Dimensions Of God's Love (July 29, 2012).

DIMENSIONS OF GOD'S LOVE

Text: Ephesians 3:14 -21

Can we really comprehend God’s love? Can we really understand the dimensions of God’s love? How many times have you been to the movies where the movie was in 3 D? Can you imagine what it would look like to us if there were glasses that would enable us to see the breadth, length, depth and height of God’s love? Do we understand what it means to have God’s love rooted and grounded in our hearts?

Everything we know about God and His workings in our inner persons, we are able to know because of our faith. Even though Paul was a prisoner when he wrote this letter, he remained positive and persevered because he was “rooted and grounded in God’s love”. It is the Holy Spirit that gives us the strength to persevere because of our faith.

What about those who have no faith, weakened faith of those who have strayed from the faith?

This morning I want to share with you the story of a lost young man who found his way back.

When Bill Sands was twelve years old he was awakened at 2:00 a.m. on morning by his parents to let him know that they would be getting a divorce. As if that were not bad enough, then he was told by both of his parents to decide which parent he would live with. Bill then went to his bedroom and began to cry. Neither parent told Bill that they loved him. It was not long before his mother came in to his bedroom, and took him back to the living room and told him that he was going to live with her because a “boy’s place was with his mother” she told him. The next day his father moved out and went to live some place else.

When he was thirteen, he came in late and his mother asked him why. Before he could begin to answer the question, she said that she would teach him never to be late again as she beat him with a makeshift whip made of rose bushes with thorns a quarter of an inch long. Following the thrashing session, his mother put alcohol on his wounds and he fell to the floor as he fainted.

He was never late again. He became a member of the school basketball team, editor of the school newspaper, and a straight "a" student. His mother remained critical. Every letter that his father sent to him was intercepted by his mother.

Not only did he receive little commendation for his progress and achievements as a thirteen year old, he apparently never heard the words, "I love you."

Now seven years later, he was a prison inmate. He had attacked a fellow inmate who swore to kill his father who was a judge. It was then that Bill Sands, attacked his fellow inmate. Bill nearly killed his fellow inmate.

After serving several months in solitary confinement with a diet of bread and water, in a cell four and a half feet by ten, the warden came to speak with him. Warden Duffy asked him why he was in prison, referring to his IQ and misspent potential. After his profanity, Bill Sands answered, "Because no one cares for me." In his book, My Shadow Ran Fast, Bill Sands explained the three words that changed his life. Warden Duffy told Bill Sands the three words that changed his life -----“Bill, I care”. (Ralph M. Smith. Basic Bible Sermons On The Church. Nashville: Broadman Press, 1990, pp. 90-92). The very thing that was missing from his life was to know that he was loved and that he meant something to somebody.

GOD'S LOVE HAS THE POWER TO CHANGE US

How does God's love have the power to change us? God's love is unconditional and it is also beyond our comprehension. The chances are that we all know someone who feels alone or feels like nobody loves them. They may not be prisoners in a jail cell, but they might be prisoners of feeling lonely and worthless. That is where we come in as Christian disciples. We can help those who are like sheep without a shepherd to get to know the Good Shepherd----our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We can help them to experience the liberating power and unlimited dimensions of unconditional God’s love.

How we grow and experience growth and God’s grace has to do with how we feel in our hearts. As someone (Max Lucado) has said, “God's seed grows better if the soil of the heart is cleared”. (Max Lucado. In The Grip Of Grace. Nashville: Word, 1996, p. 122). There are far too many people who do not know the dimensions of God’s love because of their guilt ridden hearts. They try to earn their righteousness. Satan tells anyone who will listen that God cannot love them because they are not good enough. So to get good enough, some people try to earn their righteousness. There are other people who seem to have given up on trying to earn their righteousness and have become hard-hearted or cold-hearted or apathetic.