Sermon: Embrace: The Depths of Holiness

Scripture Text: Ephesians 3:14-21

Quotes for Reflection

Julian of Norwich, The Complete Julian of Norwich
When we are fallen because of frailty or blindness, then our gracious Lord inspires us, stirs us and calls us, and then he wills that we see our wretchedness and humbly let it be acknowledged. But He does not wish us to remain thus. Nor does He will that we busy ourselves greatly about accusing ourselves, nor does He will that we be full of misery about ourselves; for He wills that we quickly attend to Him; for He stands all alone and waits for us constantly, sorrowing and mourning until we come, and hastens to take us to himself, for we are His joy and delight and He is our cure and our life.

Dane Ortland, Deeper
The wraparound category of your life is not your performance but God’s love. The defining hallmark of your life is not your cleanness but his embrace. The deepest destiny of your life is to descend ever deeper, with quiet yet ever-increasing intensity, into the endless love of God. We grow spiritually by getting a head start on that project, right here in this fallen earthly life.

John Owen, Communion with the Triune God
So much as we see of the love of God, so much shall we delight in him, and no more. Every other discovery of God, without this, will but make the soul fly from him; but if the heart be once much taken up with this the eminency of the Father’s love, it cannot choose but be overpowered, conquered, and endeared unto him…If the love of a father will not make a child delight in him, what will?

Application Questions

1. What causes you to doubt God’s love?

2. Slowly review Paul’s prayer. How does it inform our understanding of the gospel of grace?

3. How do you need to comprehend God’s love this coming week? Express that to God in prayer.