Title: Secure in the Love of God
Meta: The apostle Paul could not have endured the hardship and suffering He did without having a glimpse of his security in the love of God for him in Jesus Christ. Our problems so often come back to this: We have no comprehension of how much Christ loves us.
Tags: love,God,believer,Christian

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We know so little about the love of Christ for us.

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It's amazing.

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You know, Paul's praying for the Ephesians,

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and he keeps building these things up.

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I pray that you'd be strengthened

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with power by His Spirit in the inner man

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that you might be able to...

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and finally it gets to the end,

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that you might know the love of Christ

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that surpasses knowledge.

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That you be filled up with all the fullness of God.

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It's like he puts the love of Christ at the epitome.

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If you could just get a glimpse of the love of Christ.

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Why is he praying like that for the Ephesians?

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Because evidently, Paul had seen something

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and felt something and known something

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of the revelation of the love of Christ for him,

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and that's what sustained him.

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That's what enabled him

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to take beatings and stonings

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and stripes and shipwrecks

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and everything else.

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He could not have done it otherwise.

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Howell Harris, who lived there in Wales in the 1700's,

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he was out praying in a bell tower there.

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He said love fell in showers on my soul

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so I could scarcely contain or control myself.

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And he said I cried out to God.

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He says I'll go through fire and though water.

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But this is what he said -

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now, you know Hal Harris would

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go out and preach for 9 hours.

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He'd be so exhausted,

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one time he was crossing one of those stiles

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that goes over a fence,

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and he fell asleep on the stile.

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He's out preaching in the open air

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and William Seward with him

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gets hit in the head with a rock and killed

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in his twenties.

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He said were it not for the love that I had known,

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I could never have stood against the flood.

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I would have turned back.

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And you know, our problems, many times,

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it just goes back to this,

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we have no comprehension

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of how much Christ loves us.

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Paul prays for those Ephesians.

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He says I'm praying for you

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that you might know the love of Christ.

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It changes everything.

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When you're filled with the love of God -

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when the love of God is poured out

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in your heart by the Holy Spirit,

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the first thing that happens is

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you're so full of love for every person you meet.

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They couldn't do anything to you

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to make you not love them.

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I mean, every person who you see

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coming at you on the sidewalk,

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you want to hug everybody,

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because you're absolutely secure in the love of God.

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Nothing can touch you. Nothing can harm you.

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Because He died for me.

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He loved me and gave Himself for me.

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That's security.