Ephesians Chapter 3 Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens,
THE LOVE OF GOD your faithfulness to the skies.
ACTIVITY: Expressing Love!
1. Prepare some crayons and/or color pencils for CG members.
2. Give each member a piece of blank A4/A5 paper.
3. Encourage them to use their imagination and creativity to express their
idea of “God’s Love” in a picture/drawing (besides drawing the cross).
4. Get members to explain what their drawing means. Member with the most
creative drawing wins a prize.
5. Let us now explore how Paul expressed God’s love.
Eph. 3:17-19 Just knowing that God loves us in our head is not enough.
S v18 says that we need a revelation of “the
width and length and depth and height” of
God’s love.
#1: THE WIDTH OF GOD’S LOVE ... speaks of God’s acceptance.
Ps. 18:35-36 (NLT)
35
You have given me your shield of victory.
Your right hand supports me; your help has made me great.
36
You have made a wide path for my feet
to keep them from slipping.
Valleys are very narrow and are likened to difficult and evil times (cf. Ps. 23 talks
about “the valley of the shadow of death”).
S But God likens the life He gives us, to a wide and broad plain where the
rivers of the Holy Spirit flow.
Some people are very narrow-minded: stingy, critical, judgmental.
God is very broad-minded: generous, accepting, welcoming.
S The breadth of His love is beyond human imagination.
S God’s love is so broad ... “His grace is wider than the ocean.”
Like David, we must pray “[Oh Lord,] enlarge my heart” (Ps. 119:32).
S Make us more broad-minded to embrace ALL—even if they are very
different from us:
S Men/women ... young/old ... rich/poor ... educated/illiterate ...
sinful/righteous ... and change them with the width of God’s love.
#2: THE LENGTH OF GOD’S LOVE ... speaks of God’s faithfulness.
Ps. 36:5 (NIV)
1 2
Jer. 31:3
The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying:
“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love;
Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.”
God’s love is everlasting => it won’t disappear after 1 year, 10 years, 10,000 years!
S God is ever patient and longsuffering with us—He waits and waits for us to
repent from our sins.
S Even when God is angry, He is only angry for a moment.
S When we say we are sorry, He quickly forgives and forgets ... and loves us
again with His everlasting, endless love!
#3: THE HEIGHT OF GOD’S LOVE ... speaks of God’s discipline.
The height of God’s love speaks of the loftiness, nobility of His love.
S God doesn’t only want to take us to the top, He wants us to have the
character to stay at the top!
S The path to success is a process which can be painful.
S This is the time you must have faith that God only wants the best for us.
2 Cor. 12:7-10 The measure of grace in our lives is proportionate to the
abundance of sufferings.
S So God allows needs, pressures,
distresses, sufferings in our lives.
S The greater your thorn in the flesh, the
more you will discover the sufficiency of
God’s grace.
God’s love for us is not one that spoils us ... but a noble love that involves
discipline—to make us better people.
S The height of God’s love will change us so greatly, it will exalt us to the
heavens!
#4: THE DEPTH OF GOD’S LOVE ... this speaks of feeling.
Heb. 4:15 (KJV)
For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of
our infirmities ...
God feels very deeply for us ... He is touched by the pain we feel.
! In the Bible, when Lazarus died, Jesus arrived 4 days later.
S Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha were inconsolable, worn out
and totally dejected.
S When He saw them weeping + the Bible says, “Then Jesus wept”
(John 11:35, NLT).

Jesus already knew that Lazarus would come back to life.

In fact, He went there to raise him from the dead.
S But He wept with Mary and Martha.

QUESTION: Why was Jesus crying? He shouldn’t be mourning over

someone who would be raised up soon.
S There is only one REASON: Jesus wanted to be a part of their
sorrows and heartaches.

The more we understand the depth of His love, the more devoted to Him we will
be.
S If we only experience just a little of His love, our devotion will be just a
little.
S When we experience the depth of His love, we are willing to even lay
down our lives for Him.

ALTAR CALL
1. Recap on the width, the length, the height and the depth of worship.
2. Spend time coming back to the heart of worship.
3. Pray for members going through challenges and crises ... minister (with
the laying on of hands) the love and acceptance of God.