I'm excited. We're in equipment season and I'm going to read our mission statement, equipping the one that knows Jesus to reach the one that needs Jesus. How important is that? Amen?
Do we have any guests here for the first time? Yes, no. Awesome. We're all family.
Great. Oh, we have one guest. Come on, give it up. Welcome.
I'm so glad you're here. As soon as you walk in that door, your family, we're happy to have you. Connect with Stephanie. We just like to love on our guests and give them a gift.
So we started in the dimensions of love a month ago. And I started with how wide God's love is and that his presence is with us and everywhere we go, his presence is there. Amen? And how his presence and how God was able to take an ordinary place in the desert and turn it into something super special because that's what his presence does.
Amen? It takes ordinary places and he transforms them. Today, I'm going to read our foundational truth that as believers, we are rooted in Christ's love. If we are truly rooted in his love, the fruit of our lives should be.
All right, this section got it. If we're rooted in Christ's love, then the fruit of our lives should be. Come on, wake up. Help me out church because I'm going to get excited here real soon.
But if he's in 318 and 19, helps us understand the dimensions of God's love, how wide, long, high, and deep it is, and how this equips us to carry his presence. As we walk in submission to the Holy Spirit, the degree to which we submit is the degree to which love of Christ will manifest in our lives. Amen? Come on, somebody.
I'm about ready to start. I'm going to start going. Turn to me, feeds into three with me real quick. We're going to start in verse 17.
I'm going to read through this thing. And I'm sorry if I get going today. I haven't had a mic that I've been able to use. I got a new mic so my hands are free now.
So I'm going to be preaching with no mic in my hand. Starting in verse 17 it says, so that Christ may dwell in your heart through your faith. And may you have been deeply rooted and securely grounded in love. It may have you say me.
Come on. Say me. Having been deeply rooted and securely grounded in love be fully capable of comprehending with all the saints, God's people, the with, the length, the height, the depth of his love, fully experiencing that amazing endless love. I don't know if you're excited yet, but I just read that we have the ability to comprehend and grab a hold of the amazing fullness of God's love, the width, the length, the height, the depth.
Are you all excited about that? This knocks me off on my feet. Verse 19. And that you may come to know practically through personal experience, the love of Christ, that far surpasses mere knowledge without experience, that you may be filled.
Say I'm filled up through your being to all the fullness of God so that you may have the richest experience of God's presence in your lives. Thank you, Jesus. Completely filled. But how much, listen, how excited are you about this?
He don't just fill us and flooded with God himself. Now to him who is able to carry out his purpose and do super abundantly more than all that we dare ask or think. If in any and bound, I almost said 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?
I'm here to tell you today, Church, that everything you need is right inside of you. And that we have complete access to this. And what I'm hoping over these next couple of weeks or however long it is, is that we begin to unlock to where this flows out of us. Like it flows out of us.
This isn't in my message, but it's just coming to me that I was studying earlier this week, that Jesus, right before he goes into the wilderness, says he went in and filled. But I think it's verse 14, if I'm right, it says something else as he comes out. Does anybody know? He went in and filled and he comes out in power.
Oh, come on, y'all, listen. He fills us and then we overflow because of the Spirit. Oh, my goodness gracious, y'all better get excited today. It's the length we're talking about.
The length we're talking about today has anybody. You ever just been on one of those roads that's just so long, long, traveling, a long road trip, whatever it is, even the longest highways in the world come to an end. One person said amen. But today, Church, we're talking about a journey that never ends.
It's never going to end. The lengths of God's love, unlike earthly love, which often has a breaking point. God's love continues and dures forever. It's a love that stretches from eternity past to eternity future, from the very beginning of time to a future without end.
The length of God's love was demonstrated through Jesus who knew in everything we would do, or someone say not do, love us anyway. God's love is everlasting, unending, unchanging. It's not a love that grows weaker over time or one that fades or wavers. His love goes the distance, covering every sin, every failure, every high and every low.
The focus on the length of God's love and how being rooted in this everlasting love enables us to endure, everyone say endure, forgive, and carry his presence everywhere we go. See, Church, what we're going to begin to understand, I believe, is that we're not working for love. We're working from a position of love, because he's placed us there. He's positioned us in Christ, and he is love.
So what we're going to begin to understand, and as we begin to understand this, is that it's naturally going to flow from us. You're not convinced. Listen, we're positioned in Christ. God is love.
Say God is love. He don't just love. He is love. Okay?
And that if we're positioned in Christ and God is love, then what is in us? Come on, we're getting somewhere. So if that's the case, then the natural flow from us being positioned in Christ and knowing our identity in Christ, what flows from us then? Did you notice I said it doesn't have a breaking point?
I'm not here, and some of this is going to get challenging because I'm not here to tell you what you've been through and all that other stuff. What I'm here today is a challenge that we've learned a version of love. But I think the reason that we keep stuck on that version of love is because we're running to the world and not the word. See, the word has the exact definition description of what love should look like.
It doesn't ask what you think it should look like. It says, if you are love and rooted and grounded in it, this is what it should look like. And I think church is the, when we get to a place to where we just want to just see him, we want to serve him. We love because it's now our identity, not a task.
It's who we are. It's our identity now. See, I don't know if you know what it says. You're a new creation.
Like that new creation that's inside of you, there's a new spirit that is the same identical thing to Christ. And it says you have the same ability, the same power, the same thing, the same, same, same, same, same. And so if that thing's in us, then what should come from us? The same thing.
And we're going to get into some of that, guys, but I'm just trying to set a little bit of groundwork for you because I want us to understand that the world loves a certain way. But God loves a different way. And like I said, I don't want to just say, hey, we're called to love. That's true.
But what I want to get to is that that's our identity and what we should be doing. If we are focused on God and we are wanting him, him, and we're wanting to example him, that's what should be flowing from us. And if we're going to the Word, scripture, for the definition of what love should look like, and we're not reducing it down to our understanding or our past experiences, and we're loving from a place of what it should be like, then we have now the Word, which is life, truth, right? You believe that the Word is truth.
Apply to your life and live out, then guess what we're doing? We're walking in love in the same way Jesus did. This is going to be challenging. I get it because sometimes people are like, yeah, but I'm not Jesus.
Well, I'm going to show you today where I think scripture shows you a couple things. Let's go to the first point. Oh, you're right there. Jeremiah 31, 3, the NIV version says this, the Lord appeared to us in the past saying, I have loved you with everlasting love, complete love, never ending, never ending.
This is why they're dealing with the whole exile and all that. I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. When we talk about the length of God's love, we're talking about its enduring, unchangeable nature. God says he has loved us with everlasting love, meaning it's a love that doesn't have a breaking point, no matter where we are, how far we've fallen, or how many times we've failed, his love remains constant.
It doesn't stop. I want to say I'm sorry that at some point in your life, someone's love has sought for you. You've probably learned a love that's not what you're reading, so it's hard to comprehend or understand. But that's what I'm here today to try to help.
See, a love that stops, a love that has a breaking point, a love that's conditional, a love that sets its own terms is not that's a worldly love, that's not a godly love, because God's love is unconditional. It doesn't stop. It doesn't fail. It doesn't end.
It endures all things. Did you hear what I said? All things. And as believers, guys, this is the love that we have access to.
This is the love that we get to show the world that lives in us, not because we deserved it, but it's because who Jesus is. And I think if we really start to read our word to get in to realize, oh, hey, this is love. I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm not going to go there, but just hear me.
Please, hear my heart. Whatever love you've experienced, don't reduce his love down because of a bad experience you've had in life. Go to the Word. Go and say, oh, what's my identity, God?
It'll tell you, how am I supposed to love? It'll tell you, this is going to tell you who you are and how you should walk. And you know what's cool? You ever noticed this?
The world tells you a lot of what it should do, but there's never a solution on how to. This gives you the answers and tells you it gives you a map of God how to walk this thing out. Says, this is love and this is what it looks like and this is how you do it. And first it starts with knowing that your foundation and who you are in Christ and your identity and him that you're positioned in him.
So you love from a place of what he did, not what you will ever do. Doesn't matter on your performance. Doesn't matter any of that stuff. He loved you and he died for you.
And then he gave you the ability to have the same access to flow away in the same love that he loves. Jeez, come on. I will get excited all by myself up here. It's constant.
It's constant. Maybe, listen, maybe you've stopped love at some point in your life. I want to encourage you today. Get into the Word.
Let God lead you into how to start that back up so you're not stopping anymore. That you're loving like he loved. So if we're rooted in love, everlasting love, we're equipped to endure, forgive, and to love others beyond human limits. Say, beyond human limits.
See, it doesn't make sense when we love, like the Word tells us to love. Right? People don't understand it. It gets confusing.
But again, this is the love that we're called to. This is the love that was shown to us. And so I encourage you, just because it goes beyond what you may think it should look like. It endures, it forgives, and it goes beyond human limits.
The length of God loves and powers us to carry his love wherever we go. That, demonstrate in a love that doesn't stop or weaken over time. Guys, do you guys want to love? Help me out for a second.
Do you want to love that doesn't stop or weaken? Like, do you want to be able to love at all times? The way we're supposed to be loved. The way we're supposed to love others.
Like, a love that doesn't stop or weaken. Come on, we could get tripped up. But guess what? If I go back to the standard of love and I go back to what it's always going to be, then I never have to stay where I'm at.
I get to keep moving forward. Not because of what John says, because that's what the Word says. And that's what I'm putting my belief in. I told someone this past week, I said, they asked me about my life.
And, you know, if you know me, I've been through addiction and I've been through all kinds of stuff. And they asked me about my life. And they said, you know, what is it that has kept you kind of gone, like with God. I said, well, child, everything in the world that failed me.
That hasn't failed me yet. So I keep trusting in it. And I didn't know if they wanted a greater answer, but I'm just like, I've just listened to it, believed it, and followed it. And it's came true every single time.
I didn't mean I'm exempt from challenges, but that thing hasn't proved to be wrong yet. So that's my reason. That's why I trust it, because it continues to remain faithful and true. It lifts me up and encourages me.
When I need encouragement, I go to the Word. When I need to know who I am, I go to the Word. When I need to be loved, I go to the Word. Like, I go to the thing that fills us.
Come on, church. Are you going to the Word? Are you going to the world? Facebook, I'm going to tell you what you want to hear.
You're going to have 30 people telling you something and you're going to be like, well, which one do I believe? Go to the Word. Jeremiah 31, 2, and 3 in the message translation says this. This is the way God put it.
They found grace out in the desert. These people who survived the killing Israel out looking for a place to rest. Listen to this next part. They're looking for a place to rest.
Met God out looking for them. They're out looking for a place to rest. He's out looking for them. God's out looking for you.
Someone needs to hear that today. You're looking for a place to rest and God's trying to find you. And then he said, God said, tell them, I've never quit loving you and never will. Expect love, love, and more love.
Come on, I wrote that today. I'm like, what? Expect love. Hey, listen, if you're struggling in your life, I just want to let you know this with love or anything from God here so you can expect.
If you want to stay with me, go ahead. Love, love, and more love. Listen, there's nothing else in the equation. Love is what you should expect.
That's the only thing you're going to get for God is love. He's going to love you. All right, let's go to the next point because I want to start showing you guys a perfect example of love's length. If you have your Bibles turned to John 13, we're not in a certain passage today, guys.
I'm kind of bouncing around because it's a little bit of a teaching. But John 13, verse 1, and of each, and of each section says this, it was just before the Passover festival, Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Say this world, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to a certain point. Oh, your Bible, do mine?
Oh, don't say the end. Love them to the end. It was just before the Passover festival, Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
I want to read it one more time because maybe we're not reading the same thing. Guys, listen, the example that loves length goes to the end. Listen, and here's what's so cool that his love went to the end of his earthly, but then prepared and it goes past eternity. But I need you to understand something that as Jesus was a man and on this earth, he loved to the end.
Mind you, what's about to happen? He's about to go die. He loved them to the end. He gave everything that he had on this planet to example to us to show us and it said he loved them to the end.
His circumstance, do take whatever your worst circumstances or situation you've ever been in, take it. It's not as bad as his. You can't match it up. And he's still loved to the end.
This is an example for us, God. Come on. Thank you, God. You don't just tell us about it.
You give us an example to show it, to live it out, what it looks like. I think when we start to let these words jump off the page for us, that this is an example. Jesus loved to the end. Are you loving to the end, church?
I don't care what it looks like. I didn't ask that. I'm asking, will you go to the Word to align it up with what you're doing? Does my love look like this?
Does it match? Am I loving like I should, God? Or have I stopped? Has there been a point that it's just hit a breaking point and I stopped?
I'm going to tell you right now you have an opportunity to say, I'm sorry, God. I want to love like this. And you can leave here today loving again. And I don't know if you've stopped.
But listen, you have access to strength, to a love that doesn't stop. Then it keeps going. It endures all things. It has the ability to love in the middle of a situation when everything is coming to an end.
You still have the ability and it says that he loved to the very end. Nothing stopped his love. I know this one's going to be a little bit challenging. See, Jesus demonstrated the fullness and endurance of God's love by loving his disciples unconditionally to the very end.
His love wasn't dependent on their love for him. I'm going to say that one more time. His love was never dependent on how much they loved him. God, this is the same love that we've been empowered with.
And I don't know, but we're good to love when love looks right and it feels right and someone's loving us. And what we're going to get to church is that there's a point coming up that it says this is how they will know you're my follower, my disciple, about how you love. In this type of love church, it don't love when love loves it back. It loves regardless.
Regardless of what happens over here, it says I'm going to love because this is my identity. Remember what I said earlier, church? This isn't a task. This isn't an obligation.
This isn't something I do because this tells me to do it. It's something I do because I believe it and I know that now this is my identity. So what flows out of my identity is love. Not on my terms, on his terms, because it's who I am now.
And when we begin to get into this and understand this, guys, listen, love just flows. You're filled and then it flows because you understand who he is and what he did. Says he first loved us. His love wasn't dependent on their love for him.
Their actions, what they could offer him, even knowing their flaws, failures, and that they would ultimately fail him. Jesus loved them completely and faithfully. See, I need you to understand, it says to the end, that means completely. Not just love them a little bit to the end.
No, it means that love, high or low, completely, completely to the end. This is a love that lasts. This is what we're talking about. I'm hoping that your love is being expanded today.
That you're understanding that where I felt like I'm going to stop or there's a breaking point or I'm not going to, that I'm going to push through that because this is what love should do. It should last. It's meant to last. It's not meant to be cut short.
It's meant to last. So it says, this unchanging limitless love is the powerful example we are called to follow. I love that lasts to the end without conditions or limits. I want you to thank for a minute about Jesus in this moment.
He washes his disciples feet. Keep in mind with me. And I know you've heard this a couple times, but I just want to be open, please. I believe God's going to show you something that says knowing that one would betray him and another would deny him.
Jesus didn't hold back or stop loving. He loved them fully knowing all their flaws. If we're called to love like Jesus, we can't set limits on our love based on how others treat us. Jesus' love was without limits and so ours should be.
When we love like Jesus, we're loving from the length and endurance of God's love. And church, I know you're just like, yeah, he watched her feet, but do you know that that was one of the most humble things you could do in that time? Like one of the most humble things that you could possibly do. And I just want to, I guess, add on to it that it's like think about what's happening here.
And this is what he chose to do in mind of everything it's about to happen. And when I say everything, I'm saying what he's walking towards, what they're about to do. Like could you sit down knowing someone's about to betray you and wash their feet? And this is what I'm saying.
This is the human limits that we're not capable of. But when we tap into the spirit that's in us, that has empowered us, that we love without restriction, without limits, without lens of what they did, didn't do, we just love naturally out of who we are, it doesn't matter. That's why he is able to do that. Because his love is so pure.
Didn't matter that Peter's going to deny. Didn't matter that he was about to be betrayed. This is what love looks like. I feel like there's the church has a, not just the church, just people, has a spirit of what is it, meatloaf?
That has that song, I would do anything for love, but I won't do that. Come on. God says I'll do anything for love and I will do all of that. There's nothing and I won't stop.
There's nothing I won't do. And as believers, I know that sounds funny, believe me. I'll probably give it to you. I'd really just say that.
But I want you guys to understand something. The world has a view on what love looks like. And I got a question for you. If we're loving the same way they are, then what separates us or sets us apart if we're loving the same way they are?
What sets us apart? To love, to draw people, to him. If our love looks the same as their love. And I just, I know it's a little heavy in the room at the moment.
I just want to go back to the first slide that this is equipping season. This is the saints. This is the stuff that the body, we need to talk about and we need to start being built up in. Because this is the love that we're called to.
So this is love we should be walking in. If we're going in our own strength, we're going to look like the world. But if we're going to end his strength by the spirit, we're going to look like Jesus did. And this is what we have the ability to.
I don't want to look like the world. I want to look like Jesus did. All right. Just keep moving.
Go to the next one. Ooh, love like I loved you. John 13 verse 34. A new command I give you, love one another, as I have loved you.
So you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. A new command I give you, love one another, as I have loved you. So you must love one another.
These are one of my verses that I was talking about when people are like, well, I'm not Jesus. Well, he told us to love people like he loved us. And if he said that, I'm just a huge believer that that means that I have access and I have the capabilities too. And so I want us to be filled up.
Not on excuses or limits. See, I think those are the limits we're talking about when we're like, well, I'm not Jesus, you just limited love. You just limited your ability to love at the standard that Christ calls us to love that. But if we begin to be like, yeah, I'm going to love because that's who I am.
I want to see what love looks like. I'm going to go to the word. This is who I am. This is my identity.
This is what I'm capable of. This is how I'm going to love. This is what I'm going to do. That's going to start changing your stop limited in it.
You're going to stop saying, well, I can't do that. You're going to start saying, no, this is what Jesus did. This is how I'm loving too. This is what I'm going to do.
This is what Jesus did. Jesus didn't love us according to what we deserve. He loved us according to who he is, love itself. We are called to love others just as he has loved us.
Do you understand how much he loves you? Maybe that's the foundational place we need to start because I believe once you grasp that, because I don't know about you guys. But scratching the surface of how much he loved me, you know, and I says, I can't run it out that grave. Whatever.
I blush your dad. That's me every time I think about how much he loves me. Where I was at in my worst places. Guess what I got to do?
I got to run up out of that grave because I understood he loved me. The same spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in me. The same spirit. Oh my goodness gracious.
Church, he loves you. If you don't know, please read that. It's the greatest love letter in the world. He loves you.
He loves you. He said, I have love, love, love and more love for you. If we just grab this, then we're going to be able to start loving from that place. I can't love like that.
It's too hard. You don't know what they did to me. I don't have to know. Matter of fact, I was going to start the service like this.
I was going to say, lock eyes with somebody and tell them you love them. But then I got to think about the single people and I was like, oh no, we can't do that. It's a good way to get a date, but I'm joking. But I'm saying, I can't do that.
But listen, I don't need to know you to love you. You said people say all the time, you don't know me. I don't need to. I don't need to know a thing about you.
I love you. I'll tell complete strangers. I'll hug them. I'll tell you.
I know some of them are like, what? No, where's wrong with this guy? Because listen, it's the love that lives in me. I'm telling you, it gets so overwhelming and when you're filled, but then start flowing with it, you can't help it.
You don't want to love people because you're loved at the core of who you are, your love. So the only thing that you want to do is then love and return. I feel like some people are just getting hugged by God's love right now. God loves you so much.
Oh my goodness, he loves you so much. I heard it say one time that if you were the only one, he still would have did it. I'm like, wow. And then when I read, it was before it was the joy set before him.
That blew my mind. We don't have time to go there. So we're called to love others just as he has loved us. That's the standard.
Say that's the standard. Not a half love, not a conditional love. And please stop doing this. If you're around me, just I'm not beating you up.
Just don't do it around me. That's tough love. Here's what I'm going to tell you why. Because I haven't seen that.
I haven't read anything about that. I've read that he loves. Don't label it for me. Just call love.
If we love in all the dimensions that we're learning, the height, the width, the depth, then we'll love fully. And love does the work. Say love does the work. I don't have to switch it or slap a label on it to lower it because love isn't tough.
It isn't hard. It lifts up. Come on. If you want to talk about it, I'll talk it to you later.
I know if someone's going to say something to me. I just don't, I don't, I don't read about that. I don't read all tough love. And I get it.
We've limited by our understanding or past search or past experiences. But I just want to say this. What is God? That's who he is.
He's not tough love. He's love. And that's what he does. That's who he is.
That's his nature. So that's where we're going to come in. So we are called to love fully to let the dimensions of God love shape how we love others. All the dimensions, height, depth, width, and length are meant to be reflected in the way we love.
When we stop putting labels on levels on love, we begin to love in the same way Jesus did without limits, without conditions, and without hesitation. By this, go to the next slide. Oh, wait. Go back.
What'd I say? Jesus did. Oh, yeah. Go to the next slide.
By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. The mark of a follower of Jesus's love, a love that goes beyond human limitations, expectations, and experiences. Church, we're marked. If you're in Christ, you've accepted Christ.
You've been marked with love. And it's not, uh, it's not does the spirit have the power, enough power, whether it has enough power or not, it's whether we allow it to transform us or not. Because see, it's got the ability to transform our lives. We're new creations.
Like only a power like no other can take something and make it completely new. So the power has the ability to transform us. Will you allow it? Will you line up with it?
Like I said, will you run to the world? Because we should be marked by love and how we love each other. It should look so different. However, the world's loving and how great, you know, we're often like, man, the world looks crazy.
I don't know. But I'll tell you this. And I'm speaking to myself and studying this guy's like, you know, sometimes the way you love looks crazy. And I'm like, ow, that don't feel good.
But what am I doing? Am I going to the word or am I allowing the world to let me set limits on how I'm loving? Because of how somebody's acting or what they've done. Where am I seeing through the lens of Christ to say I'm going to love them regardless?
I'm going to love them anyway. You don't understand how many times I did this. I don't need to. I'm going to love them anyway.
You do not understand. They keep doing this. Listen, save all of that. Write it down, put it in your pocket, send it to a text message to yourself.
I don't know. But listen, I no longer need to know any of that stuff. I just need to know that I got to love them anyway. And I don't love them out of a task or obligation.
Like I said, I love them because that's from my identity of who I am in Christ. So the love that comes from me is like Jesus because that's who I know lives in me. That's what flows from us. And that's how people are going to know.
When someone's not doing something, you're like, hey, listen, it's okay. Remember when I say love's not tough, it lifts up. It heals. It builds.
It takes them from where I lift them up to a standard of what we're called to. And that's how they look and they say, oh, wow, that looks different. Yeah, because it is different. Not it looks different.
It is different. How do I do that? Pastor, read your word and believe it. and line up with it.
That's what's going to change your life. That's what's going to help you do it. If you love in our own strength, we'll look no different from the world. If we're loving out of obligation, we're just like the world.
The world loves conditionally based on feelings, convenience, or what's received in return. If we limit our love to these standards, we aren't truly reflecting Christ. When we put labels on love or love with conditions, we're not loving like Jesus. We're loving our own strength, which can look like how the world loves.
Has anybody in here want to be honest and say I'm tired of loving my own strength? I got two, three people. Guys, I want to help you today. I hope if you get to the place of saying I want to love not my strength, but I want to love in the strength of what Christ has provided.
It's going to change everything in your life. Your strength is challenging. You're going to get tired. You're not going to love well.
And the reason the world may not recognize us as followers of Jesus is that too often we're loving on our own terms, not his. Phew, I'm sorry. I don't mean to step on toes today. When we love as Jesus did, people see something different.
They'll see that we are his followers marked by love that endures, forgives, and reaches out even when it's not easy. This is how we carry the length, strength of God's love to the world. Love that doesn't cut short, our human love versus God's love. I'm going to skip on that because I've pretty much got ahead of myself and touched on that.
I'm going to jump down to why we can go to empowered. Thank you. Empowered by the spirit to love like Jesus. Romans 5, 5, and the Amplify version says this, such hope and God's promises never disappoints us because God's love has been abundantly poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has given to us.
Such hope and God's promises never disappoints us because God's love has been abundantly poured out within our hearts. We're at, in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has given to us. If you did, who in here is accepted Christ? So, me and hand, just wave that real quick.
It's been poured out in your hearts abundantly. Say I have it. No, let's just say I have it. Whee, so then guess what that means.
You can love with it. See, Church, he's done it. How many times do we see through our word and we read this is that he's done all of it? He's already done it.
And what we just read, man, that pumps me up so much. Abundantly, God's love has been abundantly poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit. It's in there. Remember what I was saying?
You're not working for it or toward it. We can work from it. You have already access to it. It's foundational.
It should flow from it. All right, Church, I'm all I'm doing good on time. Y'all with me still? We are no longer trying to love because we are rooted in God's love.
We love as a natural overflow of who we are in Christ. Loving like Jesus isn't about doing what we're supposed to. It's about being who we're called to be. If you got a piece of paper, write that down.
Loving like Jesus isn't about doing what we're supposed to do. It's about being who we're called to be. Through the Spirit, we can love like Jesus did. This love is not based on what others do for us but on what God has done in us.
What he's done in us. This is where I got ahead of myself. This is my illustration. Think of the phrase, I would do anything for love but I won't do that.
It's a common saying that captures the limits we often place on our love. We all have certain conditions or boundaries in how we love. Maybe it's a situation where we say, I love you but only if you do this or I love you but I won't forgive that. These are the limitations of human love but God's love says, I'll do anything and I won't stop.
No limits but conditions. God's love doesn't pull back when things get harder or uncomfortable. It's unconditional and unwavering. When we are rooted in God's love, our love should reflect the same boundless, limitless quality.
Our love shouldn't be based on what others do for us or whether we feel like loving in the moment. Instead, it should flow from the endless love God has poured into us empowered by his Spirit. I'm going to get ready coming close to a close. I don't know if you have anything prepared but come on up.
In the final point, how the length of God's love equips us. The length of God's love means that we can stand firm in the knowledge that no matter what we face, his love will never fail us. This is practical, life-changing reality. When we understand that we are rooted and grounded in love, unshakable love, it changes the way we view our struggles, our relationships and our calling.
The first point I have is the length of God's love and our struggles. In your hardest moments, when you feel alone or unworthy, remember the length of God's love. When you feel alone or unworthy, remember the length of God's love. It didn't stop at the cross.
It continues to hold you, protect you and sustain you. Whatever you face today, his love is long enough to reach you. It's strong enough to carry you through the length of God's love and our relationships. God's love is a perfect example for how we are called to love others when relationships are difficult.
When we face disappointments or betrayal, we can lean into God's love. His love is long. It endures. We are called to love others with the same enduring never giving up.
It's cutting off my last point. Will you stand with me today, Church? And the length of love and our purpose. Church, you have a purpose.
I don't know if you know that or not. But God's love will carry you through the whole thing. It's the thing that you can rely on the most. It'll never fail.
It'll endure to the end. It'll pull you through. It'll encourage you. His love is not limited by time, circumstances, or even our failures.
It is long enough to cover every area of your life. Long enough to sustain you through every season and long enough to transform you and equip you to live out your purpose.