As I was worshiping, I opened my eyes and I look up and guess what God shows me? Y'all ready for this? Don's Kit-Kat socks. Say someone needs a break today.
Break him off, right? He's got his Kit-Kat. Something's breaking off today. Oh, man.
Do we have any first time guest here? Raise your hand. Oh, yeah, we got a couple. Welcome, I'm church.
I just want to let you know as soon as you walk in that door, your family here. We love you. If you haven't connected with Stephanie, please connect with her. We'd love just to give you a gift.
Thank you for worshiping with us, joining us. I'm Pastor Fred. I'm Kit-Kat. My name is Pastor Seth.
Pastor Fred is in Africa right now, which God is doing some things over there. I'm excited for it. Give a hand clap. Show me a brief picture.
I don't want to talk about it, but I'll let him do it. Hundreds came up for salvation. Just super cool. And then we have some other congregants that were just on a mission strip and came back.
They're going to share about that as well. Can we give them a hand for what God's doing? Here we are, Little Cumberland, Maryland, reaching all the way around the world. That's what God can do.
Amen. I've got a couple announcements. The Thanksgiving outreach is Thursday the 21st. We're going to do our dinner and our food box giveaways, all at the same time.
It sounds like a lot, but it works out great. There will be something going on on our Facebook page about that here. It should be tonight or tomorrow morning, so you should see that. That's going to be the 21st.
Anybody that signed up to grab a turkey to cook it? I was told to tell y'all to bring the fixings. Right? Bring the drippings.
Okay. The broth, I think, is what I don't know. Whatever the drippings is, bring the drippings. Bring the sauce, all right?
And put it in my office. Thank you. Shoo. And that's going to be Thursday.
And you can go to our store. It's pretty much fully up now online if you want to support the mission of reaching the one who knows Jesus. Come on. You're quipping the one who knows Jesus, the recent one that needs Jesus.
Amen. Yeah, right up there. This is one of the shirts you'll find on there. Go check it out.
There's some other stuff on there as well. And then someone mentioned, I don't know all the details. It was quick. But Allegheny College of Maryland.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. There's a play today, Beauty and a Beast. If you want to go check it out, doors open at 1.30, and that's Allegheny College.
All right. So, again, I don't know any more details in that and just give me a quick blurt out. Huh? Don't call my...
Listen, sir, I'm safe. Not soft, okay? Do not call my wife a beast. All right.
All right, church, we're going to have fun today. If this is your first time here, we like to have a good time and we like to study the word. All right, and went last night, the play was accident. Go check it out.
All right, if you got your Bibles, we're going to be back in the dimensions of God's love. And I can bind the two together to close it out. We talked about the width of God's love, the length of God's love, and tonight we're going to talk about, or tonight. Today, this morning, we're going to talk about the height and the depth.
So I'm going to start out with reading our foundational truth that we've been going off of, which is, as believers, we are rooted in Christ's love. If we are truly rooted in His love, the fruit of our lives should be loved. Church say amen. Ephesians 3, 18 and 19 helps us understand the dimensions of His love how wide, long, high, and deep it is, and how this equips us to carry His presence.
How do you know how many of you know that that's what we're called to do? All right, two of you are here to do. How many of you know we're equipped to carry His presence? Amen?
All right, this side, hey, this side is letting me know that this side needs it more today than they do. 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. Ephesians 3, chapter 3, go ahead and turn there.
This is where we're going to launch from. And then we're going to jump through a couple of scriptures. And then God really showed me something that He wants to share with you all today. So in Ephesians 3, starting verse 17, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through your faith.
And you, say, and me, have you been deeply rooted and securely grounded in love, be fully capable of comprehending with all the saints, God's people, the width, the length, the height, the depth of the depth of His love, fully experiencing that amazing, endless love. Everyone say amen. Amen. 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 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 Himself.
Say, filled and flooded. Say, I'm filled and flooded. Come on, I'm going to need you all to feel this with me. Now to Him who is able to carry out His purpose and do super abundantly more, super abundantly more than all that we dare ask or think.
Come on, I'm going to say it again, infinity and beyond. Our greatest prayers, hopes or dreams, according to His power that is at work within us. Where's it at work at? Come on, Church.
God's calling us. He's calling us to know these things. What I love so much about this prayer from Paul is that it allowed me to know as soon as I read it, I'm like, dang, that means this is possible. No Church, listen, this is possible to grab a hold of the dimensions of the Father's love.
One person's clapping about that. It's possible to grab a hold of the dimensions of the Father's love. The depths of it. The height of it.
The width of it. The length of it. All of it. We can grasp it.
Shoo, I'm hoping you leave a little bit more excited than you are right now. All right, we're going to talk about the depth. So on Earth, the deepest known place on Earth, you can fact check me. And this is what Google says, if it's wrong, then I'm wrong.
But the deepest place on Earth is called Challenger Deep, located in the Mariana Trench in the Western Pacific Ocean. It reaches a depth of approximately 10,984 meters, which is 36,037 feet, which is nearly seven miles below the ocean surface. To put that in perspective, if Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth were placed in the Challenger Deep, its peak would still be more than a mile underwater. Shoo, that is super deep.
And you could imagine yourself standing there and trying to look down. I mean, eventually it's just going to go dark and you can't see it. But the deepest known place on Earth can be measured, but God's love is unmeasurable. Church, I just share that with you to try to give a little bit of a perspective of how deep the deepest place on this Earth that we're able to measure, God's love is still immeasurable.
But as believers, we have the ability to grasp. How deep? How what? Come on.
Are y'all going to help me out this morning? Listen, the deepest known place on Earth can't be measured, but we as believers, because the spirit inside of us has the ability to grasp how deep, how wide, how long. Come on, how high the love of God is. If that doesn't excite you, I don't know.
Maybe I'm the only one that this touches, but if I'm thinking about how deep that place is that can be measured, and his love has the ability to go even deeper than that, we should not be the same walking around here. I'm telling you right now, Church, point one, the depths of God love rescues us. Psalms 40, verse 2, and the message translation reads it this way. He lifted me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud.
He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn't slip. See, Church, I need you to understand that God's love reaches into the deepest parts of our sin. Brokenness. Despair.
To do one thing. Rescues. Guys, listen, it reaches into the deepest parts of our lives. Like, reach is in.
I don't know what it is right now, but nothing is too deep for God's reach. Like, whatever it is that is challenging you right now that's facing you, like, his love, Church, has the ability to go all the way down. And we're going to learn here in a second that it does the complete opposite after it meets it, raises it all the way up. And what we have to start understanding Church is that this is how far his love goes.
This is what we have the ability to grasp a hold of, to understand, to walk around, to reflect. Like, you are carrying this. If you are in Christ and you are in new creation, the same spirit that lives in him lives in you. And we have the ability to carry this.
Same kind of love. And share that. Reflect it. Who do you think that's for?
Once you get it and you're reflecting it, then it must be for everybody else. So it's for us to grab a hold of. Well, I would Paul pray that because he wants us to be able to grab a hold of it. He wants us to be able to know that we can now grab this, hold this, understand this and release this.
See, no pit is too deep for his love to find us. His love does not just acknowledge where we are but transform our standing. Places us on solid ground. Places us on solid ground.
Shh, come on. No pit is too deep for the reach of his love. No pit is too deep for the reach of his love. See, when you hit rock bottom, God's love becomes that rock that you're sandal.
See, he meets you at your lowest. And once he meets you there and you realize the rock that you hit at the bottom, everyone calls it rock bottom, that his love becomes that solid foundation you then can stand on. And then what it does is take you from the bottom to the top. See, church, when we start to understand this, we start to live different.
We start to understand all of what his love can do. We start to really realize it doesn't matter how low or where it was at, he can reach down and grab me at. And then as I understand it, and guess what? I look out and I say, you know what?
Listen, I understand it might be a challenging and bad situation, but guess what? God's love is deeper than that. It reaches down deeper than that. I don't care how far you think you're down.
His love can reach deep down further than that. And then with confidence, we share that. And it's the confidence in us that they began to see. How it rescues us.
Closhing's one, 13 and 14 says this, for he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. See, the depth of God's love is rescuing and redeeming us from spiritual darkness. 2 Corinthians 1, 10 says this, he had delivered us from such a deadly pearl and he will deliver us again.
On him we have said our hope that we will continue to deliver us. Say continue. Church, he doesn't stop. Remember what I said, the last message?
It's so long. Like his love doesn't stop. It's going to keep going. It's like the energizer body going and going and it doesn't stop.
See, and this is the Rouskripter. I'm just pulling some of these out to let you know that this is what he's talking about. This is shown over and over and over that it doesn't matter how dark of a place it was or where we were at. He went there.
And now we have access to that. We're able to help. We're able to love like this. We're able to love with these dimensions, with the understanding fully of who God is and what his love is and what it does.
How are you not convinced yet? It's okay. Like a 719 says, you will again have compassion on us. You will tread our sin under foot and hurl our iniquities into the depths of the sea.
Remember what I said how far that deep? Romans 5a, but God demonstrates his own love for us in this while we were still sinners Christ died for us. The highlights of the death of God's love by showing that he reached out to us at our worst. I can stop right there church.
I can stop right there and have so much excitement knowing that when I made my bed in hell and I was at my lowest, he reached down and pulled me up. See, I need you to understand he came down to me. Like he came down to me and let me at my lowest and pulled me up. I need one.
Just give me one. I'm locking on you. He met us at our lowest. Come on.
He came down and met you where you were at, where I was at. And he said, hey, listen, I'm going to rescue you and I'm going to pull you up. See, he takes you at your lowest and takes him to his highest. You guys didn't hear what I said.
Listen, he will reach down at your lowest and meet you and raise him to his highest. That's the God that we serve. Thank God. And my favorite point about all that, that forever sticks with me is that it had nothing to do with my performance.
Because when I was doing my absolute worst, he met me and said, I'm coming, I'm coming after you. So, so remove the performance out of your life. It had nothing to do with what you did. It had everything to do with who he is.
And his love for you will go to any depth to grab you and raise you out of it. Because that's how much he loves you. Point two, the height of God's love elevates us. Ephesians two, verse four through six, amplify version.
But God, say but God. Being so very rich and mercy because of his great and wonderful love. Great and wonderful love. Love, great and wonderful love with which he loved us.
What was his love? Great and wonderful. If you don't know that, now you do. Which he loved us.
Even when we were spiritually dead and separated from him because of our sins, he made us spiritually alive together with Christ. For by his grace, his undisserved favor and mercy, you have been saved from God's judgment. And he raised us up. I need you to know.
I need you to know. Say he raised us up. There we go. Church, come on.
He raised us up together with him. When we believe, and this is my favorite part, seated us. Say he's seated me with him in the heavenly places because we are in Christ Jesus. I don't know if you know, church.
But he raised you up. See, listen. Rescued? Raised?
Seated. Rescued? Raised? Seated.
Because why? He loves us and you're in Christ Jesus. Shoo. Rescued?
Raised? Seated. Or you could say like this, rescue? Raised?
See, that's how good our God is. He rescues us. He raises us. And then he seats us.
Where does he seat us at? Listen, where does he seat us at? With him. Come on.
With him. He didn't lower us. He didn't separate us somewhere else. He rescued us.
Raised us and seated us with him in heavenly places. Come on. I don't know church, but today what I think you're going to realize is if you're in Christ, you have a reserved seat. And God really wants you to know if that's reserved just for you.
Like I need you to know your name's on it. It's waiting for you to sit in. It's reserved. It's reserved.
Say my seat's reserved. See, listen, if your name's on it, nobody else can sit in it. If your name is on the seat that Christ reserved, nobody else can sit in it because your name's on it. And he picked you.
Handpicked. All of you. Said I'm going to reserve a seat for you. With me.
I ain't putting you up in double upper deck. You're sitting with me. My wife puts us up in upper deck at concerts and freaks out. Right?
We're seated. Listen, we're in VIP seating. With him. Box seats.
With him. You know I got to have a little fun. Phew. See, God's love not only lifts us out of our sin but elevates us to new heights.
Through Christ, we are seated in heavenly places given an elevated identity and purpose, given an elevated identity and purpose. His love raises us beyond what we could ever achieve on our own, aligning us with his glory. From the depths to the heights. God's love doesn't just rescue it raises.
If you've got notes and you've taken notes, just write that down. These are all things to encourage you through the week to remind you. I want to encourage someone too because I hear a lot of people talk about rest. I just want to bring to your attention that he rescued you.
He raised you and he seated you. He did all of it. I mean you can rest the entire time. You can rest in everything because he doesn't.
You can do nothing. He rescued you. He raised you and then he provided a seat for you. You can rest in that seat.
You can rest in what he does. Our spirit, our position and authority have raised. Come on. You guys see what he does?
See what he's capable of doing? Man, he's such a good God. I'm not going to scripture overload. I have a bunch here.
I'll just give him to you right now. Isaiah 55, 9. Psalms 121, 1 through 2. Philippians 3, 23, 21.
I am going to read that one because our citizenship is in heaven. When we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. That points to the height of God's love by reminding us that he has prepared a heavenly home for us. See, when Jesus paid the price on the cross, he didn't just save you.
He reserved a seat for you next to him by the Father. So we went through this conference recently. And I don't know how many people were there. So if I'm exaggerating, just follow me.
There's like a thousand, maybe a thousand people there. Maybe more than that. I don't know. But people is everywhere.
And it's full. So we're walking in. And I'm sure people got there super early. And this is for my illustration.
So please just follow me. So we're walking. And we got reserved seats. So we're walking in there.
And we're passing all these people. And we're looking. You know, there's a couple of rows back. And we're looking, we're looking, we're looking, we're looking.
And we're on the front row. And this was on the chairs with our names. And see, all those people, but no one was sitting in those chairs. No one was sitting in those chairs because they were reserved for somebody.
They were, they would see, they were reserved for us. So no one could sit there. The only way you're sitting there is if your name was under the reserved seat. And so guess what?
Our names are on the seat. See, listen, I hope you're starting to understand and follow me that it doesn't matter, church. The seats were waiting for us. Right?
And no one could sit in them because they reserved for us. And they were waiting for us to sit in. And we got to start understanding that when he seated us, we got to see. Say, I got to see.
Right. Come on, church, you have a seat with him. I don't know who you want to sit with, but I hope you would rather sit with him than anybody else. I love you, babe, but I want to sit with him.
Like, I love you, but I want to sit with him. He fills me. He strengthens me. He does all the things that I need.
I want to sit with him. Like what, what on this planet could keep us from wanting to sit with the Father, the one who created you, the one that's the purpose, the strength, the confidence, the peace, the joy, the all the things that we read about, that we desire, that we want. They're all in him. Everything that you could ever think of, they're all in him.
And he has reserved to see for you to sit with him, to rest. And church, what I believe he really led me to talk about today is because I think we have some people that they read this, but they don't know that that seat has their name on it. And I think that it's only for you. Like he loved you so much.
If you were the only one, he would have did it. He would have reserved that one seat just for you. And I believe there's a lot of people in here that they acknowledge Christ and they do all this, but they don't understand that he rescues, he raised and seated them because he's trying to position them to the seat from a different perspective. That he wants them to start looking out and seeing.
And he's called you to these things. And he said, there's a lot of reserved seats on, but they don't know their names on them. So today, my mission is to help you understand that your names on a seat, that your name is on a seat. Just like in that conference, we walked in.
There are so many people there, but they couldn't sit in our seat. See, listen, no one can sit in your seat. He's got a purpose for you. He's got your name sitting on it waiting for you.
He's done everything, church. He raised you, he raised you, he prepared it for you, but he can't sit in it for you. He wants you to sit with him. And he's calling you to this church.
We have to know. We can step into the fullness of what God has for us. We can walk confidently in our identity, knowing that we are redeemed, reserved for glory with Christ. We've been saved, yes.
We've also been given a place beside Jesus in a position of honor. Church, I hope you're hearing me. I hope you're hearing today that you have a seat. That's reserved for you.
That he's waiting for you to sit in. See, the depth and the height of God's love restores us. Romans 838 and 39, the message translation reads this. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing, say nothing.
Living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unfaithful, thinkable, absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our master has embraced us. Come on, Church. The way that Jesus our master has embraced us. God's love not only rescues and elevates it restores, it reconnects us to our purpose and repositions us in his perfect plan.
As we are rooted in his love, we begin to reflect his character, walk in his power and live in communion with him. As we are rooted in his love, we begin to reflect his character, walk in his power and live in communion with him. See, you've read the Bible in our pastor even preached on this a while back, but Peter was restored by Jesus after denying him. See, he was restored and he was released to do something.
What are you telling? Feed my sheep. See the love, God's listen to love. It restores us.
But see, once we're restored, it then sends us. It releases us to do something. It tells Peter after restoring him, feed my sheep. See, we have a purpose.
We all have a purpose on this planet. He don't just rescue us, raise us and seed us for nothing. He's positioned us with him. He's called us to things.
He calls us to do things. See, Jesus came and knew what he's coming to do. Amen? And the entire time he was walking towards the cross, walking towards the purpose.
See, there was something in him, church, and I believe there's something that he wants to create in us that he knows. That Jesus knew what he was going after. And we, having the same spirit, we have to get to a place to understand and know what we're going after. The desire to do what he came to do to love.
Like that same spirit lives in us. Remember, we're seated with him. There's a purpose with him. Rooted in his depth, seated in his heights, this is life and his love.
The depth of God's love reaches into our lowest moments while the height of his love lifts us to the highest places. These two dimensions work together. He rescues us from despair and sin, elevates us to walk in victory and purpose. Being rooted in his love means living in the fullness of this rescue and elevation.
See, it's a double time. Don't you ever notice that how God always does? He always does things in tubes. He don't just do it to do it.
Like, right? He didn't just rescue us. He rescued then raised us. He don't ever just do something for no reason.
Just, oh, yeah, I'm just going to rescue him because that's what I am. He rescues and raises. See, he's always doing something, Church. See, love is when I'm getting that love, there's something behind love that motivates us.
There's more behind love. And that's why I think that the dimensions are so like, they're so sticking out to me because there's so much to his love and I believe we only scratched the surface of it. And he's wanting us to understand that with all dimensions together and operating in them, the fullness of Christ will be revealed. The fullness of his love will be revealed.
Could you imagine if just the people in here began to understand the fullness of God's love and walked out of these doors? Could you imagine the impact on others' lives? See, we're talking about being rooted in his love and barren fruit. Being rooted in God's love is essential for spiritual growth.
The deeper it roots in his love, the more evident the fruit of love will be in our lives. As we submit to the Holy Spirit, his love manifests in us, equipping us to carry his presence and fulfill his purpose. Rooted in depth, his love rescues from sin and brokenness. Rooted in height, his love elevates to victory and authority.
Rooted in restoration, his love restores us to purpose and communion with him. See, he rooted you in his love, rescued you from the depths, elevated you to the heights and restored you to your purpose. When you live rooted in his love, the fruit of your life will be loved. Say it will be love.
You will walk in victory, reflect his glory, and carry his presence into the world. Are you ready to live in the fullness of God's love? You can step into that reserved seat. He's prepared for you.
Let his love rescue, elevate, and restore you so that you can bear the fruit of love every area of your life. See, I've got a couple more points here, but I really, church, I really just want us to grab a hold of this today. And we're going to be closing here in a minute and get you out of here a little early. I know you're hungry.
I'm always hungry. I'm ready for my wife to come out of retirement too. I've been in the kitchen too much. But I believe God wants to show us something today.
And I'm just going to try to set this up. Do you notice there's some reserved tags on these seats right here? Is anybody sitting in them? No, they can't because they're reserved.
Don't do that. I need to get the conference, babe. Will you come up here to your seat? This one says Ray Dawson.
Will you come here, please? This is Paul Ellis. Will you come here? And then Amy, will you come here?
Yeah, come on up here. See, I'm going to use this as a visual. And I want you guys to remember what we were talking about the reserved seats. We'll see.
There's something powerful that I believe God wants us to see. Like do you guys, did you hear the message today that God rescued, raised, and then prepared a seat? Phew. See, these chairs up here represent reserved seats.
Each one had an A-mon. And those name are yours. Paul, Ray, Amy, Yvette. See, Christ prepared these for you.
The seat with your A-mon. It's meant for you. Hey, Paul, no one else can sit in your seat. Hey, bro, no one else can sit in your seat.
He knew Paul was going to say, I'm going to answer the call to follow you. He created a seat for you. He loved you that much, right? He knew that you were going to answer the call.
He put your name on Amy. He put your name on it. It's meant for you. Jesus reserved a place for you beside Him.
If you don't know it's reserved for you, you might not sit in it. And today, I hope everyone understands that if you're in Christ, He's reserved a seat for you. Now, listen, He's reserved a seat for you. You might be thinking, that's not for me.
I don't like to sit up here in front of people. I don't deserve to sit there. But once you know it's reserved for you, once you understand that Jesus has paid the price for you, you walk confidently up to the seat and you take your place. He prepared it for you.
He prepared it for you. When you sit in the chair, everything changes. You no longer look towards the seat but from the outside. Unsure and questioning, you no longer live from a place of striving, trying to earn a seat that's already been reserved for you.
Guys, you don't have to reserve. You don't have to strive. I'm getting excited, y'all. It's already been reserved for you.
Guess what you now do? You're not looking towards the seat. You're looking from the seat. No.
Church, listen, you're not longer looking towards your seat. You're sitting down in it because it has your name on it. You're sitting down because it has your name on it. Now, once you've sat down.
I'm going to get down here. I'm getting too excited. I'm trapped up here. Church, listen.
See, they were sitting like this. You can only see so much from this perspective. No, I need you to understand. You can only see so much from this perspective.
But see, when he raises you, he rescues you and he seats you with him, now your perspective changes. Now, look at what they see. What do you see now? You can see everybody.
He changes your perspective. He takes you, he rescues you, he raises you, then he seats you. If your name on it from his position, just see what he sees. Now you're looking out from his perspective.
Now you see what he sees. Now you understand, you see your purpose now. And guess what you see? All of you guys.
You start to see all the people. You start to see everybody differently. It's hard when you're looking this way. You might see a couple this way or that way, but when Christ positions you.
And now you see everybody. Now you see everybody in front of you. Church, please. I'm begging you to see that he rescues you.
He raised you. And his seat is with him in heavenly places. Your perspective now is looking out. It's seeing everything that he sees.
And guess what you can do now? Love the way he loves. You start to look out and you say, oh man, look at all these reserved seats, y'all. They must be reserved because no one's sitting in them.
That means we have something to do, Church. We have people to rescue. We have people to bring to and say, hey, listen, this seat, it's got your name on it. He's got a seat for you.
And he will raise you, rescue, and seat you there, because he's got a purpose for your life. He don't do nothing for no reason. Oh, he's waiting for you. He said, what are you waiting on?
I got your name on it. You look good in that seat. He said, I got your name on it. He said, the things I want to do with your life, now that you see what I see, I want to reach people.
I want to love people through you. And only you can do it. I need you to know your name is on that seat, Paul. You're the only one who's going to reach certain people.
You're the only one who's going to reach certain people. What you've been through, you're the only one that's going to reach certain people. And he chose you. The plans he has for you.
He's going to reach people through you, children. He's going to plan for your life to reach children. To let them know how much they're loved. Come on.
Come on. As I'm closing, what you can come up if you can get there. Hey, listen, all these seats are reserved. Church, I just got some questions for you.
If you're uncomfortable, you can go ahead and sit down. I like to not all move. They know I'm seated. Come on.
I see you with Christ. So church, I got a question for you. Will you stand with me? The same, say, listen, if the church was big enough, I'd have a chair for everybody up here.
I need you to know something. He reserved a seat for you. And maybe, maybe you're just like, I don't know, that's not for me. Maybe I can't do that.
I want to encourage you today. There's people that's here that wants to pray for you. He's prepared a seat for you. And he's asking today, will you continue to look toward the seat?
Are we accepted what I've done for you and will you begin to live from your seat? Will you sit down and rest with everything that I've done and provided for you? And begin to allow me to live through you as you sit with me and live, live from, not for anymore.