Let There Be Love — Part 2: Breaking Up the Fallow Ground

Description: In Part 2 of Let There Be Love, Pastor Eric continues laying the foundation for a biblical understanding of love by returning to the love of God for us. Before believers can rightly love God, love one another, or love a broken world, they must first understand the depth, security, and transforming power of God’s love in Christ.

Preaching from Ephesians 3, Pastor Eric emphasizes that the love of Christ is not merely something to study intellectually, but something to know personally and experientially. He shows how disordered loves, hardened hearts, hidden sin, and spiritual drift can cloud our vision of God’s love and keep us from walking in joyful fellowship with Him. Even churchgoing believers can become “prodigals in the pew,” outwardly present but inwardly distant.

Using Jeremiah 3, 1 John 4, Psalm 27, and the parable of the Prodigal Son, Pastor Eric calls the church to repentance, renewed affection for Christ, and a fresh experience of the Father’s love. This message is both gospel invitation and pastoral exhortation: come back to the Father, break up the fallow ground, and learn again to behold the beauty of the Lord.

Key Scriptures: Ephesians 3:14–21; Jeremiah 3:12–14; Jeremiah 3:24–25; 1 John 4:17–19; Psalm 27:4–5; Luke 15:11–24; John 10:27–30; Colossians 2:13–15

Highlights:

• Why love for God must begin with a right understanding of God’s love for us

• The danger of disordered loves and counterfeit substitutes for God

• How sin and spiritual drift harden the heart, even in churchgoing Christians

• “The prodigal in the pew”: outwardly present, inwardly far from God

• Why shame and guilt should lead us back to Jesus, not away from Him

• The difference between positional cleansing in Christ and daily relational cleansing

• Breaking up the fallow ground through repentance and renewed sensitivity to God

• Beholding the beauty of the Lord as the path to reordered affection

• The Prodigal Son as a picture of the Father’s pursuing, restoring love

• Ring, robe, and sandals: the Father restores identity before performance

Next Steps: Ask the Lord to show you where your loves have become disordered or divided. Is there a sin, affection, ambition, relationship, or habit that has begun to compete with your love for God? Bring it honestly to the cross. Spend time this week in Ephesians 3 and Luke 15, and ask God to help you know the love of Christ more deeply. If your heart has grown hard, pray for the courage to repent and return. If you have never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, come to Him today and receive the cleansing, forgiveness, and new life only He can give.

Sermon Title: Let There Be Love — Part 1: Loving God

Description: In this opening message of the Let There Be Love series, Pastor Eric addresses the growing anger, division, and hostility shaping both the culture and the church. Jesus warned that in the last days “because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” In a world filled with outrage, bitterness, and constant conflict, followers of Christ are called to live differently.

Beginning in Ephesians 3, Pastor Eric explores the truth that every human heart was designed to love God and to be filled by His love. The emptiness many people feel is not accidental—it is the result of a broken relationship with God caused by sin. Because of that void, people often try to fill their lives with substitutes: success, relationships, pleasure, addiction, work, entertainment, or possessions. Yet none of those things can satisfy what only God can give.

The message ultimately leads to the cross, where the holiness of God and the love of God meet. Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, died for our sins and rose from the grave so that spiritually dead people could be made alive again and restored to a relationship with God.

This sermon calls believers to examine whether their love for God has grown cold and reminds us that true life, joy, and identity are only found in receiving and resting in the immeasurable love of Christ.

Key Scriptures: Matthew 24:9–14 Ephesians 3:14–21 John 3:16 John 10:27–30 Ephesians 2:1

In This Sermon:

• Jesus’ warning that the love of many will grow cold

• Why the early church was known for loving even their enemies

• The spiritual emptiness every person carries apart from God

• The false comforts people turn to instead of God

• The cross as the ultimate expression of God’s love

• How a dead spirit is made alive through faith in Christ

• Why God’s acceptance of His children never changes

Next Steps: Ask yourself honestly where you may be trying to fill the void in your heart apart from God. Bring those things to the Lord and ask Him to restore your love for Him. Spend time reflecting on the cross and the love Christ has shown you. If you have never trusted Jesus as your Savior, call upon Him today. If you already belong to Him, ask God to help you live rooted and grounded in His love so that your heart does not grow cold in a lawless world.

Blessed Are the Merciful

Description: In this message from the Sermon on the Mount, Pastor Eric teaches why mercy is both an impossibility in the flesh and a lived reality through Jesus Christ and the daily filling of the Holy Spirit. Mercy doesn’t go to the deserving—by definition it goes to the guilty. And the only way into the Kingdom is through the mercy of God poured out through the cross of Christ. From there, God expects His children to resemble their Father: to forgive, to bless, and to do good even when it’s costly. Pastor Eric explains the difference between vertical forgiveness (releasing vengeance to God) and horizontal forgiveness (restoring relationship when there is repentance), and why mercy given is mercy multiplied—“pressed down, shaken together, and running over.” If you’re carrying deep wounds, this sermon does not minimize the pain. It points to the only place real mercy is found—and the only power that can make it possible.

Key Scriptures:

• Matthew 5:7

• Luke 6:27–38

• Luke 17:1–10

• John 1:1, 14

• 2 Corinthians 5:21

• 1 Peter 2:24

• John 10:27–30

• Romans 12:19

In This Sermon:

• Why the Sermon on the Mount is “Kingdom law” and impossible without Christ

• Mercy as the doorway into the Kingdom: undeserved and unearned

• Salvation explained: what it means to be “saved” and why Jesus is the only Rescuer

• Mercy and love: inseparable, practical, and Christlike

• The call to love enemies and bless those who curse

• “Increase our faith” and Jesus’ answer: you already have faith—exercise it

• Mercy multiplied: the measure you use will be measured back to you, pressed down and overflowing

• Vertical forgiveness vs. horizontal forgiveness

• Repentance, rebuke, restoration, and rebuilding trust over time

Next Step: Ask God to do what you cannot do: fill you with His mercy so you can release vengeance to Him, forgive from a free heart, and be ready to extend mercy when repentance comes.