God’s Invitation to Deeper Relationship with Him

Sep 27, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: Roots Drinking Deep from Love’s River

The Christian life begins not with striving but with receiving – being rooted in divine love that precedes all human effort. Like a tree planted by streams of water, our stability comes from sinking deeper into God’s unconditional acceptance. This rooting happens through the Spirit’s quiet work in our “inner being,” transforming abstract theology into lived reality. Paul’s prayer reveals God’s desire to strengthen believers not for achievements, but for the capacity to receive love’s infinite dimensions. [36:25]

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”
(Ephesians 3:16-18, NIV)

Reflection: Where do you sense shallow roots of performance or self-reliance hindering your ability to receive God’s love? What practical step could help you “sink deeper” this week?

Day 2: Cannonball Wounds Becoming Holy Doorways

Ignatius’ shattered leg became an unexpected portal to divine intimacy. His story mirrors how God often uses life’s disruptions – failed plans, health crises, or lost dreams – to redirect us toward deeper communion. What we initially perceive as setbacks can become sacred spaces where our hunger for God’s presence overpowers our appetite for control. The Spirit specializes in transforming battlefields into prayer closets. [40:47]

“We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
(Romans 8:28, NIV)

Reflection: What current or past disappointment might God be inviting you to revisit with Him? How could this “cannonball wound” become a doorway to greater trust?

Day 3: Mosh Pit Holiness in Snack-Filled Nights

The same desires that drive late-night pantry raids – our hunger for comfort, satisfaction, and relief – are echoes of our soul’s cry for God. Rather than suppressing these urges, we’re invited to redirect them toward their true source. Like the psalmists who transformed cravings into worship, we can let our raw humanity become the raw material for communion. Even midnight snacks can become sacraments when shared with Christ. [48:46]

“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.”
(Psalm 34:8, NIV)

Reflection: What ordinary craving or daily routine could become a prompt to pause and acknowledge your deeper hunger for God’s presence?

Day 4: Crucified Desires Breathing Resurrection

Paul’s radical declaration – “I have been crucified with Christ” – emerges not from self-loathing but from being so captivated by divine love that lesser affections lose their grip. This crucifixion isn’t destruction of desire but its redemption. Like a vine pruned to bear better fruit, our surrendered longings become channels for Christ’s life. The path to resurrection always leads through the tomb of relinquishment. [01:02:23]

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
(Galatians 2:20, NIV)

Reflection: What good-but-secondary desire might God be asking you to hold more loosely so you can grasp His hand more firmly?

Day 5: Fullness Found in Leaky Diapers

The “fullness of God” manifests not in mountaintop experiences but in the trenches of daily life – midnight feedings, job uncertainties, and relational tensions. Like the speaker discovering sacredness in parental exhaustion, we’re invited to perceive divinity in life’s messiest moments. God’s plenitude flows through cracked jars of clay, proving sufficient in our most human vulnerabilities. [57:39]

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair.”
(2 Corinthians 4:7-8, NIV)

Reflection: Where does your current “leakiness” – exhaustion, doubt, or imperfection – create space to experience God’s strength-made-perfect-in-weakness?

Sermon Summary

Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3 opens up an incredible invitation: that God would strengthen his people through the Spirit in their inner being, that Christ would dwell in their hearts through faith, and that they would know a love too big to be contained by mere knowledge. Paul’s language almost runs out of room. The breadth and length and height and depth of Christ’s love cannot simply be studied from a distance. God’s love has to sink down from the head into the heart, permeate the soul, and shape the way life is lived.

God created the universe out of love because the Father, Son, and Spirit existed in perfect fellowship and desired to share that life with others. Ignatius came to see this after a cannonball shattered his plans for being a great military hero. God met him in a season he did not choose, through books he did not want to read, and slowly turned his heart toward Christ. Ignatius came to name the truth simply: “God who loves us, creates us, and wants to share life with us forever.”

God’s movement toward people is not episodic. God is always acting to draw each person into deeper relationship with him. John 3:16 can be memorized, defended, proclaimed, and even built into a life of ministry, while the heart still quietly wonders whether God is disappointed personally. Paul prays for more than correct beliefs because the love of Christ must become personal and experiential.

Desire sits at the core of a person’s life. Fleshly passions must be crucified, but desire itself is not the enemy. God desires an ever-deepening relationship with his children, and the human heart longs to be seen, known, and loved. Intimacy begins where those desires meet. The heart’s happy exploration of the infinite riches of the Godhead has no finish line because the Triune God has neither limits nor end.

God’s fullness unfolds in concrete, everyday stories, not only in dramatic spiritual moments. Uncertainty, sickness, failure, new parenthood, unanswered questions, and seasons that feel shaky can become invitations to trust God more deeply. Ignatius’s question presses into every circumstance: “What better leads to God’s deepening life in me?” Paul’s own suffering became bearable because Christ “loved me and gave himself for me.”

The Psalms give language for honest conversation with God, whether the heart is declaring that his love is better than life or crying, “How long, O Lord?” Christ does not erase a person’s true self. Christ makes each person more fully who God created them to be. The church becomes a place where lives can be unpacked together, stories can be noticed, and God’s faithful movement can be recognized.

Key Takeaways

1. God always moves toward deeper relationship. God’s desire for relationship is not occasional or dependent on a person’s spiritual performance. Creation, incarnation, suffering, joy, and ordinary daily life can all become places where God draws near. The question is not whether God is moving, but whether the heart is learning to notice and respond. [44:36]
2. Christ’s love must become personally known. A person can believe that God loves the world while still feeling personally disqualified from that love. Paul’s prayer reaches beyond head knowledge into the places where shame, disappointment, and fear quietly live. Christ gave himself not only for humanity in general, but for each beloved person in particular. [62:41]
3. Desire can lead the heart to God. Desire is not something to erase, because people live, react, and make choices out of what they deeply want. God meets the longing to be seen, known, and loved with his own desire for communion. Discernment involves asking which desires are drawing the heart toward God’s deepening life. [50:29]
4. Every season holds an invitation to trust. God’s fullness is not reserved for seasons that feel stable, successful, or spiritually vivid. Uncertainty and loss can expose the places where control has become more precious than communion. God often asks, “Will you trust me?” before giving easy answers. [58:47]
5. The Psalms make room for honest prayer. The Psalms refuse shallow spirituality by giving words for delight, grief, longing, anger, and distance. God receives both “Your love is better than life” and “How long, O Lord?” Honest prayer is not a failure of faith, but a way of bringing the actual heart into relationship with God.

## [64:41]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[33:22] - The Spirit’s Presence and Intimacy
[35:33] - Paul’s Prayer in Ephesians 3
[37:57] - Strength to Know Christ’s Love
[39:24] - Created for Relationship with God
[40:16] - Ignatius and the Cannonball
[43:32] - God Wants to Share Life Forever
[45:04] - When Love Stays in the Head
[47:49] - Desire at the Core of the Heart
[50:29] - A Personal Journey Toward God
[54:24] - Choosing God’s Deepening Life
[55:27] - Finding God’s Fullness in Every Season
[59:39] - Learning to Discern with God
[60:58] - Paul’s Personal Knowledge of Christ
[63:33] - Conversing with God Through the Psalms
[65:05] - Becoming More Fully Yourself in Christ
[66:54] - Rooted and Grounded in Love

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Ephesians 3:14-19
“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” [35:34]

Galatians 2:20
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” [01:02:04]

John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” [45:43]

Observation questions

In Ephesians 3:14–19, what does Paul ask the Father to do in believers’ inner being, hearts, and understanding?
What images or measurements does Paul use to describe Christ’s love, and what result does he pray that believers would experience?
According to Galatians 2:20, how does Paul connect his new life in Christ with Jesus loving him and giving himself for him? [01:02:26]
What contrast is drawn between knowing John 3:16 as a truth and receiving God’s love personally in the heart? [46:15]

Interpretation questions

Why might Paul pray for believers to be strengthened by the Spirit in order to know Christ’s love? What does this suggest about the difference between learning facts about God and receiving his love deeply?
Ephesians 3 describes believers as “rooted and grounded in love” while also asking that they would know more of Christ’s love. How can someone be secure in God’s love and still have room to grow in experiencing it? [38:48]
Galatians 2:20 speaks of Christ loving Paul and giving himself for Paul personally. How might that personal conviction have helped Paul endure suffering rather than see hardship as proof that God had abandoned him? [01:02:33]
If God is always drawing people into deeper relationship with himself, how can difficult seasons become invitations to trust rather than merely interruptions to overcome? [44:22]

Application questions

Is it easier for you to say, “God loves the world,” than to believe that God loves you personally? What fears, disappointments, shame, or past experiences make that personal trust difficult? [46:21]
What circumstance in your life currently feels uncertain, painful, or unfinished? How might you bring that specific place before God and ask, “Will you help me trust you here?” [58:47]
Think about a desire that has been shaping your choices lately: the desire to be seen, secure, successful, comfortable, loved, or in control. Where might that desire be leading you toward God, and where might it be pulling you away from him? [48:53]
What would it look like this week to have an honest conversation with God about your actual day—not only your requests, but also where he feels near, where he feels far, and where you are resistant? [01:03:40]
The Psalms make room for both praise and lament. Which kind of prayer most reflects your heart right now: gratitude and delight, grief and “How long?”, or something in between? What would it sound like to pray that honestly? [01:04:26]
In what area of life are you tempted to make a quick choice simply to relieve anxiety? How could you slow down and ask what choice might lead to God’s deepening life in you? [01:00:16]
Who in this group or church community could help you notice God’s work in your story? What is one part of your life you could share more honestly rather than carrying it alone? [01:06:05]

Sermon Clips

53s

#InnerStrength

“That out of god's glorious riches, he would grant you to be strengthened through his spirit in your inner being. That you would know these infinite dimensions, how high, how wide, how deep, how long is his love. This incredible ending that you would be filled with all the fullness of God. And that we would know this experientially, not just in our heads, but that it would sink down into our hearts. It would permeate our entire beings. And it would shape how we live our lives. We need strength for this. This is the Holy Spirit who supplies us the power, the strength to step into this incredible invitation.”

48s

#SeenKnownLoved

“One of our deepest desires that I believe is a universal human desire is to be seen and known and to be loved. And it's when those two desires meet, when those two things meet, that god shows up in this place of deepening relationship with him. My desire to understand and to know and to serve my wife makes me slow down on my better days, set aside my assumptions to truly listen to her and see her. I do this imperfectly at best, but when I do act upon that, it's revealing an alignment and a resonance with a desire that I hold deeply.”

31s

#FaithInHindsight

“God rarely does that in our lives, does he? And yet every single one of those experiences as I reflect back became invitations to come to know him more, to trust him in new ways, to see his heart. I missed many of those invitations. Far more missed invitations than ones that I actually recognized. And most of the ones that I recognized were only in looking back and seeing God's faithfulness.”

45s

#YourIdentityInChrist

“Another thing to realize is that God's invitation is for you to become more yourself in him. Paul had this error. He he says it's, imitate me as I imitate Christ. Ignatius had the same thing, and one of the fascinating things I found about both of them is that the further we go into Christ, the further we gain inspiration from those who have come before us, those that are around us in our KLCs or here at SEC that help us. It's not that we become more like them, it's that we become more ourselves in Christ.”

44s

#GodInEverydayLife

“Where does this fullness of God take place? Where does it unfold? And it unfolds in our stories. It unfolds in the concrete everyday circumstances of our lives. It's not just those big magnificent moments of going to winter camp. It's not just those moments where god shows up really tangibly in our lives but it shows up in the everyday, in the everything. As I was wrestling with that question when I was asked it, began to come to this new recognition how God had been at work in my own life.”

55s

#GodsInvitation

“But it's also communicated in all his other actions as he's moving towards us. Indeed, god creates his entire universe precisely in order to invite other persons into the relational life of the trinity. God's purpose or intention of inviting each person into this life is not episodic, just occurring every once in a while or periodically, but rather god is always acting to bring about this intention. God is always acting to draw you into a deeper relationship with him. Everything you experience in life can be parts and parcel of responding to god in this grandest invitation we could ever receive. He's always moving toward us in love.”

54s

#GodLovesYou

“And as amazing and as cosmic as that is and reaffirms that God created this world in love so that we could have this personal relationship with us. It doesn't always sink into our hearts. I meet with people all the time, pastors and missionaries who've gone all over the world to proclaim the very thing that John three sixteen asserts. And yet, in the in the quietness of their hearts, in these confident, vulnerable spaces, they say, I believe God loves the world. believe that because I know it in scripture and I've given my life to it. But I don't feel that for me personally. God loves the entire world. But with me with me, he's disappointed.”

39s

#HeadToHeart

“This doesn't happen just at the head knot level. Here at SEC, we value scripture. We want you to know the word well. We endeavor to preach it faithfully from the stage. We endeavor to invite you into bible studies and through kingdom like communities to come to know god's ever precious and true word. But at some point, it has to sink from our heads down into our hearts where it actually affects us, where it begins to permeate our very souls.”

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