Ephesians 3:1-21

Rooted and Grounded

Some of the most impactful sermons in my life were ones I heard from Youth Pastors speaking to fifty or so teens in a Youth group. The first came just a few months after I committed my life to Christ. I went to visit my High School friend David Busby who was a Youth Pastor in Chattanooga, Tennessee. During this visit I heard David speak about reading the Word. I was challenged and the result was a serious and meaning life long daily walk with the Bible.

The second such sermon came almost five years later. It was delivered by Bruce Coble to the Lord’s Chapel Youth Group. He took as his text Ephesians 3:17 and hammered home the phrase “rooted and grounded in love”. He hammered it home so hard that it became almost a mantra for the youth and for sure the youth leaders for quite some time. My friend Wayne wrote a song about it. My wife Margaret did a beautiful cross stitch of a tree with roots in the ground and this phrase as the caption. We framed it and gave to Bruce and his wife Jill for Christmas. 

All of this talk about being rooted and grounded in love led us to actually strive to live it out. The results have been tremendous for us all. We’ve had trials and we have even had a few spats but over the years we have discovered the power. Paul prayed that they would be rooted and grounded in love so that they might have power “together with all the saints” to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. This is not something you can grasp in a vacuum. You can only start to grasp this in community. 

It is in community, rooted and grounded in love, that we can actually know the love that...get this...surpasses knowledge. As that happens we start to be filled with the measure of all the fullness of God! Yes indeed, this is immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine but it can happen nonetheless because of His power working in us.

To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.