Paul at Prayer No.4 Rooted and grounded in love

1 Corinthians chapter 13. Speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love. I'm only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient.

Love is kind. It does not envy, does not boast, it is not proud, it is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease.

Where there are tongues, they will be stilled. Where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection, then we shall see face to face.

Now I know in part, then I shall fully know, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain, faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Now let's read together from this third chapter, which has given us so much to think about during these last few weeks, when it's been my privilege to preach from the pulpit here in the tabernacle. Here is one of the most majestic prayers that ever left the lips of the Apostle Paul and was written down, preserved for people like ourselves to consider. I read it again to you from the 13th verse, or rather the 14th verse of Ephesians 3. For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.

I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know the love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever.

Amen. It's not often when people are under strain that they think about others. Generally if you are in pain, or if you're anxious because of the way things have turned out in your life, then you tend to become preoccupied with yourself.

It's a natural trait, a natural characteristic, and in that sense I'm not condemning it. But what I am arguing is this, when you look at the Apostle Paul, and you consider him as he penned this letter in prison in Rome, as he has the thoughts of the Ephesians in front of him, he abandons all concerns about himself. And at one point as his mind is filled with the friendship of these dear Ephesian people, he is compelled to drop to the ground on his knees, and to pray before the great heavenly Father on their behalf.

Thought of self is eclipsed, and it's replaced by concern for other people. And so we find him, maybe still in the companionship of his guard, with no concern whatsoever for the chains that shackle him, dropping down onto his knees. And the Bible says, I pray before the heavenly Father.

I pray for you Ephesian Christians. And what does he have to say? What does he pray about? Well, not the fact that many of them are working class, and therefore are somewhat impoverished, as was that class in those days. Not the obvious statement that I make, that many of these Christians were slaves, asking that physically they might be liberated.

No, the Apostle has other things in mind. There are far more important things than these, though they might well be improved as the years went by, to occupy him in his prayers. He says, first of all, my dear beloved friends in Ephesus, I pray that you might be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.

You remember, I spent a full Sunday morning just explaining what it means to be strengthened in the inner man. And I suggested that the person who isn't concerned about their soul, about their spiritual well-being, is, I don't apologize for the bluntness, is a fool. Because when you die, when your outer casket decays, your personality, your soul, your inner man continues.

And wise is the man who endeavors to nourish and strengthen his inner personality. But then the Apostle goes on, and he prays not only for the strengthening of the inner man, but he asks somewhat surprisingly, we discovered in the 17th verse, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Now you say, why does that give you an element of surprise? Well, for this reason.

Were not the Ephesians already Christian? He's conceded this in the opening chapter. He's talked about the great blessings that they have received in Christ. He said that they have become predestined to belong to the Lord Jesus.

They've been sealed with the Holy Spirit. They know the overwhelming of the power of the Holy Ghost in their lives. And then he goes on, and he says, you know, when I'm down on my cell floor praying for you, I ask that Christ might dwell in your hearts by faith.

Isn't this not tautology? Is it not unnecessary? Is he not repeating something that he'd obviously prayed years before? Not a bit. Because you remember I said, when you look into Revelations chapter 3, you discover more or less the same situation. Here a Christian church is being addressed, and we have a picture of Jesus standing at the door.

A picture that was made so very famous by the artist Holman Hunt. And you remember the verse as it proceeds, behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and sup with him and he with me.

But these were Christian people. So how do you resolve the difficulty? Is Christ in the heart of Christians or not? Well, yes, of course, in one sense he most definitely is. But the word dwell here in Ephesians, as in Revelation, the concept there of Jesus knocking on the door, gives us the impression of someone who comes in to settle, to feel very much at home.

Now I ask you, does Christ feel at home in your heart? You see, the greatest experience in life is the experience that Paul has in mind when he prays that people might be filled with all the fullness of God. That's what he's anchoring after, that's what he's angling for as he makes this prayer on his knees in the cell, that you might be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. I remember an Indian brother coming to me five years ago in North India and saying, I don't know what that means, but I do desire the experience.

To be filled with all the fullness of God means simply this, that Christ dwells in your heart by faith and he feels so much at home that he and the father and the son take up residence there, to the extent that you can say as Paul did, I live but not I, for Christ lives in me. Dare anyone in the tabernacle really say that? Christ lives in me, to the extent that every thought, every motive, every action is controlled, is conditioned by the indwelling Christ. When you've got to that state, then you've begun to understand why Paul is on his knees, praying for these Ephesians, asking that Christ may settle down in their hearts by faith.

But we must go on, for I want to spend the major part of the time that I have this morning into taking you a little further into this great prayer. I say there's nothing more wonderful in all the prayers of Scripture that Paul offered than this one. And he goes on then, and he says, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and I pray that you being rooted and established in love.

We'll stop there, and we'll just look at that concept. I pray that you might be rooted, or might be being rooted and established in love. Why is he repeating himself? Because surely he's now back to the idea of praying for strengthening in the inner man.

This is tautology, this is repetition. He's asked that they may be strengthened in the inner man, and he goes on to speak of that inner man in terms of stability, being rooted and established in love. Why is he so concerned? Well, again for this reason, that unless your total personality is rooted and established in love, you can never know the fullness of the glory of God within your personality.

You can never be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Maybe you didn't understand what I was saying just then, but hold on, give me your attention, and I'll break it open, and I'll guarantee that if you listen, you'll all grasp what Paul is here teaching us by the power of the Spirit. Let's take these two verbs, their metaphors, root and grounding, or established as it's translated here in the Ephesians, in the NIV.

It's grounded I believe in the authorized version. What do these two verbs convey? Root. Well, isn't that the language of agriculture? The language of agriculture.

My tomatoes committed mass suicide last night. I, um, I propped them up in the afternoon because of the wind, and I put string around and so on, and really coaxed them, but last night they all gave up the ghost. They just couldn't take it anymore.

What had gone wrong was, well, the root, something must have been amiss, and the stem wasn't thick enough, the wind was intense, and the net result is absolute tragedy at 8 Shakespeare Road. Root, it's a verb of agriculture. What's the agriculture of your soul like? How well rooted are you? Grounded or established, well, that's the verb of architecture.

So here is, if you please, the architecture of the soul. How well established is your soul? Paul is saying the same thing, you see, but he's repeating himself. In one sense there's a little bit of difference, because a building doesn't generally grow unless you're adding more rooms, but it does not grow naturally of itself.

A plant, well, the whole purpose of a plant is to, is to develop, but you, you've got this common characteristic with both verbs. Paul is trying to present a picture of stability, being rooted and grounded in love, and he says to these Ephesian Christians, this is what I'm praying for, fellows, this is what I'm praying for, my dear sisters, that your personalities might be so stabilized in love that God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit could indwell you, and you can be filled with all the measure of the fullness of God. Let's go back to the word root for a moment.

Actually, it's a very strong word, as used in the original, and it's got the, the concept of being deeply rooted. Now, with due respect to my tomatoes, you couldn't really have anticipated that they would constantly be able to stand up to the battering that they got last night and the, and the previous night, but outside our home, there's a strong tree, and it didn't matter how intense the wind was, there was hardly any movement at all, in the branches, yes, but not in the trunk. Why? Well, because the trunk was so, so wide, its, its girth was so, so extreme, and when the wind came, it made no impact whatsoever, and this is what Paul has in mind here, when he's speaking of the Christian people.

He's saying, I want you to be so rooted that you will develop, that you will get strong. You don't get holy in a hurry. Do you know that? Many of us have got a sort of caterpillar theology of sanctification, and so we, we agree with this.

Yes, the years must go by, and in one sense, that is, that is quite true, because Scripture time and time again talks about growing in grace, doesn't it? And then ultimately, Scripture takes us to the absolute condition that we should be in, and it says, therefore, my beloved brethren, this is 1 Corinthians 15 or 16, stand firm, be unmovable, established. That's what you're moving towards. You want a thick girth.

Well, at least as far as your spiritual life is, is concerned, to be rooted, to, to, to have your, your roots going right down into the ground, so that ultimately you become strong and broad, and you're able to withstand the pressures that come your way. That is what I say the Apostle has in mind, and there are other occasions when he, when he brings this to bear in his teaching. For example, when he's writing to the Corinthians, he talks to them in the, in the third chapter, and also in the, in the ninth verse about, for we are God's fellow workers.

You are God's field, God's building, the idea there of God's field, God's husbandry, being like a tree, growing tall and strong in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, that deals with the word root, but then let's go to the, to the word established, or the word grounded. Again, you saw in that reference from 1 Corinthians, how Paul again brings together these two concepts.

We're now thinking in terms of a building. Do you remember the parable our Lord taught at the end of the Sermon on the Mount of the Prospective Builders? One put up an edifice on rock, and the other put up an edifice on sand. And if you read the parallel account in Luke's Gospel, you'll discover that the wise man, he dug deeply into the ground.

He ensured that his foundations went as, as deep as possible, because as deep as the foundations are, so strong will your final building become. You ever been to Chichester Cathedral? I love to go there, particularly at Evensong, and listen to the service and take part in it. But there's something about that building that, that attracts me, that fascinates me.

I'm not saying it's a religious experience, but I'm just moved by great, the great architecture. Have you ever been to Lansing Chapel? That furnishes me with a better illustration. You know, that's an amazing chapel.

It's built on very, very soft ground, and to ensure that the edifice, the final building, could be supported down the hundred years or so that it's been constructed, just less than that I believe, the foundations are as deep as the building is high. Next time you're going along that little bit of motorway and you look at Lansing Chapel, think of that, the building is as high as the foundations are deep. And this is what Paul has in mind when he moves from the language of agriculture to architecture, and he speaks about the soul and the love that we ought to have in our hearts.

He says, I pray that you're being rooted and established in love. Only a fool of a builder pays undue attention to the foundations. Didn't we get the expression, someone perhaps could tell me where it originally came from? Obviously the word is German, at least the origin is somewhere German, but we get the expression jerry-built, don't we? Something that was put up very, very quickly.

I remember as a lad back in the north of England, my uncle at one stage had to go and live in a prefab, and there were very little foundations there, and in that sense it was a rather precarious place to be housed in, and you were only supposed to live there temporally. But very often we discovered, because housing was so bad at the turn of the war, that the years lengthened into almost a decade before people were rehoused. Well, if you've got a good home, you're concerned about the foundations.

A good house, you're concerned about the foundations being deep, so that the edifice can be supported. And this is what Paul has in mind, as I say, he's there on his knees, the chains are around his body, and he's praying to the Lord, Lord, may those Ephesian Christians be rooted and established in you, may their roots go down deep, may the foundations be true. Now, how does this come about? Let's try and answer that question.

What are these foundations? What is this that gives strength to the soul? If you go back to the analogy of the mighty oak, it sends its roots down into the ground, and the nutriment and nourishment of the soil somehow is harnessed by a miracle of nature, and as a result the oak becomes even more secure, and it's girth that much more wide. And similarly with a building, if it's carefully erected, the foundations are very, very strong indeed. Where does Christian strength come from? That's basically what we're asking.

Well, the apostle tells us that the Christian's strength is in love, is in love. I pray that you're being rooted and established in love. In one sense that's a surprise, isn't it? Oh, why do I say that? Well, for this reason, Paul is a teacher, he's a scholar, he's an erudite man, a man given to books and learning, a brilliant student.

And you might have expected if you put the question to him, how do I become strong in the Christian faith, that he would say by learning and by knowledge. But he doesn't say that. In fact, in other parts of the New Testament, in the epistles he writes, Paul seems to have a very qualified approach to knowledge.

He says knowledge puffs up, but he says love edifies. That's 1 Corinthians 8 and verse 1. The apostle is concerned to demonstrate this to us, that the heart of the Christian faith is not a body of doctrine, it's an emotional experience that changes, that heals the personality. Let me continue along this line, and you'll understand what I mean in a moment.

When a well-trained man came to Jesus and said, what is the greatest commandment? What did Jesus say? Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy strength, with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind. He didn't say take a crash course in theology at the University of Jerusalem and graduate, and then somehow or other you might please God and fulfill the commandment. No, Jesus said that the greatest commandment that had to be kept was to love the Lord our God.

I go as far as to say this, you can be skilled in the teaching of the New Testament, you can know the doctrinal statement of the tabernacle here, upside down and back to front, and you might still be deficient spiritually. There was never a Pharisee that ever lived, or a Sadducee for that matter, who was ignorant of the Word of God. But what they were ignorant of, culpably so, was the God of the Word.

The Apostle Paul in that great love sonnet, read to us so well by Elizabeth a few moments ago, tells us, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I am nothing. Though I understand all mysteries, though I have all knowledge, though I have spiritual intuition, though I have great understanding of God's Word, if I have not love, I am a zero. I'm like a bubble that's been pricked, there is nothing to me at all.

For the kingdom of God is not talk, it's not pure theology, it's not basically words. The kingdom of God transcends the theology and it takes you to theophany. It transcends the Word of God and takes you to the God of the Word.

And the God of the Word is defined as a God of love. God is love. And Jesus is God incarnate.

And the substance that makes you and me grow as Christians is love. And if there isn't love, be you ever so erudite, be you so well qualified theologically, you have no claims whatsoever on a New Testament faith. Love is the issue.

Loving the Lord our God with all our hearts and with all our minds, with all our strength. Paul is talking here to ordinary Christian people like you and me. And remember that what he's got in mind, what he's building up to, is the most shattering, startling thing almost in the whole of the New Testament.

He's talking ultimately of us being filled to the brim with the fullness of God. And he says, you know that can only come about when your personality is so deeply rooted in love, is so well secured on the foundation of love, that God feels at home with you. That God feels at home with you.

Oh that we could move towards that point. You say what's the manifestation of this sort of love? What sort of practical applications does it have? Well why do you attend the Lord's table? Let me put it practically like that. We're going to come around the Lord's table this evening.

Why do you come? Do you come because it's part of your spiritual disciplines? In the same way as some people might go through some religious practice shall we say out in India or Nepal, so you come around the Lord's table. No way. You come around the Lord's table because you love Jesus Christ.

Not to earn merit, but because you want to please Him. I love my wife. I want as best I can to please her.

So I don't do things which I know are disagreeable to her. And I show my love for the Lord Jesus by keeping His commandment. And He said remember me.

And I do it not because He says remember me and holding a sort of cricket bat in His hands to hit me over the head if I don't. But I do it because I want to. I love Him.

Why do I preach the gospel? Why am I a pastor? Why do you preach the gospel? Because you have to, because of your salary, because it's your job, because well you're known as a Christian in the office and they expect a little bit of religious talk from you now and again. The love of Christ constrains me. There's the impulse of love you see.

Now start to get down to the depths of your personality and ask is your love for Jesus to this extent that well you do like to come around this table. I'm only giving you examples. It's not an exhaustive list, neither one of specific importance.

But as they occur to me right now. Do you really love the Lord Jesus and your fellows to the extent that you want to tell them about Him? Because Jesus said that the second greatest commandment hard on the heels of the first was and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. So a non-loving Christian is a contradiction in terms.

It really is. And when your whole personality is rooted and grounded in love, it has tremendous consequences. Practically, there's almost a reckless abandonment.

Do you remember I concluded my address the other Sunday morning by quoting you from Helen Rosevear. Was that the book? Dr. Helen Rosevear, that's right. I got Nightingale going around in my mind at the same time.

That's another book. Her book, he gave me a valley. And there's this lovely lady.

We saw her at the tab so long, it's not so long ago. And she goes back to the very men who were capable or rather who had done the dastardly deed of rape. How can you do that? I can't explain that sort of thing logically.

I can only explain it by saying well here is a lady who's tasted this love. The love for the Lord Jesus. The love for fellow men and women to the extent that she's prepared to undergo anything and still remain loving.

Still remain loving. Do you remember some of you who read the cross and the switchblade? How Wilkerson on one occasion is on the streets of New York and Nikki of New York and Nikki Cruz comes along with his knife. And Wilkerson who's rather a weedy little fellow says, yes, yes Nikki you can take your knife and you can cut me up into little pieces.

And every little piece would say, I love you Nikki. Now that's the sort of love that Paul has in mind. It's a reckless love, an abandoned love.

It's one that caused a lady to rush into the place where Jesus was not concerned about the Pharisees and all the influential men who were in attendance in that room. And she starts to weep and she washes his feet with her tears and she wipes his feet with her hair. That's the sort of love that Paul is talking about here.

A love that's an abandoned love. A love that is still constant despite the variation in the reaction you get from the person. Now let me try that one again.

It's not easy to continue loving when someone has done something nasty to you is it? You know they've suddenly said something that's that's not too nice. Maybe a young person and you're really fond of your hairstyle and they say well you don't know Africa. And you immediately react badly.

Now that was a less serious example. There are many many more that I could give. And the idea that Paul has in mind is that no matter what is done to me, however wrongly I may have been harmed, I will continue to love.

Because Jesus loves and God loves and the Spirit loves. And this mind is in me which was also in Jesus. And I've partaken of the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now these are challenging things that I'm bringing to you this morning. But they come directly from the the Word of God. Not from my own heart.

Though my heart is well in accord with what I am trying to share. So here we are right at the conclusion of what I've wanted to bring to you this morning. You want to know something of the greatness of the fullness of God in your life.

This is a great experience. It must be. The the Wesley brothers sing of it.

They speak of it. Whitfield speaks of it. Many of the great Puritan writers.

The devotional men and women of days gone by. And some less lesser saints who never wrote books. They nonetheless knew something had been filled to a measure with the fullness of God.

And you say how did it come about? Well I'll tell you my friend. It comes about by ensuring that you've been strengthened in your inner being. It comes about by ensuring that you're rooted in love.

Rooted and established in love. So that you don't have any skin for anyone to get under. Because that skin has been crucified.

So you never bear a grudge. So your bank balance is as sanctified as your lips when you take bread and wine in remembrance of the Lord Jesus. So that your home belongs to Him.

And your car belongs to Him. And the whole of your possessions are controlled by Him. It's an absolute standard.

But it's an absolute gospel. And this is what Jesus is asking of you and me. And one of the reasons why we never come to that point.

Or many of us never come to the point of being filled with all the fullness of God. Is that some of the basic sub requests that Paul makes when he prays for the Ephesians. We've never lived up to them or endeavored so to do.

So this morning let us by God's grace say Father we want to be strengthened in the inner man. We want by your word and by fellowship around your table and around the throne in prayer. We want that strength.

And Father whatever it is that stops me from reflecting the Calvary love of Jesus. Take it away from me. Lord if it's television.

It's my bank balance. If it's jealousy in my heart. Lord get rid of it.

Help me to be selfless. Help me to be as sensitive as He was. And let my roots go so deep that at least spiritually my girth gets thicker and thicker and thicker.

So that just to change the analogy in my last sentence. When the waves come and beat on the rocks and the floods come down and the winds come with tremendous velocity. My house shall stand secure because it's built on the foundation of love which makes it impregnable for your glory.

Amen. Now Father may we know the outworking of that verse so that when the storms indeed do roar and when other circumstances might interfere with us we discover that our hearts being rooted and grounded in love enable us to remain almost immune to secondary circumstances. Father we ask for a practical entering into the teaching of scripture as we've listened to it being applied today.

Now send us on our way rejoicing in your goodness reflecting your love and basking in the knowledge of your companionship as we move out into the rest of this day. Amen.