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Ep. 53 - #Faith4TodayPodcast — God who is Love | Advent · #Faith4TodayPodcast

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  God's love is more generous than we think, and he not only wants
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  us to receive it, He wants us to give it to represent him and be
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  imitators of his love. We're going to get into the
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  dimensions of God's love and recognizing how it transforms
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  our life to becoming people of generous love too.
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  It's episode 53 of the Faith for Today podcast.
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  Let's go. Welcome everybody to today's
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  episode of the Faith for Today podcast.
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  My name is Matthew, I'm your host and we are episode 53,
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  bringing to your content fresh every week, helping you live not
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  just in the moment of inspiration on a Sunday, but
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  living out your faith on Thursdays.
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  And so by the time this releases, it's going to be
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  Christmas and that's going to be wonderful.
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  And so let me just say from the very top of this episode, Merry
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  Christmas. I hope you have a great time
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  celebrating with your family. And so whenever you get a chance
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  to listen, listen to this, I hope that it finds you well and
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  refreshed and just full of love as we go, man, we've been doing
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  this for a year now. It marks a year we're episode
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  53. So we've been doing an episode
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  every week now. And so we've crossed over that
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  one year mark and it's a pretty cool milestone.
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  We're glad to to have you be a part Today.
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  I'm going to share a recap of our Christmas message.
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  I'm going to share a little bit of bonus content really walk
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  through three scriptures and just share some thoughts as as
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  they come and then going to do a little bit different flip the
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  tables today when we get to the question and response time.
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  So let's get into it. Here's a recap of the sermon The
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  God who gives love. And we looked at God's generous
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  love at the heart of Christmas is not a present, but presents.
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  Scripture tells us that God is love, not merely that he shows
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  love, but that love is his very nature, and Jesus is the full
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  embodiment of that love made visible first.
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  John 4, Colossians 1. And in Christ, God's love takes
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  on skin and bones, and he steps into our world not as a vague
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  sentiment, but as a person who is compassionate, truthful,
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  patient, and sacrificial. God doesn't simply want us to
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  know about his love, He wants us to receive it, comprehend it, be
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  filled by it. That love confronts sin not to
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  condemn, but to rescue, forgive, and heal.
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  Sin is described in Scripture as a power that enslaves us, a
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  decision that we perpetuate and participate in, and a contagion
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  that spreads brokenness. So we need deliverance,
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  forgiveness, and restoration. God provides all three in the
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  person of Jesus, proving that God's love is for us by giving
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  himself for us while we were still sinners.
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  Having received that generous love, we we are invited to live
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  it out. Love always gives of itself,
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  which stands in direct contrast to greed, envy and materialism.
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  Where greed hordes and demands God, love sacrifices and he
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  shares. Christmas reminds us that love
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  isn't measured by what we spend, but what we give of ourselves,
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  the presence we bring. Scripture calls us to imitate
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  God by walking in love, just as Christ gave himself for us.
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  Generosity of our time, our resource, even our finances is
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  an act of worship when flowing from a heart of gratitude, not
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  pressure. As we reflect on the hope and
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  the peace and the joy and love during this Advent season, we we
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  were reminded of God's generous love that moves outward,
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  building up his family and blessing others.
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  And now is we spent some time on Sunday giving together.
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  We did so not to earn his love, but because we had already
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  received his love. And we want to continue to be
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  people who live with open hands to the God who's given us his
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  very best. It is the God who gives love.
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  I today I want to just take a little bit of time and walk
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  through the 33 of the main kind of scriptures that we looked at
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  in the message and just take a little bit more time to expound
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  just and add a little bit of commentary to it.
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  Because of the nature of the service being a family service,
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  we, we kept the, the message time a little truncated and they
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  definitely didn't do the, the typical exposition around
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  scripture and kind of really walking through that.
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  So I wanted to just take a minute and, and kind of read the
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  text again and, and just make a couple, couple comments.
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  This, this day in, in this episode.
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  The first passage that we came to is Ephesians chapter 3,
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  verses 14. And and the main reason I read
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  this passage is because I, I feel like it gives us a great
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  glimpse into the complexity and the the the full scope, the
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  multi dimensional element of God's love.
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  Paul prays and he says for this reason, I kneel before the
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  father from whom every family in heaven on earth is named, which
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  I thought was an interesting phrase, right?
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  For every family are named because of the father.
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  In other words, like the very fact that we are a family comes
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  from the fact that God is a father in in nature.
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  In other words, that just like a mom and a dad have a family that
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  begins and that every child that is born within a family is an
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  expression of the love of the mom and the dad that they share.
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  Like like this is how God set it up.
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  Now I realize that that may not be every family story.
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  That may not be even every person's origin story, but God,
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  when he established the family unit, He had intended for it to
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  be a carrier of love in this manner.
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  And so God's designed for the family was that that as children
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  were brought into the world, those children would be
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  expressions of a loving husband and wife, and that those kids
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  would grow up to be imitators of love itself because of the love
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  that they've received. In other words, the nurturing
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  element of love between a parent and a child is actually God's
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  designed order, and it flows from his nature in that way.
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  So every family in heaven on earth is named.
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  He says, I pray that you may, that He may grant you according
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  the riches of His glory. I love that, the riches of His
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  glory. That reminds me of Philippians
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  chapter 4 and verse 10 where it says that God would supply all
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  of your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ
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  Jesus. In other words, the goodness of
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  God knows no bounds and the glory of God is His goodness
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  expressed and realized in your life.
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  And so the wealth of God's goodness, I pray that you would,
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  he would grant you according to the to the wealth of his
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  goodness, if you will be strengthened with power in your
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  inner being through his Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the greatest,
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  most amazing goodness of God towards us that we've received.
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  He goes on to say this, that Christ may dwell in your hearts
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  through faith that in Christ himself given to us by the that
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  the Spirit given to us by Christ himself would would dwell, that
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  the very Spirit of Christ, the life of Christ, that we'd be
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  able to imitate Christ, that it dwells through the Holy Spirit
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  and and it happens in our hearts through our faith.
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  That's not just intellectual ascent.
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  The word faith is the Greek word pistus, which means loyalty,
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  embodied trust, or allegiance. And so through our allegiance,
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  Christ would dwell in our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
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  And I pray that you being rooted and firmly established in love,
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  boom, that that you and I would be rooted in God's love, that
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  the very formation of our life would continue on because of the
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  love of God, that we would be rooted and firmly established in
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  his love. I love that phrase firmly
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  established, tied with the word rooted because it has this
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  connotation in my mind. It, it brings up this image of
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  like those tall Sequoia trees, the redwoods that are so deeply
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  and strongly rooted in something that they're firmly established.
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  They're not going anywhere. That you would be firmly
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  established in love and that you may be able to comprehend with
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  all of the Saints what is the length and width and height and
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  depth of God's love, and to know Christ's love that surpasses
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  knowledge so that you would be filled with all the fullness of
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  God. In other words, when we fully
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  experience the love of God, the presence of God, and the
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  fullness of Christ because we're rooted and established in the
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  love of God, the acceptance of God as sons and daughters of
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  God, that when our identity is formed by the love of our
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  Father, there is something that happens in our lives that we
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  would become filled with all the fullness of God.
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  So many of us are rooted and established in the world that
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  the fullness of our lives is filled with anxiety.
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  It's filled with greed, materialism, anger, bitterness,
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  resentment, frustrations, sexual immorality, toxicity, your
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  violence. Like, like what fills us often
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  isn't the fullness of God, but that's because we're not rooted
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  in the right place. But we can be rooted in Christ,
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  rooted in him and that his love that surpasses our knowledge
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  would actually begin to fill us in the fullness of of God.
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  And in case you were wondering now to him who is able to do
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  exceedingly or above and beyond all that we would ask, think
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  according to the power that works in us.
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  That power is the Holy Spirit. It's Christ himself, the Spirit
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  of God at work in us. To him be glory in the church in
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  Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.
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  Hey man, I love this. It's it's not ours to
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  comprehend. It goes beyond our comprehension
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  and we can be filled with the fullness according to the power
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  that works in US. And that power is the Holy
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  Spirit, it is God himself and, and the dimension and the depth
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  of God's love is so much more than what you can think, you can
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  comprehend. And so how much do you think God
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  loves you like, like he really likes you and thinks about you?
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  The psalmist says that God, God's positive thoughts towards
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  you outnumber the grains of sand everyday.
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  Like the vastness of the positive thoughts that God has
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  towards his children is really, really amazing.
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  I love Ephesians 3. I think it's so rich in in that
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  way. The the second verse that I
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  wanted to to look at was Ephesians 51 and two, and it
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  says this. Therefore, be imitators of God
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  as dearly love children and walk in love as Christ also loved us
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  and gave himself for us a sacrificial and fragrant
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  offering to God. And we talked a good bit about
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  being imitators in the message. And so I'm not going to take too
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  long of that. But we imitate as dearly loved
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  children. In other words, because we are
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  dearly loved children, we can imitate our loving Father.
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  That's the point that we actually are called to reflect
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  the image of God, that we would radiate the life of God, that we
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  would be radiant, not radioactive, and that we would
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  be compelling, not condemning, that we would be compassionate,
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  not irritated all the time. That there would be this, this
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  level and depth of love that we've received from God that we
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  could give to others and imitate him.
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  And, and the key thing that I wanted to point out is that he
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  says just like Christ loved and gave himself for us as a
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  sacrificial and fragrant offering to God in Ephesians 5,
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  he's tying into some of the things that he says in Romans 12
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  and in several other places, like in Colossians and
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  Philippians where he talks about yourself, your body being a
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  sacrifice to God. This is why faith is not just
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  intellectual ascent. Your faith is surrendered and
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  worshipped to God. We offer all of who we are
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  embodied trust in God, loyal allegiance to God, faithfulness
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  to God. We take our body and the actions
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  we do with our body as worship to God.
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  So your life to God is more than just attending church.
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  It's actually tending to your soul.
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  It's tending to your mind. It's how you eat.
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  It's what you do with your body. It's it's how you treat other
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  people. It's how you view yourself and
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  view other people. Like all of this is worship to
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  God, it's part of our affectionate love for God.
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  And, and it's important to note that the life of following Jesus
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  is a life of sacrificial offering to the Lord.
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  I think offerings to the Lord ought to be sacrificial, not
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  just in the sacrificial sense that there is a death involved,
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  but sacrificial in that it cost us something.
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  There is a cost to it. In fact, Jesus says don't put
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  your hand to the plow. Luke, like Luke Chapter 9, he
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  says nobody who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit
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  for the Kingdom of God. In other words, count the cost.
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  Know what it cost to follow God. It cost you reorienting your
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  life to be the way of Jesus, to reflect him because everything
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  we do in our lives is a sacrificial, fragrant offering
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  to the Lord, including what we do with our money.
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  It it ought to be a sacrifice. It ought to be something that
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  says God, This is this is a stretch of trust in you.
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  This is, this is sacrificing the greed and the materialism and
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  the comfort and the value. I find the status that I feel in
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  this, this I'm, I'm going to give it to you first and I'm
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  going to honor you with it all. I think it's a part of that
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  that's from the heart of, of how it goes in the last scripture I
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  wanted to look at was second Corinthians 9 and and really
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  just the last part of 2nd Corinthians 9.
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  We we've talked already about how God promises to give seed to
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  the sower. He promises to give bread for
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  food and provide and he will multiply your seed.
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  Verse 10 says an increase of harvest of your righteousness.
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  In other words, if he's going to give you seed and you sow it and
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  he gives you bread and you'll eat it, then he's going to
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  continue. If you utilize the things God
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  puts in your hands in God honoring ways, he says, I'm
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  going to multiply your seed. And that means sometimes with
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  the God honoring thing to do is to receive the blessing of God
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  with gratitude and Thanksgiving. It's bread that we eat and
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  sometimes it's taking the seed that we have and actually sowing
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  it, giving it away so that it multiplies more and more since
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  you're going to be enriched in every way for all of your
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  generosity, which produces Thanksgiving to God through US.
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  I think that as a church, I, as a, as a leader in our church
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  because of the generosity of the people of God in our church.
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  I look back at the things that we've been able to do this year
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  financially, whether it be kids to camp or supplying school
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  supplies for two elementary schools or supporting a some
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  local organizations that are helping eradicate poverty and
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  changing the storyline in people's lives.
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  Some of the things that we've been able to do generously as a
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  church because we are generous as the people.
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  As a pastor, it causes me just to give a lot of thanks to God.
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  My heart is full of gratitude because of the generosity that I
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  see demonstrated by many of our many of our church.
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  And that's what Paul is saying that he's going to just be
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  filled with gratitude and thanks to God because of generosity of
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  other other people, other partners in this thing.
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  And then as you go on down. It says because of the proof
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  provided by this ministry of generosity.
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  Those other people who receive of your generosity will glorify
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  God for your obedient confession of the gospel.
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  In other words, Paul, who wasn't being a benefactor directly of
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  this particular offering, but other people were going to
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  receive the offering not he was grateful because he got to see
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  the generosity meeting needs of others and people growing.
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  Then as a pastor, when I see people step out of generosity, I
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  know what God is doing in their heart.
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  And it's so amazing to watch what happens.
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  Not because what we do with our money impacts our heart, period.
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  Whether you hoard it or you give it, it impacts your heart
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  because your heart always follows or is influenced by what
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  you do with your money. And so he says, I'm going to
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  give thanks to God. And then other people are going
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  to look around and when they receive the blessing, man,
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  they're going to give thanks to God.
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  You know, we've been able to help some families through
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  Christmas time and watching them give thanks to God for
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  generosity of someone else. And we get to sit back as
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  leaders and just watch the the anonymous gifts go to people.
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  It's such a blessing to see that happen and watch that happening.
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  And you see their faith in God grow and their love for God grow
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  as God is providing needs for them through other people.
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  And, and it's just this beautiful thing of how the
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  gospel is spread. One of the ways in which the
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  gospel has always accelerated its message is through
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  generosity financially of other people.
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  That there are things that happen in the Kingdom of God
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  where people have access to hear, see, and tangibly receive
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  the love of God because of the generosity of other people.
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  Why? Because when we give the love of
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  God in generous acts, other people receive the love of of
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  God through those generous acts. And in so doing, people
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  encounter the generous love of God, which is why we said that
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  God, God wants you to receive his love and God wants you to
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  give his generous love away. All right, well, now that we've
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  wrapped up the recap and some bonus content, when just instead
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  of our normal question and response, I actually want to
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  flip the script and ask you some questions.
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  And that what I'd love to do is hear your responses to these
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  questions. And you can send me a direct
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  message on Instagram or you can e-mail me
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  directlymatthew@faithchurchks.org. Matthew, Matthew at
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  faithchurchks.org. And I'd love to hear your
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  responses here. Here are the two questions I
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  would love to ask you #1 what has been most impactful or
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  helpful for you this year as you've listened to the podcast?
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  Maybe you've only listened to a couple episodes.
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  What's been the most helpful? Was it a segment like the recap
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  or the question and answer like, or, or maybe it was a a
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  statement or a subject that we talked about?
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  What has been the most impactful for your faith as you've
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  listened to these episodes? Second question is, would you
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  like to be a part of our podcast collaboration team?
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  There is a group right now, it's around 5-6 people that every
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  Sunday gets a link texted to them with a way to submit one or
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  two questions to be answered on the podcast.
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  Sometimes it's questions that they have, other times it's
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  questions others in their life have or they just think other
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  people might learn or benefit from.
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  And they help me collaborate on the questions to respond to.
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  And if you would like to be a part of that, if this podcast
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  has been helpful for you and then you would love to just ask
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  a question from a Sunday message, I'd love to know that.
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  So would you respond to those questions?
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  Number one, what is it that has been most helpful and impactful
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  for your faith? As you've listened to episodes
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  of #2 would you if you would like to be a part of our podcast
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  collaboration team, would you just let me know?
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  Again, you can e-mail me matthew@faithchurchks.org or you
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  can send me a direct message on Instagram.
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  Friends, that does it for this episode of the Faith for Today
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  podcast. Again, happy holidays, holy
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  days, happy a Merry Merry Christmas to you and yours, and
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  we'll be back in the new year with some fresh episodes as we
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  dive into some new subjects in 2026.
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  I love you and as always, I hope today has helped you.
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  Have some faith for today.