JUNE 18th, 2023 PASTOR DON PIEPER
FATHER'S DAY Romans 5:1-5
What's the Spirit Up To? Ephesians 2:18; 3:12, 14-21
“HE'S LOVING ON US!”
In honor of all the Dads here, or represented here, we bring you a day in the life of Calvin's dad:
(Sit and read newspaper. Fold paper, get up, walk a few steps, stop and scratch head)
Dad: (to cong.) Why is it that I can recall a commercial jingle from 25 years ago but I can't remember what I just got up to do? (Sits back down and opens paper)
Calvin: (walks up) Dad, why do my eyes shut when I sneeze?
Dad: If your lids weren't closed, the force of the explosion would blow your eyeballs out and
your eyes would flop around and you'd have to point them with your hands to see.
Calvin: Gross! Say, how come you know so much, Dad?
Dad: It's all in the book you get when you become a father.
Calvin: Really? Can I see it?
Dad: No, I'm afraid not. Sorry.
Calvin: Well, why not?
Dad: It talks about what it's like to raise a kid and you're not allowed to know that until it's too late not to have one. (C. storms off) (There's Treasure Everywhere)
That explains a lot, doesn't it? Like that book, a father's mind is a bit of a mystery. But what of his heart? At the heart of Ephesians, both in terms of its literary location and in terms of its significance, Paul offers a glimpse of our Father God's heart: “Now all of us can come to the Father through the Holy Spirit, because of what Christ has done for us. Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God (the Father's) presence.” (Ephesians 2:18; 3:12)
Paul's prayer reveals that God wants us to be able to come to him, and both understand, as well as experience, His reckless love for us by filling us with His Spirit. That's what the Spirit is up to...!
But comprehension is not so easy. Paul concedes that we'll never fully comprehend it. (Ephesians 3:19) That's not too surprising. We struggle to comprehend love in general: She loves me; she loves me not...
If we can't comprehend the mindset or the heart of those we can see, how can we hope to ever comprehend that of the Almighty? Yet, even so, Paul prays that we may “have the power to under-stand how wide, how long, how high, and how deep God's love for us really is.” (Ephesians 3:18)
Why does Paul bother to pray this if no one will ever fully understand it? Because the ability to comprehend is a gift. It comes thru a power that is beyond us, the power of the Holy Spirit. That's why Paul prays not only for an understanding but for an experience: “May you experience the love of Christ, then you will be filled with the fulness of life and power that comes from God.” (Ephesians 3:19)
But if God's love is so deep and wide, what keeps us from experiencing his love all the time, 24-7? Three things get in the way: 1) We devalue ourselves; 2) We inflate ourselves; or 3) We distract ourselves. Many of us devalue ourselves. We become convinced that God could never really love us. Usually this is because we've come to believe a lie about us, or God, or both. Chuck demonstrates...
Charlie Brown: I can't talk to that little red-haired girl because she's really something and I'm
nothing. If I were something and she were nothing, I could talk to her or if she were something
and I were something, then I could talk to her... Or if she were nothing and I were nothing, then
I also could talk to her..., but she's something and I'm nothing so I can't talk to her...”
Linus: For a nothing, Charlie Brown, you're really something. (The Parables of Peanuts, p 167)
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For those of us who devalue ourselves, listening to lies about who we are or aren't, scripture offers some powerful truth to counter those lies such as you were created in the image of God, or, … God so loves you that he sent his only son. Or from Paul: “(You) are God's masterpiece. He created you anew in Christ Jesus to do the good things He planned for you long ago.” (Ephesians 2:10) Those of us inclined to devalue ourselves we'd do well to keep insights in mind.
On the other hand, many go to the other extreme of inflating themselves, convincing themselves of themselves, that they don't need help from beyond. As it says on the bumper-sticker: “I couldn't have done it without me.” Really? Some of us risk pulling a muscle patting ourselves on the back.
You've heard how a celebrity changes a lightbulb, haven't you? He or she just grabs on and waits for the world to revolve around them! Pastor Erwin McManus speaks to this:
“There's a difference between loving ourselves and being in love with ourselves. When we're in love with ourselves we are prone to only listen to what we want to hear. We want to feel good about ourselves more than we want ourselves to be good. When we fill our lives with loving ourselves, we make no room to experience God's love for us.” (Erwin McManus)
If we're to experience the love of God in all its power than we must simultaneously see ourselves as prince and beggar. In the words of Martin Buber: “Everyone must have two pockets, so that he can reach into the one or the other according to his needs. In his right pocket are to be the words, 'For my sake was the world created,' and in his left pocket; 'I am dust and ashes.'” (Martin Buber)
A third hinderance is that of our being distracted, of being too busy. Never in the history of the world have so many people tried to cram so many activities into a 24-hour day. Truth is, we have no less time than our ancestors. We'rejust more stretched, “like too little butter spread over too much toast.” (Bilbo Baggins)
Many of us can relate. As the Red Queen quipped, “It takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!” (The Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland).
But if we want to sense the presence of God, if we want to experience his love for us in all its fulness, then we must slow down...and still down. It’s interesting to note that the majority of folks who share what they liked most about Alpha, tend to celebrate the moment we all all got quiet...
So how does that work? How can you experience more of His love for you? Paul's prayer points the way. Among other things, he prays, “May Christ make his home in your hearts as you trust in him.” (Ephesians 3:17) It starts by our inviting him into the most intimate, private places of our lives...
Ever visit someone who told you as you entered their home, “make yourself at home”? Well, if anyone ever does, don't believe them! They don't mean it! And neither do you!
You don't really want them to make themselves at home – trust me! They'd help themselves to your food, sit in your favorite recliner, hog the TV remote, leave their smelly socks in the living room, brush their teeth with your toothbrush, and sing in the shower – loudly and off-key!
They'd move in and never move out! They'd be squatters! And Jesus? He'd see what you eat, how much you drink, how you talk to your spouse when you’re tired! He'd see what you spend your money on, what kind of movies you watch, your closet skeletons, and your colorful underwear!
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And that's just your home! What if He made himself at home in your heart? He'd be privy to what you think about, what you dream and fantasize about, what you fear and your buried pain. He knows all that already and still wants to come in and make himself at home amidst your dirty laundry.
Paul's saying, the one who loves you like no other, wants to come in... His plan is to share his heart with you – his heart for you – and how he can help make the best you!
Second, Paul prays that your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong. (Ephesians 3:17) Wesink our roots into God's love by rooting our day to day lives in his Word. Paul's metaphor echoes back to the very first psalm: “Those who delight in the word of the Lord, meditating on it day and night, are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season.” (Psalm 1:2-3)
By spending time in the Word we come to understand and appreciate the heart and mind of God. We come to recognize his voice, his still, quiet and compelling voice. I'm not sure when but somewhere along the way of thirty years of marriage this August I came to recognize Claudia's voice. I can pick out her voice in a crowded room. She could remain hidden to me by being silent but as soon as she begins to talk and laugh my Claudia antennae can pick her out anywhere.
So, it is with Jesus – or so it should be. If we spend enough time with him, if he's at home in our home and in our hearts, he will speak life and truth and love into our lives, and we'll recognize it's him!
Finally, Paul prays for his friends to be filled with the Holy Spirit, that “God will empower you with inner strength through His Spirit..., so that you may experience the love of Christ..., and so that you will be filled with the fulness of life and power from God.” (Ephesians 3:16, 19)
That is God's heart, to empower you with His Spirit as you experience Christ's love for you.
[Brings to mind a book I just read of a little girl, who's short life seemed to be at an end...., only to find herself on Jesus' lap... Young Colton in the book 'Heaven Is For Real', experienced the same thing. It's an image that resonates with me because of a powerful moment during my sleepwalking days....
My nightmare ended with me sitting on my father's lap, coaxing me back to reality and his love...}
I've experienced that love at worship on occasion, or as he healed me of some inner hurt thru TPM, at multiple Alpha retreats, but most consistently God's reckless love has filled me as I'm given the chance to pray for others. I think that's how it’s supposed to work. We receive so we can give it away. It grows as its shared. We're filled...so we can pour out into others!
God has made us a force to be reckoned with, praying prayers that make Satan tremble, as God's reckless love fills us and flows through us to those around us! “For we know how dearly Father God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.., (so that) we're able to accomplish infinitely more than we might even think or ask for!” (Romans 5:5/Ephesians 3:20)
So how about you? Can you comprehend how much God loves you? What if you could...?
Let me pray over you. “I pray that from God's glorious unlimited resources He will empower you with inner strength through His Spirit. / I pray that Christ will fully make his home in your heart as you increasingly trust in him. / May your roots grow down into God's love and keep you strong; / and may you have the power to understand, as all of us should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his (reckless) love for you really is. / May you experience the love of Christ, though it is far too great to understand fully. / (And as He fills you with His Spirit...), may you be made complete with all the fulness of life and power that comes from God...
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“All glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to (the Father) in the church and in Christ Jesus though all generations, (especially this generation), forever and ever! Amen!” (Ephesians 3:20-21)