We were online and once asked us if we could imagine a world where there was no heaven above us or hell below us, or countries or religion. Imagine, he sung, all the people living for today. I don't know about you, but that kind of world doesn't seem all that hard to imagine anymore. Most folks gave up on that reality of heaven or hell a religion long ago.
It seems today that we have more to fear from the other side of the political aisle than we do for other countries. And as for living for today, at this point, it seems that many of us are just trying to make it through the day. Maybe we need to reimagine, to dream a bit again. I mean, imagine a world, or at least a couple of towns where people began to reconsider God.
Imagine a community where the role of religion inspired hope, instead of hate, and humility instead of hubris. And imagine that the center of those towns, a community of faith, existed, that was inspiring at all. A faith community so attractive to people beyond its walls that it began to draw both the devoted and the doubters. Those still considering and those fully convinced.
Imagine, a community of faith where no one was rejected and everyone was actually welcomed. Where questions were valued, truth was taught, and grace was given. Imagine all the people, the well-off and the worn-downs, the young and the old, families and singles, and conservatives of every background, color, and creed. Imagine them all being defined by something other than their differences, or even their similarities, and living for something so much more than just for today.
Can you picture a place so full of love, so focused on the truth of Jesus, but the towns around it began to see the church and faith as the answer and not part of the problem? You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. Can you imagine? And so that's what I want to talk to you this kick off Sunday about a little bit of why I do what I do what drives me, because I can still imagine the church being what Jesus dreamt it would be.
So I and so many of you invest in this wonderful place because I can't imagine. And I hope when we're done this morning you can too. In order to do that I'm going to need to take you with me back to my high school days. The year was 2005.
Just leave that there. And it was springtime and as Tennyson said, or wrote the time of year, when a young boy's fancy turns to the thoughts of love, and boy had mine. She was a vision in her George S. jeans and Aquanette hair spray.
I couldn't keep my mind off her. But there was only one obstacle to our forbidden love, and it was this. She forbidden. We were friends.
You know the whole friends thing? I just want to be friends. That's what I wanted to be to. But one of us wanted something more, and it wasn't her.
Oh sure we flirted. We dated. We rolled her skated. We had joy.
We had fun. We had seasons in the sun. But every time I thought we were going to become official, right? Like I was going to go to school and we were going to let people know.
Like that's how you made it official prior to Facebook. Like you'd go and tell people that you were a couple, right? Every time I was about to make it official, she'd yank the carpet out from under me and say, nah, we're not going to do it. I remember Junior here.
We were going to go to the prom together. That was until she met some clown from like a pack on. And nothing against like a pack, by the way. And she better deal with me right at the last minute.
I was out. He was in, and so it went for those high school years. That is until my friends. Senior year.
2005. Now, most of you are unaware of this, and I don't like to talk about it much, or brag. But I ran a little track in high school. And senior year, I got pretty good at it.
And what happened was the better I got in sports, my cool level began to elevate. Now look, you know me how high could it go. It's got some governors on it. But my cool level began to increase a little bit around the campus.
Suddenly I was invited to sit at lunch tables that before I had been for bin from. I would get invited to parties on Friday night. I didn't even know there were parties on Friday night. Suddenly I was invited.
Things were changing except with this one girl. Same girl. So yank you, my chain. Still hanging out with the dudes from like a pack on.
And senior prom was approaching. Well, same song and dance played itself out. We were going to go together. We weren't going to go together.
And well, just like the year before she decided she was going to pull the plug. But there was only one difference this year. This year, as George Cassandra would say, this year I had a little hand in the relationship. This year, I was cooler.
I had the crowd on my side. And she knew it. In fact, I don't really remember how this idea got in her head. I'm pretty sure I didn't put it there.
But for some reason, she became very afraid that because she wasn't going to go to the prom with me, that what I was going to do to get even with her was on the night of graduation, I was going to have the whole senior class boo her when her name got called. Now, I don't know where that idea. I honestly don't know where she got that idea. But that was a real fear for her.
And so this conversation ensued. So if I go to the prom with you, you're going to have everybody boo me. And now I had a decision to make in that moment. I could say, no, I would never do that.
In fact, I want to go with me if you want to go with me. I could do that. Or I could play my hand and use my newfound leverage to kind of make sure I had a prom date for that dance. But what kind of person would that make me?
We had a wonderful time together at that prom. Just kidding. So why do I tell you that story? Well, A, it's a true story.
B, it's a reminder of my high school track power, just in case you forgot and it's been some time. And C is because there was a time in my life, and there was a time, I think, in many of your lives, and in fact, sometimes it's still what I do. Where that relational dynamic I just discussed with you is the same relational dynamic I think that I have with God. Where I treat God, I approach God like he's forcing me to go to a prom with him that I don't want to go to.
Then unless I do what he says, when he says how he says, unless I do it the way he told me to do it, he's going to boo me. Or maybe do something worse to me to get even. Or maybe if I don't go where he wants me to go and do what he wants me to do, then he's going to withhold things from me. And so I think for a lot of us, especially growing up outside of the church, like I did, the whole relationship with God becomes very transactional.
If I do this, then you do that. I'm not a God. I'm only doing this because you want me to and I don't want you to boo me. So I'm going to go, but you've got a role to play God.
If I go to church, if I give a little more money, if I clean up my language, if I stop fooling around with my boyfriend, God, I don't want to do this thing. I'm willing to do those things. But if I do, then God, you have an obligation to keep. I perform for you.
You perform for me. That's the way this is going to work. I do enough, just enough to keep you on my side. Now, in that kind of dynamic, if my prayers go unanswered, if my circumstances go the wrong way on me, well, then that means one of two things.
I either didn't do enough to keep God from booing me or God is not a keeper of promises. I went to the Prom God and he still booed. It was the city in the first century, at the time of Jesus was alive named Ephesus. It was considered the most important Greek city of its day.
It was the most important trading center in the Mediterranean region. And it was the epicenter for worship of most of the Greek and Roman gods you learned about in school. Ephesus today, if it existed, you would find it on the western shores of Turkey. Shortly after Jesus died, Ephesus became one of the cities that the Apostle Paul was led by the Holy Spirit to take the news, the story of who Jesus was to.
In fact, Paul was in Ephesus for somewhere between two and three years, and he planned to pre-thriving church. But something happened to the church. Circumstances changed. And something happened to Paul.
His circumstances went the wrong way on him. Because Ephesus was no longer thriving, at least the church. It was facing some amount of persecution. And Paul found himself arrested and shackled to a Roman guard and lying in a Roman jail.
And so Paul, now from his jail cell, he's become aware of the situation in Ephesus. He writes, shackled up to a Roman guard, a letter to a pretty confused and discouraged child. And so to this people who are unaware of his circumstance, or who are very aware of his circumstances, Paul writes this. He goes, for this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles.
Now we read that and we go right by and Paul is up to something pretty profound here. This is actually a triple entendre. I don't know if you know what a double entendre is? A double entendre is like a literary device.
Playful usually, the same word conveys two different meanings. May West had a famous one. She said, marriage is a fine institution. But I am not ready for an institution.
And so Paul does the same thing. He uses a triple entendre here. The entendre word is prisoner. In actuality, Paul is a prisoner of Caesar.
He shackled to a Roman guard. But Paul wants the Ephesians to know that Jesus is sovereign over Caesar and over his circumstances. His future is not in Caesar's hands. It's in God's hands.
He's not a prisoner of Caesar. The moment God wants him out, he'll be out. And they convey that the love of Jesus has so gripped his heart, he's actually become a prisoner to the love of God. He's shackled to it.
He's not a prisoner of Caesar. But the love I have for Jesus. I've chosen Paul to want to know. I've chosen to whom I'll be shackled.
And it's not this guard. I've chosen to be shackled to the love of Christ. And then Paul says, there's a third thing I play. He's a prisoner of Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles.
He's chained to the message of what Jesus has done for people far from God. He's a prisoner of that message. The God is not just for some, but he's for everyone. And so he says in light of this understanding, he writes, he goes, I ask you therefore, don't be discouraged because of my sufferings.
My sufferings for you, which are your glory. Don't let my circumstances, and parenthetically, don't let your circumstances, your sufferings, discourage you. In fact, this is one of the times when the NIV doesn't really convey the depth of what Paul is communicating here. If you read the NIV version, it goes, wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations.
The circumstances were so dour and so heavy that Paul's going, look, I don't want you to pass out from what you're hearing. Because I think what was happening in the church and Ephesus is just like anyone who would be able to go, well, Paul, I've got to let this happen to you. You're Paul. What's it going to mean for me?
Now I don't understand the deal. Because Paul, you did this, so you should have gotten that. And Paul, you're rotting in a Roman jail. Seems like to me, Paul.
God didn't keep his end of the bargain. Paul, you should be living your best life now. Paul, you should be too blessed to be stressed. I mean, if God's not coming through for you, what's it going to mean for me?
Because I thought I understand how this deal worked. And so while he sat shackled to this Roman guard likely in the pit of a cave, Paul writes what I think is the greatest prayer in the entire New Testament. Here's how he starts it. He goes, I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power.
This is interesting because I just want to stop on that. He's strengthening the power. What does that mean? Paul described it a little earlier in the book.
He said, that power is the same as the mighty strength, the exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly realm. Paul is going to church. You don't understand me. You guys walk around like the feet of losers.
Do you understand the power that resides within you? Do you understand the power you've been given? He goes, I pray that out of his glorious riches, he might strengthen you with this kind of power through his spirit in your inner being. So the Christ made dwelling your hearts through faith.
And I love and hate this part at the same time because if I was the persecuted church, in my circumstances were falling apart all around me. And I had the apostle Paul saying he's going to pray for me. I wouldn't ask about anything having to do with my inner man. I mean, I would ask for my outer circumstances.
Paul, I need a job. Paul, I need a wife. Paul, my child is sick. Paul, my marriage.
Paul, my money. Paul goes, I understand. I'm going to be praying for you. I'm going to be praying that you have the power that can change your inner circumstances.
Because Paul understood that there is something so much more powerful than outer circumstances. It's an inner being. Now, some of you guys know this. Look, let's be honest, the economy is blooming for the most part.
Unemployment is almost zero for many of us. Things on the outside have never been better. More money than ever, bigger houses than ever, nicer cars than ever. But some things are not right on the inside for a lot of us.
Inside, there's a problem. The outside is good, but the inside is broken. There's a loneliness for a lot of us and a despair in there. Our outward circumstances can't fix the inner being.
But what Paul knows is if I can fix your inner being, you can walk through any circumstance. And that's why Paul said to the church of Corinth. He gives them the same story. He goes, therefore, don't lose heart.
Though outwardly we're wasting away, inwardly we're being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us in eternal glory that far outweighs them all. This is interesting. You know this verse maybe.
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. Since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. Oh, that's so good. That's what I'm going to do.
I'm going to fix my eyes on what is unseen. Anybody have any idea how to fix your eyes on what is unseen? Does this look good on the pillow on my grandmother's couch? But as I've tried to actually fix my eyes on things unseen, it's been a little harder than what I've seen.
It's been a little harder than what I would have thought. Plus, it's looking, you know what I'm going to lose heart. You have to fix the inner man in order to quiet what's going on in there, just fight your circumstances good or bad. In order to kind of relegate the beast of hopelessness and anxiousness and loneliness.
Don't just look at what's seen, look at what's unseen. And what is that? Well, he says, here's what I pray that you being rooted, established in love. May I have power?
There's a lot of power. Together with all the Lord's holy people. Two. Oh, man, Paul, okay.
Paul's praying for me. He's saying I've got this power available to me. And I'm praying that something's going to go on in your inner man. And here's what I'm praying.
I'm praying that a power will help you to overcome all of those who are against you. I'm praying that he's going to help you prevail to persevere. I'm praying that he's going to help you to change things. It's not his prayer.
It's the greatest prayer. I mean, if you could get this, it's changed everything. Nobody talks about it, but if you can get it, it's changed everything. I pray that you're being rooted and established in love.
May I have power together with all the Lord's holy people to grasp how high, wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. That's my prayer for you, Paul says. He goes, don't focus on what's out there. Focus.
Figure out a way to dwell on, reflect on the width and length and height and depth of the love of Christ. In fact, he goes on and goes, and I want you to know this love. That's their past's knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Paul goes, look, I want you to know something without the power of God.
It's going to be impossible for you to understand this. But I want you to know because you have the power of God to understand this kind of love. I actually think there's a double meaning here. Not only is it beyond your knowledge, it surpasses knowledge, which I think Paul means that knowing the love of God is actually a lot more important than knowing about God.
And I think if the church has been guilty of anything over the years, it's that it's how somehow to raise up the knowledge of God being more important than intimacy with God. And so Paul says, my prayer is not that you know more about God. My prayer is not that you know or maintain your end of the bargain. My prayer is that you know the love of God, that you could grasp it.
Do you grasp the love of God? Because that transactional thing, if I love there, that's just I do you, do I do you, do I don't you don't. He says, you know the love of God is wide. Did you know that?
They needed to know this, the Ephesians needed to notice. Maybe you need to know it too, because a lot of us have been taught that the love of God is pretty narrow. It's only for certain kinds of people. Good people.
People born in the right families. Ephesians, those weren't the kind of people the love of God was for. They weren't in Paul's day, the clean people or the good people or the chosen people. In fact, they've been shown and told that the people who loved the people who got loved and the people got didn't.
And Ephesians were people who didn't because his love is narrow. In the book of Acts, which kind of records what happens shortly after Jesus' resurrection with the acts of the followers of Jesus. Paul, he tells the story, Luke tells the story, goes to the temple in Jerusalem. Now you've got a picture of Herod's temple in Jerusalem was the work of the first century.
Just the temple mount, just the mount the temple sat on. It took 10 years and 10,000 people to build it. It was 30 plus acres, constructed of marble and gold. It was a first century site to behold and Jews and non-Jews alike made a pilgrimage just to behold it.
But the problem with the temple in Paul's day was it communicated that the love of God was for some and not others. That it was narrow. See, you could come to the temple, but if the medium was the message, the temple had a message to send and it was that the love of God is pretty narrow. Luke when he writes of Paul's visit, here's what he says, when the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple.
And they stirred up the whole crowd and seized them shouting, fellow Israelites help us. This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and our law in this place. And besides that, he bought Greeks into the temple and he defiled this holy place. Why?
Here's the example they gave. They previously seen Trophamis the Ephesian in the city with Paul and they soon pulled him into the temple. You can go read the story of it like Paul's dragged away and severely beaten because there's a rumor around that he bought a certain place. That he bought a certain kind of person into the church.
And what are just Ephesians that were not permitted in the church? In fact, I'll put up over my head the construct of the temple and how it communicated something about God. You can see it looks like the love of God must be pretty narrow because God in the holy of the holies, that's where his presence dwelt, the only one that could go into the presence of God was the high priest. Not just any priest, my friends, but the high priest.
You can only do it at certain times. Now, outside of that holy of holies, there was a priest's court because the priest, I mean the priest, they were allowed to be by God. I mean they couldn't go in and be there, but they were allowed by God because they were priests. But the presence of God was reserved for priests.
Some of you have grown up in religious systems like that. And then after that, well then there was the court for Jewish men because they were the chosen people of God. Now they didn't really have any access to God. They just had access to the priest who had access to God.
Now the only thing worse than being a Jewish guy was a Jewish woman. Because the women, they had their own court and it was behind the men because the love of God is really for men. Wouldn't we all agree, gentlemen? And then of course right after the court of women there was massive temple walls.
And everybody outside it was the only thing that was left over was the court of the Gentiles. You could come, but you can't get access to God because his love is now. In fact, they've actually discovered two signs that sat on those walls that said, anybody but a Jew comes beyond these gates, it's punishable by death. It's a very secret, sensitive temple that they had in those days.
And so Paul, he writes to this church at Ephesus. I'm guessing that Trothomus has gone back and shared his experience. And to a people who started to think that the love of God might not be for them because of what happened, here's what Paul said. He said, but now in Christ Jesus, you were once far away and been bought near by the blood of Christ.
For he himself is our peace who's made the two groups one, he's destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. By setting aside in his flesh the law, we talked about that last week, we know the law approach God through the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself, this is the purpose. Why did Jesus come?
Why did Jesus come? Why did Jesus come? His purpose was to create a new humanity out of the two, thus making peace. And in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross.
Because Jesus seems to say, no, the love of God is not narrow, it's really wide. How wide? Paul would tell the Galatians, there is now, neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female. You realize how just crazy this wasn't the first century.
The width of the love of God, you are all equal, one in Christ Jesus. Paul says, man, I'm praying for peace and your inner man. If you want to take some time to dwell on the width of the love of God, I mean, have you ever dwelled? Just thought about God, the love of God is so wide.
Doesn't matter who you are, where you've been, what you've done for God, so loved certain people, for God so loved good people, for God so loved people that kept the commandments, for God so loved the world. That he gave his only son. You've never laid eyes on one person in your life that Jesus did not come here to save. You've never interacted with someone that God is not seeking or chasing or calling.
And Paul goes, look, I pray that you can understand how long the love of Jesus is. Have you ever just stopped and gone? You only think about the length of the love of God. Over and over the scripture say one thing about the length of the love of God.
You see it, you can Google it, just Google how long is the love of God. And what you'll find is verses over and over. God is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, bounding in love. Over and over.
The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in love. Do you know how long God has put up with you? Some of you are going to go out and ask Joan that under the tent in a little while. How long have you put up with this guy?
Do you know how long God has put up with you? That's the way we see it, but that's not how God sees it. That's not putting up with you. He's compassionate and gracious and abounding in love.
For some of you, today may be the first time, but you thought about the length of God's love for you. What he's done, the length he's gone to to get to you. You know he's not disappointed in you. I know that can carry that deeply.
But in Christ, through Christ, God is proud of you. Do you know he's done to get to you? The length he's gone through. Is that discouraged by you?
In fact, to another group of discouraged followers of God. Here was his message. He said, be strong and courageous. Don't be afraid or terrified because of them.
The circumstances. Why? Because the Lord your God goes with you. Church, he will never leave you or forsake you.
He will never, never leave you or forsake you. Oh, well, yeah. But if he knew what I did, if he understood who I was with, if he understood what I looked at, what I took, if he understood the things I've done, where I've been, I don't have it all together. John is a nice church and I'm not a church guy.
I guess if he brought all of those things to Paul, excuse me, to Jesus, I think Jesus would say, what part of never don't you understand? Like never. That's the length of God. He's never giving up on you.
You can keep putting him off. But he's never giving up on you. I think Paul would say, I pray you understand the length of the love of God and why you're out of trying to get a grip on the depth of it. I mean, how deep the Father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure, do you know what he was willing to do, how the depth he was willing to go to, to chase you down, the hound of heaven leading the side of his father, the throne of glory, and coming to a dung-filled stable, to be chased after, slandered, spatipide, and crucified for you.
Do you understand the depth of the love of God for you? Paul tried to explain it to the Philippians. He goes, look, in your relationships with one another, have the mindset of Jesus, who in very nature was God, but he didn't consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, this is the depth, this is what he was willing to go to.
Rather, he made himself nothing. And he took on the very nature of a servant. He was made in human likeness, being a parent of parrots as a man. He humbled himself, and he came obedient to death, even to death on a cross.
He who was everything, he who made everything, he who was in everything, chose to make himself nothing. To pay a debt he didn't know, because you and I have a debt that we can't pay. Paul says, oh my gosh, I'm praying that you could just understand how deep the love of God is. And finally he goes, and I don't know if you're aware of it, he goes, if he ever stops, just pondered the height of the love of God.
Do you know where this is all going, you know where he's taking, you know what the plan he has for you is? You know this doesn't end here, this relationship is going somewhere, unlike my high school one. This relationship is going somewhere. I told the Prophet Jeremiah, I know the plans I have for you.
Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future. Paul goes, do you know how much better this is than knowledge? You want to learn more about God?
I mean we should learn about God. But man, if you're not experiencing the love of God, you're missing so much. This is going somewhere. John understood it.
He wrote, dear friends, we're children of God. And what we will be has not yet been made known, because something great is coming. But we know that when Christ appears, we're going to be like him. Everything that his is ours, joint heirs, you are joint heirs with Jesus.
Everything that his is now yours. Have you ever thought about the height of the love of God? This is not a transactional God. This is not a behavioral modification system.
It's not a three step plan. It's intimacy and passion and love. And Paul goes, man, this is a God who's just been trying to get to you. He's not trying to get you to show up and do what he wants.
He's trying to get you from the creation of time that you were in his thoughts. Paul goes, man, if you want to change your inner man, if you want to find peace and you want to let go of the anxiety, here's my prayer. I pray that somehow, someway, you could get a grasp of the height and the depth and the width and the length of the love of God. And this is kickoff Sunday, so I'd be totally missing the boat if I didn't just give you this last piece.
Because this is good news, man. Like a lot of us, you know, we come here, we know this, but so many of my friends have no idea. They're still involved in a transactional relationship and just hoping that God doesn't boo him at the prom or at graduation. And so they live a distant life from God, just trying to keep them off their back.
It's good news. Somebody once shared it with me, somebody cared enough one time to take me out on Christmas Eve and explain this to me. Here's what Paul said. He goes, all of this stuff, the width, the breath, the depth, the height, all of this stuff is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
And here's what it is. God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And He's committed to us, this message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us.
We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. You have got a role to play in the Kingdom of God, a big one. And that's what I do what I do. That's my prayer for you in our church, that we would become carriers and not barriers.
That we would be less focused on decisions and more focused on being disciples. That we would go deeper. That you make a decision. You know what?
I'm just so tired of just living this surface Christian life. I'm so tired of just hoping to keep God doing what I want Him to do. I want to know Christ. Do you want to know?
My prayer is that you would know the love of God that you would go deeper. I pray that I pray there's a line out of that tent when we leave here. You're going to go out of that tent. First, if you're new, you're going to say how to don't and how to put up with this guy.
And then you're going to make your way over to the green tent. And you're going to say how do I get involved? How do I get a group? How do I grow?
My prayer is that we would go wider. This town needs what you know. This town needs who you know. Invest and invite.
Not out of any kind of obligation. Not so you can keep God off your back or keep blessings flowing. We're not doing it so you don't get booed at graduation. The truth is, I could have made that girl go to Prom with me.
That Prom would have been very much fun. I just wanted her to come with me. I wanted her to want to come with me. Church, all he's ever wanted for you is to come with him.
Believed escape was impossible, but there in the darkness I thought I'd finally outrun you. Tooth and nail I fought for my freedom. But now freedom feels strange, lonely. As I stumble along my path, I find myself reaching for your hand when I fall.
And somewhere in the far reaches of my mind, I begin to remember the sound of your voice. Like the ache of a phantom limb. But I thought I'd outrun you. And suddenly freedom feels desperate.
Freedom doesn't feel free. It feels claustrophobic, like the walls are falling in. For a second, I feared I'd outrun you. But then I heard your footsteps from behind.
And on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power, together with all God's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. And to know this love, it surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure with all the fullness of God's length was immeasurable.
It's depth unfathomable. It's height insurmountable. Indeed, it was far deeper and far wider than I'd ever imagined. Then I knew what knowledge alone could not teach me.
That true freedom is found in surrendering to your unrelenting love.