Rooted And Grounded In Love

COVENANT COMMUNITY CHURCH

PASTOR: TERRY VAUGHAN

AUGUST 25, 2002

KJV

SERMON TITLE: ROOTED AND GROUNDED IN LOVE

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

Ephesians 3:14-19 “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. That he would grant you , according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.”

I want to preach to you on verse number 17: “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love…” I want to preach to you on being rooted and grounded in love. I want you to know and understand that in the word of God…..God is a God of love. Christ loved us while we were yet sinners. He gave his life, his blood and his body on the Cross at Calvary. So we can rest assure this morning that God is the God of love and we need to be rooted and grounded in love in all that we go to do.

It seems like we’re living in a world where there’s a lot of hatred going on. There’s a lot of anger. But the Bible says that anger rests in the bosom of fools. I’m a firm believer that God is not the author of confusion. He’s the author of Eternal Salvation. I want you to remember that God is a God of love. I believe we are living in the last days.

In Matthew 24:12 “and because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold.” Sometimes we get to looking at all the bad things that are going on in this world and it can make our love grow cold. But we need to be rooted and grounded in love. If we want to act in our anger then we are acting like the devil. If we want to hate somebody, we can’t be a child of God.

2 Timothy 3:2 “For men shall be lovers of their own selves..” We’re living in a day and time when everybody wants to put themselves first. But I want to tell you what Jesus did. He came to give his life for us on the cross of Calvary. The Bible says he was made lower than the angels. For the suffering of death for he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. Christ didn’t come to be number one. He came to be the least. But men and women want to be number one. If you have the love of God in you, you’ll put everybody else before you. You’ll do unto others as you’d have them do unto you. Our churches and Christians today need some love. There’s nothing any better than to tell somebody that you love them and you’re praying for them.

2 Timothy 3:4 “…men will be lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.” They’d rather have some sort of recreation on Sunday than gather together at God’s house. This may not be a pretty place this morning but God is here. God needs to be first and everything else needs to be last. A lot of people say they have the love of God. How do they know if you don’t show it to them? The Bible says not to just love in word or tongue but let us also love in deed and in truth. God loves us and wants us to express the love that he gives us to others. We need to possess his love and express his love.

Number one: We need to love Him. You’ll find in Matthew 22:37 “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” If we love him, we ought to show it to somebody else. There’s a lot of people who say they love God and then they don’t act like it. That day I knelt down and accepted him into my heart…I fell in love with him and I’ve been in love with Him ever since. But people don’t love God like they used to. If they did, they’d love the Lord’s house. They’d love the Lord’s people and the Lost. We love him because he first loved us. I found out this in Proverbs 8:17 “I love them that love me.” You know what? The more you show your love to him, the more he’ll show his love to you. There’s a lot of people that have been saved by the Grace of God but they don’t any love toward the Lord. The Bible says that if you love the Lord you’ll keep his commandments. What is his second greatest commandment? Love thy neighbor as thyself. You can’t love God and hate everybody else around you. I also found in Psalms 145:20 “The Lord preserveth all them that love him.” He’ll watch out after you and keep a hedge about you. It excites me that God loves me. Why I’m just an old sinner boy. I don’t deserve his love but he loves me anyway. Sometimes this way may get rough but as long as we continue to love the Savior, we can make it.