How Much Does God Love Me?

The following narrative is AI-retrieved from the episode.

Well, hello, friend. This is the Move Your Heart podcast. I'm your host, Val Brown. I wanna thank you for joining me today. If you're a returning listener, I apologize for the five-month delay in our Ephesians series. Life has been pretty full in these last few months. And if you're a new listener, I wanna welcome you and invite you to come in with your whole heart exactly the way you are.

The platform, the podcast is that we will learn God's heart. And by that, I mean his character, his ways, and his intentions toward us. And then seeing him for who he really is, then our hearts will be moved to him and we will find life, abundant life. So once again, thank you for joining me. And let's begin our discussion on Ephesians chapter three.

Well friends, the first words become, or actually say, for this reason. So that means we can't just dig in with chapter three, we have to take a little look back. In the last broadcast, we talked about how we were estranged from God. Anybody who was not of the Jewish heritage, we're not in relationship with God prior to Jesus Christ and having faith in him. God chose a people, the Israelites, to show his character and his ways. His ways and character are recorded for us in the Old Testament. So by looking at those scriptures, then we get a sense of just how patient he was with wayward people and with stubborn hearts and also when they were doing right and walking with him, how he was ferociously for them and how every other enemy was brought low because of his people. So we get a real true representation of what we can expect from God by looking at his dealings with his people.

So looking back just a little bit with what we discussed in the last broadcast, I'm gonna go back to Ephesians two and I'll begin in verse 11. So it says, remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called the uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision, which is performed in the flesh by human hands, remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Paul does talk a little bit about his mission to the Gentiles and how God assigned him to bring to light the new hope that they could have a relationship with God and how deep that relationship really, really goes now. So we'll talk more about that as we go along. But for now, I would like to read the entire passage to you. So Ephesians 3, starting in verse 1.

For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles, if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you, that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit. To be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of his power. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things. So that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the Church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which he carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in him. Therefore, I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory. 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, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 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 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. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us. To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

There's a whole lot there. But Paul was a pretty religious guy, but he was also persecuting the believers who did put their trust in Jesus as God's substitute so that they could be brought near to God before Israel had to obey laws and they had to do well in order to be blessed and then when they went wayward then there was consequences and it was really law based. So if you keep the law and you're doing well then you're blessed and if not then you don't have the relationship. in Christ when you do become a believer your, relationship, your oneness with Christ doesn't change. It does not change. So that means that because we are human beings and our hearts do go astray, we do sometimes follow the temptations that come before us, but there will never be a time when we'll we will be separated from the love of God or the care of God or his will for us won't change. It'll still be that he wants our well-being. So it's not performance-based at all where our relationship is concerned. No. In Christ, actually, he is in us and we are in him. So God has made us one. And it talks about even being one body.

So the Israelites also need to have a relationship with Jesus to be in right standing with God since it's no longer law based but it's grace based. So that means favor with God and right standing with God is called righteousness. We are in right standing with God because we believe in Jesus that we can't trust in our own abilities or our own good works in order to have that relationship. When we put faith in the way that God Himself chose, which is that we would be in relationship with Him through Jesus and Jesus alone, then that's where everything rests. And it doesn't change. It doesn't change. So it does say that the mystery is that we would be one body in Christ.

So Jews and Gentiles would be equal heirs to the promise of God. So an heir is someone who has an inheritance. So in Jesus, we have an inheritance. And life is so varied. It touches our mental state, our emotional state, our physical state, our relational state, our financial state, our...our well-being, the things that we put our hands to to be blessed and to have wisdom to be able to come to God in Jesus name and have our questions asked and I often pray, Lord, lead me, guide me to where I need to be. And I'm happy to say I need you and first and next to say that I don't know what to do or lead me into where you would have me to go. And inevitably, then something will come to my mind. It'll be to pick up a certain, pick up the Bible and look at a certain passage. Sometimes it's a psalm, sometimes it's another word that comes into my mind and I go there because I've been walking with the Lord 48 years now as of this recording. So, Holy Spirit who is a third person of God, the Trinity, He's the one who is God with us, God inside of us, but God beside us also and never leaves us. And He's able to bring something to my mind so that I can go there to receive the word that I need to have my question answered or to have the encouragement that I need or the change that's needed inside of me. So I go to the Lord so often so emotionally undone because of difficult circumstances so I'll go to Him and I'll ask for help because I know that I need to get to Him in order for my mind and my emotions to calm down so I go to the Lord through Jesus. Jesus my Lord gets me to God.

But Holy Spirit is the guide. He's our personal guide that brings us to the Father for those things that we need. we are definitely blessed as Gentiles who are anybody who is a non-Jewish person is a Gentile. that is any and all the nations, all the nations of this world, anybody, the relationship is open for us to come to God. And let me see where I want to go from there. So what Paul is praying, he begins a prayer in Ephesians 3 that starts in 14. So he says, I don't want you to lose hope at the tribulations that I'm experiencing because I am preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. He was being persecuted for that. he says, in verse 13, I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are for your glory. For this reason I bow my knees before the Father so he's going to the Lord in prayer. And he says that every family in heaven and earth drives this name so again he can be Father God to anybody on earth. And what is he praying? He says that he, meaning God, would grant you according to the riches of his glory, so his fullness, fullness of awe and wonder and fabulous things for us, according to the riches, God doesn't run out in his supply for us. He's asking that we would be strengthened with power through his spirit, God's spirit, in the inner man.

As I said to you, the Holy Spirit lives on the inside of us and that's where we're strengthened. So when I say sometimes I'm struggling in my thoughts because of a difficult circumstance and my emotions follow my thoughts, that's just how we're made as human beings. If something happy is happening, then our spirits are often uplifted, but when there's troubles and trials, that can bring our spirits low. And so we can feel certain emotions and that's okay. We want to feel those emotions but what we do next matters and what I've learned is that I can come to God just as I am, just as messy as I am, just in my need and he wants that. God wants that. He doesn't want us to be strong in ourselves. He doesn't want us to override our emotions. You'll hear me talking about that again and again and again and again during these broadcast because it's so important that we understand that God wants us to come to him exactly as we are because life is messy and he knows that we have an enemy that does hate us and is out to destroy us. So in coming to God is like running to a natural father who's as tall as the Empire State Building and is strong and is for us as a lioness or a roaring male lion would be for the cub. Whenever we come, that's how he rears up and comes to our defense. So when we come to him, then we find safety, we find refuge, we find rescue. But we try to do things on our own, then the enemy can come and he can rip us even further. So just picture that, but come to God just exactly as you are.

So Paul's prayer, getting back to that in verse 16 of Ephesians 3, he's saying, what he's asking is that we be strengthened with power through his spirit, God's spirit, in our inner man. 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 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. So let's spend a little time dwelling there. So how he's gonna strengthen us, it's our faith in coming to him. That means we believe that we're gonna be helped when we come to him. That's having faith in Christ. So he's in our hearts. So God's work in us is to convince us through our coming again and again and again, just how much he loves us. So it says being rooted and grounded in love. So if you can picture a small oak tree, maybe even just as an acorn, it is very small and it's very vulnerable, but it is in the dirt and it's safe. And then it begins to sprout, and then it starts to come up through the earth, and then it sprouts, and there you see the makings of an oak tree. So it is an oak tree and the same thing with us. When we're believers in Christ, we are Christ followers and He is in us and we're in Him. Again, that's not gonna change no matter whether we're a small acorn or if we're a sprouting oak or if we're a big tall strong oak. But in regard to the love of God.

He wants us to be so rooted and grounded in love, convinced of God's love, that we would be able to see that we can come to Him and we can receive the fullness of the riches, of the glory that He talked about just in the verse before this. So it is in coming to Him where God causes our roots to go deeper and they get stronger.

The roots on a small plant that's just starting to break out of the seed, those are very spindly roots and it wouldn't take much to break them off. But God himself is the one who grows us and we grow in relationship by coming. So it is him who causes us to grow those strong roots. But why? He wants us to...to understand. He said that you might be able to comprehend. That means understand. Might be able to understand with all the saints. So the saints are those that are in right standing with God. It doesn't mean that a person has to be a Catholic or has to be very, I want to say pious. I hope that's not too big to understand, but somebody just completely without sin and they're up on a pedestal, it's not that at all, but a saint is a Christ follower, one who believes in Jesus as their personal savior and Lord. So he wants us to understand what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge. So it's so wide. If you can put out your arms in any direction, and it goes out infinitely and your arms don't actually meet. The love of God is just so big and even walking with the Lord 48 years is sometimes I struggle to think that He really wants to be with me that much, you know, so I have more to grow in knowing the love of God. And yes, He wants me to come. Yes, He doesn't have to stop the universe just because I'm coming.

For example, I'm just telling you, you know, where I sometimes struggle with, God, do you really want to spend time with me? You know, it's not an interruption, but he really wants us to know the love of Christ. And it says it surpasses knowledge. So it's no wonder my brain is having a hard time accepting it. It's so much bigger than the knowledge that my brain can handle because we're talking about his heart reaching into our hearts.

So yeah, we are beginning to see the heart of God, aren't we? And the reason why he wants us to know how much we love him, it says in verse 19, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. If you can picture yourself as a glass with a little bit of water in it, that's not good enough for God. Nope, he wants to add more.

And then as we're able to take that in, he wants to add more and he wants to add more and add more. And when you think that you are full, you're going to feel like, no, there's more, there's more. I'm thirsty or I want more, I want more. And he's going to pour it in and we're going to run over the living water of God is going to overflow us as that glass that I'm comparing. And that's okay. You know what? He's going to keep pouring into the overflow because then it goes out to other people and that's the miracle of the abundant life of God is not only for us, but it's for those around us. And that's how all the nations are reached because when we're so filled with the love of God and the presence of God, then we begin to tell other people it's just a natural thing. It's nothing you can hold back. It's just when you know that it is so good and somebody else is empty and they're broken for example and you can tell them this is what he did for me I came to know how much he loved me I came to know how much he cares for me and he loves you and cares for you too so that's what I mean he keeps pouring into the overflow and I love the way chapter 3 ends in the last two verses 20 and 21

This says, to him, meaning God, now to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. Verse 20 is too good to not tear apart. Now to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think. So if you come to him and you're asking, you think it's a big request? Nope. It says he's able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask. So he's able to do it, plus his heart of love wants to do it for us. And then if you can think it, we're still thinking too small, because God wants to do more. Sometimes, you know, He doesn't give us the thing that we're asking because the thing that we're asking would limit us. It would in some way hold us back. So if God holds back on that thing that we're asking for, maybe that's the thing that will keep us pressing into Him, keep our hearts coming to meet with His heart. Do you see if He stops and says, okay, you asked for that, here it is. Now go play. No, no, no, no. God wants us, he wants us to know him. And how do we know him? Many times it's when we are most needy, that's when we come to him and when we're broken too. Brokenness is actually a good thing, it hurts like crazy. I...consider myself somebody who's been broken a lot through these decades that I've known the Lord just because other people who are broken know how to break people and I've lived a lot of that. But I tell you what I've received in God, sometimes the bad thing doesn't stop meaning the emotional or a mental assault against my inner being. Maybe it doesn't go away.

That person has a free will I can move away from it definitely we can move away from it and I've learned to do that I do that and I I hope that you will too because God is not in abuse for example so if that's a situation you're in then I would say get out in the name of Jesus get out get to a safe place so I don't want you to to do that but I just use that as an example for me. I've chosen to stay in some difficult relationships and whenever I am separated, put some distance between me and that person, for example, then I go to God and I begin to pour out my heart and sometimes it's hurting so badly or sometimes I'm so angry, so angry because I don't like it. I don't like it. It's not fair. You know, I tried to be good and kind and

Do the right thing and the other person being broken doesn't have insight can't see but I can see I can see that I can go to God and that I can receive not only for myself but whenever he settles me on my inside then I can be used to pray for that broken person so do you see what I mean so

He can do exceedingly abundantly. it's again, sometimes he doesn't give us the thing that we're asking for or thinking about. Like if this would stop, then I would be happy. Or if this would stop, then my life would be fine. Well, God uses the troubles and trials and he turns them for our good. And sometimes that means that we find that he's right in the trouble and in the trial right with us.

And that is so precious. can't tell you how much that has meant to me because I know that he has a daddy heart and I can see myself climbing up in his lap or I can see myself coming to sit beside him or I can I can know that that he's he's right there. He just is loving me. I guess he's taking in the hurt. He's taking the sting away, you know, things like that. So I'm so glad that he can do the exceedingly, abundantly thing and it could be over and done with but the thing that is beyond what I would ask or think even just how he interacts with me and how he takes time to love me and to be with me that that is more of a gift to me than if he would make the bad thing go away. I hope that gives you some encouragement in your trouble in your trial today.

And then the chapter ends with verse 21. says, Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. So to Him be the glory. That's the shining brilliance. There's nobody like God. There's nobody like Jesus, the Son who came for us. There's nobody like the Holy Spirit of God that is in us and with us. So

He is that person who is worthy of our praise. When we see Him for who He is, how kind He is, how loving, how good, how ferociously for us He is, how safe we are, how He shepherds us, I encourage you to read Psalm 23. It is so precious. It's been ministering to me so much in these last days.

But when we see the brilliance of his character and his ways and we see his heart, then we can't help but to come and give thanks and give praise. if you don't know him too well and you haven't seen too much of his character and his heart, would say just ask him, Spirit of God, would you help me to see God the Father and Jesus for who you are, I want to know you. I want to know the love of God that surpasses my knowledge. I don't know very much, I want a knowing that surpasses what I know, which means you have room to grow in the love of God, just like I talked about. He will do that for you. So no matter where you are in your walk with the Lord, I want you to know that there's room to grow and He has the exceeding abundantly to give to us, to give to you my friend. So I pray that Ephesians chapter 3 in our short time together blesses you and that you understand the heart of God even more. So if I could pray for you, pray together with you before I go, that would be an honor.

So let's go to him now. Father, we just thank you for the word of God, for in your word we do see, we begin to understand just what your heart is for us, that you want us to live in your love that is so high, so deep, so broad, so much more than we could ever think. I pray for my friend that my friend would come to know you a little bit better even today. That when we move towards you, you are already there. You're not far from any one of us. You are right there. And you hear the heart, Lord, no matter whether it's a broken, messy heart, a floundering heart, a childlike heart, you are there. You are there. And you want to give of yourself. And so we thank you that you're there. Thank you for your loving kindness. I commit my friend to you that you will help them and you will help them to know you better. I give you thanks, dear Jesus, for all that you've done. Thank you for this word today and bless it. In Jesus' name, amen. So friend, if you have enjoyed the show today and you find some benefit, I would ask that you would share it with a friend and I just thank you for coming today and listening.

We will be looking at Ephesians chapter four the next time we're together. May God richly bless you.