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February 21, 2020 1:00 am
Oh you you know the love of God and that you would know his love is indeed deeper than the deepest ocean deeper than the deepest, deepest despair in God's love is deeper still, God's love is deeper than your deepest sin, pastor, author and Bible teacher Alan Wright. Welcome to shearing the program of healing and hope shearing.
The good news of what God is done for us in Jesus Christ were also to hear Allen's message in a series called Ephesians if you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program I want to make sure that you know how to get our special resource.
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Alan riding God's love transcends things we go through the adversities in life.
God's love transcends all points. What God wants you to know is, as long as the second obstacle and that is that when we have been hurt. We have sinful reactions to those those ones.
The wounds in the hurts that we experience is because of other sin.
But then we respond to it in a simple way, either by believing the wrong things or holding unforgiveness and our sinful responses end up being the very things that will hinder us from being able to openly receive love.
One of the things that need to be highlighted here is that when we are hurt.
This is especially important to the matter of giving and receiving love when we are hurt. Without God's grace and without forgiveness and with out an awareness of God's presence in the midst of that hurt that can sustain us through without that, we tend to develop unhealthy boundaries in one of two directions. We tend to either say I been abused and this must be why exist and so we have no boundary and people continue to use us and hurt us or we say have been hurt and we tend to put up a rigid boundary like a big wall to block everyone out a boundary. If you've ever been to our our conference, then you've heard me use this illustration to describe what boundaries are.
It is like the one time a year when in the city of Winston-Salem are our city services include one week where they will pick up large bulky items that you want to throw away and I don't want to have to drive him to the dump yourself so you can put your old broken gas grill in the old broken down lawnmower and and and any other large bulky items you put out the curb and sometime that week.
They'll come by and they'll pick up your stuff and take it off for but was so comical because what actually happens is that you put your stuff out of the curb and if people start cruising around in their pickup trucks and their Cadillacs and looking at other people's junk and they are just wanting to to take something that someone else have as to what we actually do.
I got a nice lampshade. This way when you're but actually is more of large items swap and this is really funny laugh about it all the time.
The people come out taking that you I never actually seen the truck come by.
I don't think they do. I think we just everybody else comes and takes her stuff. One year I had gone out there and I put it to curbside an old broken down lawnmower engine still work but everything else. The hand was all broken over it just is just better just to get to put out there so I put out there I went back is getting some other bulky item to take out to the curb and when I did there was a lady out there looking at my lawnmower as she looked up at me she said he said this is lawnmower still run. I said yes it does. So the engine still still work good on that lawnmower. She said it, it was still cut grass acid yellow blazer still five. As you look at issues and I'll know she said this handles really broken. How is it right is that we have that thing's auditor may be clamped or something like that talking about how have to spend time selling you my trash trash and I took lawnmower as me and it is a large lighted pickup week if you put something out the curb and the message is clear to anybody who passes by that is available for anybody to pick up my medicine I give up my garden started to gather up my garden hose connected to my faucet and I saw that I have to say hold on a minute that is not available the broken lawnmower at the curb available garden hose not available, and if they came back in my backyard*get my gas grill is our walk off with it and I said no that's not available if they start if they started up, taking my gas grill call the police might do something about that but you don't have to do that because it's very clear you don't have to put a sign in your yard that says stop at the curb available to anybody stuff not on the curb not available to anybody. It is just a click. It's a boundary it's invisible but is very clear right that's what boundaries are like for the sole and we have to have healthy boundaries with healthy boundaries.
This is this is why people that have been really hurt and really abused a really hard time with this is it it if someone is used you and hurt you. You could start thinking this is why exist anybody come and trample me in your heart just damaged over and over again. That's as having no boundaries never met, you have no boundaries for you to know that you are priceless of infinite value and therefore no one has the right to come and abuse you use you are you you have a yes and you have a no. But there's another kind of unhealthy boundary that often happens when our hearts have been hurt and that is over rigid big thick wall.
We put around her heart. This is what the Bible calls a heart of stone. This is where you say I've been hurt and nobody's ever to hurt me again and the problem is that when you put that kind of wall around your heart that's impermeable you are rejecting also the very love that will pulse praying because there's a spiritual battle that's going on in part of the battle is for us to be healed from the hurts of the past and as we have the healing mercy of God that we develop healthy boundary our life. It's like having a nice fence, not a giant thick wall but a nice fence with a good working gait that opens and closes say yes that's good that's love come in. No, that's bad. That's not love stamp say so. Responses to the hurt of life that develop unhealthy boundaries. That's the second obstacle and here's the third amongst many I could mention, but here's 1/3 is very important and that is self rejection, self-hatred, most people ever talk to about this would never think that this applied to them. But even people that are in rebellion. As I mentioned before, like the prodigal son who went to a faraway land and you might say with you all. He was interested in was himself that's all he cared about was himself no if you loved himself he would never sent himself to pigs and prostitutes in poverty. Would you ever send somebody that you love to a life of the prodigal know you know I do that somehow you hated to even people look like they are loving themselves are just self absorbed, because they haven't actually accepted themselves.
There's a lady of color Susan Chisholm church I pastored years ago and every time I saw her, she just seemed a little nervous.
She was sweet. She was kind she would do anything for you.
She's always look like that kind of person you say God bless you and it just like it would just bounce right off of her and never did understand this better and and then there's a timer. Some of us went to a conference at the end of that conference were standing in line to take communion so is so odd. The time to get ambushed by the Holy Spirit and she just said she just standing in line she came and told me about this afterwards. I saw her. She said I want to say what happening I could see me. I said Susan what a strange she's I was standing in line to take communion and some I have a T-shirt on in front of me is this said something like John 316 or something. God loves you were just it was something I'd seen a million times, she said, but I don't know why I was just standing there looking around and I just all of a sudden, I just felt the love of God else and I just felt this way of just love and forgiveness and I realize that God loves me even me.
She said what you must understand. She said at it for all these years.
Every time I walk out of church and you said God bless you.
I've said in my heart know he can't bless me and if you knew what I had done.
You wouldn't bless me either.
She went on to tell me about the pain I have an unwanted pregnancy that she ended in abortion how she had been halted for years by this thought there was no way that God could really love her and bless her.
Because of this great sin.
And on that day just as simple ambush of the Holy Spirit just being seized by the affections and the mercies of God Shiraz that God's love is not just set upon humanity in general, but upon her.
In particular, and everything dissolved in everything melted Jesus utterly and completely changed.
No change there.
She moved from self-hatred to self-acceptance not talking about accepting all your own sin of not talking about accepting the bad things in your life understand that accepting the person that God made. How could we receive God's love, while were busy hating the self, the God made in his own image that you're listening to sharing the light will have more teaching today importance hearing July really see yourself as wife. SMU might as well do nothing worthwhile in your investor stuff with joy to become free determines Ireland's messages from God with your digital Dharma nations drinking the gospel and discover according to God and to finally find out who you really are happy to send this to you as I banks from sharing the right ministries, 877-544-4860 or come to my website sharing the right like you're listening to sharing the today's teaching now continue once again is Alan Wright you receive God's love well the first thing to say is not a list of things that you do to receive God's love because it's a revelation. But if you want to position yourself I would say the least. These three things reject legalism and all performance-based living.
Embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ and all of his radical purity where in you are saved by grace through faith alone 100% grace by faith alone and develop keenly the capacity to know the difference between the two. Tune your ears to the gospel so that you know what is not gospel recognize that when Paul got mad at the Galatians heresy that was going on in many ways, it wasn't that big of a deal. He was just it was just they were just saying yes you were saved by grace. Also, it's important to practice the Jewish ritual of circumcision, and Paul said no is if you bring in just a little bit, 11 little spoiled in whole loaf, it will infected.
If you drop just one little drop of red dye into a glass of water it will all become tainted peak and if you put one little bit of law into the gospel of grace. You will introduce an unlimited capacity for fear as soon as you're in a relationship and you tell somebody no matter how often I've told you I love you. There's another part of me also tell you that if you don't measure up.
I won't love you anymore. As soon as you say that you have introduced an unlimited capacity for fear and and in the entirety of the new covenant hinges upon the glory of the gospel in which God loves you and Jesus Christ and you are saved and assured by grace through Christ in faith alone reject every form of legalism. If you want to know the love of God. Secondly, fix your eyes upon Christ, for he is the author and the finisher of your faith. I find that so often in my own Christian life, and many others that I've talked to that if you talk about how it is that they want to grow in Christ. It ends up sounding more about them way I I'm going to be more obedient on the abdomen to do this more and have this bitter spiritualism.
I do that, saying that that our obedience and our special diverse disciplines aren't important they are. But the point of all of that is so that our hearts gaze can be fixed upon Jesus who is the author and the finisher.
In other words, think much of Jesus his cross, his resurrection, and of his glad heart towards you that rejoices over you, as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride think much of how much he delights in you and what is done for you so that the posture of the Christian life can become your chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him to worship in the beauty of his holiness to fix the heart in it gaze upon the wonder loveliness that the grandeur of who Christ is and what is done for you that's on site that's the focus of the Christian life. That's the meditation that's when I come into awareness of the love of God.
It is because I have moved the focus off of myself and onto him. See if you've ever ever had the privilege of going to the Grand Canyon as people from all around the world. Come see the Grand Canyon.
You don't go to the Grand Canyon and take a couple of pictures and say okay I got that you go to the Grand Canyon and your jaw drops and you stare at it because something inside of you is impacted by the transcendent beauty and glory and immensity of the canyon. There is a value in simply seeing something. This is the nature of the Christian's life. If you see Jesus you are changed think much of Jesus think often of Jesus. Keep the focus upon Jesus and you will see the love of God and thirdly, if you wanted to ask what do I need to do to receive the love of God. I would say be clear about this position yourself in the body of Christ will God's love is proclaimed spiritual gifts are released and the community of the Fellowship is one in spirit the Bible the New Testament and certainly Paul knows nothing of this idea of individual spirituality that stands apart from the body of Christ. Notice, please what he is saying here. I pray that you, together with all the saints, and then he says to it virtually up to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and forever. This is something that takes place in the body of Christ. This is where we experience a lot.
This is God's work. We are his body, and each of us is a part of it and there is a way that through the love of Christ and the fellowship of the saints, the love of God is made manifest what I'm saying is have people pray for you that you will know the love of God and pray for others that don't know the love of God have people that serve you and love you and you have people that you love and you serve. In other words, you put love into action.
In the midst of the body of Christ and you discover the love of God, O the love of God, O the love of God that is beyond description. The love of God that is so wide you can't get around it. You know God's love is wide. It's wide enough for all people everywhere. God loves everybody loves everybody loves wide his love is wide enough to love people in North Carolina and people in South Carolina people in North Dakota people in South Dakota and people in North Korea and people of South Korea. God loves everybody. God loves everybody and wills. Everybody should be say there's nobody that he done. Love. He loves the old he loves the young loves Richie loves the poor.
He loves the tall, he loves the Shorty loves the big� Small loves the brown the tandem white. The pasty white sunburned at the beach. She loves the the black yellow polkadotted. He loves because his love is why love is why you you can't you can't get on the stretch of the breath of his arm, but which he has loved you, and his love is long but you might know how long the love of God is the love of God is there before time of the God is thereafter time the love of God was there when you were born when your father was born and when your father's father was born the love of God was there when your father's father's father was born in your father's father's father's father's father was born the love of God for you was already there before your great great great great great great great-great-grandfather love of God was there for you before Moses, the love of God was there for you, before Abraham the love of God was there for you before know why the love of God was there before Adam, the love of God was there before God said, let there be light. He had already loved you before the foundation of the world because God's love is a long, it is timeless. It is without scope. You cannot truncated, you cannot abbreviate it. You cannot interrupt it.
You cannot cause it to cease.
You cannot extend it because it is already infinite God's love is a long and God's love is high higher than the highest mountain peak higher than the highest heavens higher than the highest praise God's love is such that where he is. He will take us to be with him. God's love is so high, that is, he is now, so also are we in this world God's love is so high that it is transcendent and it is holy and it is beautiful and it is spotless and it is pure and it is uncontaminated is holy, holy, holy, Edie is above all that we could ask or think it is greater than it is more than it is exceedingly abundantly above and beyond than God's love is high. Know the love of God and that you would know his love is deep, deeper than the deepest ocean and deeper than the deepest pit, darkest, deepest despair and God's love is deeper still, God's love is deeper than your deepest sin.
God's love is deeper than the darkest part of your life. At the darkest moment of your life.
You cannot go so deep they God's love is not there. God's love is why and long and high and deep, and there is a power that is at work in you and Paul praise and I pray we pray for one another, that you may know this love that surpasses knowledge because what were saying is that you would know God, because God is love and that's the gospel you're listening and hearing light in today's teaching your rooted and grounded in love will have the conclusion of this series on the next edition of the program and stick with this. Alan is back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life, and a final word you think Eli really think about how you see yourself as wife. SMU might as well do nothing worthwhile in your investor suffered joy to become free determines how you read Allen's messages from guys with your digital dorm as I may have some partners journey to the nations drinking the gospel and discover who you are, according to God. Time to finally find out who you really are happy to send this to you as I banks from sharing the right ministries, 877-544-4860 or come to my website sharing the right leg out of somebody's listening and they say that's cool I want to be love.
But let me bring something, would you respond if you have to earn it is not love. And so, by its very definition. Love is free so when you are love. It means by the very definition of love that is something you cannot earn and you don't deserve. And this is the nature of the love of God's love is everlasting to everlasting, so you might as well except that you would've never been righteous enough earn it.
So just seep. I love always encouraged to hear from you. Visit online sharing the.or or call 877 light again, sharing the.O RG or call 877L IG HT 60 get Allen writes daily sharing the devotional in your inbox each morning when you sign up at sharing the who RG this is been sharing the light Helen right, a listener supported production of sharing the likeness