Being rooted and grounded in love means God’s love is not just something you know about but the soil your whole life grows in. In this message, the speaker teaches from Ephesians 3 and 1 John 4 that a believer who is rooted and grounded in love is not shaken by drama, fear or other people’s faults, because God is love and His love lives in us. The message shows that those roots grow through simple daily disciplines: talking with God, feeding on His Word and gathering with His people.
Below you will find the full service video, a structured summary of the sermon, the Scripture behind each point (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline, and practical steps you can take this week.
Sermon at a Glance
This full Sunday service from NTC Ministries was posted on August 17, 2020. It opens with the offering, an extended time of worship and communion, and then the sermon begins at about the 36-minute mark. The speaker mentions that it is only the second time preaching in front of the camera, and the message refers to the church’s senior pastor and to recent messages on the power of the Holy Spirit.
The speaker explains that while praying about what to preach, the speaker remembered a retired minister, Pastor Terry Sellers, who always taught on love whenever he visited. Looking back through old notes, the speaker found that love comes up often in this pulpit too. His title for the day: the importance of being rooted and grounded in love.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Speaker | Not named in the recording (a pastor at NTC Ministries) |
| Series | Stand-alone message |
| Main text | Ephesians 3:14–21 and 1 John 4:7–21 |
| Key theme | Being rooted and grounded in God’s love so nothing can move you |
| Length | About 85 minutes for the full service; the sermon runs about 48 minutes |
Giving, Worship and Communion: Preparing the Heart
The service leader opens the offering with Luke 6:38, read from the Passion Translation: give generously and generous gifts will be given back to you, shaken down to make room for more. The leader draws out the picture of shaking down. There are things in our lives the Lord wants to remove so He can pour out blessing, favor, healing, kindness and mercy, and the measure of our generosity becomes the measure of the return.
Leading into worship, the leader reminds the church that worship is not about a talented team or the right song. It is coming in humility and offering the gifts God gave us back to Him. When people are asked to close their eyes, it is because God wants their undivided attention. During worship a word is shared: there are things you have struggled to lay down, and the reason is that God wants your heart first. Run into His arms, and then you will work on those things together.
Communion follows with Psalm 51, read from the Living Translation, and a call to examine the heart (Psalm 51:10–17). Jesus does not want anything in our lives taking His place. He wants us loyal in our thoughts, in how we speak to one another and in our prayer time, and nowhere does the Bible say He wants only half of us. The sacrifice God desires is a broken spirit and a contrite heart.
The bread and cup are then shared with the words of 1 Corinthians 11:23–26. The leader notes that God’s love is changeless.
Why the World Needs a Church Rooted in Love
The speaker asks how many believe the world needs love now more than ever. Things do not look good, the speaker admits, but what the devil means for harm God can turn around for His glory. That requires the church to rise up and be the church, not just go to a building, and that takes being rooted and grounded in His love.
The speaker illustrates with an old joke. A wife asks her husband why he never says he loves her, and he replies that he told her at the altar years ago and will let her know if he changes his mind. That is not how love works, the speaker says, especially in an intimate relationship. God wants more than a Sunday morning check-in. He wants us to talk with Him, share our cares and give Him what weighs us down, because He asks us to cast our care on Him (1 Peter 5:7).
Many people call themselves Christians but do not live as Christians. Believers are called to come out from the world and be separate, not by shunning people but by living a lifestyle of love. Jesus spent His time among sinners, loving every one of them, even while His disciples questioned where He was going. We need to know God’s love on an intimate level, not just know about it, or life becomes a soap opera of twists and turns.
The speaker’s answer is Psalm 119:165: great peace have those who love God’s law, and nothing causes them to stumble. When you are rooted and grounded in love, whatever tries to sideswipe you does not take you out. The speaker contrasts a diet of drama with a diet of the Word, noting that the senior pastor tells the church not to make the news its diet. You can know every fact, but without love it means nothing, because love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:1–8).
Strengthened With Might Through His Spirit
The main text is Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14–17, which the speaker reads from the New King James Version: that God would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, being rooted and grounded in love.
The speaker stops on verse 16. It is God who strengthens us. How often do we try to make things happen in our own strength, or try to make other people believe? The riches of His glory mean He has an abounding supply, and He is looking to supernaturally empower us by the Holy Spirit. He never fills His quota for the day. When you are dragging at the end of work, ask Him for strength; Jesus said to ask, seek and knock (Matthew 7:7).
Sometimes we do not feel or see that strength and begin to question God. Every step forward seems to knock us back. But the righteous must not grow weary in doing good (Galatians 6:9). Maybe, the speaker suggests, God is teaching patience, perseverance or humility. Even longsuffering is part of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23). Rooted in love, you can be confident that He is faithful to complete what He called you to do.
The speaker admits how often the prayer has had to be: God, open my eyes and ears and get me out of my own strength. When you are rooted and grounded in God’s love, nothing can shake you. In His presence is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11), greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4), and all His promises are yes and amen (2 Corinthians 1:20).
What Rooted and Grounded in Love Means
To explain the phrase, the speaker uses a newly planted tree. At first you may not see it grow, and the leaves may even wither a little. But if you water it and give it nutrients, the roots are growing strong underground where you cannot see them. In the same way, we may not see the work God is doing, but as we stay watered and fed, our roots grow deep in His Word and in His love.
That growth takes discipline. Saying “I love You” to God once at salvation and then living the way of the world is not a relationship. As a new creation, old things have passed away (2 Corinthians 5:17), so habits need to change. It is like a diet: dozens of plans exist, but all of them depend on discipline. Bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things (1 Timothy 4:8).
The speaker names three simple disciplines. First, talk to God. The pattern described is to begin every morning by telling the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit “I love you” and opening your life to receive their love. It should be as automatic as getting dressed or brushing your teeth. Part of prayer is listening: shutting off the radio and the television and letting God speak, even if the silence feels awkward, and casting down every vain imagination (2 Corinthians 10:5).
Second, read the Word to be fed, not to finish. The Bible is not a novel to get through; sometimes the speaker reads the same chapter twelve times or stays in it all month, cross-referencing and asking what God is saying. We are to be doers of the Word and not hearers only (James 1:22) and to study to show ourselves approved (2 Timothy 2:15). These are the nutrients, the speaker says, that keep the roots growing.
Third, come to church. The Bible tells us not to forsake assembling together (Hebrews 10:25), and the spirit of this world is working hard to make believers pull back. A Christian, the speaker says, is created to show and share the love of Christ and should not shy away from telling people that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16).
God Is Love: Walking Through 1 John 4
The longest part of the sermon walks verse by verse through 1 John 4:7–21. The speaker has the congregation say it aloud three times: God is love. God does not just talk about love or show it through kindness; He is love, unconditionally. The table below follows the main points drawn from each part of the chapter.
| Verses | What the text says | What the speaker draws from it |
|---|---|---|
| 7–8 | Love is of God; God is love | Love is who God is, not just something He does |
| 9–10 | God sent His Son as the propitiation for our sins | God sent love in the flesh; we open our hearts and love abides in us |
| 11 | If God so loved us, we ought to love one another | Love is an action; once received, it wants to flow out to everyone |
| 12–15 | If we love one another, God abides in us | Love is a relationship, not a religion; His Spirit bears witness with ours |
| 16–17 | As He is, so are we in this world | As He is love, so are we; the same love that drew us draws others |
| 18 | Perfect love casts out fear | So much love inside leaves no room for fear |
| 19–21 | Whoever loves God must love his brother | Rooted in love, we look past people’s faults as God looked past ours |
Because God is love and God sent His Son in the flesh, the speaker explains, when we open our hearts to receive Jesus, love now abides in us and we in Him. “Love and I, we are one,” the speaker says. That is why a believer cannot keep living on the roller coaster of worldly drama, and why time set aside with God matters: love deserves it. That love fills, empowers, strengthens and sets captives free.
God’s love cannot be kept to yourself. It does not shut down or take a break; it wants to touch everyone you meet. This is why the world can see a difference in people who are one with love. They are drawn to it, just as we were. God’s love is not a religion, the speaker stresses, but a relationship, and the Bible says it will take all of eternity to know it. Eternity starts now, so ask God to show you more of His love today, even in a dry season.
Verse 17 says that love has been perfected among us so that we may have boldness, because as He is, so are we in this world. God’s love does not stay inside the church service. It goes with you to the grocery store, to the park, to the swimming hole and to the family member who might be the black sheep. Being rooted and grounded in love is what keeps it flowing everywhere you go.
No Fear in Love, and Love for Your Brother
Verse 18 says there is no fear in love; perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. The speaker admits fear still tries to creep in. It is a tactic of the enemy to destroy the love you have. The answer, the speaker says, is to be so full of love that fear bounces off. We may not know exactly what will happen, but we can know it will be good because of God’s love, and though the world has trouble, Jesus has overcome it (John 16:33).
So when fear reaches in with what the speaker calls its ugly tentacles, cast down the vain imaginations and give the devil no place. He has already lost. In Christ we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28), and He is our shield and the lifter of our head.
Verses 19 to 21 are blunt: we love Him because He first loved us, and anyone who says he loves God but hates his brother is a liar. When you are rooted and grounded in love, loving your brother becomes simple. You look past people’s faults the way Jesus looked past yours. The only thing you can control, the speaker says, is your own heart, and you discipline it through prayer, the Word and church. The speaker links this to the two great commandments in Matthew 22:37–39.
The teaching closes with Ephesians 3:17–21, read together aloud: that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, and be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that works in us. That power, the speaker says, is love at work.
The message ends with an invitation to anyone who knows about this love but has never received it. The speaker leads a prayer asking Jesus to forgive, to be Lord, Savior and friend, and to let each person know the length, depth, breadth and height of His love. The closing point: nothing on earth satisfies the way the love of God does, so do not settle for a mediocre life.
Living Rooted and Grounded in Love This Week
These steps come straight from the disciplines and Scriptures in the message:
- Start the day with “I love You.” Tell the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit you love them and open yourself to receive their love.
- Make room to listen. Turn off the radio or television for a few minutes and let God speak, even if the silence feels awkward.
- Read slowly. Stay with one passage until you understand what God is showing you, and cross-reference it.
- Be there when the doors are open. Gathering with believers is part of how roots grow deep.
- Change your diet. Trade some of the drama you take in for time in the Word.
- Look past one fault. Choose one person whose faults you will overlook this week the way God overlooked yours.
Timestamped Outline
- 0:01 Opening worship
- 5:09 Luke 6:38: shaken down to make room for more
- 10:15 Worship in humility, not performance
- 16:57 A word: give Me your heart first
- 27:40 Psalm 51 and examining the heart
- 33:10 1 Corinthians 11: the Lord’s Supper
- 36:43 The message: rooted and grounded in love
- 39:32 The husband who never said “I love you”
- 41:27 Knowing God’s love, not just about it
- 43:21 Ephesians 3:14-17: the apostle’s prayer
- 45:20 Strengthened with might by His Spirit
- 47:17 When God is teaching patience
- 50:33 What rooted and grounded means: the tree
- 52:45 Discipline: 1 Timothy 4:8
- 54:48 Reading the Bible to be fed, not to finish
- 57:42 1 John 4:7-8: God is love
- 1:00:23 Love and I are one
- 1:05:54 1 John 4:16-17: as He is, so are we
- 1:10:53 No fear in love
- 1:13:44 1 John 4:19-21: love your brother
- 1:17:24 Matthew 22: the great commandments
- 1:18:26 Ephesians 3:17-21: width, length, depth and height
- 1:21:55 An invitation to receive His love
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the speaker say knowing about God’s love is not enough?
Because information does not stabilize a life. The speaker points out that people can tell you they know God loves them while their life swings from problem to problem like a soap opera. Knowing God’s love on an intimate level, through daily conversation with Him and time in the Word, is what grounds you.
What should I do when I do not feel God’s strength?
Keep asking and keep going. The speaker says God never runs out of strength and invites us to ask, seek and knock. The speaker also suggests that a season where you do not feel or see progress may be God teaching patience, perseverance or humility.
Is it wrong to feel afraid as a Christian?
The speaker is honest that fear still tries to creep in, even for a preacher. He calls it a tactic of the enemy aimed at the love you have. The answer is not to pretend but to refuse fear a place: cast down the thought, remind yourself that God’s love for you is good, and fill your heart with so much of His love that fear has nowhere to land.
Scripture References
All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:
- Ephesians 3:14–17 — strengthened with might, rooted and grounded in love
- Ephesians 3:17–21 — the width, length, depth and height of His love
- 1 John 4:7–21 — God is love
- Psalm 119:165 — great peace and nothing causes them to stumble
- 1 Corinthians 13:1–8 — love never fails
- 1 Timothy 4:8 — godliness is profitable for all things
- Matthew 22:37–39 — the two great commandments
- Psalm 51:10–17 and 1 Corinthians 11:23–26 — communion
How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.
Watch More Messages
If this message helped you put down deeper roots, there are hundreds more teachings from NTC Ministries waiting for you. Browse the full sermon archive and keep growing in the love of God.
