Big Blessings

Message notes: Sunday 16th September 2012 Exeter Temple  
Ephesians 3:19 “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 that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

The Bible uses the word “full, fully or fullness many times including this verse. It is a very appropriate word for harvest time as it is a time when we recognise how “fully” reliant upon God we are for our survival. Also it is a festival when we express our “full” appreciation to him for all his provision.
Fullness has several different meanings.
1. Extravagance
There is that part of us that looks at the world and, instead of seeing the abundance of creation, sees a scarcity of resources. But we worship a God of abundance                                                                                                 This is sometimes it’s hard to believe when we witness or experience poverty. However this does not need to lead us to the conclusion that the Lord God is a god of scarcity. The infinite variety of creation, the way Jesus demonstrated generosity shows us God’s extravagance. Rather it is man’s wastefulness, greed and mismanagement that causes an imbalance in the distribution of resources.
A human being also cries out to be loved extravagantly. God acts abundantly here also.
God has displayed for all the fullness of his love for us.
Colossians 2:9
His love is demonstrated in Christ’s person and also by Christ’s actions.
Romans 5:8
The cross is a demonstration of love that holds nothing back, that goes to the most extreme act of self-sacrifice, and offers through that sacrifice access to the fullness of heaven.
“Everything of God gets expressed in Christ so you can see and hear him clearly. You don’t need a telescope, a microscope or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him. When you come to him that fullness comes together for you too. His power extends to everything.” (The Message)

2. Totality
Full also refers to something being totally crammed to capacity.
We are not just to sample the fullness of God’s love we are to be filled with it ourselves. “that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
This fullness is brought into our lives through the Holy Spirit.
John 3:5
A.W Tozer “The Spirit filled life is not a special deluxe version of the Christianity. It is part and parcel to the total plan of God for his people.”
Christians can be petty, competitive, materialistic, mean and angry.
Could it be that some Christians have never allowed the Holy Spirit to take total control of their lives? Could it be that some Christians were once filled with the fullness of God but they have let the devil take back ground in their lives?
Ephesians 4:17
Something is either full or it is not. It may not be completely empty but God has not promised half measures he has promised fullness!!

3. Readiness
Fullness can also mean readiness or ripeness? At harvest time we see fruit that is ready to be picked and corn that is waiting to be threshed.
The Old Testament looked forward to a time when God would come in full measure to his people but in the New Testament this is fulfilled.
Galatians 4:4
There is therefore immediacy in the message of the New Testament. The time is now. God has poured out his Spirit in order for there to be a harvest of his love in our hearts now. There is nothing, except our unwillingness to prevent us from benefiting from his fullness.

Harvest time will pass. The time is now because we don’t know when we will run out of time or time will run out on us.
Jesus also calls us to harvest now. He says that there are people who are ready right now to hear and accept his gift of love

God bless

Carol