Going Deeper: Experiencing Christ’s Love

Ben Lovvorn, Executive Pastor

April 30, 2023

Going Deeper: Experiencing Christ’s Love

Ephesians 3:14-19

INTRODUCTION. Have you ever wanted to experience a deeper, more intimate relationship with God? Well, He wants that type of relationship with you too. God’s Word describes what type of relationship He wants to have with you, how that relationship becomes a reality, and the result of entering into such a relationship with your Heavenly Father.

For this reason, I bend my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner self, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19

1. God Desires an Intimate and Interactive Relationship with You.

For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father . . . so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith… Ephesians 3:14a, 17a

1. Christ Enters Your Heart through Justification.

And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you. Romans 8:10-11

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

2. Christ Dwells in Your Heart through Sanctification.

For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren; and whom he predestined, these he also called, and whom he called, these he also justified; and whom he justified, these he also glorified. Romans 8:29-30

But we all, with unveiled faces beholding in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. 2 Corinthians 3:18.

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. John 15:4

1. An Intimate Relationship with God Must be Pursued, Granted, and Enabled.

For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. Ephesians 3:14

For this reason, I kneel before the Father from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. Ephesians 3:14, NIV

He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will. Ephesians 1:5

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son, into our hearts, crying “Abba! Father!” Galatians 4:4-6

1. We Pursue an Intimate Relationship through Passionate Prayer.

And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words. Romans 8:26

2. God Grants an Intimate Relationship from His Reservoir of Riches.

For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory… Ephesians 3:14-16a

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. Ephesians 1:18-19a

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. Ephesians 5:1-2

3. God Enables an Intimate Relationship by the Strengthening of His Spirit.

That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man… Ephesians 3:16

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. Romans 7:18

For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. Galatians 5:17

1. An Intimate Relationship with God Leads to Life-Changing Love.

… and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:17b-19

1. We are Established in Christ’s Love.

2. We are Edified by Christ’s Love.

And I ask [God] that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Ephesians 3:18, The Message.

3. We are Empowered through Christ’s Love.

And to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:19

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2

Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Hebrews 13:20-21

1. Seek Spiritual Maturity that Allows for a More Intimate Relationship with God.

1. Position Christ over Your Life.

2. Plant Yourself in Christ’s Love.

Place Your Life in Christ’s Church