The Outpouring of God's Love

I want to speak to you this morning about the outpouring of God's love. It's found in Romans chapter 5, verse 5. This is what go day called the hinge of this first section of Romans chapter 5, everything before it. The first four verses lead up to it and verses 6 through 11 flow out of it. And this is what the verse says, and hope, that is specifically the hope he's been talking about. The hope does not disappoint, it doesn't put you to shame, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die, but God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. For while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son. Much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

This is this experience that Paul describes for us in Romans 5.5 is a subjective experience based on objective truth. It is the Spirit of God coming to do something within the heart of every person in whom he dwells. In fact, I want to look at three things about this outpouring of God's love. That is the outpouring into the heart of the believer of the love of God that is displayed in the work of Jesus Christ. I'd like to say three things about it. The first is that this outpouring comes through the Holy Spirit to all believers, to all believers.

That's his point in Romans 5.5 is that the Holy Spirit who comes to dwell within us. The Spirit who was given to us pours out the love of God. The idea of that word pours out is very strong. It means an abundant, extravagant effusion. It's the word that's used of the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. Paul also uses this word in Titus to refer to the Spirit being given to us.

He is poured out upon us, and it's a picture of abundance. Christosdom said that what Paul is doing here is not saying that he parsimoniously gives us a little bit of the Spirit, but he pours out the Spirit with profusion and the Spirit of God then fills our hearts with a sense of God's love for us. This passage is verse, it's asserting two things at once.

First it's saying that God's love has been poured out into our hearts in the past when we first came to Christ and that love remains within us. That is that recognition of the love of God remains within us. It is the Holy Spirit that causes this love to be felt in those in whom he dwells. So this is a common inheritance of all believers. All of us to one degree or another have experienced this overflow and outflow of the love of God through the ministry of the Spirit. What's important about it is that this is a life-changing reality.

We're told in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 that this experience of God's love coming to experience, feel in a subjective way, deep down inside, God's love for us will have powerful effects in our lives. In fact, the Apostle Paul says this is what drives me on in 2 Corinthians 5. The love of Christ constrains me. It's the thing that keeps moving me in the direction that I am going. It's a thing that caused Paul to lay down his life for Christ who would be executed for the cause of Jesus Christ because of the love of Christ that had been shed abroad in his heart. Earlier in that same book in 2 Corinthians, the theme of the new covenant under which we live is at the heart of what Paul is writing about and the point that he makes in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 is that in the old, under the old covenant, the mosaic covenant, what was external has become under the new covenant internal.

It is what is going on inside of us and it is this internal subjective. You could say even emotional sensation within the believer that God indeed loves us. This love expressed and made vital in real concrete actions that we are going to look at in the next few verses on our behalf. This is what gives us this assurance, this hope that will not disappoint us. This entire text is built around this idea of hope that we have been given hope in regards to the future as we face the reality of coming judgment, that there is a judgment day coming according to the Scriptures and we see all kinds of indications of it, even in our day. Today is coming but the hope that we have is that we will stand in the judgment day because of Jesus Christ and our faith in Him and this effusion of the love of God within the heart is what produces this hope in Christ and in the salvation that we have.

The second thing that Paul does here is he shows that this outpouring is based upon the actions of God. In other words, real, space, time, reality, historical events that took place. He demonstrates the objective nature of God's love for us and this is how the Spirit pours forth the love of God in us. He opens our eyes to the reality of what God has done in Christ Jesus and the flow of his argument in these next few verses and verses 6-8 is basically this. Paul says in verse 7 that human love at its best will motivate a person to perhaps lay down their life for someone close to them, someone that has been good to them. Secondly, he says in verse 6 that Christ didn't die for good folks.

He didn't die for righteous folks. He died for rebellious and undeserving people. He died for the people who put him to death. Therefore, his conclusion in verse 8 is that God's love is far greater in its magnitude and in its dependability. You can rest upon it. It's far greater than any form of human love.

Human love is fickle. In the Old Testament, God says through the prophet, can a nursing mother withhold love from her child? We think, oh, how could that happen?

Well, it happens all around us, doesn't it? We have babies being abandoned all over the place. Can a nursing mother abandon its child, its suckling child? God says they may, but I will never forsake you. See, God's love is far greater than the greatest demonstration of human love.

Now why is he arguing this way? Why is he giving us this? What is the purpose of this line of argument?

Well, what he is doing is he's giving us evidence for the love of God. Especially this outpouring of the love of God in our hearts by tracing that love that we experience back to the historical realities of what Christ has actually done, what God has actually done. And the order of it is this, notice this, our feelings that is the spirit of God working within our hearts, opening our eyes and our mind to the reality of the love of God for us is based upon him allowing us to see God's actions.

But those actions are what convince us of God's feelings towards us. How do we know God loves us? Because of the cross. The great demonstration of His love towards us is the cross. This is the great evidence of God's love for His people. And if you'll notice in verse 6 or 8, look at it for a second.

In the Greek language, in the original language, the last word in every sentence in verse 6, verse 7 and verse 8 is the verb die because that's the emphasis here. That He loved us to this degree, that He loved us to the point that He would die for us. And so notice the argument that He gives.

First of all, human love at its best will motivate a person to give his life for a truly good person. You probably know somebody in your life that you love so much, you'd be willing to die for them. I think all of us who have any kind of relationships, deep relationships know there are people in our lives that we would be willing to die for.

But what He is doing here is He is putting the love of God, the love of God that's manifest on the cross in bold relief against the kind of love that we see among this human race. The people, the best, the pinnacle of human love would be someone being willing to die for their spouse or their child or perhaps a combat buddy, whereas God's in His son to die for people who hated Him, who didn't love Him. The most shocking thing about the gospel story is that God loved His enemies, the most beloved verse in all the Bible that's quoted more than any other verse for God so loved the world.

Well most people don't even think about the context of that verse, read the gospel of John and find out who the world is, who is this world that John's speaking about. Well, it's humanity at war with God, humanity at war with God, a humanity that hates God. God so loved those who hated Him that He gave His only begotten Son.

Now a good person might have somebody who's been good to you and upon whom you look with great favor may bring out of your heart the desire to even lay down your life, but God didn't die for good folks who had been good to Him, who had done good things for Him. He died for Jesus Christ died for the enemies of God. And then back in verse 6, He tells us that Christ didn't die for righteous or good people, but for the rebellious and the undeserving. The word helpless here in verse 6 is talking about the fact that humanity is totally incapacitated for good in the ultimate sense, that nobody born into this world apart from the work of God since the fall is able to do one thing for God with a righteous and good motive. We don't have the ability. And then He calls us ungodly and that's one of the strongest pejorative terms in the Bible, as it refers to man, fallen man, as refusing to give to God what God deserves.

What does God deserve? He deserves your love. This is the first and great commandment. That's the love of the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. He deserves your worship. He deserves you to value Him more than you value anything in life.

He deserves for you to give yourself to Him. And yet the ungodly, the fact that we are called ungodly means that we refuse to give God his due. Now the amazing thing in this verse in verse 6 is that it says, notice this, for while we were still helpless, that the right time Christ died for the ungodly, in the beginning of that sentence, He says, this is the argument that God loves us, that Christ died for us. Why is that an argument that God loves us, that Christ died for us?

Well, this is the way Paul always argues. He always sees the sun's dying revealing the Father's love for us. Paul will never talk about the death of Christ apart from the giving of the sun by the Father. The Father gave His Son to die for us. And notice this in verse 6, it says, it was at the right time, at the right time. What in the world does that mean?

Well, in this context, the right time is it was in that season of time. That's what this word means, Kairas. It was in a season of time in which we were weak and ungodly. It was when we had nothing to commend us to God as a people. That's when Christ died for us. There are people walking around thinking, you know, someday I might want to become a Christian.

I want to get my act together, straighten out my life, get rid of some of these bad habits, and then become a Christian. That's how some people think. Well, the news is you never will, and that Jesus came to die for real sinners. He died for us at the right time while we were rebellious and hateful and weak and incapable. Christ died for the ungodly at the very time when they demonstrated their greatest weakness and ungodliness. Later on in this chapter, he's going to say, where sin abounded grace abounded far more.

Think of it. Some of you have seen this movie, The Passion of Christ, and it's shocking because visually you're seeing what the Bible describes as a suffering of Christ, and it's very troubling to a lot of people. It's interesting to hear people's comments, unbelievers' comments about the movie. Some people upset about it, upset about the way they're portraying this event. You see, the most amazing thing about the timing of the cross is that Jesus becomes sin for us on the cross, and the Father pours out His judgment on the Son right in the midst of Jesus being rejected by the people for whom He is dying. Isn't that amazing?

You saw this expression of hatred towards Christ. The whole world is turned against Him. His disciples have fled. And in the midst of this, in the midst of this rejection, as John puts it, he came to his own creation and his own people, received Him not. In the midst of their rejection, while they were rejecting Him, while they were hurling insults at Him, while they were spitting in His face, Jesus became sin for us. That's when He suffered the blow of the wrath of God on our behalf.

You see, the big thing, the sufferings of Christ, the physical sufferings are incredible. Isaiah 53 says that He was beaten so severely that He didn't even look like a man. He didn't have the form of a man. He did suffer physically in a horrible way.

But the greater suffering was when your sin, your sin, was laid upon Him and the Father judged Him in your place. When the Father poured out His judgment upon His own Son as my substitute. It was an amazing thing at the right time, at the right time. Christ suffered from me in the midst of being rejected by His own people. And then notice this, in verse 8, Paul says, therefore, we can only conclude that God's love is far greater than the greatest human love. In contrast, the very best of human love is God's love.

He says, because of this, notice in the verse. He demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, some people think the word sinner means you break the rules. It's far greater than that. A sinner is a rebel. A sinner is someone who refuses to submit to the authority of the God who created Him for Himself. A sinner is someone who is committing treason against the God of the universe.

And it was while we were sinners that God demonstrated His love for us, in that Christ died for us. The word demonstration is an interesting word. I have a friend who always uses, he illustrates this word by a Tupperware Party. You go to a Tupperware Party and they demonstrate the product. And this was like God's great demonstration.

Well, the word is a powerful word. It means to cause something to be known by action. To cause something to be known by action. It's what every wife in this room wants her husband to do when it comes to Him showing His love for her. You know, you can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk? And to demonstrate means to cause something to be known by action, to demonstrate it, to show it.

This is what God did. Does God love you? Does God love the world? Is John 3.16 true? Look at the cross. This is the great demonstration of God's love.

And notice the connection you have here with verse 5. He talks about this subjective experience of feeling loved by God, of having the love of God shed a broad in our hearts, knowing and feeling it deep down inside that we are loved by God. But here in verse 8, he links it to what God has done in Christ Jesus, to this real historical factual event in the life of Jesus Christ. He went to the cross.

Now an emotional feeling of God's love in itself is very little comfort to the person who's lost and condemned and doomed to an eternity separated from God. Knees more than a feeling. And on the other hand, a cold and sober historical explanation of that God loved the world by sending Christ to die for us doesn't mean they're going to experience the truth and the reality of that salvation that Christ purchased.

But when these two things are brought together, when these are experienced, when the Spirit of God comes in power and brings to bear upon the heart, so the heart, the eyes of the heart are opened up as Paul describes it. And we see the reality of this Christ who took my place and suffered the penalty for my sin. And the love of God is shed a broad in my heart. I embrace Him by faith. That's something else. And that's what Paul says, the work of the Spirit of God is in the life of the believer.

The love of God in verse five has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit in verse eight. The love of God is being demonstrated by God in history through the cross of Christ. I want you to look at something. Look at this verse. Look at verse eight very closely.

Now look at it and listen carefully. Pay attention to the tense of the verbs. You know what it, you know what verb tense is, don't you? You know like present tense, past tense, perfect tense, plume perfect, all those things.

Well listen to what this verse says. Listen to the tense of the verses. But God demonstrates His love, His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. You notice the difference between those two verbs that God demonstrates and Christ died for us. That is past tense. That's history.

It's fixed, objective, unchanging. It happened. It doesn't matter what you believe about it, it happened. Christ died. You would expect Paul to say in this historical act, God demonstrated His own love toward us.

But that's not what He wrote. What He wrote was God continually demonstrates His own love towards us, present tense. He continues to demonstrate His own love toward us. This is an ongoing action of God. God is continually demonstrating His love for us today. He commends His love today through this past historical objective fact of the death of His Son for us.

The Holy Spirit brings that to bear upon the heart. It's a fascinating statement in Galatians, Paul says in Galatians chapter 4 that God continues to provide the Holy Spirit. He continues to provide the Holy Spirit to you. The reason that the Spirit is still living in you today, believer, is because the God of the universe continues to provide the Holy Spirit. In other words, there's an ongoing reality of the presence of the Spirit in the life of the believer in order to pour forth in the heart of the believer the love of God in Christ Jesus. So you can see the connection between the outpouring of God's love through the Spirit.

God pours out His love into our hearts and He demonstrates His love by directing our minds through the work of the Spirit to consider the death of His Son upon the cross. Why do we sing so much about the cross? Why do we constantly sing and preach and talk about the cross of Jesus Christ? Because it's God's ongoing, continual demonstration of His love for us. Did you know that the cross is the answer to your marital problems? Did you know that the cross is the answer to your child raising problems?

Did you know that the cross is the answer to the way you handle your finances? It is. If you understand the cross and its implications and its ongoing application to your life, it penetrates every area of the life of the believer. The experience of God's love has this objective, factual content Christ died for me. And it is mediated, it's communicated through this objective truth. The Spirit brings this truth to bear upon my heart.

Now that's very important. I want to show you why in just a minute. I want to keep driving this home that the ongoing work of God in demonstrating His love is by the Spirit bringing the truth of the cross of Jesus Christ to bear upon your mind. You don't get the experience of the pouring forth, the outpouring of the love of God in your heart by being an airhead. You don't get it by emptying your mind and meditating on your belly button. The way that you experience the outpouring of God's love in your heart is by filling your head and your heart with a truth of the cross.

And when the Spirit takes that truth and applies it to your heart and your life and your relationships, your heart will be filled. It will be flooded by the love of Christ. Now notice the third thing. This outpouring must be pursued.

Now your ears should tingle a bit if you understand the implications of this. This experience must be pursued. You have to actually do something in order for you to experience the ongoing work of the Spirit in pouring out the love of God in your heart. All of us know, experientially, that this work of the Spirit in filling the heart with the sense of God's love is different between different people and different times in our lives. You have all, if you've been walking with Christ for any time at all, you've had those moments when the love of Christ was such a compelling reality to you that it literally controlled your life. It controlled your decisions.

Some of you are going through times right now where it never crosses your mind. It's amazing how we can pray for our food and never think of the cross. Lord bless this food. That we can live the Christian life without having this part of the experience which is the inheritance of the saints, to have the Spirit of God pour forth the love of God in our hearts, to be the motivating force in our lives, to keep us on track. Why do believers get so far off the trail? How is it that can professing believers can get so far away from obedience to Christ and the work of Christ that He's called Him to in this world?

Now the reason we know that this is something that must be pursued is for several reasons. First of all, the first thing is that the tenses of the verbs here in verse five poured out and was given to us. The Spirit was given to us. That implies that it's a once for all experience. The Spirit came to live within every single believer. That's how you got saved.

But this other part of it, this ongoing continual experience of the love of God being poured out implies that there's an ongoing effect as well. But the outpouring of God's love has this ongoing and varied expressions, I think you could say. You know some people that are so gripped by the love of Christ that it does control their lives. And I think one of the saddest things is to run into somebody that I've known from the past who was so motivated to live for Christ, so motivated to make their life count for the kingdom of God and then to run into them and see them so taken up with something else that you can hardly detect the effects of the love of God being shed or brought in their hearts. This is something that we must pursue.

Now the other reason we know this is because of what this Bible says. The Scriptures tell us that we have to do something about this. And Jude, chapter, and Jude, verse 21, it tells us that we must keep ourselves in the love of God. It's a command, keep yourselves in the love of God. He tells you how. By building yourself up on the most holy faith, by praying in the Holy Spirit, and by living in hope of the coming of Christ, there's something you have to do.

Now not only that, but notice this. In Romans chapter 5, when he says, let me go first, let me go to 1 Thessalonians 3.5, Paul prays for the Thessalonikans, he says, may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God. And when he prays this, it means that he wants God to do this. It needs to be done. He sees a need for the Lord to do something in their hearts, to direct their hearts. In other words, the implication is, the heart must be directed.

Solomon says this over and over again. He says, don't listen to your heart. Speak to your heart. Stop listening to your heart and start directing your heart because your heart must be directed. You see what the heart does? It moves towards what it regards as attractive and satisfying and valuable.

What is attractive and satisfying and valuable to you? Well, James chapter 4 says, the world is bombarding you with things. It's bombarding your life with things that it wants you to believe and embrace as attractive satisfying and valuable. It wants you to believe that an extreme makeover is more important than the transforming work of the Holy Spirit inside of you. That a facelift would do you more good than to have the Holy Spirit of God purify your spirit. It's an amazing thing.

We live in a world that is so fleshly and we're so affected by it. The heart moves towards what it sees as attractive and satisfying and valuable, so Paul prays that God will let their hearts see the love of God. If your heart could just see the love of God, if it could just see it. If the eyes of your heart could just be opened up and you could see the love of God is more attractive and satisfying and valuable. As the ordinary earthly things in this world, it would change your life.

And so he prays for this. He prays that God would allow them to experience his love in a fresh and powerful way. Experience the love of God. All believers have tasted of the love of God to one degree or another. We've all been drawn into trusting all that God is for us in Christ Jesus, but the fact is our hearts aren't always steadfast, our hearts drift and waver. We are constantly tempted to drift away from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

And what Paul is doing here is he's praying for a revival. That's what revival is. When this event happens in the lives of many people, he wanted them to experience the love of God in a fresh way. He wanted the Lord to take hold of their hearts and direct their hearts towards the love of God so that they would experience the outpouring of the love of God through the Holy Spirit. And it can only be done by the Spirit of God, but what we must do is want it. What we must do is want it.

We have to direct our hearts. That's an interesting thing throughout the wisdom, literature and the Old Testament. It says, you have a responsibility to direct your heart. Where are you directing your heart? And you think, what are you talking about?

Well, what are you watching? What are you setting your affection on? What are you filling your horizon with? What is it that takes up your days and your evenings and your thought life? What do you think about when you fall asleep at night? What do you think about when you wake up in the morning?

Is it the love of God in Christ Jesus? That's what happens when the Spirit of God pours forth His love in your heart, isn't it? Are you thinking about pulling the weeds? Are your IRA or something else? Look at this in 2 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 14, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Look at what He's saying here.

He's calling on God to make His love manifestly present. To make the love of God manifestly present and real to them. The love of God be with you, be manifested among you, may it grab your attention. Even though the love of God is always present, it's exactly as Jude says, you must keep yourselves in the love of God. It's like the sun is shining out there, but you can keep yourself in a dark room. You can keep yourself shut off from the truth of the love of God.

That's why we want God to make His love manifestly known. We want Him in the power of the Spirit to open our eyes to the truth of His great love for us. And then notice this, Ephesians 3, what a passage. Look at this, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened and you think the riches of His glory may grant you according to the riches of His glory to be able to buy a million-dollar house and to have three brand-new SUVs and to have a vacation home out of the riches of His glory and to have your bank account overflowing Do you think that Bill Gates has the expressions of the riches of the glory of God in his forty billion dollars? Notice what he says comes out of the riches of His glory, that he would grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. The idea of dwelling there is that He might settle down and feel at home.

Because Christ feel at home in your heart, as you look at last week, as He been at home in your heart, He goes on and that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled up with all the fullness of God. Let's go backwards, look at this. Most of all, He says, He asks them that they be filled up with all the fullness of God. That's an experience to be filled up with the fullness of God, to be overflowing, to be feeling no wants, to be so full of God that you have deep, wonderful satisfaction. We don't always have that, but we always want it as believers. This is what we really want when we're sober and sane.

So we're to pursue it, but how does it come? Well, notice what He says in verses 18 and the first part of verse 19, it comes through an experiential knowing of the incomprehensible love of Christ. Look at this, to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. What does that mean? It means you can't figure it out on your own. It means you can't explain it in words.

It means it is something that God must open your eyes to. And how does that experiential knowing of the love of Christ come? Well, notice what He says, Paul asks that they be rooted and grounded in love so that they may be able to comprehend this incomprehensible love.

Well, how does that rooting and grounding in love take place? How do you get rooted and grounded in the love of God? Well, he tells us in verses 16 and 17, he prays for it to happen by the strengthening of the spirit in the inner man. It's up to the Holy Spirit. Because he strengthens the inner man so that Christ would dwell, so that Christ would be at home in your heart. So there would be communion.

What is it that makes a person feel at home in your house? Well, it's when you treat them like they're welcome, right? Does Christ feel at home in your heart? He's there, if you're a believer, does he feel at home? That's what Paul prays for, that the spirit of God would so strengthen their inner man, their spirit that Christ would dwell in them. That's just Romans 5.5.

All that is is Paul describing in a different way the love of God being poured out in the heart through the Holy Spirit. Now, all of that to say that the outpouring of the love of God in the hearts of believers is something that you have to pursue and yet only the Holy Spirit can produce it. It can't be produced in any other way. We are dependent upon Him. So what in the world do we do?

Well, it's obvious to us, both by experience and by the word of God, that the experience of the love of God varies from time to time, from person to person. You've had seasons in your life when the love of Christ was so compelling to you that you would have gone in any direction wherever He called you. Today you hate even think about such a thing. It's also obvious that we should seek the fullness of this experience as Christ people. I think this is why you have so many of these second blessing doctrines. It's because people experience from time to time and repetitively the spirit of God coming in power and opening the eyes of our hearts so that we see the love of Christ in a fresh way.

And when does He usually do that? He usually does that when you go through something that's so life-shaking that it brings you to your knees, right? It just brings you completely to the end of yourself and when you turn to Him in your despair, when you turn to Him in your weakness, realizing that you don't even have the resources to go on and you turn to Him then in His grace, the spirit of God comes in great power and you have a baptism of the love of God in your hearts. The spirit of God stirs you afresh.

Well, is there anything we can do? We said that we have to pursue it. What do we do to pursue it?

Let me give you two simple, simple things. The first is, first, we fill our minds with the demonstration. That is the cross. If you think you understand the cross, you are very naive. Greatest minds on the face of this earth and through the history of the church have delved into the glory of the cross and they would all say, all I can do is bow my knee.

Well, the greatest scholars the church has ever known when he was asked, what is the most important thing you've ever learned? He said, Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so. That's the most important thing you will ever learn and only the Holy Spirit of God. You can grow up in a Christian home and hear the gospel a million times sitting in every Sunday school class that the church offers and yet not experience that. That's the work of the spirit. The spirit of God has given you that you ought to say, oh, thank you, my Father, for this glorious gift.

You've given me a gift. You've opened my eyes and I've seen the love of Christ. The love of God has been shed abroad in my heart and so what should I do? I should fill my mind with the demonstrations of the cross. Start reading the Bible. Start reading.

Did you know that the major sections of the gospels are about the death of Jesus, His whole life and ministry and yet the biggest chunk of the gospel is the final week of His life in those final hours when He went to the cross? And the explanation of the cross throughout the New Testament, the New Testament Epistles and the fruition of the gospel and the death of Christ in the book of Revelation throughout the book of Revelation Jesus as the Lamb of God's slain is lifted up and glorified. That's what it's about. It's about the Lamb. And then secondly, we're to pray is what Paul did. He prayed fervently, we're to pray fervently for the work of the spirit that the spirit would produce an outpouring of the love of God in our hearts.

I want to tell you that that's the only solution to many of your problems, is that the spirit would come in power and pour out the love of Christ in your heart in a fresh and powerful way that the eyes of your heart would be opened again that your life would be shaken by this work of the spirit. That's what Paul continually encouraged Christ's people to do, these two things. He wrote to his people to direct their minds to the truth of God in Christ. He prayed that the Holy Spirit would give them eyes to see. We see it over and over and over again. He prays that their eyes would be open and that's what we have to do.

In fact, I want to show you a prayer, turn with me to Ephesians chapter 1, written to a church that Paul loves so much. And notice what he says to them, Ephesians chapter 1. He prays them several times in this book, but notice this verse 18, this is a pattern, this is a continual pattern in the life of Paul. This is what he would pray for us if he knew us and he was here today. He says in Ephesians 1,18, I pray that the eyes of your heart, the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. And what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe these are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might, which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him in his right hand in the heavenly place as far above all rule and authority and power and dominion.

And every name that is named, and not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him his head over all things for the benefit of the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all things in all ways. You know, we live in perilous times. We have stuff going all around us. We have a culture that is so anti, is becoming so anti-god that it's frightening. I read a study the other day, the United States is one of the most religious nations in the world.

The United Kingdom is one of the most secular. There is only a small percentage of people in the United Kingdom who believe that there is a God, and it used to be the center of the work of the gospel. Where are we going? Where are we going? One of the glorious truths of Scripture is where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. It's times like this that should drive us to Christ.

Should drive us to Christ. Should drive us to the cross. I was listening to a song this past week, this is what we're just saying, but you sang those words. By the way, when you sing these kinds of words, don't you dare sing it without meaning it. Don't let your lips move without your heart being animated. Sing from the depths of your heart.

God crushed you for my sin. That's biblical. Isaiah, that the Father was pleased to crush him if he would make his soul a sin offering. He would see his seed and be satisfied. The great satisfaction of the Savior is seeing you here today who rested your faith in him that his crosswork was not in vain. There have been billions of people that have turned to him in faith.

Look at this simple little song. What kind of love is this that climbs the hill, that bears the cross, that takes the nails? What kind of love is that? What kind of love is this that takes my place, that gives his life, that clears my name? What kind of love is this that gives his son, that bears the sin of everyone? What kind of love is this?

You see, only the Spirit of God can answer that question for you. If you're here this morning and you've never been gripped by the love of Christ, and that's why you're not a believer, it's because you've never been gripped by the love of Christ, but if the Holy Spirit gets whole of your heart, even today, and the eyes of your heart are opened, and you see the love of Christ for what it really is, it will change your life. And, believer, if it's been a long time since you sucked on the love of Christ, Jesus says, do you come and die? The Master call that's come and die? You can feast at Jesus' table anytime. He fed the multitude and turned the water into wine, calls now to His people, come and die.

He wants you to feast on His love. He wants you to find it so satisfying that the things of this world do grow strangely dim. We have to deal with life every day, but it doesn't have to be our God. The things that we possess don't have to be our idols. The profession we pursue doesn't have to be the commission of our life. We can actually experience the Spirit of God gushing forth the love of God in our hearts, so that everything we do is an expression of our worship.

That song that we sang, here I am to worship, here I am to bow down, that song was written by a young man who was studying the Philippians too. And as he began to read about this Christ who, although he was equal with God, did not think it was robbery to be equal with God, but he emptied himself, took on the form of a servant and humbled himself, even to the point of death, so that he could save us, wrote that song. And if you notice the chorus says after describing this, how this God of light comes down into our darkness to die for us. And he says, so here I am to worship. What else is there to do in response to a God like this?

But to worship Him, to worship Him. Would you stand with me and let's do that? Almighty God, you are worthy of every expression of praise that we could ever give to you. We could never overdo it. We could never give too much of ourselves to you. We could never praise you enough, worship you enough, love you enough.

Oh God, we are your people. The people call by your name. Those have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. You've put us in this world to be a demonstration of the love of Christ. And yet we confess to you, Father, as your people, that far too often there are other things on our agenda than fulfilling our calling. Some of us are just so taken up with the attempt to survive in this world that we forget that we've been called for a glorious purpose to demonstrate the love of God in Christ Jesus.

We are trophies of grace. We are all people who have believed on you. We are all people who have been saved, delivered by the blood of Christ. You gripped our hearts with your love for us and your son. We've all had those moments in which the love of Christ so captivated us that it drove our lives. It determined the direction of our lives and it kept us going at a certain pace.

Father, we confess you that we get cold and we get distracted in our hearts wander and we find other things more attractive than the love of God in Christ Jesus. So remind us we pray. Father, you've called us when we gather like this to incite one another to love and good deeds and I pray that we would be obedient to you even today. I pray that instead of talking about the weather, instead of talking about the latest flu epidemic or something else, I pray that as we fellowship together that Christ would be the center of our conversation, that as you listen in on our conversation may or may it be a sweet sound to your ears we pray. We want our lives to be for the praise of the glory of the one who sent his son to rescue us. We glorify you, Father, and we want our lives and the events of our lives to glorify you.

We pray that that would be the testimony of all who watch us. We pray in Christ's name for his glory. Amen.