Being Rooted and Grounded in Love (1)

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Hallelujah, mighty saviour, we’re continuing in Ephesians.  We’re still with ‘ Our Greatest Need ‘ , it seems like every week so far there’s been another Greatest Need. The Lord is wanting to get to our hearts with this. This week, maybe this week and the next, our ‘Greatest Need ‘ that we have is ‘God’s Love’; to know, to be touched by, to experience, to dwell in, to abide in God’s love.  So let’s read this, chapter 3 of Ephesians – if you remember – starting verse 14 …

 

Ephesians 3:14  ¶For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

15  Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,

16  That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;

17  That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

18  May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;

19  And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

20  Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,

21  Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

 

….We are looking here at being rooted and grounded in God’s love,  an agricultural term speaking of a tree that is rooted and grounded in God’s love.  The root not only enables the plant to get all the moisture and necessary food that it needs from the ground, but also a great anchoring – it provides stability. This is what the Lord is homing in on in our lives where we go through what we go through, to bring about these two things primarily: that stability – that anchoring in Him, established (once those roots are established), but also the ability to dig deep with those roots, to feed on Him that no matter what we go through we’re drawing our strength, our life from Him surrounded by His love.

 

It’s interesting isn’t it, it doesn’t say ‘rooted and grounded in truth‘ which praise God we are, nor ‘rooted and grounded in faith‘ and praise God for [faith], but He’s talking about love.  We are rooted and grounded in God’s love and that love comes through us to others.  I want to look at some of the ways in which we’re rooted and grounded in love because we’re not just simply taking messages from words on a page but what the Spirit is saying to us at this time.  In being rooted and grounded in God’s love, that love one to another, I believe and if I’m hearing correctly from the Holy Spirit, and in tune with what a lot of us are going through at this time in the assembly, we’re crying out for those deep touches from almighty God [ touch of God ]. 

 

Just as those trees by way of analogy going through their various seasons, touched if you like by rain, by sun, we’re going through some things whereby God is preparing us, and what He’s saying to us is that we have not because we ask not, and He’s getting us to that place where such a cry [comes] before him that cannot be denied, reaches up to the heavens for those touches, and those touches [ touch of God ]being that change of heart, that deliverance, because we’re all seeking change.

 

God is looking for fruit, and if we’re honest, at times, the fruit hasn’t always been there.  So what do we do, are we going to get condemned? Are we going to give up?  But no, we’re going to cry out to God for that change because Jesus Himself said that apart from Him we can do nothing.  So we’re coming to our wits end, we’re coming to an end of ourselves; we’re coming to [an end of] any thought that we can bear fruit in and of our own selves, in our own strength, and we’re crying out to God for those deep touches [ touch of God ], that change in our hearts, that deliverance, so that that fruit of the Holy Spirit flows.  It’s not something we strive at because it’s all part of the same tree, whether you’re talking about the will, the intellect, the spirit, the heart, the affections..

 

God doesn’t really divide man up, that developed over the years; the pagan Greek philosophy, psychology divides man up but God doesn’t.  There are different aspects, praise the Lord but basically if we’re in Christ we are new creations.  We looked at this last time – those that are in Christ are one spirit with the Lord, and so His Spirit must flow through ours.  There’s no difference, we will to do God’s will because that is the affection of our heart.  We have the mind of Christ and what we would call our thought processes are willingly subjected to the Holy Spirit.  So by His grace – His thinking, we’re thinking His thoughts.  We have the mind of Christ, our way of thinking is what He is presenting to us not our own ideas.  And that Word, that en-grafted Word which is able to save us – save our lives, that Word en-grafted into us is producing fruit.  This Word working effectually in us helps us believe and so produce that fruit, and we’re going to look at some scriptures now within this.  This is all God’s doing, the blessing of redemption.  You know, and rightly so, we’re wanting these healings, we’re wanting these deliverances – we’ve received it – we’re wanting all those things we’ve read about that we know God has promised.  But dear friends it comes rooted and grounded in love, His love, but feeding off that Word.

 

There are many ways in which God touches us [ touch of God ], do you know theology touches me, I am touched by God’s Word.  Theology is truth, it’s just truth, but it mustn’t be an intellectual exercise.  When we study for example the ‘Keys to the Kingdom’ and ‘What is the Church’ it’s not so that we’ve got a diploma and an intellectual ‘I know what the church is now’ and ‘I know what the Kingdom is’.  The question is now that I’ve heard that message do I know that I am a disciple, do I know that I am in the Kingdom? Am I in the Body of Christ?  Am I functioning in the place that God has given me?  Now that I know what the church is, or think I know, the point is am I experiencing abiding in that vine?  Is there fruit in my life?  Am I actually fulfilling the purpose, that glorious redemptive purpose for which God placed me in His body? That’s the point of it.  You know it’s a revelation, a personal relationship – redemptive revelation.  Do I know that I am a citizen of the Kingdom of God?  Have I seen the Kingdom?  Do I still think in terms of the world, the spirit of this age, am I still thinking denominationally?

With that in mind, that what God touches [ touch of God ].   He touches through His Word, He touches by His presence, He touches – the Holy Spirit is doing that just as Jesus in the gospels – He would lay hands and that person would be healed, He would speak the Word, whatever… When Jesus touches a life that life changes, He never leaves a person as He found them.  When He forgives He touches by His love, He touches by His mercy, that actual healing touch.  But now He’s touching [ touch of God ]by His Word, His Spirit is now fulfilling in and through us what He did in the gospels, what He purchased for us at Calvary.  The Spirit now – whatever Jesus did then He’s now doing in terms of resurrection and ascension.  It’s the Holy Spirit now fulfilling the Father’s will through our redemption.  Praise God, and it’s through you and I friends.  So It’s not our greatest need is a touch of God’s love.  Sure, but there’s a groaning creation out there, they’re looking to God, they’re groaning, waiting on their creator.  They’re crying out for a touch too, but who’s going to provide that touch [ touch of God ]? O friends – you and I!

We need the touch of God

Prophecy Touch of God

When that wonderful prophecy came through on Sunday morning I knew this was what the Lord was saying to this church, to those praise God who are listening to this.  The Holy Spirit I believe is encouraging, working with us now putting on our hearts to seek to get those touches of God [ touch of God].  We need those touches dear friends of deliverance, of change, and I believe this is something we need to be seeking God about in prayer personally and perhaps as an assembly, that the Lord does touches [ touch of God ], those healing delivering touches and that we’ll begin to bear the fruit of this walk, not just the theology of it.  Praise God for the knowledge – we start somewhere – we start with that, but we need to be seeing the fruit in this walk.

 

It can all be very harsh, now it is the message of the cross but if that’s all we hear – you know, we’re human – we need to be seeing the fruit that comes from this sacrifice, from the cross.  And often the things we think are a sacrifice, well actually it’s a deliverance, we’re letting it go – God is setting us free from it.  So with that in mind let’s have a look, we’re being encouraged this evening that we’re rooted and grounded in love to start with, so therefore that should be something we’re experiencing, [that] we’re seeing both in this time and in eternity.  Now let’s start with this, we’ll go to Psalm 1, there are many ways in which God is touching [ touch of God ] and causing us to bear fruit … … … … “

 

Psalm 1

New King James Version (NKJV)

 

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