WEBVTT 00:00:01.120 --> 00:00:05.440 Ephesians 3, verses 17 through 19 for this morning. 00:00:05.519 --> 00:00:06.639 I'll read them right now. 00:00:06.799 --> 00:00:07.919 This is the word of the Lord. 00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:29.280 So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 00:00:31.039 --> 00:00:46.079 If you are renting a house for a short period of time, you treat it differently than if you are purchasing it with the plan of raising your family in there. 00:00:47.280 --> 00:00:55.280 If you are renting it, you think strategically about where you place stuff and all of that in a way that is more short-sighted. 00:00:55.359 --> 00:01:00.399 You're not going to make capital investments in it, like you would if you're moving in there for the long term. 00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:13.760 I think of a house that I was renting, and I use the word house stretching its definition fully there when I was in seminary, a single guy, and it was very it was a prefabricated house, like it came from a kit that was built. 00:01:14.079 --> 00:01:16.719 And there was some water damage on the floor. 00:01:16.879 --> 00:01:23.200 It had like a linoleum kitchen floor, and there was water damage that was seeping up from underneath the floor, the crawl space. 00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:28.400 So you could start to see water stains on the floor, and the floor felt a little soft and wavy at parts. 00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:33.280 And uh, you know, we were thinking our lease is up in a few months. 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:35.040 Who cares? 00:01:35.680 --> 00:01:48.719 And then one day the refrigerator fell into the floor, like a foot and a half down into the floor where it hit the bottom of the crawl space, and there it was. 00:01:48.879 --> 00:01:52.239 And it was one of those refrigerators that had the freezer at the bottom. 00:01:52.560 --> 00:02:00.799 And so we're looking at this like, well, we're only here again another month or two. 00:02:00.959 --> 00:02:02.959 Do we really need a freezer? 00:02:04.079 --> 00:02:05.200 No, really. 00:02:05.439 --> 00:02:06.959 I don't I don't think that we do. 00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:16.000 Now, if you were living in that house like permanently, like you're gonna raise your family in that house, you would think, you know, I bet in the next few years we will need a freezer. 00:02:16.159 --> 00:02:21.280 And so we'll not have the hole in the floor and we'll deal with it differently. 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:24.240 And I know so many military families here, you know exactly what I'm talking about. 00:02:24.400 --> 00:02:30.080 If you're gonna be somewhere maybe four years or five years, you treat the house differently than if you're gonna be there six months, you know. 00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:32.479 Um, you just have a different approach to it. 00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:36.400 There are two different Greek words to cover that distinction. 00:02:36.560 --> 00:02:48.879 There's the Greek word for, you know, somebody who passes by or somebody who's staying with you for a little while, and there's a different Greek word for somebody who moves in and makes it their place, their home. 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:51.520 And again, you understand this distinction. 00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:56.639 If you have house guests coming to visit, they probably show up with a suitcase or two. 00:02:57.039 --> 00:03:02.400 They don't show up with a moving truck and bring in their own furniture. 00:03:02.719 --> 00:03:04.319 It's just a difference. 00:03:04.800 --> 00:03:17.599 Now, in Ephesians, it describes Christ in verse 17 as moving in to your hearts, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. 00:03:17.759 --> 00:03:20.240 This is the prayer request that Paul has been making. 00:03:20.319 --> 00:03:24.879 All of chapter 3 is this prayer that Paul began in verse 1 and interrupted himself. 00:03:24.960 --> 00:03:30.960 And remember, verses 1 all the way down through verse 14 was pretty much his interruption, his parentheses. 00:03:31.039 --> 00:03:38.879 And then he gets to his actual prayer request, which we looked at last week in verse 16, that you would be strengthened with the power of the Spirit in your inner being. 00:03:38.960 --> 00:03:43.680 So that's his prayer request, that you would be strong spiritually speaking. 00:03:43.840 --> 00:03:47.520 Now, it was noteworthy that Paul is writing this as one of his prison epistles. 00:03:47.599 --> 00:03:57.759 He's writing this while he's in custody, and he's not asking you to pray for his freedom and release, and he's not praying for an end to Roman persecution and for an advancement of religious freedom or those kind of things. 00:03:57.840 --> 00:03:59.280 That's not the content of his prayer. 00:03:59.520 --> 00:04:05.599 The content of his prayer is that you, believers, would grow strong spiritually speaking. 00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:07.680 And he describes that would take place. 00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:12.639 The Holy Spirit would abide in your heart and give you spiritual strength to grow up. 00:04:12.800 --> 00:04:14.719 And this is going to be a theme throughout Ephesians. 00:04:14.800 --> 00:04:18.160 Back in chapter 2, God has given you good works, and so you should do them. 00:04:18.240 --> 00:04:24.160 And then chapters 4, 5, and 6, but mostly chapter 4, becomes about what it means to be strong. 00:04:25.839 --> 00:04:33.120 And so this morning, verse 17, he's saying that this strength is seen with Christ dwelling in your hearts through faith. 00:04:33.519 --> 00:04:36.079 That word dwell is that second category of word. 00:04:36.160 --> 00:04:44.399 He's not saying that Christ would be a visitor to your hearts, that Christ would stop by with a suitcase and rinse the place for a season of your life. 00:04:44.560 --> 00:04:46.319 He's saying that Christ would move in. 00:04:46.399 --> 00:04:49.519 And the the word here in the Greek is translated in the ESV dwell. 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:50.720 And that's a very good translation. 00:04:50.959 --> 00:04:51.360 Dwell. 00:04:51.519 --> 00:04:57.839 I mean, you when you don't dwell in your friend's house or in a place where you visit even for a month, you dwell in your own house. 00:04:57.920 --> 00:05:08.240 And some translations might say live or kind of move in is the implication here, that Christ would make his permanent residence in your heart. 00:05:09.279 --> 00:05:11.120 That's the prayer request. 00:05:11.439 --> 00:05:15.360 And he compares it to being rooted and grounded in love. 00:05:15.519 --> 00:05:17.759 The end of verse 17 says, so this happens through faith. 00:05:17.920 --> 00:05:18.879 You place your faith in Christ. 00:05:19.040 --> 00:05:20.000 We looked at this last week. 00:05:20.160 --> 00:05:23.120 You place your faith in Christ, and Christ moves into your heart. 00:05:23.360 --> 00:05:28.240 Common English Christian expression is invite Jesus into your heart, or do you have Jesus in your heart? 00:05:28.399 --> 00:05:30.000 It's not a common biblical expression. 00:05:30.079 --> 00:05:41.199 This is the only place you see it in the Bible, and yet it's a very significant place that Christ would dwell, move into your heart, and as a result of that, verse 16, that you would be strengthened with power through his spirit. 00:05:41.279 --> 00:05:45.519 And then the end of verse 17, that you would be rooted and grounded in love. 00:05:46.480 --> 00:05:52.800 So Christ moves into your heart, and that makes you strong spiritually speaking. 00:05:53.120 --> 00:06:01.120 He mixes his metaphors here, the beginning of the verses, Christ would move in like he would back the moving truck up and move into your heart. 00:06:01.279 --> 00:06:06.959 And now he changes his metaphor to you would be rooted and strengthened, grounded. 00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:11.920 So a different metaphor, not a house guest, but a different metaphor is the plant. 00:06:12.079 --> 00:06:13.839 And you maybe buy a little plant. 00:06:13.920 --> 00:06:21.279 I have a plant in my office right now that I purchased at IKEA and it has lived longer than any plant I have ever possessed in my life. 00:06:21.680 --> 00:06:23.360 Remember that plant while I'm in Chad? 00:06:23.519 --> 00:06:24.399 Remember it. 00:06:26.720 --> 00:06:27.759 We'll see. 00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:31.279 And it grows, and I upscale it. 00:06:31.360 --> 00:06:36.000 I get a different pot and a bigger pot and it grows more, and that's in its third pot and it's even bigger still. 00:06:36.079 --> 00:06:39.120 And you know, I can't keep that game up forever. 00:06:39.519 --> 00:06:47.199 Eventually, you have to take the plant and plant it outside in the real world, in the dirt, and then it's out there. 00:06:47.360 --> 00:06:48.399 And then what happens? 00:06:48.560 --> 00:07:04.879 I mean, either the roots take and it gets nutrients from the ground and it grows deeper roots and it grows bigger and stronger, or the roots don't take and it doesn't get grounded, and then the wind comes and it blows away or it pops back out of the ground, or a raccoon absconds with it, or you know, Garfield eats it. 00:07:04.959 --> 00:07:09.439 I don't know what happened to it, but something bad would happen to it and it would die. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:14.240 But when it's rooted and grounded, it grows strong. 00:07:15.040 --> 00:07:25.120 And the winds can hit it and the winds can batter it, and the floods can go over it, and then when the water recedes, it's still there because it's strong. 00:07:26.240 --> 00:07:28.720 So, what happens in your Christian life? 00:07:28.959 --> 00:07:45.120 Does Jesus pass by your heart and move along, and now you're left tossed back and forth by every wave of doctrine, every trial becomes life-threatening to you spiritually because you're not rooted, you're weak. 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:48.959 Or does Christ grow roots in your heart? 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:51.360 Does the love of God grow deep in your heart? 00:07:51.519 --> 00:07:59.279 And so the trials come and the wind batters you and the waves of doubt hit you, and yet you're strong and you withstand them. 00:07:59.519 --> 00:08:08.720 Chapter 4 in Ephesians is all about the difference between a child who is tossed to and fro by the waves, and Paul says, you need to grow up into mature manhood. 00:08:11.839 --> 00:08:13.920 That's what this prayer is about. 00:08:14.319 --> 00:08:21.759 That Christ would dwell in your hearts through faith so that you can have strength. 00:08:23.040 --> 00:08:27.360 Now, the strength here is going to be strength to bear three paradoxes. 00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:34.559 That's what the rest of verses 18 and 19 is a series of paradoxes that you would have the strength to bear. 00:08:34.720 --> 00:08:36.480 I want to give you that outline this morning. 00:08:36.720 --> 00:08:41.840 When you're living in love, it gives you the strength to bear these three paradoxes. 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:43.759 And I chose these words carefully. 00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:46.960 A paradox is something that seems contradictory. 00:08:47.919 --> 00:08:52.720 American Western thinkers want to solve the paradox and show you how one side is wrong versus the other side. 00:08:52.799 --> 00:08:54.480 That's not the right way you approach a paradox. 00:08:54.639 --> 00:08:56.879 Their true is intention, you don't get rid of one. 00:08:57.039 --> 00:08:59.360 You figure out how to bear up underneath them. 00:08:59.440 --> 00:09:02.799 You figure out how to live under the weight of both of those truths. 00:09:02.960 --> 00:09:06.639 Well, the love of Christ lets you bear these paradoxes. 00:09:07.679 --> 00:09:16.960 Bunyan in his book, All Loves Excelling, on this passage, describes this passage as quote, Paul describing the inexpressible. 00:09:17.519 --> 00:09:20.960 I love that little line right there, describing the inexpressible. 00:09:21.120 --> 00:09:26.879 Because Bunyan, who wrote The Pilgrim's Progress, I mean he's one of the world's best-selling authors of all time. 00:09:27.039 --> 00:09:30.480 If he says this truth is inexpressible, you should pay attention. 00:09:30.879 --> 00:09:34.399 It's one thing for you know a normal person to say this is inexpressible. 00:09:34.639 --> 00:09:37.679 One of the world's best authors ever says, I don't know how to express that in words. 00:09:37.919 --> 00:09:38.879 Pay attention. 00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:42.879 This passage describes the inexpressible with a series of paradoxes. 00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:45.279 And I'll walk us through them this morning first. 00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:51.679 Paul's praying that you would have the strength to comprehend the incomprehensible. 00:09:51.759 --> 00:09:52.480 That's verse 18. 00:09:52.559 --> 00:10:00.720 That you might have the strength, verse 18, to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth. 00:10:00.879 --> 00:10:04.240 Now, it's missing the kind of the object of that sentence. 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:11.279 It doesn't say the breadth and length and height and depth of God, but the context here is clearly of the love of Christ. 00:10:11.840 --> 00:10:19.200 Christ who's dwelling in your heart in verse 17, you would be strengthened in your inner man in verse 16, and then verse 19 to know the love of Christ. 00:10:19.279 --> 00:10:23.360 And so this height and breadth and length and depth is about the love of Christ. 00:10:23.519 --> 00:10:32.799 And that makes sense in the context here that Paul is praying that by letting the love of Christ take root in your heart, you would be able to understand the scope of it. 00:10:33.039 --> 00:10:35.759 But the scope of it is incomprehensible. 00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:40.879 He uses these four words here: breadth and length and height and depth. 00:10:41.039 --> 00:10:49.039 And he's not really after describing the dimensions like we measure furniture, like, oh, my couch is this wide by that deep by that tall. 00:10:49.919 --> 00:10:52.799 He's more in different kinds of dimensions here. 00:10:53.759 --> 00:11:04.159 Where the breadth of it is talking about the scope of it, how broad, categorically speaking, how broad and how wide this is, how expansive the love of Christ is. 00:11:04.960 --> 00:11:14.799 The length of it, I think, is about time, how long the love of Christ lasts, the height of it is about its source, or its coming from heaven down to earth. 00:11:15.039 --> 00:11:20.320 The depth of it, I think, is about the multifaceted nature, the profound nature of it. 00:11:21.200 --> 00:11:23.840 Conceptually, how complex it is. 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:28.879 They use the phrase Paul used earlier in Ephesians, the manifold beauty of it. 00:11:29.039 --> 00:11:30.480 That's what's behind the depth. 00:11:30.559 --> 00:11:41.840 So these are four different kinds of category distinctions Paul's making here to say that you would have the strength to comprehend them when in reality they are not comprehensible. 00:11:42.960 --> 00:11:46.000 Because you'll never get your mind around these things. 00:11:46.080 --> 00:11:48.960 And that's why he uses such an expansive list of terms here. 00:11:49.039 --> 00:11:55.759 He speaks like in metric terms that you would understand the breadth of it, the you know, the volume of it. 00:11:56.240 --> 00:12:00.799 He speaks in chronological terms, the duration of it or the length of it. 00:12:01.039 --> 00:12:04.399 He speaks in theological terms, the height of it. 00:12:04.639 --> 00:12:07.279 He speaks in intellectual terms, the depth of it. 00:12:07.440 --> 00:12:08.879 So get those categories here. 00:12:09.039 --> 00:12:20.559 He's trying to cover everything the scope of it, the duration of it, the theological content of it, the philosophical nature of it, all that's encompassed by these four words. 00:12:20.639 --> 00:12:22.159 Let's just look at it once at one at a time here. 00:12:22.240 --> 00:12:25.440 He says he's praised that you would comprehend the breadth of God's love. 00:12:25.519 --> 00:12:27.120 That's how vast it is. 00:12:28.080 --> 00:12:29.840 How wide it is. 00:12:32.080 --> 00:12:34.159 What kind of categories it includes? 00:12:34.639 --> 00:12:38.960 The breath, it just gives you this picture of somebody with their arms open, inviting you. 00:12:39.039 --> 00:12:41.919 And so, how wide are the arms of God's love? 00:12:42.080 --> 00:12:46.960 How wide is God when he stretches out his arms in love towards the world? 00:12:47.519 --> 00:12:53.039 Isaiah 65 describes God as having his arms outstretched towards Israel, inviting them to come believe. 00:12:53.120 --> 00:12:58.799 And that's the verse that Jesus quotes, of course, in his ministry when he's up on the hill overlooking Mount of Oves, overlooking Jerusalem. 00:12:58.879 --> 00:13:04.159 He says, How often I longed to gather you together, like a mother hen to her chicks, but you were not willing. 00:13:04.320 --> 00:13:10.480 The Old Testament idiom for that is God with his arms outstretched, inviting people in, and certainly that's in Paul's mind here. 00:13:10.639 --> 00:13:13.919 The love of God is God with its arms outstretched, inviting us in. 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:20.480 I mean, we can never understand just how wide God's love is that he's inviting people to come and believe in him. 00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:30.240 I think a powerful way to get your mind to stretch its view of the love of God is to think of something more immediate, like your own sin. 00:13:30.399 --> 00:13:32.720 Think of how broad your sin is. 00:13:33.039 --> 00:13:37.200 I'm trying to get you to stretch your mind here, to think of the breadth of God's love. 00:13:37.279 --> 00:13:39.440 Let's do it backwards here. 00:13:39.519 --> 00:13:41.360 Let's think of the breadth of your sin. 00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:43.200 Think of how wide your sin is. 00:13:43.360 --> 00:13:48.000 Is there any area of your life that is untouched or untainted by your sin? 00:13:49.360 --> 00:14:01.440 Your marriage, your parenting, your work, your future, your finances, your entertainment choices. 00:14:02.559 --> 00:14:04.480 Are any of those untouched by your sin? 00:14:04.559 --> 00:14:05.440 Think of your own categories. 00:14:05.519 --> 00:14:06.720 Think of new categories. 00:14:07.279 --> 00:14:15.679 Get your mind to think of new areas in your life that you haven't perhaps conceptualized before, and then see how your sin taints those areas. 00:14:15.840 --> 00:14:18.960 So I'm trying to get you to make this tent in your mind bigger. 00:14:19.120 --> 00:14:26.080 Stretch this tent out to cover more and more things in your life so that you see how all those things are covered by your sin or tainted by your sin. 00:14:26.240 --> 00:14:32.159 And then understand that the love of God is broader than those things because Jesus atones for your sin. 00:14:32.399 --> 00:14:37.519 He went to the cross and bore God's wrath and penalty for your sin in all those categories of life. 00:14:37.679 --> 00:14:44.159 So however big you can stretch this tent to cover your sin, you recognize that God's love is bigger than even that. 00:14:45.360 --> 00:14:54.960 So you get your mind to go bigger and broader, and you start to understand that no matter how big you stretch your mind, the love of God is bigger still. 00:14:55.200 --> 00:14:58.879 Get your mind to go even further, and the love of God is always just ahead of it. 00:15:00.159 --> 00:15:02.240 You'll never exhaust it. 00:15:02.799 --> 00:15:04.559 You'll never exhaust it. 00:15:06.639 --> 00:15:10.720 Hear people sometimes almost even jokingly say, like, I think heaven will be boring. 00:15:13.360 --> 00:15:14.399 Probably not. 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:16.960 What am I gonna do in heaven? 00:15:17.039 --> 00:15:20.639 It's just like once I see everything and learn everything, and I'm still there forever. 00:15:20.799 --> 00:15:26.240 Well understand that the love of God is bigger than everything you're seeing or experiencing. 00:15:26.399 --> 00:15:32.080 So you see and learn something new today, but you recognize that God's love is bigger than that. 00:15:32.159 --> 00:15:34.399 There's still more for you to explore tomorrow. 00:15:35.440 --> 00:15:42.480 And you go to the edge of your knowledge tomorrow, and the love of God is still bigger than that, you got another day after that to keep pressing forward forever. 00:15:42.720 --> 00:15:44.480 You'll never catch the love of God. 00:15:44.639 --> 00:15:49.200 It's not containable, it's not catchable, it's not comprehendable. 00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:52.159 You will never get your mind around it. 00:15:53.759 --> 00:15:56.639 And you have an infinite journey, an infinite time to do so. 00:15:56.879 --> 00:16:01.919 Dieter and I went on our honeymoon to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and there's a river there. 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:11.519 We walk down to the river, and you know, it's on the maps and everything, and everybody calls it the river, and we go down there, and unlike any river I've ever been to before, you can't see across the river. 00:16:11.759 --> 00:16:12.879 It's enormous. 00:16:12.960 --> 00:16:14.879 The Rio de la Plata, it's enormous. 00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:18.639 You cannot get your eyes to go to the other side of it. 00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:27.519 There's a what they call a bus that goes across it, the um Barque Bus, the boat bus that makes these shuttle runs across it. 00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:32.960 And so we took the bus one day, uh, bus again, um, across the water. 00:16:33.120 --> 00:16:44.000 And, you know, I want to go up to the window, and it's a boat that's enclosed because you're going on this water, and I go up to the window as the boat is got you know setting out, and you can't see across the river from the front of the boat. 00:16:44.399 --> 00:16:49.679 And the sun sets as we're on the boat, and never got to see the other side. 00:16:49.840 --> 00:16:52.399 I think I fell asleep on the boat, actually, is what happens. 00:16:54.159 --> 00:16:55.360 So it is with the love of God. 00:16:55.679 --> 00:16:59.279 You stand on the shore of where you are now, and you cannot see the breadth of it. 00:16:59.360 --> 00:17:02.159 You cannot see across the river to the other side. 00:17:02.320 --> 00:17:05.359 You start to journey across it, the sun will set before you get to the other side. 00:17:05.519 --> 00:17:07.519 You won't be able to see it. 00:17:09.119 --> 00:17:13.279 That's the breadth of it, the length of it, how long the love of God lasts. 00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:14.559 Its duration. 00:17:14.720 --> 00:17:16.720 I mean, obviously it has no end going forward. 00:17:16.880 --> 00:17:19.279 And our human minds struggle with that concept. 00:17:19.599 --> 00:17:20.960 We can do it, sort of. 00:17:21.200 --> 00:17:23.119 We can say, okay, I'm not gonna have an end. 00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:36.400 I'm here now, I'm not gonna have an end, I'll physically die, but then my soul will live forever, my body will be raised from the grave, reunite with my soul forever, so we'll be back together again and just keep going forever, and the love of God will still be there wherever I am. 00:17:36.480 --> 00:17:37.599 Okay, that's one direction. 00:17:37.759 --> 00:17:40.319 Do you recognize that the love of God has no beginning? 00:17:40.559 --> 00:17:42.000 And that's where our minds quit. 00:17:42.240 --> 00:17:43.440 We can't do that. 00:17:43.920 --> 00:17:44.960 It has no beginning. 00:17:45.039 --> 00:17:51.519 Like before there was anything, before there was time, there was God, and love is in God. 00:17:53.200 --> 00:17:54.960 But even that sentence doesn't make sense to her. 00:17:55.279 --> 00:17:56.640 Before there was time? 00:17:57.200 --> 00:17:58.960 What does the word before mean? 00:17:59.279 --> 00:18:00.640 That sentence is nonsense. 00:18:00.799 --> 00:18:01.680 Before there was time. 00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:04.880 There's no before if there's no time. 00:18:05.920 --> 00:18:12.640 That's why both Genesis and John, you can picture Moses and John both kind of throwing up their hands with this and say, okay, let's try it this way. 00:18:12.720 --> 00:18:14.000 In the beginning, there was God. 00:18:14.160 --> 00:18:17.279 Again, that it's better, but it still isn't really in the beginning. 00:18:17.359 --> 00:18:19.759 So, point one, there was already something before that. 00:18:19.839 --> 00:18:21.680 Well, that's not point one anymore. 00:18:22.720 --> 00:18:24.160 But let's just deal with it that way. 00:18:24.319 --> 00:18:26.079 Point one, God's already there. 00:18:26.640 --> 00:18:28.799 That's the eternal nature of God's love. 00:18:29.039 --> 00:18:33.200 Before there was anything, before there was the beginning, there was God. 00:18:34.400 --> 00:18:36.960 And love is always with God. 00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:44.880 I never grow tired of explaining it this way, but this is why the doctrine of the Trinity is so critical for understanding the eternal nature of love. 00:18:45.920 --> 00:18:48.400 Because true love is always externally focused. 00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:50.400 It's all has to have an object. 00:18:50.640 --> 00:18:54.480 You can't really love yourself in a true, noble way. 00:18:54.720 --> 00:18:57.200 Love has to have an object, external. 00:18:57.440 --> 00:19:00.079 So, how can love be eternal before there is anything else? 00:19:00.240 --> 00:19:01.839 Because God loves his son. 00:19:02.079 --> 00:19:04.319 The father loves his son eternally. 00:19:04.960 --> 00:19:06.960 Radiant love towards the son. 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:15.200 The image of the Father in all of the beauty and majesty of the Father is perfect in the Son, and the Father has nothing but love for the Son. 00:19:15.359 --> 00:19:18.240 The Son in return has nothing but love for the Father. 00:19:18.400 --> 00:19:21.519 The Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son. 00:19:21.759 --> 00:19:23.279 That's why He's called the Spirit. 00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:27.200 He's the Spirit of love and fellowship and communion between the Father and the Son. 00:19:27.359 --> 00:19:40.079 So there is a stronger form of love before creation than you and I will ever be capable of ourselves, because our image is tainted and we don't have a right self-image of ourselves, and our spirit is corrupt. 00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:41.359 But not God's spirit. 00:19:41.519 --> 00:19:47.680 God's image is perfect, his spirit is perfectly perfect in love and fellowship and joy and communion. 00:19:47.759 --> 00:19:49.440 All of that is eternal before time. 00:19:49.599 --> 00:20:01.359 That's what Paul is saying here, that the breadth of God's love you can't understand, and the duration of it you can't understand, the length of it, how long this has lasted. 00:20:01.519 --> 00:20:05.119 As long as there has been God, there has been love. 00:20:06.799 --> 00:20:08.640 Our minds will never understand that. 00:20:08.720 --> 00:20:15.920 But that's Paul's prayer, is that you would keep pressing your mind into eternity, forward and backward, to understand the eternal nature of love. 00:20:16.720 --> 00:20:17.839 Third height. 00:20:18.240 --> 00:20:22.240 Should you understand the height of love, stretching up to heaven, that God's love goes up to heaven. 00:20:22.559 --> 00:20:25.359 You can reverse engineer this one like we did earlier with the breath. 00:20:25.519 --> 00:20:31.039 If you're saying that God's love goes all the way up to heaven, then understand that God's arm is not too short to save. 00:20:31.200 --> 00:20:33.599 God's love can stretch all the way down and save you. 00:20:33.839 --> 00:20:38.240 No matter how sinful you are, God's love can still reach you and rescue you. 00:20:40.400 --> 00:20:45.200 This is what's behind so much of the imagery in the Old Testament of people trying to climb up towards God. 00:20:45.279 --> 00:20:48.640 They want to work their way towards God to make it perhaps easier for God to save them. 00:20:48.799 --> 00:20:50.559 This is the sin of the people at Babel. 00:20:50.799 --> 00:20:52.160 They want to get out of the flood waters. 00:20:52.240 --> 00:20:53.200 They don't trust God. 00:20:53.359 --> 00:20:56.559 He's not going to flood the earth again, so they'll build up towards God. 00:20:56.640 --> 00:20:59.759 They want to be like God and build towards him. 00:21:02.160 --> 00:21:04.319 As if God needed that help. 00:21:05.279 --> 00:21:09.519 Like I am at the top of a really tall tower, God, so it's easier for you to hear me now. 00:21:11.440 --> 00:21:13.200 Obadiah, verse 4. 00:21:13.359 --> 00:21:16.319 This is people admire, ungodly people admire the eagle. 00:21:16.640 --> 00:21:19.119 Admire the eagle's nest because it's up so tall. 00:21:19.279 --> 00:21:20.319 It's up so close to God. 00:21:20.400 --> 00:21:22.559 It must be safe up there at the top of the tree. 00:21:22.799 --> 00:21:24.240 So close to God. 00:21:24.720 --> 00:21:27.039 And yet God will cast them down. 00:21:27.440 --> 00:21:31.200 This is this is in the DNA of every self-righteous person. 00:21:31.359 --> 00:21:34.400 Every works-based religion has this in their DNA. 00:21:34.480 --> 00:21:39.200 That you think you can work yourself towards God to make it easier for God to save you. 00:21:39.279 --> 00:21:43.759 You get a little bit closer to Him, you put a little bit on the table, and God's going to be more inclined to save you. 00:21:43.920 --> 00:21:46.960 Because there's no way God could save somebody who is a wretched sinner. 00:21:47.119 --> 00:21:52.160 So you've got to, you know, get yourself a little bit closer to Him to make it easier for Him to save you. 00:21:52.400 --> 00:21:58.160 And of course, none of our works, if you understand the breadth of your sin, you recognize that none of your works can bring you closer to God. 00:21:58.240 --> 00:21:59.680 The more you work for salvation, the further apart. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:01.200 You're getting from him. 00:22:01.680 --> 00:22:02.559 You made a wrong turn. 00:22:02.720 --> 00:22:03.279 Don't keep going. 00:22:03.440 --> 00:22:04.000 Turn around. 00:22:04.079 --> 00:22:06.319 You cannot work to get towards God. 00:22:08.079 --> 00:22:10.240 That's the height of his love. 00:22:11.200 --> 00:22:17.359 It originates in heaven and it stretches all the way down to the lowest sinner. 00:22:18.240 --> 00:22:20.799 His arm is never too short to save. 00:22:21.599 --> 00:22:23.519 And fourthly, the depth. 00:22:24.079 --> 00:22:31.599 And I really think in the context of Ephesians here, depth is capturing the manifold beauty of God's love. 00:22:33.440 --> 00:22:39.599 That every angle you look at it at, it's different, and you see different perfections all the time. 00:22:39.759 --> 00:22:44.319 I think the manifold beauty of God's love is most on display at the cross, isn't it? 00:22:44.480 --> 00:22:46.640 Where you see the holiness of God on display. 00:22:46.880 --> 00:22:52.960 You see the love of God on display, certainly through the Father sending his son and Jesus dying as a substitute. 00:22:53.839 --> 00:22:58.400 See the holiness of God that he pours out wrath, even turns his face away. 00:22:59.519 --> 00:23:01.920 You see the justice of God in the death of Christ. 00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:10.400 You see the mercy of God in his words from the cross, praying for forgiveness of those the very centurion is overseeing his death. 00:23:12.559 --> 00:23:16.720 You see so many facets of God's love at the cross. 00:23:16.799 --> 00:23:18.319 And of course, not just only the cross. 00:23:18.400 --> 00:23:23.200 You see facets of God's love in every area of life, but they're so clearly on display at the cross. 00:23:23.279 --> 00:23:27.279 And do you think you will ever fully understand those facets of God's love as seen at the cross? 00:23:28.160 --> 00:23:28.720 Never. 00:23:28.960 --> 00:23:29.599 Never. 00:23:31.279 --> 00:23:32.400 Never, of course not. 00:23:32.480 --> 00:23:35.680 But that's Paul's prayer that you would in verse 18 comprehend it. 00:23:35.759 --> 00:23:38.240 Even that word comprehend is a phenomenal word. 00:23:39.039 --> 00:23:45.279 Cata lumbano is the Greek word, and kata is like an intensive prefix on it. 00:23:45.440 --> 00:23:47.759 We have in the English word might be like super. 00:23:47.839 --> 00:23:50.079 I'm going for a walk, I'm going for a super walk. 00:23:51.039 --> 00:23:51.920 That's this word. 00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:54.880 It's intensifying the word of what's happening here. 00:23:55.039 --> 00:23:57.920 Limbano is the word for casting out or throwing away. 00:23:58.079 --> 00:24:02.000 And so it's translated here comprehend, but it's it's more than even comprehend. 00:24:02.079 --> 00:24:08.799 It's like it's sometimes this word is translated like overtake or seize or capture, is one way it's translated. 00:24:09.039 --> 00:24:11.119 Kidnap if it's in a negative context. 00:24:11.279 --> 00:24:16.000 The idea is that you're throwing something, but you're overthrowing it, so you're wrapping it up. 00:24:16.079 --> 00:24:20.079 You're getting your arms all around it and you're grasping it. 00:24:20.240 --> 00:24:24.240 So Paul's not just saying, listen, I'm praying that you would comprehend the incomprehensible. 00:24:24.319 --> 00:24:27.119 He's saying, I'm praying that you would overtake it. 00:24:27.359 --> 00:24:33.920 It's got an infinite breadth and an infinite height and an infinite depth, but I'm praying that you would exceed that in your understanding of it. 00:24:34.079 --> 00:24:38.559 Which, of course, if it is infinite, you cannot do, but that's Paul's prayer. 00:24:39.759 --> 00:24:43.119 That you would capture it and wrap it up and seize it. 00:24:44.240 --> 00:24:46.880 That you would comprehend the incomprehensible. 00:24:47.039 --> 00:24:54.960 Second part of this paradox, that you would know the unknowable, that you would comprehend the incomprehensible, and that you would know the unknowable. 00:24:55.759 --> 00:24:58.240 Again, a very funny word play here. 00:24:58.559 --> 00:25:02.480 To know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. 00:25:03.359 --> 00:25:07.920 How do you know something that surpasses knowledge? 00:25:08.240 --> 00:25:10.799 I pray that you would know this, that it's impossible to know. 00:25:11.359 --> 00:25:12.559 Here's an impossible task. 00:25:12.640 --> 00:25:15.119 I would like it done by lunchtime kind of line. 00:25:16.400 --> 00:25:20.000 Paul's prayer that you would know what you cannot know. 00:25:20.480 --> 00:25:31.119 Now, before we talk about how he unpacks this, just appreciate for a second that Paul would categorically reject the common American distinction between knowledge and love. 00:25:31.680 --> 00:25:44.960 Americans love to say that knowledge and love are in contradiction or an opposite, you know, and usually it's it's you hear people say that when they're poo-pooing theology, like, oh, you read theology. 00:25:45.519 --> 00:25:46.640 Q ominous music. 00:25:46.799 --> 00:25:47.920 Dun dun dun dun dun. 00:25:49.839 --> 00:25:52.960 I don't need I don't need the theological training. 00:25:53.119 --> 00:25:55.039 I don't need the theological understanding of God. 00:25:55.119 --> 00:25:57.759 I'm more focused on the love of God. 00:25:58.799 --> 00:26:01.519 Oh, that's so spiritual, isn't it? 00:26:02.960 --> 00:26:04.880 Try that with your wife. 00:26:06.400 --> 00:26:09.759 Honey, I don't need to learn anything about you. 00:26:10.400 --> 00:26:14.559 I don't need to learn what you like or what you don't like or what you really like. 00:26:15.039 --> 00:26:17.519 Because I'm just focused on loving you. 00:26:18.559 --> 00:26:20.960 I don't think that it will work very well. 00:26:21.680 --> 00:26:24.240 I don't think that's an accurate expression of love, is it? 00:26:24.400 --> 00:26:27.519 How can you tell your wife you love her but you don't want to learn about her? 00:26:28.720 --> 00:26:33.519 Of course, knowledge fuels love, and of course, love fuels knowledge. 00:26:33.599 --> 00:26:41.359 The more you learn about God, the more you should love him, and the more you love him, the more you're going to want to learn about him. 00:26:41.680 --> 00:26:44.880 So in Paul's mind, knowledge is the fuel here. 00:26:44.960 --> 00:26:48.160 It is the wood that is feeding the fire of love. 00:26:48.319 --> 00:26:53.759 If you want to burn your fire of love towards God more, you feed it knowledge. 00:26:54.000 --> 00:26:58.720 You don't pit knowledge against love, you feed love knowledge. 00:26:59.359 --> 00:27:01.200 If you love someone, you know what they love. 00:27:01.279 --> 00:27:06.799 If you love someone, you want to magnify them by learning about them and studying them. 00:27:07.039 --> 00:27:12.079 And understand how this is, when you're talking about the perfections of God, this is very much a one-way street. 00:27:12.160 --> 00:27:13.039 It's different than in marriage. 00:27:13.119 --> 00:27:25.920 So in marriage, you learn about your wife more and you learn her strengths and your weaknesses, and as you learn her weaknesses, your love for her is solidified and reinforced, and she feels more confident in it because you love her in spite of her weaknesses, and vice versa. 00:27:26.079 --> 00:27:32.880 As your weaknesses are more on display for your spouse, her love for you is strengthened because her commitment is strengthened in light of your weaknesses. 00:27:33.119 --> 00:27:37.839 Now, do you see the critical way that our love for God is different than that? 00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:44.160 Because as we grow in knowledge of him, we don't learn about God's weaknesses and therefore strengthen our commitment to him. 00:27:44.640 --> 00:27:52.640 As we learn about, as we grow our knowledge of God, we learn more about his perfections, which include his love towards us. 00:27:52.960 --> 00:27:57.200 Meanwhile, our own imperfections are more and more on display. 00:27:57.359 --> 00:28:07.440 The more we understand the breadth of our sin, the more we understand how sinful we are, the more powerful our understanding of God's love is because we recognize it is bigger than that. 00:28:08.240 --> 00:28:10.559 So God's commitment is always magnified. 00:28:10.720 --> 00:28:16.400 God's love is always magnified, as our sin is more on display to ourselves. 00:28:17.200 --> 00:28:21.839 And so Paul says, I want you to know the love of Christ. 00:28:23.440 --> 00:28:24.799 How do you know the love of Christ? 00:28:24.880 --> 00:28:25.920 Well, you know who Christ is. 00:28:26.079 --> 00:28:26.880 He is the Savior. 00:28:26.960 --> 00:28:29.119 He's Psalm 24, He's the King of glory. 00:28:29.279 --> 00:28:30.240 That's who you're studying. 00:28:30.319 --> 00:28:32.960 You're studying the King of glory, He's the image of the Father. 00:28:33.119 --> 00:28:36.480 If you've seen me, Jesus says, you have seen the Father. 00:28:36.640 --> 00:28:38.240 He's the firstborn over all creation. 00:28:38.319 --> 00:28:43.680 In other words, before there was anything created, Jesus existed. 00:28:44.480 --> 00:28:48.640 In the beginning, he was with God because he was God. 00:28:49.200 --> 00:28:50.319 That's who you're studying. 00:28:50.400 --> 00:28:51.759 That's who your knowledge is feeding. 00:28:51.920 --> 00:28:54.319 So the study of God is the study of Christ. 00:28:54.640 --> 00:29:01.440 And the study of God and the study of Christ is the study of the love of Christ because there his perfections are on display. 00:29:01.759 --> 00:29:04.720 God's love is free, our love is not. 00:29:05.599 --> 00:29:08.960 God's love initiates, our love reciprocates. 00:29:09.599 --> 00:29:14.079 We can't love God based upon our own free will because our free will is enslaved to sin. 00:29:14.799 --> 00:29:16.799 So God initiates love towards us. 00:29:16.960 --> 00:29:18.960 God shows us his love through Jesus Christ. 00:29:19.119 --> 00:29:21.119 God is the initiator, we respond. 00:29:21.359 --> 00:29:24.799 We love him because he first loved us. 00:29:26.400 --> 00:29:27.599 That doesn't go backwards. 00:29:27.759 --> 00:29:29.599 God doesn't love us because we first loved him. 00:29:29.839 --> 00:29:32.480 We love him because he first loved us. 00:29:33.039 --> 00:29:40.480 Which is more magnified when you understand our sin is what compelled him to set his love upon us. 00:29:40.640 --> 00:29:42.799 Not our righteousness, which we possess not. 00:29:45.440 --> 00:29:49.279 So God's love is free, ours is responsive. 00:29:49.680 --> 00:29:52.240 God's love is divine, ours is human and falling. 00:29:52.319 --> 00:29:54.000 God's love is everlasting with no beginning. 00:29:54.240 --> 00:29:56.400 Do you understand God loved you before you existed? 00:29:58.000 --> 00:30:01.279 He loved you before the universe existed, and he certainly loved you before you existed. 00:30:01.359 --> 00:30:02.559 That was his response to Jeremiah. 00:30:02.720 --> 00:30:04.160 Jeremiah, go here, do this, say this. 00:30:04.319 --> 00:30:05.039