Pastor Craig Ledbetter
DATE: 24 August, 2008 AM
PLACE: Bible Baptist Church, Ballincollig, Cork, Ireland

I. Introduction (Ephesians 3:14; 2Cor 8:9)
A. The theme this month is Bow the Knee as Disciples – The need to become like our Master – like Jesus. There is much for us to learn!
B. There are some spiritual building blocks that are needed to make us more like Him
1. They are not physical, but spiritual in nature
2. Jesus walked this earth with only the clothes on His back, and yet lived the greatest, more rewarding life imaginable – so much so that countless millions throughout history have unashamedly decided to follow Him, and have never regretted it for 1 minute!
C. That is what a disciple is – a follower, a copy of the life of Jesus Christ!
D. Discipleship begins with change
1. From physical emphasis, to spiritual
2. Not to the outer man, but in the inner man!
E. The apostle Paul prays for five things in the live of every believer that would revolutionise their lives if they were allowed to take effect
1. For Strength in the Inner Man
2. That Christ would dwell in our hearts by faith
3. That We would be rooted & grounded in love – last week
4. That We would know and experience the love of Christ
5. That We would be filled with the fullness of God!
F. Each prayer is a step for us to bring us to spiritual maturity
G. He is praying for to not miss the most important parts of our Christianity
1. Not with our health, or our accomplishments
2. But with our relationship with Jesus Christ
3. Every one of the five requests build on each other – necessary for the next request to come true, with the greatest accomplishment being full of the fullness of God! What a thought! We will have to save that thought for the last Sunday in this series!
II. Background – To be Loved by Jesus Christ (John 3:16)
A. Everyone talks about the love of God. Most people you and I know, believe that God loves us.
B. But what does that mean? And How MUCH does God love us? Does it have limits, and how can a person experience something so vast and infinite?
C. There is absolutely no reason why this world should be loved, and yet it is!
D. The biggest thing this world is missing, that I was missing for the first 17 years of my life was GREAT love
1. My parents loved me
2. I had some awesome friends
3. But I did not know the love of Christ!
4. That knowledge began on the 15th June, 1980!
III. Message
A. The Prayer – To Know and Comprehend the Love of Christ
1. To Actually experience it
2. To understand it
3. To Enjoy it day after day
4. To know that it is there, and will never go away
5. To rest in it even when it doesn’t feel like it is there sometimes
B. The Meaning - What Kind of Love is This?
1. Four-year-old Martha, hugging a doll in each of her little arms, looked up at her mother and said, "Mamma, I love them and love them and love them, but they never love me back." —Jeanette W. Lockerbie
2. Those who love deeply never grow old; they may die of old age, but they die young.
3. Love is not what you do but what you are
4. Love may not make the world go around, but it sure makes the trip worth-while.
5. What it is NOT
a. Not one of appreciation
1) There was nothing in the character of man that could allow God to love them. We are wicked through and through!
2) God does not look down at mankind and say, "Wow! Look at all the great things mankind has done!"
3) There is absolutely nothing that man has ever done, or ever could do that would make God appreciate us being here!
4) You and I love people out of appreciation – they are being very good to us – but God does not!
b. Not a feeling
1) Most times when we discuss love, we are talking about a feeling
2) It is wired into us to love – it is natural to love as feelings come
3) But that is only emotional love, not great love (Eph 2:4). It is only a "fondness", a "liking", a "soft spot" – not love!
4) Feelings change faster than the weather!!!
c. Not pity or sympathy
1) No one likes pity
2) Pitiful love is a kind of love that looks down upon a person and says, "Poor baby… I’ll do something to help them" and so gives them a Euro, or a blanket. But it is not a love that has any lasting effect.
3) God does not have an "understanding" kind of love that "understands" (wink, wink) our actions, and our sins, and just overlooks judgment because He loves us. No! then God would be more wicked than we are!
6. What it IS
a. A Choice – a committed choice (Deut 7:7-11)
b. A Love of Enemies, NOT of Friends (Eph 1:2-5; Rom 5:8)
1) It was not for a single Christian, that God gave his Son, it was for sinners, for rebels, for thieves, for murderers, for harlots, for adulterers, for haters and drunkards; it was BECAUSE people were sinners that God gave his Son.
2) It was not for good but for bad people, not for the righteous but for the wicked that God gave his Son.
3) Imagine of a parent, who has an only child, one who has never offended them, who is loved more than life itself - imagine if that parent could give up that child for the good of his enemies.
4) Imagine allowing people to abuse him, do everything to injure him that they possibly could do, placing that son in the hands of hate and wrath, and allowing them to do as they wished to that most loved son!
5) That is what God did.
6) Imagine, with your son on one side and your enemies on the other, how hard it would be to love those enemies, and freely give up your son!
7) What if you knew that these enemies must perish for ever or you must give up your son! What if that reality hit YOU like it hit God?!
8) Jesus was willing to die for us, but God had to choose US or His Son – He chose US!
9) Now maybe we can understand the intense nature of the love of God that over-ruled the instinctive clinging to his Son, and gave him up for the good of the world!
10) God knew what it would cost – He knew that his Son must pass through trials, afflictions, through persecutions, through poverty, through great agony. God saw Christ mocked and pierced when on the cross, and saw him in the agonies of death, and heard his horrible cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
11) God’s great love overcame all these obstacles and freely gave Christ up for us all, that we might not perish but have everlasting life.
12) THAT is real love!
c. A Holy Love
1) It hated sin.
2) God’s love of sinners had to remain pure and untarnished
3) God never loved any sin – He gave His Son to save us FROM our sins!
4) The majority of people love sin – full stop. Rarely do people love other people more than they love their sin. And almost none love godliness and purity more than self!
5) God loves the world, but hates the sin in this world
d. A Strong Love – capable of handling any sin
1) There is no sin or failure that God cannot handle
2) God’s love cannot change based on our sin – simply because he loves us, and NOT our efforts, or our accomplishments
e. A Merciful Love
1) He does not have expectations for us to earn His love
2) He just gives it
3) And he gives it based on his choice to save us (Luke 18:13,14)
f. A Very BIG Love indeed!
C. The View of Such Love.
1. We are prayed for by the apostle Paul that we would know and experience the immensity of the love of Christ – what a way to talk about love!
2. Paul gives some measurements…
a. Breadth - Width
b. Length
c. Height
d. Depth
3. Let’s talk About "Size" for a minute
a. Size of our world – incomprehensible unless you can take a ride on a rocket into space, and SEE it for yourself
b. Size of our solar system – travelling at the fastest speed any rocket has ever gone, it would take a crew 20 years to travel to the edge of our solar system
c. Size of our galaxy
d. Size of our universe
e. Only one word – VAST!
f. We are asked to attempt to comprehend, to know, to experience a love that is greater than any ocean, planet, galaxy, or than the entire universe
4. This love is BIG (Rom 8:38,39)
D. Examples of Such Love
1. Job struggled with two dimensions (Job 23:8,9)
2. David grasped three dimensions (Psalm 139:7-9)
3. Paul goes for four dimensions (Ephesians 3:18,19)
4. Experienced by
a. John (John 13:23) "Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved."
b. Paul (Gal 2:20) "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
c. Lepers, blind, lame, dying, troubled, lonely, demon possessed, sinners, harlots, publicans
d. Rich Man (Mk 10:17,21)
e. Martha, Mary and Lazarus (John 11:5) "Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus."
E. How to Experience Such Love.
1. Consciously - We are ALWAYS receiving it – just ignorant (Lam 3:22,23). Become very aware of it, and you will start to experience it
2. Crumble – there is no love experienced by a hard heart
a. The reason why God loved men was not because they deserved love--for they deserved only judgment and condemnation.
b. None of us have any right to demand his love – for then it would not be love
c. We all deserve hell
d. But as broken, humbled, guilty sinners, we are finally open to receive such great love
e. Repentance!
3. The Cross – you cannot ever experience God’s love except through the cross. Not through religion, or traditions, or through feelings, or through people, or pilgrimages. It must be only via the reality of the cross in your place! Salvation
4. Through Correction (Hebrews 12:6)
a. Quit complaining about troubles and trials
b. The Lord loves you enough to perfect you through troubles
5. Lastly, through Captivity (Psalm 68:18)
a. Strange word – great truth
b. We who were captive to sin, and to death by sin, need to be totally captivated, and engulfed in the love of Christ
c. When a person wants to know the greatest love in a relationship, they do not dabble in the relationship, they become committed to that one other person – they become captive to the other person (1Cor 7:4)
d. So much love is missed in our relationship with Christ because we are not allowing HIM to take over, and take us captive
e. So that we are from that moment on, different, peculiar, changed, because of Christ’s great love
IV. Conclusion – Oh That We All Might Know and Experience That Great Love!
A. Paul prayed for us this morning – to know and experience the love of Christ!
B. There is absolutely no reason why this world should be loved, and yet it is!
C. Everyone talks about the love of God. Most people you and I know, believe that God loves us. But what does that mean? And How MUCH does God love us? Does it have limits, and how can a person experience something so vast and infinite?
D. The biggest thing this world is missing, that I was missing for the first 17 years of my life was GREAT love
E. What Kind of Love is This? So great Love, the Love of Christ
1. Not one of appreciation, or based on a feeling, or our of pity or sympathy
2. But A Choice – a committed choice to love Enemies, Sinners with a Holy Love that hates our sin, but will sacrifice His life to save ours!
3. It is a Strong Love that is capable of handling any sin and it is a love that offers abundant mercy towards we who can offer nothing!
4. Truly, Christ’s love is a Very BIG Love indeed!
5. The vastness of such love that we are asked to comprehend, to know, to experience is greater than any ocean, planet, galaxy, or the entire universe
F. Examples of Such Love are what the Bible is all about!
1. Job struggled with two dimensions (Job 23:8,9)
2. David grasped three dimensions (Psalm 139:7-9)
3. Paul goes for four dimensions (Ephesians 3:18,19)
G. How to Experience Such Love.
1. Consciously - We are ALWAYS receiving it – just ignorant (Lam 3:22,23). Become very aware of it, and you will start to experience it
2. Crumble – there is no love experienced by a hard heart. Repentance!
3. The Cross – you cannot ever experience God’s love except through the cross. Not through religion, or traditions, or through feelings, or through people, or pilgrimages. It must be only via the reality of the cross in your place! Salvation
4. Through Correction (Hebrews 12:6)
5. Lastly, through Captivity (Psalm 68:18)
H. Doesn’t anybody want to experience such love?
I. It comes free for the asking!

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