Growing In Love | Rooted In Love 2 | Jay & Selena Greiner

In this powerful and heartfelt message, we lay a strong foundation for what it truly means to grow and mature in God’s love. Rooted in Ephesians 3 and 1 John 4, they explore how spiritual maturity begins with first receiving God’s unconditional love and allowing it to shape our identity, security, and obedience. Through honest stories, practical teaching, and biblical truth, they unpack how mature love casts out fear, forgives even when it is hard, reflects Christ instead of self, and shows up in the way we treat others. Emphasizing that love is a lifelong pursuit, they challenge believers to make walking in agape love their greatest quest, reminding us that faith works by love and that true spiritual growth is measured not by words, but by how deeply we live it out.

Transcript

Prayer And Setting The Theme

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So before we get started, I just um let's just stretch out our hands, let's pray over this service. You know, uh Selena and I are overcoming some symptoms in our body, and we're here anyways. And uh, you know, my if my dad when he back when he was my age, he preached with severe jet lag and mumps when he came back from from India. So if he can do that, we can do anything, right? So, Heavenly Father, we just lift up this time to you. Holy Spirit, have your way. And Lord, we just we're so grateful and thankful for what you're doing, for giving us supernatural utterance tonight, uh specific words that that destroy every yoke of bondage, that pull every heart towards you. Lord, that we truly can be rooted in your love and never forget what your love provides for us, the power that is in your love. And so, Father, we just choose you, we choose your way, we choose your will tonight. And Lord, we won't allow any symptom in our body to uh to slow us down. Father, we're ready to grab a corn stalk and swing out over hell and spit in the devil's eye. Because we have the same spirit of faith that Paul had and Peter had. And Lord, and um we're just so grateful in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So we're our foundational text is out of Ephesians 3, uh, verses 17 through 19, and I'll just read those quickly. That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, that's agape love, God's kind of love, unconditional love, amen, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width, the length, and the depth and the height, to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge. In other words, it passes your head knowledge. And so um that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. And so tonight we're just talking about growing in love or maturing in love. It's important for us to grow in love. Love is a fruit, it must be grown. We covered some of that last week. Pastor definitely, uh, when he kicked it off, he talked about that quite a bit. And so uh, and we're gonna be going into that. And so uh Selena has number one ready to go.

Freedom From Rejection And Spiritual Warfare

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Number one, maturity begins with receiving God's love. So that's foundational. It you can't give away what you don't have, and so uh we receive the love of God first. So 1 John 4, 16 says, and we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. And so, you know, our security, our identity is rooted in God's love. Um, our identity doesn't come from our past, our identity doesn't come from what side of the tracks we were raised on. Our identity does not come from what color of skin we are, our identity comes from Jesus Christ and what he did for us. Um, we have his DNA, and so it's not in performance, you know, receiving his love. It's just believing, it's trusting. Uh He God is love, right? God is love, and so um we have to believe that that God loves us so much. He gave us his very best, he gave us Jesus, he died on the cross for us, he gave us his one and only son. And so maturity, maturing in that love is first received, being rooted in, hey, like no matter what happens in life, God loves me, right? It's a foundational thing. No matter who does what, no matter the betrayal, no matter uh the the hurt, the deep hurt, no matter all of that, it doesn't it doesn't really matter because I'm secure in God's love for me. That's my foundation. And then out of that, I can grow. It's my number, it's the number one thing.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

Talk about being bound by rejection for a second.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Yeah, being bound by rejection, um, it happens to all of us, right? Uh you know, we all get rejected, and um sometimes we have this picture in our brain of how the it it um should have gone or whatever the case may be, whether it's our work, our marriage, our kids, our family, whatever. And that doesn't quite happen the way um that you know we intended it to go, um, or along the way we get rejected and and we we can wear that. And so uh, but God's love, man, it it melts all that away. It melts all that away. And Romans 8, 38 through 39 says, For I am persuaded that neither death or nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ uh Jesus our Lord. So here, just those simple little um verses, they're so profound. Uh nothing can separate you from the love of God. God's love is stronger than any circumstance in your life. But a lot of times we just focus on the circumstance, we focus on the hurt, and he hurt me, and she hurt me. All this is stuff that really is just devil stuff, right? The devil throws it your way. Oh, it's just it's really not that. You're not dealing with that, you're dealing with principalities, things you cannot see in the spirit realm. You're not dealing with that person, and so we get focused on that, and it was our aim, and you're we get focused on the wrong thing.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

Your enemy is not a person, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

Your enemy, that's right. And so God's love here in this these verses, it says that I'm persuaded that none of that, nothing's gonna separate separate me from the love of God's love, is stronger than any of those spiritual forces. His love is stronger, and so it isn't fragile, it isn't temporary, it's not based on whether you've read your Bible or not, it's not based on whether you said, God, I love you. He loved, he, it's it's just there. God is love, right? And so uh his love is rooted up at the sound, it was rooted in Jesus and his finished work. That's what that's what it's rooted in. His love is rooted in Jesus and what that all entails. And so when we have a revelation of that, again, anything can happen to us, that's all right, right? I'm still gonna love. I'm still gonna know that God loves me. I'm still gonna know that God loves them, no matter the situation. And so maturity begins with receiving the love of God and saying, Hey, God, use me however you want. You see my uh wherever I fall short, you know, in my my my trip hazards, I should say, or maybe it's bad thinking, and and help me to walk in love, help me to see others the way you see them, right? Amen. Number two, tag you're it.

Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

Beholding The New And Righteousness

SPEAKER_00 7:34

Number two, um, well, earlier I put a Recola cough drop in, and it and Miss Linda gave me a fresh one, but I didn't put that one in. She didn't beat me from putting an old one from backstage that's been there for like two years. And so it was one of those ones that all the paper was stuck to it, so I put it in, and now I have little paper particles all over my mouth. And sometimes we go through things that leave residual mess behind, and we just gotta spit it out. And that just these examples just you know, yeah. But uh seriously, like there's no reason to hang on to that. There's no, you know, it's such a simple thing, right? But um we go through hurts, we go through, and and and things are left behind, and we end up carrying that with us instead of just getting rid of it, amen. So, number two, mature love casts out fear. And so God's perfect love is what frees us, amen. And that comes from 1 John 4.18. It says, There is no fear, zero fear in love. Again, that's God's love, agape love, not romantic love and all the four other kinds of loves. But uh, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment, but he who fears has not been made perfect in love. So you are the righteousness of God in Christ. Amen. And so you have already been made perfect. You've already been made righteous. You can't grow in righteousness, but you can grow in your revelation of what it means to be righteous. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. And so if you're dealing with a lot of torment, fear can be tormenting. And so you just need a stronger revelation of the love of God. And um, and you do that by spending time with the Lord and allowing him to love on you and and allowing yourself, knowing that you've been made perfect by his love. And so uh a few weeks ago I taught on the word behold, and you know, uh I got the revelation the Holy Spirit pointed out to me that all of the new scriptures, including the one pastor's using in Revelation, uh, it uses the word behold. So 2 Corinthians 5 17 is another one. Behold, all things are new. You're a new creature that's never before existed. So, what are you beholding to? What are you staring at? What are you paying more attention to than uh the new? This is the year of new things, and so God is moving in our midst, and we're we're already been perfected by love. Um, I I was I was uh talking to the young people on Sunday night in a small group, just the guys, and it just came out like this whole sermon. I was telling them how you're you're perfected by the word of God, you're perfected by the love of God, you're perfected. Um what were my other two? Sorry. Uh perfected by the love of God, you're perfected by the blood of Jesus, obviously. That's the biggest one, right? So you've already been made perfect. And so seeing yourself, when God looks at you, he sees you through the blood. And we can't talk about that enough. And so, um, so see yourself, forgive yourself. We're gonna talk about that here in a little bit. Um, love yourself. So many people have fallen out of love with themselves, they've been hung up on all that residual junk that they're that, like I was saying earlier, and um, and they have fallen out of love with themselves and know that God loves you, and you can look in the mirror and you can talk to your soul, and you can begin to see yourself the way God sees you. Amen. And so um Matthew 19, 2021 and 22, it kind of points out God's side of love, right? Uh Jesus is is um he said to him, uh the rich young ruler, if you want to be perfect, go sell what you have, step one, give give it all away to the poor, step two, and you will have treasure in heaven. Come follow me, step three. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great pr pr uh possessions, and so he was unwilling to obey. Notice what Jesus did. Did Jesus run after him and say, Wait a minute, you don't know what you're giving up. You're not you don't know what you're leaving behind. Wait, come back. No. In the next verse, in another version, I believe it says that he watched him walk away. So um know that this was a serious thing, and that he that the rich young ruler had so much that he refused to walk in obedience, but he could have been made if you want to be perfect. That's how this verse started out. If you want to be perfect, you know, um, and obeying through the love of God brings perfection. Amen. So it's God's love that perfects us. The sacrifice of Jesus makes us worthy, makes us perfect. That's how God sees us when he looks at you. And so uh I already talked about loving yourself. So number three.

Loving Others As Proof Of Discipleship

SPEAKER_01 12:57

That's good. Number three, maturity shows in how we love others. So you can't claim spiritual maturity and God's love while being harsh, unforgiving, and divisive. John 13, 34 through 35. And we uh mentioned this scripture last week. A new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. And so uh last words of Jesus, tell talking to his disciples. Um, this is how people will know my love is by how you love one another, just as I have loved you. And then 1 Corinthians uh 13, 4 through 7. Uh let's see, starting with verse 4, that love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy, love does not parade itself, it is not puffed up, it does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, it is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth, bears up all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. And so 1 Corinthians 13 is a love chapter, and I would encourage you to read it um really every day. Uh I have this little um Mark Henkins, um, I'm sure you all have it, Love, The Secret to Success. Um, and he breaks it out in all kinds of different translations that I've never heard um and really just puts it in a practical hit you in the face kind of way. Um, and it's so good. Uh and I wanted to read something from there. And then if you go on uh in chapter 14, 1 Corinthians 14, it says, go after a life of love as your f as if your life depended on it, because it does. And so that's so important. Okay, so let's see. Let me put on my glasses. Page 43. Uh okay, a quest is a lifelong dream or anything that dominates your life and holds your attention for at least 20 years. As believers, our great quest in life should be making the daily decision to walk in the God of love. It is not a waste of time and it is not a uh necessity. It is a necessity to inspect our love walk on a continual basis so the power that raised Jesus from the dead may flow unhindered. Faith works by love, and when we make it our quest, we'll see the worst people and situations turn around and experience favor, promotion, and heaven on earth. And so that's what the love of God can do. When we make it our quest, right? When we make it our quest, our our 20 year way it holds our attention for 20 years, um, situations can turn around. And so um it's so important that again, that we see again, maturity shows in how we love others. Um, and I know sometimes it can be difficult um in certain situations, but uh the word works, right? The word works, and so we always go back if it's in the Bible, um, I believe it, and that settles it. Even if I don't see the circum, even if it's been going on for a long time, maybe you're believing for a unsaved loved one, unsaved spouse, or co-worker, or whatever the situation may be, um, you know, being hateful is not love. Saying I told you so is not love. Right? So, like we we have to create an atmosphere of God's love. We can't expect to to have this wonderful, successful life, but then not do the word of God. It doesn't work that way. We have to be doers of the word of God, and love is a foundational piece. Love is a big puzzle of that, and we have to make sure that we're walking in love. Um, our life depends on it. Our life depends on it. Amen. Amen.

Make Love Your Lifelong Quest

SPEAKER_00 17:32

So, number four, mature love forgives even when it's hard. Mature love forgives, always forgives. Be quick to forgive. You know, uh, and we forgive by faith. I think a lot of people get confused, and uh, we we deal with this. My dad does an awesome job. Really, every communion service, he hits this in a different way. And in my opinion, it always comes out different, and it's always super strong. And you can't make it to the end of a communion service and ha still have bitterness and unforgiveness in your heart. You've, you know, you've you he brings you right up to that moment where you choose to forgive. And it is a choice, but it's done by faith, and so it's not just something that you're you're not giving your stamp of approval on being, you know, um wronged and betrayed. You know, a few years ago we were meeting with a couple that were going through some some issues, and and there was some unforgiveness uh uh that they were dealing with from you know from somebody else, not with each other. And so that was stopping their whole world. Their whole world was was bound by that unforgiveness. And we just had to be gentle. And Selena just uh took her time in explaining what we're explaining right now, that it's by faith. You don't forgive with your emotions, your emotions follow your faith. And so aim your mouth, open your mouth in a prayer and say, Father, I forgive so-and-so for X, Y, and Z. Name it, list it. Yeah, and I give this to you, and I refuse to dwell on this. And and and you allow your the the Lord to fight your battles for you, you don't have to defend yourself, you don't have to you can just make that decision and it's over with. And then when the emotions come that you're there that you still want to act like a victim and be stuck in that victimhood, again, there's a confession coming out of your mouth. No, I refuse to dwell on this. I've already cast all my care on the Lord, for he cares for me. And so um excuse me. In Matthew 18, when Peter, then Peter, I'm sorry, Matthew 18, 21. We won't read all this. I believe it's in your notes. How many of you picked up notes on your way in, so you're following along? Praise God. We'll just read the first two verses. Then Peter came to him and said, Lord, how often shall a brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times? And Jesus said to him, Do not do, uh, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven in one day. Wow, that adds up. One day that's quick. And so that we're called to forgive. So Ephesians 4 31, let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. In other words, get rid of talking about bad about that person. You're not gonna enter into that. You've already forgiven them, and you're just gonna choose to love because that's what mature love does. It forgives no matter how bad the wrong was. Again, you're not standing in line to get hurt again. You're not like, okay, hit me again. No. You know, you've distanced yourself until that person can be trusted. We're not talking about abuse here. We're talking about, you know, just betrayal and and and more emotional things. And uh, but God is greater than that. And if you allow God to fight your battles for you, he can yank you right out of that emotional mess and all that scarring. And he is the one that mends the broken heart. That your broken heart, if you find yourself with a broken heart, it's not going to be mended any other way. You're not gonna mend it by sitting around listening to depressing country music or crying in your beer, and people are always searching for, you know, you get into self-pity, and uh, and and that's a uh a bad road to to go down, right? But mature love always forgives.

Forgiveness By Faith, Not Feelings

SPEAKER_01 21:34

Amen. Number five, maturity and love means obedience. John 14 15 says, if you love me, keep my commandments. Pretty simple. If you love me, if you love me, if you love me, keep my commandments. First John 5 3 says, For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his His commandments are not burdensome. They're not burdensome. They're not, it's freedom, right? It's freedom to, you know, maturity and love means obedience. Excuse me. Obedience. And so to love God, you know, we can't say, I love you, God. I love you, God, but then disobey him and sin and willfully, you know, um knowingly not obey his word because they're connected. To to love God is to obey him. And so they go here, and it's it sounds kind of harsh, like, you know, oh, well, I'm not really, you know, I'm living in sin and I'm doing this and I'm doing that, and I'm uh but I love God. No, you don't. You don't. You don't don't say you love God because you're disobedient, you're not obeying his word. And so there needs to be a connection. So obeying God, obeying his word, doing his word, following his word. If he says, hey, love your neighbor, pray for your enemies, okay, I'm gonna do that, right? Um, and so do you know, if it says, okay, give, and it would be given back to you, okay. I'm gonna do that. Whatever his word says, I'm gonna obey. That's love, right? And so to love God is to obey him. And so when you can't, when you have that revelation of just of the love of God, it's easy. It's easy to obey. You want to obey him, you don't want to do the wrong thing. It hurts you, it grieves the Holy Spirit inside of you, right? It grieves the Holy Spirit inside of you. And if you're to a place where you you keep on and you keep on, and you, and you know, sometimes we go through seasons or we'll make an excuse and oh, it's all right, and I'll let that fly, and I'll let that fly, and it's okay. Really, it's disobedience, right? And so you're grieving the Holy Spirit, you're over, you're overriding that, and so we want to make sure to stay tender to the Holy Spirit, and and uh that goes hand in hand with obedience. To love me is to obey me, to obey his word, amen. And that's pretty simple. That's black and white, that's not you know, no gray area. To love God is to obey him. Um, and God's God's merciful, God is merciful, but also we don't want to frustrate the mercy, we don't want to frustrate the grace of God. Oh, I know he's gonna forgive me, so I'm gonna do what I want. No, that's not a way to live life. Oh, I'm not I'm gonna be forgiven tomorrow. No, that's that's not, then you're not obeying. That's not that's not love, that's not obedience, right? And so you got to get to a point where you again it goes back to number one, knowing the love of God, the revelation of how much he loves you.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

If you've really uh experienced the true grace of God, then you're not gonna treat it flippantly.

SPEAKER_01 25:05

Yeah. Okay, next, number six.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

I just wanted to stop for a second, just add to what you were saying. And uh uh Pastor hit this really good last year, several messages, but John 15, 7, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this, my father is glorified that you bear much fruit, uh, so you will be my disciples. So um, how to obey is simply by abiding in him. And when you spend time with him and you spend time in the word, his word is getting on the inside of you, and you are growing, and you're growing quickly in that love because you have ever all of his character is on the inside of you. It's already been shed abroad and poured into our hearts, his his agape love. And so that's the the love, like we said last week, that's the love that we're loving other people out of. It's it's gotta be agape, but that fruit, you're you're able to bear much fruit when his when you remain in him and his words remain in you. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

Amen. Amen. Yeah, that's so good. And we want to bear fruit, we want to bear good fruit. Um, and you know, if you go back and read 1 Corinthians 13, it it breaks it out like love is patient, love is kind, uh, you know, it looks a certain way, it's polite, it's courteous, um, it's doesn't fly off the handle, it's not easily angered, doesn't have an attitude. Um, so it it there's so much to this, like we're just scratching the surface. Um, but the more you allow the Holy Spirit to invade, uh or allow him just to work inside of you, like God will show you, God will reveal his love to you. Amen. And then the last one.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

Number six, mature love reflects Jesus, not self. So again, the goal of maturity is not only to be to bear much fruit, but it's to become more Christ-like. And so Ephesians 4, you want to read that?

SPEAKER_01 27:18

Yeah, Ephesians 4, 14 through 16, that we shall no longer be children tossed to or fro, carried about every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love may grow up, or we say grow up in all things into him who is the head Christ, for whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working uh by which every part does its share, because growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. So, yeah, we should know being like he wants us to grow up. We we don't need to be kids anymore, right? Um, I did this lesson a long time ago about being in the kiddie pool. You know, a lot of adults are still in the kiddie pool and still playing around with the kiddies in the kiddie pool, and and um it's time to go out. Like, no, he we can't be just tossed to and fro. Got your floaties on, got our floaties on. He wants us to grow up and experience this love, but then also mature in it, to grow in it, to act upon it. And um, a lot of uh our training ground is at home with your spouse, with your kids, right? Because you can't take into your workplace, you can't be acting a fool at home and then oh, I'm gonna love people over here at the office. No, you you better start at home. You can't act a fool and can't be rude to your kids and rude to your wife. You're not rude to me. Um, but seriously, like it starts you preach to me. It starts at in La Casa, it starts at home. Yes. Okay, you got anything over to you?

Obedience As The Fruit Of Love

SPEAKER_00 29:11

I do. I was gonna read uh just one paragraph from today's Faith Foods devotion from Kenneth Hagen. Okay and um the third paragraph of today's, it says, uh, how does natural fruit grow on the branch? It receives nourishment from the trunk, the vine of the tree. Life from the trunk flows out into the branches. It's the same in the spiritual realm. God is life, God is love, his life and love flow out to the branches, to the believers, the branches. So we are the believers, amen. And that's where we get our life from. And so uh make sure you stay attached. That it takes, you know, it's nothing that you have to strive at, but you do have to obey, and you do have to stay in your prayer closet. You do have to hear from the Holy Spirit and and seek uh and knock and listen, and then then the door is open, right? Ask, seek, and knock, right? Who's listening to what pastor's preaching this year? Amen. Amen. We're asking. So in our prayer time, in our staff prayer meeting this morning, Linda, uh, Miss Linda asked a question and she um, I forgot how she phrased it, but like making sure, like in her prayer time, she's going back and making sure that she's not asking amiss. That that her what her asking is directly in line with God's will and God's way and where God wants her and her husband and her family to go this year. And so I think I'm putting a little bit of words in your mouth, but that's you know, we need to make sure that we're asking for the right thing. And that we know that our expectation can be in so many different areas, and we can get off, we can be lied to, we can be deceived. There's so many areas of technology right now with all of AI, I don't want to get off on that, but there's so many different lies coming in. So we're barraged by lie after lie after lie on every side. And so make sure that you're praying, you that you're praying, that you're not deceived. Um I was just watching several pastors in that that whole thing recently with Trump and the what was posted online just get way off in deception and confused. And and anyways, so that was just one example. But um we don't have to be deceived. We have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us, amen. And it's and it's power. Yeah, and so um amen. So let's review what we've talked about here tonight. Uh, maturity begins with receiving God's love, mature love casts out all fear, then maturity shows in how we love others. And then you want to finish reading?

SPEAKER_01 31:57

Yeah, mature love forgives even when it's hard. Maturity in love means obedience, and mature love reflects Jesus, not self. Um, and so yeah, I mean, this is a again, it's a 20-year quest, it's a lifelong quest of walking in the God kind of love and the agape love. Um, and it's so important, it's so vital, it's a foundational piece. And faith won't work without love. You know, it's a it's a big puzzle piece. And um, I'm excited about this series.

Abiding To Bear Lasting Fruit

SPEAKER_00 32:32

Amen. You know, I when I wrapped up last week, I used this scripture, I'm gonna use it again, and uh John 13, 1 and the Amplified. And uh now before verse 1, now before the Passover feast began, Jesus knew, was fully aware that the time had come for him to leave this world and return to the Father. And as he had loved those who were his own in the world, he loved them to the last and to the highest degree. In other words, he loved them to the end. And I just, anytime you feel like giving up on somebody, you know, anytime that you Jesus never gave up on his disciples. He loved Judas to the end, he loved Peter to the end and restored him. Peter denied him three times, but he went out, and that was one of the first things he did was restore Peter with uh fixed him some fish tacos on the beach, remember? And so, um, and then Peter was instrumental in starting the church in the in the book of Acts. And so um we can do the same thing when we walk in love, when we refuse to give up on people, when we love each other to the end, when we love each other in this church till the end. I used that as a marriage scripture last year, preaching marriage and family. I'm gonna love my wife to the very end. There's no there's nothing that's gonna get in my way of walking in agape, nothing that she could say, nothing that she can do. She's walking in uncon in my unconditional love because it's not my love, it's whose love. It's God's love through me, right? Amen. And so uh if you're just love trying to love your spouse on your own in your own, I know this is not a marriage and family series, but you get what I mean, um, then you're gonna fail every time. Or the statistics are out there that you fail a lot. So uh so don't fail. Use the love of God in your everyday life and make a decision. And it has to be taught it to your kids. You can't just, you know, you have we talked about that last week. You know, if selfishness is bound into a the heart of a child, then you have to to break that. You have to break their will. And you do that through love. That is love. That's not abuse, that's not you know, talking down to them, it's love. Amen.