In Ephesians 3:14-19 Paul reverently says, "For this reason I bow my knees before the

Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of
his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faiththat 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."
Lord, please open this up to us and help us understand this passage this morning, by the
power of your almighty Holy Spirit, in Jesus' name, Amen.
One of my favorite stories growing up was a little book entitled, I Love You This
Much. It was the story of two rabbits, a dad and a baby, who began competing about who loved
who more. The Baby Rabbit began by saying, I love you to the tip of my ears. The big rabbit
then said, Well I love you from the tip of my ears down to my toes. Then the tiny rabbit said,
Well I love you all the way to the top of this tree. Then the Big Rabbit said, Well I love you
as far as the wind takes the leaves. The little rabbit not wanting to be outdone said, I love you
as far as the eye can see. The Big Rabbit said, That is true, but I love you as far as the eye can
see and over the hills. Finally it was time to sleep and as the little rabbit laid down he looked to
the big rabbit and said, I Love you all the way to the moon. And then he fell asleep. Then the
Big Rabbit smiled and said, That is very far indeed. But little one, I love you all the way to the
moon and back.
I love this story for many reasons one of them was because the rabbits could not find a
perfect way to describe their love. They would come up with one thing and realize it was not
good enough. They would grow it into something else and that still would not be good enough.
There was nothing they could find to measure the love they had for each other.
I think Paul ran into this same problem. How do you measure the infinite love that God
has for you? All Paul could say was that it was longer, higher, deeper, and broader than anything
he could describe. How can you measure the infinite love of God? Often when this passage is
preached that is exactly what we try to do. We try to measure the love of God and explain it to
the people. That is not necessarily wrong, but by doing that we miss something crucial. The
question should not be how to you measure the infinite love of God. The question should be how
can you understand it? How can you understand the infinite love of God.
We try to understand Gods love in multiple ways. We speak of His goodness. We talk of
His love. We proclaim His forgiveness and trumpet His loyalty. But these things by themselves
still fall short of the love Christ had for you as He hung on the cross. How can we understand
that kind of love? Paul says the only way is through the power of the Holy Spirit.
This passage is as much about the Spirits power as it is about the love of God. Typically
when we think about the Holy Spirit and His power, we think about the Holy Spirit giving us
power to bring others to Christ, to better our church, to perform miracles, and to change peoples'
lives. But the power of the Holy Spirit here is very different. Paul says the Holy Spirit gives you
the power to know the love Christ. The Holy Spirit gives you the power to be filled with all the
fullness of God. The Holy Spirit has the power to reach deep down inside you and to fuel your
passion for Jesus and to make you fall madly in love with God.
Do you want that in your life? Do you want to be filled with all the fullness of God? Paul
ends this scripture with a promise. He says the Holy Spirit gives you power "so that you may be
filled with the fullness of God. The Holy Spirit wants to help you fully embrace the love of

God. To do that, He needs to take you on a journey a journey that we see right here in Ephesians
3. Each step of this journey prepares you to move closer to knowing the fullness of Christ.
Your journey starts when you begin praying before God: by bowing before the Lord
Almighty. Why? So that Christ might dwell in your hearts. Why? So that you might be rooted
and grounded in love. And why is that? So that you can know the love of Christ. Why is that? So
that at the end you may filled with the fullness of Jesus Christ. (Pause)
All of us desire this fullness of Christ but a few of us lack it and we know it. We look in
our lives and the way we live just doesnt match up with our beliefs. We slander and gossip. We
fail to uplift our brother. We are greedy and prideful. We see these things and we know that a
relationship with God is missing. So we pull out every trick in the book. We say, Im going to
go to church more. Im going to pray more. Im going to stop insulting my spouse. Im going to
stop yelling at my kids. Im going to forgive more. We use all the will and strength we have to
change those problems and then we utterly fail. Why do we fail to change those problems? We
fail because we fixed the wrong thing. We though, If we just fix our sin then we will love God.
No my friend. It needs to be the other way around. You must love your God and that will fix
your sin. You cannot treat the symptom and think you are fixing the disease.
A story is told of a group of people that are standing at a river bank. Suddenly they hear a
baby crying. Shocked, they see an infant struggling in the water. One person immediately dives
in to rescue the child. But right away another baby comes floating down the river, and then
another! People continue to jump in to save the babies and then they see that one person has
started to walk away from the group still on shore. Accusingly they shout, "Where are you
going? We need everyone available to help save these drowning babies!" The man simply
replied: "I'm going upstream to stop whoever's throwing babies into the river. The swimmers
thought they were doing right. They were saving babies. But, they were not dealing with the
cause of the problem. Somebody was throwing those babies into the water.
Like the swimmers rescuing babies oftentimes we Christians make a fatal mistake. We
spend too much time trying to fix our sinful actions and not trying to fix our sinful hearts. We
look around church and say, Those skirts are too short. There is not enough reverence in church.
People are not giving enough tithe. Not enough members support the school. Too few people
come to prayer meeting. So we go around and tell people, Wear a longer dress. Please be a
little quieter during worship. Understand that giving tithe is a way to worship. Please help our
school. The problem is not that we do these things. The problem is that our hearts are not in the
right place.
The real issue is that we dont understand how much we have in Jesus Christ. Do we
really understand who it is that loves us? Do we really understand how much he cares for us? If
we really understood that, we would easily give up those worldly things for the glory of our
creator. Paul prays that your hearts would change. He says, "I'm praying for your inner man
not these external things, not these physical things, not these symptoms, but the core of your
being. Because if you really understood the love of God, you would gladly give up everything
and say, 'I've got to have this love of Jesus Christ.'"
As I think about this, I see that our problem is one of not understanding how good God is.
Some of us in this room don't understand the love of God like we shouldhow wide and long
and high and deep it is. We kind of get it, and so we kind of follow him. But if we fully
understood God's goodness, it would change us. That's the miracle that Paul is praying for here.
Thats the miracle we should be praying for. It's not a miracle of a physical healing or
manifestation, but a miracle at the core of your beingthat you would understand the love of

God. What Paul could not do for us physically he did for us spiritually. He got on His knees and
prayed that we would fully understand the bountiful love of God and that our lives would change
accordingly!
Let me ask you something, and don't answer this one quickly. This is just between you
and God. Are you sure right now that Jesus Christ personally loves you? Are you 100 percent
sure, not that he so loves the world, not that he loves the church, not that he loves the body but
that he so loves you as an individual? Can you say beyond a shadow of a doubt that God loves
me!
This past week I had trouble with that. The news of Megans 10 month old niece really
hit me. I was actually praying a blessing over my dinner and I thought, Why would God care
about blessing this food when there is a family who just lost their baby. I struggled with
believing God cared about my needs in that moment. Surely there were more important things
for him to do. Maybe you have felt that way before; insecure about the love of God. If you felt
that way I have a verse to share with you. It is the verse that pulled me out of my stupor.
The verse that resolidified Gods love for me was John 15:9. Before we look at that verse,
let me ask you: How much do you think God the Father loves his Son? Try to imagine that. How
much does God the Father love Jesus? In John 15:9 Jesus says, "Just as the Father has loved me,
so have I loved you. Now remain in my love." Did you catch that: Just as? In the same way as
the Father loves Jesus that's how much He loves you? God loves you as much as His son who
was born of a virgin. He loves you as much as the son whom He said, This is my beloved son in
whom I am well pleased. He loves you as much as the son who compassionately healed the
people of Israel not just in body but in spirit. He loves you as much as the son who struggled in
the garden over the salvation of mankind. And he loves you as much as the son who hung upon
the cross securing the salvation of His people forever. God loves you as much as He loves Jesus.
How do you measure that kind of love? How can you understand a love like that?
It is hard for us to fathom that kind of love. God knows this. That is why in scripture he
told us that we need the Spirits power if we are to understand the height, the width, the depth,
and breadth of Gods love.
Often we pray that the Holy Spirit would give us power to impact other people's lives;
to empower us for the common good; to win souls for His kingdom. These are biblical, good
prayers, but when was the last time you said, Holy Spirit, help me to love Christ more.
We should all pray God, empower me, strengthen me so that I can understand your love
for me. Empower these people in this room whom I love. Strengthen them right now by the power
of your Holy Spirit, so that they can know your love and rest secure in it. That prayer, to be
secure in Gods love, should be our prayer this Sabbath morning. Many of us do not know what
true love is. We are used to others forsaking us when we have done wrong. God is not like that.
He affectionately tells us I have loved you with an everlasting love. (Jer. 31:3) Even though
you have done wrong, the Father loves you more than you can ever imagine. No matter what you
do He will always love you. We need to thank the Lord for this assurance.
You dont need to say "I think he loves me. I think I get the love of Christ. I think I
understand his grace." Through the power of the Holy Spirit and prayer you can say, I know
God loves me! I know God cares for me! I understand this God of grace.
As we close I want you to know that over the next few weeks, as we move through the
Christmas season, I am going to pray that you would know the love of Christ. I am going to pray
that you would be secure in the everlasting love of God. I am going to pray that the Spirit wraps
your mind around the unmeasurable love of God. I am going to pray that you would understand,

perhaps for the first time, the height the width the depth and the breadth of the love of God and
the your life would change as you encounter this living love.