love. I love how you, love, right? Punch that thing home. It's endless guys.

It doesn't end. Listen, there is a start to it and there's no end to it. Is that not exciting for you guys? Shoo.

I don't know. I'm so excited but I'm nervous today. Y'all are going to have to help me out. So 19, and that you may come to know practically through personal experience, the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge without experience, that you may be filled up throughout your being.

See that? Filled up throughout your being. To all the fullness of God so that you may have the richest experience of God's presence in your lives, completely filled and flooded with God himself. Right?

One amen out of that. If that doesn't excite you, we got to figure out something. We need to get the jumpers, what do they do when they, someone needs to help get that. That should charge you up.

Shoo. Now to him who is able to carry out his purpose and do super abundantly more than all that we dare ask or think. All that we dare ask or think, infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes or dreams. And to his power, that is at work within us.

Everybody said amen. So the width. Today I want us to go ahead and start turning to Exodus chapter 3 for me. We often think of sacred spaces like churches or sanctuaries as places where God's presence is strongest.

But scripture teaches us that wherever we go as believers, God's presence is with us. Wherever we go as believers, God's presence is with us. Okay. It's going to be all right.

It gets better. I promise. This means that every step we take is on holy ground. And because God is love for strong four eight, we carry love into every situation.

As believers, we are not just called to acknowledge God's presence but be equipped by his love to impact the world around us. So today I want to talk about how love is the foundation of equipping believers enabling us to bring God's light wherever we go. Amen. Church, I really want to help us see that every situation we walk into, actually I want to take that back.

I want to go bigger. Every step we take, every place that we find ourselves in, every moment of every day wherever we wound up and found ourselves in, God's presence is there. And it's there. But what you're carrying in God's presence as we're learning about his nature is that you're carrying his love.

So the idea is that God's love is everywhere that you step and go. You're not convinced. Like I need you to understand wherever you are as a believer in Christ, you've been placed in Christ, wherever you are because God is love, you now are carrying the presence of love. So wherever you stand, love is there.

That's a changed situation. Where are you sitting right now? So I want to take it all the way back to the Old Testament to start this in Exodus 3, starting in verse 1. Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro.

Funny little story. My grandfather could never say my name and I never knew until studying this why he called me Jethro. I'm like, where did that name even come from? There it is.

He led the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Herrabb. I'm going to butcher these names, y'all, to the far side of Cumberland and the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Say it from within a bush.

Y'all know the story of the burning bush? Moses saw that though the bush was on fire, it did not burn up. So Moses thought I will go over and see this strange sight why the bush doesn't burn up. I really want you to grab that he spoke to him from where?

Within the bush. Verse 4, when the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him. From within the bush. Say from within the bush.

Moses, Moses, and Moses said, here I am. Do not come any closer, God said. Take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is holy ground. Then he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

In this, Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. Verse 7, then the Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. Guys, listen, I am concerned about their suffering.

I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. Listen, I don't know if you know this, but if you think God can't see whatever it is that you're in the midst of, he sees it. I promise you, just like God was speaking back then to Moses, he's speaking to people now preparing them to step into situations to bring his love to it. God is speaking to people now.

Maybe you, because there's a situation, because he loves all people, amen? He sees all situations, not just the ones we see, but he sees all. So he's speaking to people now, which I believe believers now, for situations that there is a need of love in his presence in, and he's preparing us. He's preparing us in it.

I have heard them crying out because they're slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. This is my favorite part of this whole thing. So I have come down. Because I said, you want to talk about running around?

When I saw that, I'm like, because listen, he acts. He didn't just, yeah, I see in it, yeah, this, but do you know why he came down? Because of the compassion, the love for his people. That's the whole reason he's even encountering Moses.

So he can go to Egypt. It's because he loves his people. So he came down. I'll preach to myself this morning.

So he came down. God, that excites me. Listen, maybe he's coming down right now in your situation. I don't know, but you need to know, he came down.

I could go home right now, and I'm so excited to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up. What do you do? Brought them up, out of the land, into a good and spacious land. A land flowing with milk and honey.

I don't know about y'all, but I love milk and honey. The hum of the cannonites, the hitites, the amorites, the Cumberlandites. The Lavelites and the Ridgleyites. I'm trying to make it personal.

Come on, God. But what I really want to focus on, my God, led me to this, is because he came down. But I need you to understand something. And I know we were talking about removing the sandals.

I don't know if I'm going to get to it today, because I really want to punch on what I believe God wants us to see. The place that he was standing was holy because God came down. God's presence came down there. The burning bush is cool, and that it didn't burn off his cool.

But what spoke to me the most is that he spoke to him from within the bush. And I don't know if we know this or not, but God is within us. He divides in us. He spoke to Moses, and this is the first occurrence in the Bible of God's, this being called the holy ground, and that God's presence established a certain place of holy.

That is presence, established a place. In fact, check me, there's other places, but this is the first occurrence of it actually being a place that he established, came down, established his presence. And where he stands, he said, Moses, where your stand is holy ground, take off your sandals. See, the short version of why I believe he told him to take him off is because where his presence is is holy ground.

And that nothing, if it's not pure, it can't stand there. And there's a whole cultural thing that my good friend here got into to talk with. His mind goes real far into this. It's really, it was really great.

I can't remember it all. I'm going to let him preach that. But the sandals, there's something really special about that part, but let's not forget that that's where he established his presence. Can I bring up something?

So he encounters the burning bush and God tells him to move his sandals because he's standing in holy ground. Do you guys realize this was a sacred moment? And he's where? He's in the desert.

Amen? I asked, you all said you read this story. He's in the desert though, right? So how cool was it that on a mountain in the desert, God's presence took an ordinary bush, an ordinary place.

You're not getting it yet. He took an ordinary place, a bush, came down to it, and made it holy. He took an ordinary place church, an ordinary place, and made it holy, a desert. It's just a place on the mountain.

Just chose it. Boom. And because his presence landed there, it made it holy. I don't know if you were beginning to see where I'm going to go with this, but how many of us see that his presence changes everything.

And he can take any ordinary place, an established holiness in it. He's love. We understand that now, right? So if he, his presence, can establish any ordinary place, holy, and he's also love, then any place that he established, he also can make it love.

And it just so happens to be that the presence of God transforms things. I don't know about you guys, but I stood in a place where his presence and it transformed my life. It did something. It took something ordinary.

It made it super nice. It did something. Holy, his presence is holy. It changes things.

I'm going to lock in with you. You see him locked in. Any ordinary place he took a mountain, right out in the middle of the desert, and he established it. With his presence, he made it holy.

Thank you, God. Take off your sandals for the place where you're standing, holy ground. God's presence sanctified the area of church. The ground itself.

The ground itself becomes sacred. That's why you're asking, take off your sandals. It's not because any inherent quality, but because of God's direct presence. That area was pure.

So the width of God's love. Go to the next point. He's already there. Holy ground.

Stepping into the width of God's love. Can I just back up for two seconds? Y'all good? I got good time too.

So Fred was preaching last week. I was sitting there, I was listening to him. I don't know what it is, God's. But anytime the word of love is mentioned, I'm captivated.

It takes me to another place. I don't even know that you guys are still sitting in the room. If I were doing anything crazy, just be like, if love is mentioned, I'm not here. I don't think I'm weird saying this.

I saw, as I was praying, I just saw this like hard on fire. It almost looked like a comet. And it just came down and it busted onto the ground. And then it dispersed.

And this is what it led me to because I believe God came down like we saw in Moses to the bush. But when it came down dispersed, it was that we were going to carry his love into now these places. And it was just so special to me because I hope that we leave here today, understand. I hope you take a peace with you that you are a carrier of God's love.

You carry his presence, amen? His presence changes things. And you carry that. So where you're at, transformation's at.

Not because of you, but because of his presence. Do we get that? So that comet came down, I'm like, wow, this is wow. This is really cool.

And I thanked him. And establishing that now everywhere believers are is holy ground because we carry his presence. So holy ground, stepping into the width of God's love, turn to 1 Corinthians 6 for me. In the 19th Amplify version it says, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?

Who is where? Where was he speaking to from the bush? Okay. So now the Holy Spirit who is within you, whom you have received as a gift from God and that you are not your own.

Do you know what that means? That if he is within you, you are now established as his. Not convinced? Have you accepted Christ?

He's now within you. Have you accepted Christ? He is now within you. As this can seem so simple on the surface, but I'm telling you, our bodies is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

His presence resides there. His love resides there. All of this stuff. The 20 says, for you were brought, you were bought with a price.

You were actually purchased with the precious blood of Jesus and made his own. So then honor and glorify God with your bodies. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit, meaning we carry God's presence into every corner of our lives. Whether at home, work, or out in the community, we stand on the Holy ground because God is with us.

Why do we stand on the Holy ground? God is with us. So isn't it cool that God came down to the bush, right? Established his presence.

But now where is his presence established? Where is his presence established? Where is his presence established? Come on, church, in us.

Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? And here is what I believe. We are not aware of what we are carrying. We need to be more aware of what we are carrying.

If his presence did that in the desert and it turned that ordinary place to the Holy ground, where then if I am just standing in the market, what is that? If I am standing at work, what is that? And what is there? Love.

His presence. Love is there. And it has the ability to transform. Anything.

So God's love is wide enough to cover every place we stop. This is the width. Where we go? You ready for this?

Familiar or unfamiliar? It doesn't matter. It might be unfamiliar to you, but it's familiar to him. His love is there.

When we are rooted in Christ's love, the fruit of our lives should reflect the wide-reaching love. The wide-reaching love. You guys following me? He established it way in the desert.

We are not there. You can stay there. We'll get there in a second. But just as Moses encountered Holy ground in the wilderness, we are reminded that no place is beyond God's love.

His love makes every space sacred when we walk with him. Have you got seen this? If you've been rooted in the love of Christ, then the fruit of your life should be love. We walk into every place, bringing the love of Christ, turning ordinary ground into holy ground.

The width of God's love shows that His love is everywhere. And we are called to reflect that love every step we take. So here's the challenge. Do we live with the awareness that God's present goes with us?

If we're aware of church, can I help us out? Like what was God's presence established for in the burning bush? What did He come down to do? What was the whole purpose?

He came down. He came down to Moses, to establish His presence because He saw His people in Egypt. Compassion is why He came down. His hurting for seeing His people.

That was the purpose. What is our purpose when we walk into situations? What is our purpose when we just anywhere that we go? If we're motivated by love, what's our purpose walking in?

If it's to establish love, thank you, church. If it's to establish love, it should change how we think. It should change how we view people. It should change all this stuff because that's what His presence does.

And if we are letting it lead, the Holy Spirit lead us, that's what we're going to be led into. But if we're not, then we're going to be led in. And you know what we need to do? I think we need to be aware and start taking off our sandals.

You know what I mean by that? Any thoughts that are not pure? Anything that is not of Him. We need to take off as we step into it to be able to bring and establish His presence because His presence changes it.

His presence has the ability to make the ground holy. So that when it's stepped on, I don't care who steps on it. You know why? Because His presence is what matters most.

So He has the ability to bring His presence which now lives in us. So everywhere I step. You know it's super cool. If He's in Christ's toe, then everywhere He steps.

And do you realize that unity, it's that much more powerful? It's that much more full when we step together. I like it down here. It's like level.

And those lights are bright. I don't care what anyone says. And I put them up. So how we respond to different situations and how we view the world, love becomes the focus because wherever we go, God's love is presence.

When we walk in love, we turn regular, everyday places into divine opportunities. Do you? I'm just trying to think. Like think about Moses when he saw the bush and his mind's like, it's not burning up.

It should burn up. Like he got his attention and he was aware that his presence was there. Would that change how we approach things if we were aware his presence was there? Like if his presence was there, we knew that where we go, it goes.

And we're taking that with us. Then we kind of be in awe and so focused on what he's doing in the moment to bring whatever needs to be brought to that situation to transform it, to bring him. And if we're aware, church, I'm telling you, if we're aware and we're willing to allow the spirit to lead us, we're going to start bringing the fullness of Christ's places with us. And it's going to start radically moving people's hearts because it's his presence.

Again, it's not us, but we carry it. It's going to start changing situations. I'm telling you, it's going to start really doing things that it's going to blow your mind. It will allow it to lead, his spirit to lead us into these situations and be aware that it's with us.

I can't imagine. I bet we wouldn't have people acting like fools because we were aware that his presence was with us. We just wouldn't do a lot of the things we do. I believe if our awareness was really focused there that God's with me, I bet we'd act a lot different if we really understood it.

Man, God's here. You know what I mean? Yeah, so you all know that God's here. Oh, anybody got kids?

Yeah, when Dad's left in the room, then what are they like? Listen, I'm not talking about being afraid. I'm just saying you act different. You want to honor him.

It says, honor him with your bodies. Honor him with your lives. So if I'm stepping into a situation, I know Dad's here, I'm going to approach it a lot different. I'm going to be like, oh man, Dad is love.

I want to bring love to the situation. I'm carrying that into the situation. Church, I know this probably isn't a popular message and not what we want to hear, but here's the reality of it. This is what we have, like this is what we're called to walk in because this is what we're carrying.

We're carrying his presence. When we walk in love, we turn regular everyday places into divine opportunities. Do you all like to help people? It's so like, it's hard not to want to help others, isn't it?

Could you imagine if you just allowed God's love to lead? It's going to help them more than anything you could ever think of if you would allow his love to lead you into the situation. Things that you didn't even think of, he's going to be able to turn that ground into something different. Walking in love, overflowing with God's fullness.

Ephesians 3 19 says, the message translation, live full lives, full in the fullness of God. See Paul's prayer is for believers. It's that they be filled with all the fullness of God. When we are rooted in God's love, submitted to the Holy Spirit and walking in love, we reflect the fullness of God in every part of our lives.

Church, I know I keep saying that, but that's the point today. This is the main point today. Turn to Romans 12 with me real quick. I'm going to wrap this thing up here shortly.

Romans 12 starting in verse 9 says, love from the center of who you are. Don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil. Hold on for dear life to good.

Be good friends who love deeply. Practice playing second fiddle. Don't burn out. Keep yourselves fueled in a flame.

Be alert servants of the Master. Cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times. Pray all the harder.

Help needy Christians. Help needy Christians. How do we help? We bring God's love.

In hospitality, bless your enemies. No cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they are happy. Share tears when they are down.

Get along with each other. Don't be stuck up. What does it say to make friends with? No buddies.

Don't be the great somebody. Don't hit back. Discover beauty in everyone. If you've got it in you, do we got it in us?

Get along with everybody. If you got it in you, is it in you? If you establish it's in us, right? We're rooted and grounded in love.

It's in us. So if it's in you, do what? If it's in you, do what? Get along with everybody.

Church, how can we do that? When we love, lead us. Because when he establishes the ground, the focus is love. When he establishes the ground, the focus is love.

When it leads, when the spirit leads us into situations. The ordinary ground, the ground that we can do nothing with, but mess up. But with him, takes ordinary places and makes them holy. Makes them platforms of transformation to be able to happen.

Because now love is leading. It doesn't matter what you do or don't like about the situation or the person. Love is leading. Because the impact is forever going to be to love.

Because we're going to read here in a minute that when everything else fails, one thing remains. And if you don't know what it is yet, I'm going to help you out. But it says, we're going to leave out that. If you got it in you, get along with everybody.

Say it again. Listen. If you got it in you, say it's in me. Y'all got it.

Y'all come on. It is on this lunch time. Say it's in me. Get along with everybody.

It did not leave any areas for kickback. This is what love does. Don't insist on getting even. This one's for my wife, I think, when I was reading it.

I'm like, ooh. Don't insist on getting even. That's not for you to do. I'll do the judging.

Says God. I'll take care of it. Our scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch. Or if he's thirsty, get him a drink.

Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don't let evil get the best of you. Get the best of evil by doing good. You get one type out of that?

Thank you. Listen, that's how good God is. That's what love does. I'd like to propose that if these things aren't happening in your life, it's because love is absent.

It's because something else is leading. And I'm just not trying to beat up and trying to help us to the areas that we're finding challenges in. It's probably because love isn't being led there. You're not allowed in love to establish the ground.

You're not allowed in love to, you're not walking in it to allow it to change and transform the things around you because that's what love does. So if I'm in a situation and I want to get even, I got to realize I'm not like love's not leading my life. And why do we have the ability to do all this? I need us to understand this because God's presence and he's established it in our lives.

It's in us. And if he spoke to Moses from within the bush, I have to believe that his presence is speaking from within us to help lead us and guide us. Are we willing to be aware that he's speaking? Church, are we listening to his voice?

And I do not put it past him that he will do radical things like light a bush on fire to get your attention. And I think if we're more aware to hear his voice and let him lead our lives, we're going to see change for his glory because his love is going to be established in these places. We're not just, I want you to start seeing yourself. You're not just walking places no more.

I don't care where you're at. Every footprint you leave up a little heart's there. You're just leaving a heart everywhere you step. Love's there.

I do, I hope he does something wild in your life. When you're listening, if you're walking and you're in the wrong thought process and you step down to your heart, please take a picture and send it to me. I think our guy will do things to get our attention because he came down because he knew where his people were at in Egypt and he needed Moses to go lead him out with love. As we get further into the study, we're going to see there's other situations that Jesus and just God revealed himself in super cool ways.

And that you'll always see that no matter what they did, it was always led with love. And I hope that our eyes, if we have lens of love, we'll begin to start reading this and seeing that. We won't start seeing things for what we want to see that as we'll start seeing it for what it is. That in interaction with Jesus and people was from love and how he approached was love.

And we're just really going to start to see something super special. It's going to help us lead in love. So the fullness of God's love is practical and manifests in our everyday lives. As shown in Romans 12, 9 through 21, it allows us to bless those who curse us, live in harmony and overcome evil with good.

And I'm going to get ready to close. Matt, can you come up here? First Corinthians 13, 13 says, and now three remain. Faith, abiding, trusting in God and his promises.

Hope, confident expectation of eternal salvation. Love, unselfish love for others, growing out of God's love for me. Love, unselfish love for others, growing out of what? God's love for me, church, do you know that it was because he loved us first.

That's it. And I want to help you today that if you're trying to get back to your first love, it's that love. It's that he loved you first. That is the quickest way you're going to find yourself back is understanding that it was his love for you.

That's the only place you got to get back to. He loved us first. It's his love for me. These three, say these three.

But the greatest of these is love. If you guys didn't see some sort of order today about what is the most important thing, and I'm talking to the ones that like to say, God is a God of order, I agree with you. I'm not, but I'm letting you know that love is the first thing. I would like to put it this way.

Love is the first order of business. And then everywhere we go, love is supposed to be established. Everywhere we go, love is supposed to be established. Church, I don't know where you're going after this.

I don't know what situations you're walking into. I don't know what circumstance are already happening in your life, but I want to tell you this. God has called you to bring love to that circumstance. He's called you, the believer, the carrier of his presence to become aware that you are not alone.

Do you understand he makes that so clear to us? You are not alone. And what is with you is his presence which carries love. So everywhere that you stand or sit or find yourself, love is there.

Love is there to the degree that you submit to the Holy Spirit's leading in your life is the degree to which the love of Christ will manifest in your life. When we walk in the fullness of God's love, we carry his presence everywhere we go, making every place holy ground. Thank you Father. Our actions, words, and lives become testimony to the enduring love of Christ, the one thing that will remain when everything else fades.