The Love

Turn with me in your copy of God's Word to Ephesians chapter 3. Ephesians chapter 3, we're going to walk our way through verses 14 through 21 today. We know the church at Ephesus was founded by the Apostle Paul. He had a very special love for these believers in Christ, and he wrote this epistle to the church at Ephesus, but also the other churches around Asia Minor and other regions, including us, that we would benefit from the message of this letter.

As we walk our way through this, we would see three major themes throughout this book. First of all, that Christ reconciled all creation to himself and the Father. In other words, we're saved through him. Our only way into relationship with him and the Father is through the blood of Jesus Christ. It's for that reason why Christ died for us so that we could be reconciled. Secondly, we see that this great mystery, which part of what we are going to talk about today, is that Christ has united all peoples from all nations around the world to himself and to one another in the body of Christ. This is only possible because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. So it doesn't matter where we are from, what we look like, how we speak, what we sound like, we are one in Christ Jesus and this is a great mystery made possible through the work of Christ on the cross. And the third theme is that Christians then should live out practically the realities of this faith and this new life.

We need to live it out practically. In chapter three, we see a message that Paul began in verse one. Verse one begins, for this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Jesus Christ on behalf of you Gentiles. And it seems then he takes this detour between verses two and verse 13. We have much of a detour and so now in verse 14, Paul is going to refocus on the thought that he wanted to develop as he gets back to that.

So we see an identical verse here in 14 as we see with verse one. But Paul is going to get back to the mystery of the grace of Jesus Christ that would unite all peoples, whether we're Jews or Gentiles, it doesn't matter where in the world we are from, we are now one in Christ Jesus. So because of this truth, Paul is going to resume again this theme as it were. And here we're going to see Paul praying for the believers. This is not the first time we're going to see Paul praying. Indeed, Paul is known as a man of prayer.

I took the time to walk through all 13 epistles clearly attributed to his authorship, something I've not done before, I admit. And I found, not surprisingly, that Paul has had at least one prayer in every single epistle. At least one prayer. At least once as he was writing, he paused to pray for those to whom he was writing and others eventually who would receive this letter. The most prayers we see come to us in the book of Romans. We see six prayers of the Apostle Paul in the book of Romans. And then in first and second Thessalonians together, we see five each, five times each, Paul prayed for the believers there. But here in Ephesians, we see four prayers of the Apostle Paul.

And today our focus really will be primarily on the third prayer seen throughout the book of Ephesians. So Paul certainly was a man of prayer. How could Paul have loved these people and not prayed for them? He was like their spiritual father and so certainly his care for them, his love for them, would catapult him towards praying for them.

And again, he was known as one who would pray all the time for his people. Now one other reason I believe Paul pausing to pray here was very important and even strategic if you may. Because there's another division to Ephesians. If we were to take Ephesians and divide it into two equal parts, we will find that the very first three chapters will cover doctrine. And then the second three are going to look at the practical ways of living out the doctrines that were taught in the first three chapters. So it is very important, it is even relevant, that Paul will pause right here as he's concluding the first half speaking to doctrine and he would pray.

Because again the second half and the third theme is now calling believers in Ephesus and Asia Minor as a whole and surrounding areas and us to live this out. So Paul is going to pray that as believers we will understand a number of things so that we can live this out in our daily lives. So as members of the body of Christ then, we too should be known as believers who are characterized by prayer. That we love to pray. That we love our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. After all, we are one in Christ.

The mystery about which Paul will speak. We are united, we've been united into the body of Christ because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Therefore that which binds us together, the common thread between you and me, no matter where we are from, no matter where we were raised, no matter what we look like, the common thread is the blood of Christ. So because of that we should love one another and as we love one another one of the things we must do is praying for one another. And sure we can pray for people we don't know.

People we've never ever met in our entire lives. We might hear of a church in Turkey or some other part of the world that may be going through a difficult time, might be persecuted. We might hear about a country that's been hit by a tsunami or we might hear of a aircraft that has crashed and we don't know anyone in these areas. But we think, Lord there could be believers there. Lord there are just people there and their families that are going to be waking up to some very difficult news. Lord help them, strengthen them, come alongside them.

So we don't even have to know them. We must be known as people who pray. How is your love for Christ reflected in and through your prayer life?

Can someone see Christ in you? How much do you pray? When do you pray?

Where do you pray? Paul was known as a man of prayer. Look at me on verse 14. We're going to read through this passage. For this reason I bow my knees before the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named that according to the riches of his glory he may grant to you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being so that or in order that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we can ask or think according to the power that work in within us to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever.

Amen. In the first two verses we see here Paul's posture in and the focus of his prayer. Paul's posture in and the focus of his prayer.

Again he's getting back to a very important topic he was speaking about and yes the the main thing here is about the love of love that we need to understand the love we need to have and the love we need to express for each other certainly for the Lord but Paul is going to pray about some things. Notice again the posture in and the focus of his prayer. First of all notice how Paul humbly bowed his knees before the father verse four. For this reason I bow my knees before the father. In great reverence he prostrated himself before the father. This was a literal bowing down. He was showing honor to the Lord. Now of course this does not mean that if we pray without bowing down there's something less of a reverence.

Certainly it doesn't mean that. It does however seems like far less are we actually physically bowing down in prayer but Paul here with great humility prostrated himself before the father. Notice also in verse 15 that Paul recognizes our common connection with the creator. No matter who we are no matter where we are from we are from the family of God. He uses the word for family here which means lineage or running back to some progenitor some accessory right so we are all traced back ultimately to Adam and Eve right there in the garden of Eden. You know there was a little debate in one household at one point.

I see this video somewhere along the way. Apparently the father and the mother had some different opinions as to their origins and the father was one day talking to the daughter and talk about where they're from and how they develop from various life forms and so on and so forth and come from monkeys and all of that sort of stuff and the little girl was preparing for the little girl was perplexed about it and so she went to her mom and she says mom help me to understand this because you know dad said we came from monkeys and all that sort of stuff and we've developed from one thing into the other over the years. What do you say? And mom wisely said that's okay that's true of your dad that's where he's from but not me.

Not me. Well obviously I would say the wife is right we all come from the Lord right. We weren't swinging in some tree at some point right. God created us personally in his image and his lightness. We are his because we came from him right. We are the only ones of God's creation.

When God was finished making he says we are very good. God breathed into the nostrils of man the rock of life and we became a living soul right. So all of us are traced right back to that very beginning. All things John tells us were created by him. Colossians speaks upon that. Paul says we were created not only by him but we were also created for him in Colossians 1 and verse 16. So therefore this word here shows that we are all related and for that reason Paul here shares the fact that as he bows his knees before the father he recognizes that every family in heaven or on earth we have that origin.

We're traced right back to him to God. Now this is very very important and so therefore that we would show in our prayer lives a similar reverence before the Lord. That we would be known as people who are praying and and in our prayer we are recognizing who God is. Notice these two important you know characteristics of Paul's prayer even as he begins. He recognized as he bows before the father and the creator of the world. This is who this was the focus of his prayer and he bowed before God.

That's important. Notice in the disciples prayer in Matthew chapter 6 verse 9 our father who art in heaven. We come in prayer and we fall before the Lord. If we are in love with the Lord we spend time with him. We know prayer is communication with God and any relationship if it must draw communication healthy communication is going to be important. So we can't say we love someone and we don't spend time communicating with that person. We don't want to be near that person.

We don't want to be even seen with that person right or communication or prayer speaks much about our walk and our relationship with Christ and again if we love him we want to spend time with him in prayer. This is one of the practical outpouring of our love to the Lord. The story is told of D.L. Moody on a trip to to the Atlantic and he helped this crew of other volunteers to put out a fire. So there was this fire and one friend said to to Moody as they stood in the bucket line and they were passing the water to to put out the fire. One friend says you know I guess he was so much in love with the Lord I apparently he wanted to just leave the line and just go and pray. Why can't we just pray and maybe God would miraculously put this out. Now God can work in that way but there was another option to be practical even as we pray.

Moody says no I'm not going to leave the line. In fact as we pass the bucket I am praying. So we can pray while we do that. In other words we need to be practical in our prayer. So again I ask you know what is the focus of our prayer? Where's our love? Where's our heart for the Lord?

What is the context? What is the content of our prayer? If we prostrate ourselves before the Lord that is a good start to our prayer but hopefully we see a clear demonstration of our love for Christ as we spend time with him in prayer.

So that's number one. Paul prostrates himself, is posture in and focus of his prayer. And then B, secondly we see Paul's passionate prayer for the believers. Paul's passionate prayer for the believers. Here we see Paul making requests for the believers in his prayer which really I think fleshes out the chief concern of Paul's heart which is that believers in Ephesus and surrounding areas may really get to understand the love of God and again that that would permeate every area of his of our being.

There are four aspects to Paul's prayer we see here. First of all Paul prayed that God may grant us strength with power. Look at verse 16 that God may grant us strength with power. He says that according to the riches of his glory he may grant to you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being. He prays for power. He prays for strength through power where within our inner being. We note here that this strength comes in and through the Spirit of God. This strength that we need to love the Lord, to love each other comes through and in the Spirit of God. This Spirit, the Holy Spirit who indwells us as believer.

He is in us. He indwells us. He's in our inner being as it were.

And when did this happen? We didn't have to wait for some time after salvation to experience this for indeed the Spirit of God came and indwelled us the very moment we trusted Christ as our personal Lord Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. And so we have the Spirit within us. So Paul then reminds us in 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 12 that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit who dwells in us the Spirit of God he says who dwells in you we need to recognize that. And as we recognize the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit naturally then we need to live that out and that would be seen in every area of our lives. Notice that Paul's prayer here he prayed according to the riches of God's glory and not from the riches of God's glory. You might say well what is the difference? Just mere observation here tells us that according to the riches of his glory he's asking this of him.

Well let me see if I can illustrate that for you. You know I grew up in the inner city of Jamaica and we did not have much material substance but one of the things I did not really like about my mom back then which I now really really love is the fact that my mother shared too much. Not through talking but that she nothing she had was too good or too small to share.

She would share everything. I vividly remember once all we had was one banana. In Jamaica we make the distinction between ripe banana and green banana.

Here you don't. So we had one banana that fruit it's nice and ready it's juicy and we're getting ready to eat it. But there were three kids so there was a family of four and my mom was going to share that one banana for four people. The problem is just as she took that banana out and began to peel it two or three little kids came walking in the yard and they saw the banana in her hand and they came right to her because they wanted some of the banana too and I'm thinking go away go away come back tomorrow come back two hours from now come back two minutes from now let me just I mean one banana for four is small enough I'm thinking I'm just going to get a quarter and here comes three more kids and I know what my mother is going to do. Unsurprisingly my mother called them to the head of the line she broke half of the banana and shared it with those three little kids first and then what was left was shared for the rest of us I think she didn't even take any for herself at that particular point. She shared according to what she had those kids didn't come seeing her with a banana and asked for a peach they wouldn't have gotten a peach I don't even recall eating a peach until I came to the United States anyhow I mean if we wanted a we don't grow peaches in Japan maybe they do now but I never saw a peach tree growing up in Jamaica right so we didn't have peaches it would have been too expensive anyhow she could share of what she had and to expect her to do far more than that would be totally ridiculous. Think of the other end of the pendulum think of a man who has six cars in his yard and you are next door neighbor and something goes wrong with the only car you have and you need help just to get to the grocery store or to run down the road to pick up a part or to do something else of that and he looks at his six cars and say oh okay here's my child's scooter you can take the scooter it's not even a motorized scooter it's one you have to go on and you've got to do this you know it's not even a motorized scooter and you're thinking what's wrong with you you're always telling me how much you love me you've got six cars and apparently they're too much to share with me you see this guy who might consider to be a rich man he would have been given from all the things he had and not necessarily according to what he had if he were going to give according to it he would need to consider the need of the person who came to him and he would have given off the best for that person. So here Paul prayed that God would give us according to his riches and how rich is our God his riches are matchless they're immeasurable that he would strengthen us and that this strength for the believer would be on the internal we need strength internally we need strength to fight the wiles of the devil to stand against the wiles of the devil so we put on the whole armor of God so that we may be able to stand against him externally there's so much focus on the external but here Paul is praying that we would be strengthened within we're told our external man is passing away Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 but our inner man is being renewed daily how do we fight against the temptations by strengthening the inner man on a daily basis John reminds us in 1 John chapter 2 verse 15 not to love the world nor the things of the world verse 17 he reminds us that of that again not to love the world but now he tells us why we should love the world he says because the world and all it contains is passing away why would we want to love that why would we want to be shackled to that we should be in love with the Lord and if we love the Lord we love the things of the Lord we love the people of God we need it to be strengthened within he acknowledges that the power needed again came from the or comes from the indwelling spirit so we know that the giving of this strength with power it takes place within the inner recesses of our being it takes place in the present time it's to give something to someone on one's own accord for the benefit or the advantage of the recipient but why else does God do that it's so that we in turn can live lives for his glory Paul also focuses his prayer again on the inner strength why because we need that strength we need that strength to fight the greater battles of life and as humans we may miss some signs at times but God sees our hearts even when others cannot see and do not see so Paul here prays that God may grant us strength with power within or in a man secondly he prays that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith verse 17 so that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith the dwelling here the idea behind the verb dwelling it brings a sense of permanence it's it's a permanent inhabitation it's the it's the settle permanently in it's the live comfortably in this is not to visit but to dwell a sense of permanence that is here and so then in Christ speaks of our possession because we have been saved sorry our position because we have been saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone that's how we came into relationship with Jesus Christ but for Christ to dwell in us now we talk about the possession it comes through the fact that the spirit of Christ dwells in us so our position is salvific that's how we came into relationship with Jesus Christ and now our possession is a reflection of what happens in us through the work of the spirit of Christ so this dwelling in Christ then I describe this as an amalgamation of our position and our possession when those two are brought together we see the results of the believer who's thinking the thoughts of Christ having different desires desiring to be like Christ to to live like Christ to to fulfill the the will of Christ in other words to bring Christ Christ glory or to glorify God and isn't that why God created us he created us for his glory what are some ways in which we can glorify Christ let me give us just a few ways first of all by loving one another we glorify Christ secondly by displaying the fruit of righteousness as Paul tells us in Philippians we are glorifying Christ when we shine for Christ when we are living for Christ in our community people are seeing us as a as a vessels of his and lighthouses that invite others to come we are glorifying Christ again Matthew calls us to let our light so shine that men may see your good works not to be led to glorify us but to glorify our father who is in heaven another way we glorify him is confessing our sins in other words keeping quote short account some people say I say keep no accounts we want this account to be empty and as soon as a sin enters we need to confess it and move it out of the way and trust the Lord for forgiveness and if we relish in the fact of God's gracious forgiveness to us another way to glorify Christ is to forgive others who have sinned against us again we see that in the Lord's prayer that we would forgive those he would forgive us as we forgive those who sin against us and then we want to live by faith trust in him what is our concern what is our desire what are our desires we take them before the Lord sometimes we see people they're worried they're fretting they're anxious about every single thing in the world they're anxious about tomorrow and next week and next month in the next 10 years am I saying we shouldn't be concerned am I saying we shouldn't have a plan no that's not what I'm saying because we're told that why is this a man who plans for tomorrow Solomon mentions that but we ought not to be anxious about tomorrow because God knows all of our tomorrows even when we don't know them so what know them so what do we do we trust him I love the song that says all things work for works works for our good the title I think is trust his heart all things work for our good though sometimes we can't see how they could struggles that break our hearts into sometimes bind us to the truth our father knows what's best for us but his ways are not our own so when you don't understand when you don't see his plans and when you can't trace his hands what are we told trust his heart and that's what we are called to do so we need to live by faith and and and that needs to be seen in and through us we need to be praying pray to the Lord and pray for others as we pray not just selfish prayer for ourselves what we want when we want but pray for others adopt the mind of Christ here we remind ourselves as Paul wrote this letter after all he was in prison and he's concerned out of love for the believers that they would understand this love and so he writes to us there are other ways like winning souls for the Lord and living at peace with others and just to be occupied with the holiness of God one last if you just sat and occupy yourself with the holiness of God to think about the holiness of God recently I visited CCA a couple of classes and I think in their first grade class the teacher threw out the question and you know got the kids in prearranged the huddles of two or three to to to come up with a definition of holiness and this little girl by the name of Charlotte when they turned around I'm behind I'm listening and she she was doing most of the talking poor little dude was sitting there and just okay yeah that's it that's it that's it and as they turned around and the teacher says okay now at least one response from each group tell me what holiness is and Charlotte stuck her hand up and the teacher said tell us and she says holiness is like God is untouched by sin I mean think about the theology behind that holiness means God is untouched by sin when last have you sat and reflected on the holiness of God the fact that he's untouched by sin and this great God has called us into relationship with himself and has paid the way through his love for us for his son Christ Jesus to die on the cross for us what a love may we never ever get over this love so again Paul prays that we may dwell that Christ may dwell in our hearts thirdly he prays that we may know the dimensions of Christ's love that we may know the dimensions of Christ's love 17b notice here that being rooted and grounded in love we may have strength to comprehend all with all the saints what is the the breadth and the length and the height and the depth to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge how do we do that I mean think about the magnanimity of God God whom we cannot quantify we we can't measure God how then do we measure the love of God you and I can understand some aspects I believe of the love of God because of the relationship we have with Christ Jesus because of the spirit of God who dwells in our hearts what do we know about the love of God what about the love of God that occupies your heart and fuels your fire of your prayer or the life that you live what about the love of Christ think of it where would we have been today had it not been for the love of God we would still be dead in our trespasses and sins we would have no hope in this world or for eternity all of life would be a waste there would be no need for no belief no faith no worship no living for him we would just simply be out there meandering around the place just hopelessly but in Christ we have hope why because God so loved the world that he gave he sent his only son into the world to die for our sins that we who were previously without hope can enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ do you know of a greater love everyone wants to be loved right we we abuse the word love so often but this is the perfect love of God he says that the believer may comprehend the idea behind this Greek word here is that we may lay hold of that we will make our own that we may obtain that we may attain to and make one's own that we may understand that we may comprehend this love and again we cannot do so outside of the relationship that we have with Jesus Christ you know I often when I get to speak particularly with young ladies and sometimes I'm asked you know what should I look for in in a young man among the things that I would share and certainly I would share somewhat of the opposite with young men but as you look for and pray for God to lead you to that young man or that young woman first of all look for a godly young man or a godly young woman secondly you be a godly young man and a godly young woman and then I would often say make sure that that person is exuding from his or her pores the very love of God in other words that they love Christ more than they love you it's not about you it's not about me and anyone who puts you first that is problematic it should be Christ in us first of all the hope of glory so you want a young man or a young woman who loves the Lord first who loves the Lord most and will always prioritize his walk with the Lord then I often say to young women if the man doesn't love the Lord if he doesn't have a relationship with the Lord he doesn't know the love of Christ then he cannot love you the way God designed you to be loved think of that Paul calls us to know the love of God how then do we measure love that we see we measure that based on the love of God that we come to know it is this expression of love it is predicated upon the experience of God's love if we have not experienced God's love then we cannot love Paul experienced the love of God therefore he loved the saints and he would pray for the saints that they too may love the Lord with all of their hearts and that their love for Christ will be seen how is your love being seen how is your love showing being showed to those who come near you John reminds us here in is love if we say we love the Lord we must love one another right he that loves not knows not God for God is love first John 3 so we must love what else do we need what else do we need and when we think of the love that Christ has for us how could we not love how could we not even aspire to love like this and when we love like this outwardly when we love what do we find happening as we are in love with the Lord and we love others we're in love with the word of God we are in the word of God on a daily basis so what happens then is that the roots of our souls sink into the soil of the word of God we become then like that man in Psalm chapter 1 who doesn't walk or stand or in the path or the way or the seed of the sinners the scoffers the ungodly in essence but we're told in verse 3 that he would be like that one firmly planted by the rivers of water that does what brings forth its fruit in its right season and its leaves do not wither so if you are in love with the Lord if you're in love with the word of God it will be seen through your lives it will be seen in the time you spend in God's word the time you spend with fellow believers they become your priority it will be seen in how you use your lives for the glory of God what happens when our roots are not deep in the soil what happened if we are not rooted deeply therein well then we fall easily to every temptation that comes by some time ago there was this experiment that was done it was called the strong wind and strong root experiment in this you know biodome where they tried to see how they could grow plants in a structured and sheltered way you know providing all the nutrients it needs just carefully filtered water and air and you know want them to be different from those on the outside and as those plants began to grow two things they realized would have happened when compared to their companions on the outside of this facility the taller the trees grow they began to fall over and when wind or the breeze would be come to these trees they would also topple over and they began to realize that in the sterile environment which they had set up they realized their own failure in that regard because the trees there their roots were not growing deep into the soil whereas the ones on the outside with the test of the wind over time their roots were growing deep into the soil of the earth so they then could withstand the wind as the wind was coming and so you and I are going to be able to stand against the temptations of the devil when we spend time in the world and yes periodically we may fall but maybe not as often as we otherwise would if we were not consistently in the word of god so i would encourage us to park ourselves daily in god's word and the fourth emphasis here of paul's prayer was that we may be filled with the fullness of god to be filled with the fullness of god we know at salvation we're filled with the holy spirit that's salvific but then practically how do we show that we're filled with the fullness of god again simply put it's living for the glory of god living no longer for ourselves but living for him seeking to accomplish his will and his purposes for our lives that we may be filled with all the fullness of god not just some but with all the fullness that we would fix our gaze on god that would be we would be passionate in our pursuit of the lord if we are to be filled with the fullness of god so we see paul prostrating himself in in prayer before the lord then we see paul here is passionate fourfold prayer for the prayer for the saints and in conclusion finally we see paul's we see the conclusion of paul's prayer if all of these things are in place then what is going to happen now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think according to the power at work within us to him be glory in the church of jesus christ throughout all generations forever and ever so paul recognizes four things right here first of all he recognizes god's divine ability in our prayers as we lay ourselves before him as we love him and his word and other people what are we gonna find we are finding as we pray that god can do far more than we can ask not just what we can ask more than we can think more than we can imagine exactly how much is that what does that involve it's mind boggling to see god at work in our lives but that's where our faith comes in and that we understand that god is able to do this and because we know this we want to love him more we want to love his word and we want to love our fellow believers secondly he recognizes man's weakness that is our limitation in our prayer we're gonna recognize that and we're gonna trust yes we lay these things before the lord but we're believing that god will do far more than we can ask or think and in times when words fail us in our prayer we know the spirit of god takes the inner groanings of our hearts and he lays these before the father's throne so we recognize that we don't always know how to pray but we know that god can do more than we can we recognize our own weakness even in our prayer thirdly paul rec we see the recognition of the father's work through the spirit notice that the trinitarian principle here is the work through the spirit here but earlier that we've been saved through jesus christ and here then we see in the third section of verse c the work in conjunction with the spirit of god so all three we see are involved right here and then finally he recognizes and he has this desire for god's glory to him be glory in the church and in christ jesus throughout all generation forever and ever do we really live for the glory of god is that seen is that presented in our prayer lives is that presented in the way we love others loving others with all of our loving the lord with all of our hearts and souls and mind and then loving our fellow believers praying for our fellow believers so i conclude with five challenges for us today five challenges first of all we need to be intentional and consistent in our prayer lives yes i know we live in a busy world we've got these devices that are always with us and they they the notifications that just constantly come in keep coming at us and you know you're connected with social media and all these critters and all these things that are around and and some people feel that you need to know when they've been to the dentist or when they've brushed their teeth and and they post all of this sort of a garbage and you're locked into that the more you are is the less time you're spending in the word of god is the less time you're spending in prayer why do you suppose that the devil would want to inundate you and me with all this garbage what do we need to do we need to commit our time to the lord be consistent earlier a few weeks ago pastor monroe in one of the challenges challenged us to read the bible at least 15 minutes per day i am challenging us to pray at least once per day and don't tell me oh that's easy pastor pray over my food so that we would pray at least one other prayer having nothing to do with thanking the lord for your food certainly you should thank the lord for your food and if you're eating across me and i see you sit down and pick up the food and start eating i'm going to tell you you need to pray all right so we need to pray we need to be known as people of prayer but again that we would be intentional and consistent in our prayer life paul tells us that we are always to pray and not cease number two that we would love god's people practically what are the ways we can do this well what needs do you know of what needs come to you we show our love for the lord through our love for his people just one of the ways we show our love for the lord so again if we're going to love we can't just be in our holy garment you know worshiping the lord and just looking at the knees go by and say well go your way and be filled when the lord has provided the necessity for you to assist with a need love god's people practically love people practically just generally number three guard your heart let's be careful who we love let's be careful what we love let's be careful that we're not loving or treasuring the things of the world matthew cautions us in matthew 6 and verse 21 be careful what we treasure because what were our hearts treasure we pursue this with all of our being so be careful what we treasure treasure the lord love the lord and we will pursue him fourthly challenge others within your circle to guard their hearts as well and their eyes you see paul again is in prison and he writes this letter to the efusion church and others around surrounding areas and us one would say well he was in prison why should he care well he cared and so we also should care about those around us we want to see others walking with the lord enjoying a progressive growth in their relationship with christ and that you and i would live lives that facilitate that right challenge others within your circle and then finally be prudent in measuring the love that others claim to have for you it's wonderful when someone says that they love you particularly if you're pursuing a relationship you're not married and you are looking for mr or miss mrs right it's wonderful when they say that they love you but i challenge you to think more about how they love the lord look for it measure it and in our relationships in our marriages we continue to encourage our spouse a husband encourages wife to grow to keep her heart centered around the word of god the will of god and the plan of god and a wife equally encourages her husband to do the same i have long given my wife there is the opportunity to call me out if she sees me going astray because i just don't think that i'm too big for that she is equal partner with me she is my greatest accountability partner why wouldn't she want to call me out and get my attention right now paul wrote as he writes to the the the galatian church he didn't wait until they had totally turned away he says you are turning away from the gospel to that of another and so he wrote to them right in the midst of it that we will hold each other accountable for after all you can just see it coming if a man begins to prioritize his job his career his his toys all the other things of the world or a woman does the same i guarantee you it is very difficult if not impossible to love the lord and mammon and so what do we do we love once cling to one and we hate the other or we turn our backs towards the other so what do we want we want to see our spouse walking with the lord we want to see our children walking with the lord and if we see a spouse going astray not much time in the word of god family devotion is just out the window they all they care about what's going on on social media and the job and the the toys and all of these sort of things just you begin to see a departure from the things of the lord and again matthew says be careful what we treasure as our hearts will follow what we treasure may god help us to love him to love his word to pray for one another to love one another for his name's sake father we thank you today for your word we know it's difficult at times to love sometimes we even wonder lord how do you love us why do you love us but it's clear that you do and so we thank you for this love lord as we grow in your love each and every day help us lord to love others more and more so lord bless your word to us in jesus name we pray amen