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  ROOTED AND GROUNDED IN LOVE
  by Sandeep Poonen
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of living a Spirit-filled
life, rooted and grounded in love, which enables believers to withstand
the storms of life and experience the depth of God's love. It highlights
the need to be filled with the Holy Spirit to truly live in God's love
and not be swayed by worldly circumstances like health, wealth, or
prosperity.

Topics: "Spirit-filled Living", "God's Unconditional Love"
Scripture References: Ephesians 3:16, Ephesians 3:17, Matthew 8:23, Revelation 21:8, Psalm 139:23, John 14:26, 1 Corinthians 2:12, Galatians 5:22, Romans 8:9

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the importance of living a Spirit-filled life,
rooted and grounded in love, which enables believers to withstand the
storms of life and experience the depth of God's love. It highlights the
need to be filled with the Holy Spirit to truly live in God's love and
not be swayed by worldly circumstances like health, wealth, or
prosperity.

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CONTENT
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The life we are asked to lead is a life that must be impossible to live
according to our own strength, but requires the power of the Holy
Spirit. I want to share something on the Spirit-filled life. I might
have spoken it before, but this is what the Lord has laid on my heart,
Ephesians chapter 3, it talks about the Spirit-filled life.

We hear so much in this church about the Spirit-filled life, but it can
be hard to know practically what that looks like. This message is not
going to solve that question completely, but it is going to give you one
part of it, because it is from God's word, but this is something that I
know must be true in our lives if we want to have a Spirit-filled life,
a life where the Holy Spirit is filling us. It says in Ephesians chapter
3, we have memorized this passage, where it says in verse 16, so that
you may be strengthened, the second half of verse 16, so that you may be
strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.

So he is talking about being strengthened with the power of the Holy
Spirit in the inner man, not for the outside to do miracles, but the
Spirit-filled life for the inner man. If that happens, if the Holy
Spirit fills us, Christ will live in our hearts, otherwise Christ might
visit, Christ might come and go, but there is a life where Christ gets
to live. So children and adults, God is giving us a life, a gospel,
where Christ lives, comes to stay, doesn't get kicked out every time we
are feeling like we are in a bad mood.

Maybe once every other week we say, no, I don't feel like obeying daddy
and mommy, I just want to do whatever I want, I'm going to be upset at
my brother or sister, and that carries into us as adults. Every now and
then we may say no, but that's not the Spirit-filled life, the Spirit-
filled life is indicated by us where we say, Christ, you get to live
forever. So if there is some attitude that I'm doing that's kicking
Christ out, I'm going to change my attitude, because Christ, I want you
to live.

And here is the Spirit-filled life, which is described in the verse
17-19, that's what I want to underline, is that you, being rooted and
grounded in love, may be able to do two things, it says there, you may
be able to do two things once you are rooted and grounded in love. Not
rooted and grounded in doctrine, not rooted and grounded in a particular
local church, when we are rooted and grounded in love, two things will
happen if that happens. So that's almost like the roots, and then
outside you get two wonderful things which happens on top, which is, we
are able to comprehend with all the saints, what is the length and
breadth and height and depth, and we are able to know, two different
words, comprehend versus know the love of God in a way that surpasses
knowledge.

So there's two components, but first I want to spend the time on being
rooted and grounded in love, that's non-negotiable. It is only when we
are rooted and grounded in love, that we can come to the church meeting,
we can interact with one another, and comprehend with the saints love,
the height and breadth and length and depth of the love of God. So
coming to a good church is going to be meaningless, even if the church
has wonderful saints in it, if I myself am not rooted and grounded in
love.

So that's non-negotiable. So I was thinking, what is a good picture of
being rooted and grounded in love? And the picture that comes to me is
in Matthew chapter 8. So if you can turn with me to Matthew chapter 8,
it tells me what this rooted and grounded in love looks like. And this
is the story of Jesus, who got into a boat and fell asleep in the boat.

Matthew chapter 8 verse 23, it's a very small, I don't know if it's a
miracle or it's a parable, and I think it's both. I think we think of it
as just normal situation in Jesus' life, but I personally see it as a
miracle and a parable, where Jesus, he gets into the boat, the disciples
follow him, verse 23, there arises a great storm, verse 24, such that
the boat was being covered with the waves. That's a pretty massive
storm, that the water is filling the boat.

Jesus himself was asleep. And they came to him and woke him up and said,
save us Lord, we are perishing. And he said to them, why are you afraid,
you men of little faith? Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the
sea and it became perfectly calm.

I will tell you why I think of this as a parable and a miracle, because
I have been in a few planes, airplanes that are going from one place to
the other, travel for work. I have not ever felt that this story means
that no matter if the plane is going up and down like that, I have got
to be asleep. I have never applied that story to this story, my heart
starts beating too, I hold on to the side of the thing, I act very calm,
but I am on the inside, it is shaking.

And I have never at that time said, Lord, I hope you can bring me to a
life where one day I will just be like, yeah, no problem. That's not the
application of this story, I don't think it is an indication of my lack
of faith. If my heart starts beating fast, if a person is driving the
car too fast, or the plane is going through a difficult time, or if you
are in a boat and it is being rocked, I don't think that's the
application of it.

Maybe it is, I just have not seen it that way. So I have not claimed the
story in this way, that Lord, I hope that one day when I am flying, no
matter what, I will just be completely, completely casual. There is an
application in flying, but that's not it, as I see this.

Because I see that Jesus was asleep, and when the disciples wake Jesus
up, because apparently the boat is being covered with water, with the
waves, Jesus rebukes the disciples, or says, why are you afraid, you
people of little faith? And he gets up and rebukes the storm and it is
calm. I apply this definitely to my inner life. And I think this is, to
me, it is a parable of the life that Jesus was showing us, we can live
on the inside.

And that I can see the real application to my life. To Jesus was rooted
and grounded in love, that no matter what the storms of life were coming
at him, even if the storms were starting to fill up the boat, even if
his feelings were saying something, he had come to a place of rest in
the Father's love, rooted and grounded in God's love. And what Jesus
says there, is he calls the disciples, people of little faith.

I must accept the Lord's rebuke and assessment of my life, that if
circumstances come into my life, and I am not at rest, if I have not
found a place of rest, I must hear the voice of Jesus saying, you of
little faith. And the word here is, why are you afraid? I looked up that
word, that word is actually, why are you cowardly? Now that's slightly
different than afraid. That's what gives me more confidence that this is
a parable.

Because that same word, cowardly, is also used in Revelation 21 verse 8,
where it says the cowardly won't enter the kingdom of God. So I must see
it as a very serious sin, that when storms of life come into my life, if
I have not received the Holy Spirit, it's not possible in my own
strength, but if I have not received the Holy Spirit in a way that I can
be at rest, I have not discovered this life of being rooted and grounded
in love. And dear family of God, this is how the Lord has been speaking
to me.

You say that you are rooted and grounded in God's love, but Sandeep, is
it really true? Are you rooted and grounded in your savings? That you
have enough money? Are you rooted and grounded in your good health? Are
you rooted and grounded in your stuff that you have? The weather also
cooperates with us, those who live here most of the time. We have such
comfortable lives that it's easy, dear family of God, to think that we
are rooted and grounded in God's love and we can be fooling ourselves.
What we really are rooted and grounded in is the fact that we're
healthy.

And the moment the Lord allows some sickness or some report, doctor's
report to come in and say, it's not that great, or you may die from
this, then I see that I am of little faith, that I am like the
disciples. And this is the spirit-filled life. This is not the good
Christian life.

This is the spirit-filled life that is only possible with the Holy
Spirit. So what I've discovered about the spirit-filled life, Ephesians
chapter 3, that says you must be rooted and grounded in love, it's
impossible for me to do that on my own. So the picture that I must have
is I say, Lord, I want to not be rooted and grounded in my wealth, in my
health, or in my prosperity.

And I feel that there's so much of health, wealth and prosperity gospel
that I, myself and we all can accept to, that we can embrace in a subtle
way. And the way I know I am rooted and grounded in health, wealth and
prosperity, or the love of God is only tested when there are great
storms. And I can tell you right now, I don't have any great storm in my
life.

So I am not sure what is rooting and grounding me, but there will be
storms. There will be doctor's reports that come to my children or to
myself or to my wife, doctor's reports that come to my extended family,
doctor's reports or financial situations where my bank account looks
good, one wrong investment, even though I prayed about it and boom, it's
gone. Do you know how the storm came to the disciples? To the disciples
who followed Jesus, Jesus gets into the boat, the disciples followed
him.

Where should they be? In the boat. What happens when they follow Jesus
into the boat? Great storm. So I can pray about it and choose the right
job and then it falls flat.

It falls right into my face and I'm like, man, God, where were you? I
should never have taken this horrible job. I thought I was following you
and Jesus says, yep, you were following me right into that storm because
I wanted to show you that there's a life that is possible where you are
asleep. Family of God, this is what I have seen that this needs, this is
what the life is to be rooted and grounded in love.

This is the life that is the spiritual life upon which we come to church
and comprehend an even greater love, which is the length and the breadth
and the height and the depth and upon which we find an even more
unfathomable love, which is the love that passes knowledge, where God
shows us his love in unreal ways. But that's on top of this rooted and
grounded life where we can say, Lord, no matter what trial and
circumstances comes in my life, I am rooted and grounded in your love.
And family now is a time of calm for most of us.

Maybe some of you are not, lives are not completely calm, but I'm sure
all of you sitting here, your lives are relatively calm compared to most
of the people in the world. There are people all over the world who are
dealing with huge storms compared to any of us from everything that I
know about all of you. Let us ask ourselves in this time of quiet, in
this time of relative peace, whether we really are rooted and grounded
in God's love.

And we say, God, I'm not being tested right now, but when the test
comes, no part of my boat is being filled up with water right now,
family, but it'll come. And when that day comes, can I say, Lord, I was
rooted and grounded in love. And the Lord asked me, how much does your
bank account and the number of retirement and the goals towards
retirement, how much does that play a role? Will you lose your peace if
the market suddenly tanks tomorrow morning and our retirement plans are
dropping significantly? I'm talking to the men, maybe to the women, what
if one of our children has something happen to it and the lifespan of
our children's ages now suddenly shrinks.

This has happened to brothers and sisters like you and I. Are we rooted
and grounded in love, in the love of God? May the Lord help us. Let us
go before the Lord and ask Him to be with us and ask Him to fill us with
the Holy Spirit. This is one aspect about the Spirit-filled life.

I hope through what we've heard today, only God can do the massive work
of cleansing us. We must do our part. So let's bow our heads and spend a
few minutes in quiet and let's ask the Lord to search our hearts and to
show us snakes, snakes in our house that are really, we're mistaking for
being rooted and grounded.

We think they're roots, but they're actually snakes. They look like
roots, but when you dig it up, you see it's a snake and God wants you to
uproot it. And it's the snake of good health, which is what you think
you're being rooted and grounded in.

It's wealth and that's what we're being rooted and grounded in. And if
we search our hearts, I guarantee you God will show us all kinds of ways
in which we are not rooted and grounded in the love of God. And if you
are despairing or if you're close to despairing, as you stand naked
before the Lord, take courage.

It is for such people that the Lord wants to give the Holy Spirit to.
Just don't be a coward and say, no, I don't want to look at it. Go
before the Lord with all of its messiness and say, Lord, I'm a wretch.

I don't even know how to begin to live a life that is not rooted in
health, wealth, or prosperity. I'm so weak, Lord, but I want the Spirit-
filled life. You can do this in my life and let us seek the Lord to make
us people who truly are lights in this world.

That health is negotiable, but not the love of God. That we may know the
difference between good health and the love of God. That we may know the
difference between enough in our bank account and the love of God.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/doZWo05Fz8o.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/sandeep-poonen/rooted-and-grounded-in-love/
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