It's a great thing. Father, we love you. Lord, thank you for loving us. And God, I pray that you would speak to our hearts through your word. There's nothing I can do, Lord, to help these folks outside of your word. And Lord, I know the word of God is taught and preached here faithfully. And God, we thank you that we can gather in your house. I pray for Bible preaching churches across America and across the world. God, that you would bless them, that souls would be saved, that your people would be strengthened. God, we know we need a revival in our land. Lord, our missionaries, many of them have already had services. Some may be still in the same time region. Lord, bless them, and we pray. Thank you for your goodness to us. Thank you for your word, and please bless it. We'll praise you for it all. In Jesus' name, amen. Ephesians chapter three, right? The book of Ephesians. And we have Paul writing from a Roman prison. All right, I'm not gonna ask you if you've been in prison before, but I don't think you've been in a Roman prison and they weren't very nice. Oft times, you would actually get shackled to a guard in these places and it was rough. And Paul, in this book, while in prison, speaks 15 different times about the love of God. 15 times about the love of God. You might wonder how much God loves you if he allows you to get thrown into prison. That's what happened for brother Paul here. And he has, Paul, a special appreciation for the love of God, I believe. You see, who was Paul before he was Paul? He was Saul. How many of you know the story of Saul? Met Christ on the Damascus road. He spent his life, we get familiar with these characters, he was a murderer. He persecuted anyone who loved Christ. He hated Christ. And now he's been redeemed, is a child of God, and is serving the Lord. You know, the Bible says, he who's forgiven much, loveth much. And you wonder how old brother Paul is 15 different times thanking God for his love in this book, but he was not always a lovely man. And yet God loved him anyway, even though he was this murderer and really one that would abuse Christians. So Paul has a love for Christ. I love Paul's term in Christ. We often say, are you saved? Are you born again? And they're both Bible words, they're great words. But Paul loved the word in Christ. You know, in the New Testament, 180 times it references being in Christ. That's how he referred to himself. By the way, aren't you glad that when you're in Christ, The Holy Spirit seals you and you can't get out. You don't have to keep yourself in. What a blessing that is. And if you're in Christ today, you ought to thank God. We get baptized into the body of Christ through the Holy Spirit of God when we call on Him for salvation. If you're not in Christ today, it's God's will that you would be saved, that you would be in Christ. but 143 times Paul says, I'm in Christ, I'm in Christ, I'm in Christ, and it's good to be in Christ. And so here he is, he's in Christ, he loves God, and he's also in prison. And let's pick it up in verse 13, Ephesians chapter four and verse number 13, excuse me, Ephesians three and verse number 13. Wherefore, I desire that you faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. Paul says to this, don't be discouraged at my tribulations, what I'm going through. You ever see someone go through something and it's a difficult time and it just burdens your heart? Here, Paul says, look, I'm in jail. But don't let that pull you down. And he was in jail for preaching the gospel. And so as a believer, that could scare you. That could make you draw back. He said, no, no, no, no, no. Don't don't allow this. My tribulation to cause you to faint. Don't quit. Keep going for this cause. I bow my knee unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We just read about Daniel living with his windows open and bowing his knee. Paul's like, look, I'm in jail, and surely it causes me to bow my knee and talk to Christ about it, but don't feign it, this. God is good, God loves me, and all is well, and you just keep going for God, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. Aren't you glad to be named with the family of God? What a blessing it is. Paul often taught them, listen, it's not about Jews and Gentiles. We're all one in Christ when you've been born again. We're Christians, right? And so here, I love that song. I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God. And I'm a Yankee from New Jersey, down here with the West Virginia, respectfully, Hillbillies. And guess what? We're all part of the same family. And thank God for that. You may think I say some weird words, and I think you say some weird words. Hey, that's just the way it is, but one day we'll all talk the heavenly language. I don't know what that is, but he said, look, we've got this family of God in heaven named after Christ. We're Christians. We're not Jews. We're not Gentiles. We're not divided. We're one in Christ. That He would grant you according to the riches of His glory, and by the way, God is rich in His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. Grant you according to the riches of His glory that the inner man would be strengthened. You know, we can focus on the outward a lot. We need to be strong inwardly. You look like you've been hitting the gym, choir director, all right? I don't know. I said to Travis, I'm like, he's a big dude, all right? So, but you know what? Hey, what do we do? We go to the gym. We get up this morning. I hope you did. Ladies put the makeup on, do the hair, do this. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with that. But it's easy in this world to emphasize and to take care of the outer man. Paul's like, man, I want you to be strong inwardly. We're part of the family of God. I'm in Christ. Yeah, I'm in jail. Don't worry about that. I'm praying about it. God loves me. And here's the message of Paul. And notice what he says here. Verse 17, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. Yeah, Ephesians two, eight, nine, for by grace, you save through what faith, right? That none of yourselves. It's a gift of God that she being. And here's our sermon for today. Church rooted. And grounded in love, rooted and grounded in love. And this morning, we're going to look at four things about the love of God, four things today about the love of God. And our first point is from verse 17. And that's this, the love of God. is our foundation. Maybe you wanna write these down. It is our foundation. Notice what he says, rooted and grounded in love. We all understand how root systems work, right? And you have a tree or you have a plant and those roots begin to grow down into the earth and it's through these roots that you receive nourishment and it's through the root system that the tree the bush, the flower has strength to stand. And it is the strength, right? It is the foundation for that plant. It says rooted and grounded. That word grounded talks about the foundation or the footings of a building. If we were to go down around the perimeter of this building, there's a foundation and there is the footings. And you say, that's what's holding up this building. The root system is what holds up the tree. And we've seen them get uprooted and come down, right? Paul says this, you and I, as believers in Christ, you're rooted, you're grounded. Your foundation is the love of God. The love of God. It's the love of God that keeps you standing. It's the love of God that keeps me standing. It's the love of God that gives us stability. Here's Paul, you're saying, how's he dealing with prison? How's he dealing with what he's going through? 15 times in this book, he talks about the love of God, and he says this, it's our root system, it's our foundation, it's how we stand in this life, knowing, watch, God loves you. And God loves me. My note in my Bible, you probably write in yours too, it says this, my stability and strength is God's love for me. my roots. It keeps me standing. I don't know what's shaking you today. I don't know what may be coming in your world. I mentioned a few months back my wife breaking her back. That was a tough situation. You'll deal with other things, maybe a report from a doctor, a problem with the relationship, maybe it's employment situation. I don't know. But Paul teaches us, listen, your foundation, the thing that holds you up every day is not your circumstances. It's the fact that God loves you and God loves me. This is not, we see sometimes the TV evangelist and preachers and all that, and their only message is God loves you. And it shouldn't be the only message, right? It should be, you need to be born again, and there's consequences for sin, and be holy for God is holy, and on and on. The whole counsel of God. But listen. The greatest message is this, that God is love. And we should not avoid that, maybe because people overemphasize it. Brother Paul said, the thing that's gonna be your root system, your foundation, keep you standing, is knowing every day when you get up, God loves me. Yeah, but what about that? God loves me. God loves me more than I could ever imagine. Do you know today that God loves you? I tend to be a worrier. Confess my sin. I tend to stress. There's a lot of days where I gotta wake up and say, it's gonna be all right, because God loves you, Mike. And God loves me. And God cares for me. You gotta know that. And he loves you a lot, people. Look at this, verse number 18. We're rooted and grounded in love. 17, may be able to comprehend with all saints. Look how Paul tries to explain it to us. What is the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of God? And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge. If we were to take a tape measure today and run it out the back door of our church, and just keep going and going and going, and you run it this way to this way, and we run it up as high as we can and as down as we can, Paul says, listen, you can't measure the love of God. It's greater than that. It's bigger than that. But what if I've done wrong? No, God loves you and God loves me. And look at this. And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge. Again, my note in my Bible, what we need to know is that God loves us more than we can ever know. It almost seems like a contradiction. You need to know the love of Christ, but it passes knowledge. So you can't really know it. So what is it that we can know? That he loves you more than you could ever know. It like blow your mind. Like you can't comprehend how much, and this is personal, listen, he loves every one of you. He loves me. That is our God. And Paul is letting us know God loves you. It's immeasurable. Length, right? Breath, depth, height. You can't wrap your brain around it. It's beyond comprehension how much God loves you and how much God loves me. Do you understand one's potential to grow upward is directly related to the depth of our foundation, and our foundation has to be the love of God. The devil tries to discourage us. Every day, the devil tries to discourage you and me. And I need to remind you today, and you need to remind yourself, we can stand because no matter what we face, and I don't know what you're going through, God loves you and the love of God is your foundation. It's your foundation. It's got to be it's got to be in this world. We have tribulation in this world. We'll have storms, but I'm okay because God loves me. Notice this he continues on and to know the love of Christ verse 19. which passes knowledge that she might be, notice what it says, filled with all the fullness of God. Not only is God's love our foundation, but God's love is what will give us fullness in life. fullness in life. Do you see what Paul said there in 19? He said, and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, it's incredible. And you've got to know this about God's love, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Later on in the book, in 518, we're commanded to be filled with the Spirit. We understand what that means, right? To be filled with the Spirit. I often pray this, I say, God, and I am not a perfect man by any means, and neither are any of us, I say, God, I want you to fill me. And you understand when you accept Christ, we're indwelt with the Holy Spirit. But as we yield to God's will in our life and to the Spirit of God, we pray that, man, from the bottom of my feet to the top of my head, God, I want to be full. I want you to have all of me. I want to be totally, as you said in 518, not to walk in the flesh, but to be filled with the Spirit of God. In order to experience God, fully experience God, you have to understand the love of God. The love of God. And this truth, by the way, will enrich your life. Let me read this verse to you. The love of God, by the way, that should give you fullness is the fact that God's love is enduring. It's enduring. Jeremiah 31.3, Jeremiah says it this way. The Lord has appeared of old unto me saying, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Everlasting love church therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee You say why should the love of God fill me up and fill my life and enrich my life? Because God's love is enduring. He says I've loved you with an everlasting love Church, God will never stop loving you. I Think about that. That ought to fill you up. That ought to wake you up in the morning and say, this is my foundation and my life is good because I have a God who loves me and no matter what comes my way, he'll never stop loving me. He loves you today and he will love you forever. That should fill us this morning. It's an enduring love. It's an inseparable love. Romans 8, 37 to 39. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I'm persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God. which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Not only is his love enduring, his love is inseparable. There's nothing that will ever come between you and God's love. There's nothing that can ever separate you from God's love. And listen, I'm not taking sin lightly, not even your sins. Paul said, should we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. We should not sin. But when we sin, thank God, we have an advocate with the Father, and He forgives us for our sins if we confess them. But listen, God's love for you is not hinging on your performance and how well you do. He doesn't love you less when you sin. That is not the nature of our God. Now that breaks fellowship, and God chastens those who do wrong. But you listen to me, He loves you now, and He will love you forever. and the devil jumps up and he tries to discourage you because you did this or because you do that. God doesn't love you the way he used to love you. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not our God. His love for us is not depending on you and me. His love is forever. It's everlasting. His love is enduring. His love is inseparable. And that ought to wake you up in the morning and say, I'm okay because God loves me. It's my foundation. It's what fills me up. He loves me more than I can even comprehend. I'll do a wedding this week. The vows will be said, the promises will be said, till death do us part. Forever. That marriage relationship. Sadly, not everybody keeps those promises, preacher. But God's not slack concerning His promise. and He loves you forever. I told my wife, I said, you're stuck with me. You're stuck with me forever. I said, you can leave me, but I'll follow you. I said, that's just the way it goes. Try to run, I will torture you. I will follow you till we die, till death do us part. That woman stuck with me. Hey, far greater than any love that I could ever work up or have for her is the love that God has for you and me. And listen to me, church, He loves you now, He'll love you forever, and He loves you no matter what. That's our God. And God says, you know what this should do? It should fill you up. Some of you don't believe that. I've got my water bottle here. This water bottle is not full. And I'm not gonna attempt to take this full one and put it in there because I won't get it without spilling it on preacher's pulpit, all right? And then I may never be back at Cranberry. Paul said this, if you don't understand the love of God, you're not going to be full the way God wants you to be. I wonder this week if that's how we are sometimes because we're just missing how much God loves us. Yeah, but I didn't do this and stop. Whatever you didn't do, get it straightened out. Whatever you did do that you shouldn't do, don't do it anymore. But that has nothing to do with God and how much he loves you. And Paul says, it is what fulfills you in life, knowing God's love for you. It is your foundation that keeps you standing. God's love for you and God's love for me. Let's move on quickly. Notice this. And all this, and I love it. This is you and God stuff. But look as he gets into chapter number four. I therefore the prisoner of the Lord, for one, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called. Paul's saying, you know what, if you're all in Christ, if you're all believers, we ought to walk like that. We ought to live like that. Don't you agree, Christians ought to live like Christians? A lot of people won't go to a church today because they say, you know what, they're all a bunch of hypocrites. Haven't we heard that? And we should not be. But reality is, we do wrong, we're not perfect, but we ought to, as ambassadors for Christ, represent Him well. And Paul says this, hey, walk worthy of your calling. Walk like a Christian. Live like a Christian. With all, this is how we should walk, lowliness. You know what that is? That's humility. Only by what comes contention? Pride. Give us a Cranberry Baptist Church where everyone has lowliness, humility, we'll have a unified church. We will, we'll have a unified church. He said, I want you to walk with lowliness and meekness, all not arrogance, meekness. You remember Moses, the meekest man. He was a pretty powerful guy. Those plagues that were performed by God at his hand, he did some stuff that no one in the world has ever done, preacher. If you could do things that no one in the world can do, you might get a little big-headed, you might get a little arrogant. Not Moses, meek, humble, lowliness of mind. And then notice what it said here. Lowliness, meekness, with long-suffering. Long-suffering, patience. And then it says this, forbearing one another in love. Forbearing one another in love. You see, fullness of God, that's a vertical thing. That's you and God. That's getting up and going, God loves me. Forbearing one another in love, that's horizontal. That's because God loves me. I am forbearing with all those living around me. What's that word forbearance mean? It means this, to refrain or abstain from. Like where I want to do something, but I hold back. Patient when annoyed. Oof. Patient when annoyed. Slow to retaliate. Like I wanna do something but I don't, I'm slow to retaliate, I'm forbearing. I'm gonna be patient when I'm annoyed. Why? Because I understand God's love. Do you understand people who are securing God's love will have the ability to be forbearing, to be patient with others. This is how we're supposed to live. Matthew said it this way. You have heard that it has been said, Matthew 5, 43, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies. How do you do that? How does one love when they have the love of God in them? That's how they do it. That's how they do it. Bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you. and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. For he maketh his Son to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more than others? Do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Here Matthew is saying, you know what you need to do? Love the people that aren't easy to love. Be kind to the people that annoy you. Get along with people that at times do you wrong. And you know what we need to do? We need to be patient. And here he's talking about his enemies. We need to be patient with this ungodly world around us. Absolutely, to hold back, to refrain from. Couple months back, I was in a coffee shop. We asked for a hot tea. And then, the young lady that was with me, it's actually my daughter's sister-in-law, Meredith was with me, and she said to the lady that gave her the hot tea, she said, thank you, ma'am. And the lady's like, huh. And she holds up a button, and it says, they and them. She did not want to be referenced as a ma'am. She wanted to be gender neutral there, all right? Don't use the pronouns that are gender specific. And they hold you this, and there's something in you that wants to go, you know what, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, you know, and you shouldn't. And it kind of gets you fired up, doesn't it? But you know what, you know why this is happening? She needs Christ. She needs Christ and as you kind of walk away and refrain from right and and hold back on people that annoy you and You start thinking wait What about God's love? He's patient. He's kind and I mean that then all of a sudden it changes you see that's I know that's her doing and but that's at fault because that's happening because she doesn't know Christ. And it allows us to be forbearing. I have a guy in my church right now, his name is Brian. They built a new house. They found out after they built the house, they're living next to psycho neighbor, crazy man. And Brian is out there and he's planting some bushes in the yard and it's on the property line, but he's on his yard. And this man literally is trying to brush up against him with the lawnmower, like a riding mower, blade spinning on whatever. And his wife starts to video it. She's like, this guy is nuts. And then he's putting all these ugly posted signs and this and that. And there's a side of Brian that just, he's like, what am I gonna do with this guy? And then the spiritual side of Brian kicks in. And literally he says to me, will you pray with me about this? He needs the Lord. I mean, at this point, he's an enemy, if you would. But the forbearance in us, our ability to get along with and be patient with the ungodly, it comes from this, the love of God. It is our foundation that we stand on. It is what gives us fullness, and it allows us to be forbearing. And not just with the ungodly, but also patient with our family. our Christian family. Boy, we get so easily irritated, but that's not the way God is. I love the verse in 2 Corinthians chapter four, verse six and seven. We don't have time to go there, but it's where Paul is talking to the Corinthian church about Christ coming into their lives and saving them and having Christ in them. And then he says this, and we have this treasure, Christ in us, in earthen vessels. watching preacher's lips move, he knows the verse, earthen vessels. You know what that means? It means your preacher, means this young lady, we have Christ in us and we have incredible gifts, but when the sun sets, we still have them in earthen vessels. I'm just a human. I mess up. I'm not always perfect. You're not always perfect. And someone that understands the love of God, I'm not annoyed constantly. You understand? That's why marriages break up. That's why there's strife in homes. That's why there's strife among siblings. That's why there's strife in churches at times, because we're not getting this love of God thing the way we should, because then we'll love like God, and we'll be forbearing. We'll be forbearing. Last Sunday we ran downstairs to go to church. We have an 8 a.m. service, so I try to get there by 7.30. My wife was coming with me, and she runs sound at church, and we were taking two different vehicles. So I open the door, and I get my vehicle. She opens the door, sits down in her, and she says, oh, I forgot my phone. I think it's upstairs. And I thought, do you not know where upstairs is? I mean, your back's not broken anymore. I mean, what? She didn't say, will you go get my phone? And I get out of the car, preacher, and I'm trying to get there, garage door opens, and I actually, I was laughing because I thought about this very point. You know how many times I've left something? Babe, could you get this? And they're patient with me. And so I'm literally just laughed, I ran upstairs, I found it, it was a blue phone case sitting on a blue shirt. So that was not, there you are. And I run down and I, here babe, let's go to church, right? But the stuff that gets us, that ability to not be annoyed. If we understand the love of Christ, it fixes it. It fixes it. I gotta be done. We'll just hit this one. Guys, if you would come, I'm gonna have you sing a song, Trav. Look at chapter five, and let's be done with this. Look at chapter five. Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children. Are we supposed to be followers of God? Absolutely. And notice what he says. And walk in love. You know how you're gonna be a follower of God? And that's our fourth point. The love of God is our foundation. The love of God gives us fullness. The love of God will cause us horizontally with the people around us to be forbearing. But the only way you can truly be a follower of God, I mean really be the follower of God that you're supposed to be, is if you walk in love, which is exactly what verse two says. And what's it mean if I'm a follower of God? Well, these verses throughout the beginning of chapter five, verses three to eight, speaks of all kinds of things that you shouldn't do. And then you see the rest of the chapter, nine through the rest of the chapter, and even into chapter six, tells us how we should live, filled with the Spirit, and wives loving their husbands, and husbands loving their wives. In chapter six, children loving their parents. What do we say that is? It's living like a Christian. It's staying away from the wrong, it's doing the right thing. Paul says, be a follower of God, but in order to do it, you gotta walk in love. That's how you're a follower of God. When you understand God loves me, and I love God, and therefore I live like a follower of God. I live like a Christian. Love is the greatest motivator. You hear people, man, the Christian life is tough. No, no, no, no, not if you understand how God loves you and you love God. Can I say this to us? I don't know who's here this morning. The first step at following God, being a follower of Christ, is knowing that you have Christ in your heart, knowing that you're a child of God, knowing that you've been saved. If you're here, God loves you. loves you so much, he gave his life on the cross for you. And today you could come down here, take the pastor's hand, a lady would show you, if you're a lady, how you can be saved. A man, if you're a man, could show you how you can be saved. If you say, Mike, I've already done that, then let me just remind you, like Paul did 15 times in this six chapter book, God loves you. It's the foundation that'll keep us standing. I don't know what's coming next week. I don't know what storm you'll face. I don't know what's gonna happen, but I know this, forever and always, He loves you, and that keeps you standing. What keeps a smile on your face, brother Paul, even when you're in prison? Oh, my fullness? It comes from the fact that God loves me. Well, as I go around this world, what about my neighbors and some of these people at the workplace that seem rough and ungodly? Well, I'm able to love them because I understand the love of God. What about my kids and my wife and my church family? You can love them too. It's called forbearing one another in love. What's the goal to hear well done? In order to hear well done, you got to follow God. Oh, but if you're going to be a follower of God, you've got to walk in love. See, because if you understand the love of God, you'll stay away from the ungodly things. You'll be filled with the spirit and want to have that relationship with your spouse and each other and children. You'll obey your parents and you'll honor them. All of it. But it's all done when we walk in love. In order to follow God, it's got to be in love. John 3.16, if you're not saved for God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son. I'm thankful today for the love of God. What a God we have. The kids will sing, pastor will come right after that, take the invitation as the Lord leads. Thank God for his love.