I was going to call this Rant series "The REAL Butterfly Effect." But I don't like to attack things, or even be in the realm where something I say could be misconstrued as an attack. I'm a peacemaker. But I still think it's important to understand what the butterfly effect is, in order to understand what I'm trying to say. Simply put, the butterfly effect is the idea that everything effects everything. A butterfly flapping it's wings in America can cause a hurricane in China. Because by flapping it's wings it moved the air. And that small event snowballs into something huge. That idea--that a little bit can go a long way--has been really heavy on my heart lately. In fact, I'm fixing to preach on it tonight. So if you like this Rant, you should check out the sermon video when it's posted. Ok.  Now that I've said all that I want to get into the actual Rant. I love the creation story. Genesis chapter 1, specifically. It's so powerful. Especially when you personalize it. God created the heaven and the earth. The mind and the body. YOU. It's history, which means it's HIS (Jesus's) story. But that means it's YOUR story when you find yourself in Him. So look at Genesis 1:2 and let's see where I'm going with all of this: "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." More or less, that's all I want to say. When you were without form, and void, and it was too dark to see things clearly... the Spirit of God was there. Moving upon the face of the waters. That word, "moved," is number 7363 in Strong's Hebrew Concordance and it means, "to brood; by implication to be relaxed: - flutter, move, shake." And that's why I went with "Butterfly" for a title. The Spirit of God fluttered over us, like a butterfly. And the flapping of it's (HIS) wings would culminate in the great rushing wind of the Holy Spirit being received by the disciples in Acts 2:2! See how something small manifested into one the biggest things ever? We were void and without form. We didn't know who we were because we didn't know who God was. But even in the darkness, He was there. If Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and if He swore to never leave us nor forsake us, that means He's been with us the whole time. Even when we didn't know it. Even when it doesn't feel like it. Even when we hide from His presence... He is still there. Brooding. Relaxing. Not stressing out about what's going to happen. Because even then the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. God's plan was never in doubt, or in jeopardy. It was simply growing. From the fluttering of His wings (and there is healing in His wings, yeah?) to the rush of the Holy Spirit filling us to overflowing with the revelation knowledge of His love! God is a happy God because everything went exactly according to plan. Jesus wasn't plan A. He was (and is) the beginning and the end. And everything in between. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word WAS God. And He was also with US!

The love of Christ controls us. Not by weighing us down with an external set of rules--or Laws--but by compelling us to share what we have by filling us to overflowing with it. It's not about being controlled as much as it is about being IN control. Let me explain: In Matthew 5:39 (NLT) Jesus presented a radical way of dealing with people, "But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also." But let me ask you this: Is that an easy thing to do? Someone slaps you and your first "human" instinct is to slap back. To give back what in kind what they gave you. Which makes sense, because you can't give what you don't have and you can only give what you do have. Someone gives you a slap... and then you have a slap to give. But while that might be the "human" instinct... it's really the Old Man nature. The New Man--Jesus--doesn't give back what He gets from the world. He let's LOVE control Him. He gives what His FATHER has given to Him. And that's the key. You can't give what you don't have. But if you KNOW what you have... if you know and believe the love of Christ... then no matter what the situation is you have love to give. Instead of giving hurt for hurt you can give understanding. You can give mercy, and grace, and forgiveness, and love. Because that's what GOD gave you. So that, really and truly, is what you've got. It's not about what the world says, it's about what God says. Remember we mentioned earlier in this Rant series that you can't serve two masters? But you WILL serve one. Either what's external will control you, or what's internal will compel you. Either the world will try to force itself in, or what's already in there will overflow out. That's the difference between works and labor (which don't work) and rest. It's about being in control. Letting the river of life flow out of you and going with the flow. Presenting your body as a living sacrifice and letting Jesus do whatever He wants in, and through, and as you. Which, by the way, is why love controls us. Because what Jesus wants to do in, and through, and as you--the ONLY thing He wants to do--is love. Because that's who He is. And that's who YOU are. You are loved... and because you are loved, you are LOVE. It's not just what you do. It's who you are. It's your nature. Not that "human" nature that we always think of, that selfish, self-centered, carnal, beast nature that died on the cross when the Old Man died, but our new nature. Our TRUE nature. The love nature. A seed can only produce after it's own kind. You can only do what it's in your nature to do. And the trick is, we still struggling with that old nature even though it was buried in the watery grave of baptism. We need to be led of the Spirit and let the Spirit of truth lead and guide us into all truth. Let the Spirit control us, if I can say it that way. Giving up control is the only way to BE in control. Not giving back what the world gives, but letting the love of God--the love that IS God--flow through you!

All my life I never really had very much ambition. Never wanted anything. Never wanted to do anything. Just kind of went from one thing to the next. My grandma used to call me a tumbleweed. Really it wasn't until I kind of started a family--and met my pastor--that things started to get real. Because that was when I started to feel compelled to actually DO something with my life. Compelled by love. The love of those in my life--and, more specifically, taking care of those in my life--is what started to control me. And I gotta tell you, it didn't feel like a burden. It felt like a purpose. I think that's one of the coolest things about the sacrifical love of God; when you love someone it doesn't FEEL like a sacrifice. In fact, it feels like the exact opposite. Because it doesn't feel like you're losing anything, even though you're giving away everything you've got. When you take that proverbial leap of faith (even though we're called to WALK by faith, not LEAP... and sometimes the baby steps are the biggest leaps of all...) and get over your fear that you'll lose what you've got, that's when you start to EXPERIENCE what you've got on a deeper, more excellent, perfect level. Because even though you ARE laying your life down for your friends (just as Jesus did for us on the cross), what you're really doing is SHARING your life with your friends. When you understand what it means to be connected to the inexhaustible supply of love--the God that IS love living inside you--that you know you can't give it away to the point where you have nothing left. You always have seomthing left. You can always give a little more. Love a little more. You can experience the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of God's love by TESTING the limits of His love. And finding out that He HAS no limits! That His love is bigger and better than we could ever imagine. We put limits on it, and we try to control it, and we end up missing out on it. Remember Jesus said He is the door and anybody who tries to enter the sheepfold any other way is a thief and a robber. When we do anything but let love control us we are robbing ourselves of the gift (of eternal life) that we've been given! And we're robbing others of being able to experience what we've got. I'm telling you--God has put people in your life that only you can affect. People need what we've got. They need us to BE US. To bless them with the blessings we've been given. To receive and release that glorious gift. Jesus said eternal life is knowing the Father and the One whom He sent. It's that Father/Son relationship. That unconditional love relationship. Letting love lead us and guide us. We are slaves to righteousness and prisoners of Christ, right? Because His love controls us. His love compels us... to love. Because we are filled to overflowing with it. And it's not too good to be true. It's so good that it MUST be true! It's too good to keep to ourselves. THAT'S how love controls us. By giving us something that we just have to share. And when we share it, we experience it! It's kind of like, use it or lose it. Only by giving it away do we really "have" it. Only by giving up control are we really "in" control!

The reason I think we have so much trouble with the idea of giving up control is that we think we HAVE some control. We think--in a very Old Covenant mindset--that what we do determines what we get. If we do good we'll be rewarded. If we do evil we'll be punished. But when we look at control as the thing that compels us to do what we do--when we look at LOVE as our motivation--then the whole idea takes on a new light. See, we think control is all about setting limits. And there ARE times when love does that. Look at Acts 16:6 (NLT), "Next Paul and Silas traveled through the area of Phrygia and Galatia, because the Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching the word in the province of Asia at that time." The Holy Spirit prevented the Apostles from going to Asia. But the Holy Spirit was what prompted the Apostles to preach the word in the first place. So it's not all about stopping people from doing things. That's not control. That's being controlling! Remember yesterday we saw that love is SELF control. Control is about knowing and believing the love of Christ so that we can receive and release that love. So we can stay in control, and not go around looking for love in all the wrong places. And that's the big misconception about meekness, too. Meekness is not weakness. Meekness is strength under control. When we think it's all about getting what we deserve--good, bad, or ugly--we completely miss out on mercy and grace. Because mercy is NOT getting what you deserve, and grace is getting what you DON'T deserve. And under the New Covenant it has nothing to do with what you do and everything to do with who you are. The Father gives to the Son because He loves Him and it's His good pleasure to do so. Control isn't about ordering people around or making them jump through hoops. Control is about doing what we (really) want to do because now--because of the cross--we are free, and we are able, to do it. I am convinced that people do what they do because of love. Period. Either because they don't know they are loved and they are trying to get it, or because they do know that they are loved and they want to share what they've got with others. But either way it's all about love. Either way we are love slaves. Slaves to sin, or slaves to righteousness. We can't serve two masters, but we DO serve one or the other. We are compelled (or controlled) by forces either external or internal. The world's report, or the Word of God. We can choose to listen to--and believe--either one. But whichever one we believe controls us. Whichever one we believe defines our reality. So in THAT respect we DO have some control. We can listen to the world screaming at us at the top of it's lungs, or we can be still, and know that He is God and listen to the still, small voice deep inside. The still, small voice of God's heart beating with love in our chests. We can let the world push us around, or we can let the love of Christ control us. Compel us. Motivate us. To do what Jesus did (and continues to do) to us. Love as we are loved...!

According to Galatians 5:22-23, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." And in the New Living Translation "temperance" is rendered as "self control." So, while self control IS a fruit of the Spirit... THE (singular) fruit of the Spirit is love. Self control is an aspect of love. Just as joy, peace, longsuffering and all the rest of the list are aspects of love. So even when we think we're in control... we're really not. Christ's love controls us. It's kind of like the difference between self righteousness and the righteousness of God in Christ. One is as filthy rags. One was so valuable that Jesus became sin so that we could be made it. Here's what I'm trying to say: Self control means giving up control. Surrendering to that thing deep inside that compels us to love one another. That thing deep inside that is God's love for us! In the Old Covenant the principle was, "Forgive and you will be forgiven." Everything we contigent on us doing something in order to earn something. But in the New Covenant we give BECAUSE we are forgiven. On the cross Jesus gave us all things that pertain to life and godliness. He did it all so we could get it all. And He did it so that we would have something to give. Because you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. If all you have is bitterness, and hurt, and pain, then that's all you can give. But if you've been forgiven... then you KNOW forgiveness and you can forgive others. And it's not this crazy, "I'll forgive but I'll never forget" kind nonsense either. Forgiveness wipes the slate clean. Being justified is not "just as if I'd never sinned." It's, "I'm a new man and I HAVE never sinned!" The old man, the sinner, died on the cross. And the New Man, the saint, Jesus, rose again to walk in newness of life. But what we seem to think this means is that now that we've been forgiven we better mind our p's and q's and stay on God's good side. Guys... God only has one side! He doesn't have a bad side! He is light and there is no darkness in Him at all! He is the same yesterday, today, and forever! Forgiven is forgiven. Saved is saved. Loved is loved. It's our struggle with control that gets us so mixed up and messed up. We always try to finish in the flesh what was started in the Spirit. We think all of those aspects of love are things we have to do in order to love. When really they are aspects of how we ARE loved. And when we understand that... then we can simply receive it and release it. We can see how longsuffering God is towards us and then we can be that same longsuffering towards each other. We can let what's already inside us flow out as we fill ourselves (to overflowing) with the fulness of God's love. We don't have to control it... because it (love) controls us. We don't have to get anything, because we already have everything. And now we can just experience it by sharing it. Instead of trying to be in control, we can go with the flow of the river of life!

There's a phrase in the New Living Translation of the fourteenth verse of the fifth chapter of second Corinthians. And this phrase hit me in the heart, right between the eyes. It got stuck in my Spirit. So, just like my pastor taught me, I'm gonna preach it until I'm empty on it. The phrase is pretty simple, but I think it changes everything. It gives us--ME, at least--a totally different way of looking at things. Ok. Ready? Here's the phrase: "Christ's love controls us." Kind of revolutionary, don't you think? Because here's the deal: As much as we think we have free will (I can do whatever I want!) we're servants. And even as much as we think we're rebels without a cause (give me a line and I'll cross it, give me a rule and I'll break it) that rebellion is a FORM of servitude. There's something inside of us that--as the King James Version of 2 Corinthians 5:14 says--compels us to do what we do. And realistically Jesus laid it out for us in Matthew 6:24 (NLT), "No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." No one can serve two masters but everyone DOES serve one of the other. God or mammon. God or money. The Kingdom or the world. Giving or getting. Because that's what it comes down to. Either you don't know what you've got so you spend all of your time, talent, and treasure trying to get something... or you know and believe that Daddy loves you and you spend those Three T's SHARING what you've got! Guys, love is NEVER about getting. It's always about giving. Because love IS giving. The wages of sin is death. That's all you can earn through your own effort and (self) righteousness. But the gift of God is eternal life. He gave it to us. Jesus gave His life FOR us and He gave His life TO us. And now we have it. So we are no longer controlled by trying to get it. Now we are controlled BY it. What else could it mean to present our bodies as a living sacrifice other than letting Christ's love control us? Rather than trying to act like Him (which is, at best, just an act) we simply surrender to Him. We give up control. And we let Him do whatever He wants to do in us, and through us, and as us. And here's what makes that easy: We KNOW what He wants to do in us, and through us, and as us. He wants to express Himself. And since He is love... ALL He EVER wants to do (I'll say it again) in us, and through us, and as us... is love. Christ's love doesn't control us in the same way that money tries to. Christ's love doesn't say, "Do this or else." It doesn't make us jump through hoops in order to earn it. It's not from the outside-in. It's from the inside-out. Christ's love controls us by filling us up to overflowing so that it comes out of us naturally. Effortlessly. "Serving" God isn't about jumping through hoops. Don't we get it that Christ came to serve US? And all we have to do is receive it and release it. Love others AS He loves us. Luke 10:37 (NLT) sums it up: "The man replied, "The one who showed him mercy." Then Jesus said, "Yes, now go and do the same."" Love controls us because we are loved. Because we are LOVE!

Love is our foundation. Love is what keeps us grounded. Love is our root. And the thing about roots... is that they help us grow. Look at Ephesians 3:17-19, "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of God, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." We always talk about "getting closer to God." Well, I'm here to tell you... you can't get any closer to God than having Him live inside you. It's not about GETTING closer to God. It's not about GETTING anything at all. It's about knowing and believing. Receiving and releasing. Being filled with all the fulness. And catch this: We are already full of it. Full of Him. Full of love. This filling is a realization. That's why I always say you're as close to God as you realize you are. Because, let's be honest, sometimes it feels like we're far away from Him. Sometimes it feels like He's in the light, and we're in the dark. But that's simply not the truth of the matter. He IS the light. And He dwells in your heart. By faith. When you know it and believe it, that's when what is already true becomes true... for you. That's when you begin to experience the truth. It's not about trying to get out of the darkness. It's about letting the light shine and watching the darkness flee. God IS light. And in Him is no darkness at all. And He's in you. So in YOU is no darkness at all. No matter what it feels like. No matter if you're having a "good" day, or a "bad" day, or what. The truth is the truth regardless. It's believing the truth, though, that manifests the truth. When Jesus was dealing with some blind men He asked them if they believed He could heal them. And they said they did. And then, "He touched their eyes and said, "Become what you believe"" (Matthew 9:29 MSG). What you believe--either the world's report, or the Word of God--literally defines your reality. That's why the Word of God--Jesus, love--has to be your foundation. That's why the knowledge (that passes knowledge; heart knowledge, not head knowledge) of God's love fills us with the fulness of God. What we've already been filled with overflows out of us when we know it and believe it. When we (again) receive it and release it. Because how else can we comprehend the height, and depth, and breadth, and length of His love for us other than sharing that love with others? Other than stretching that love to it's limit and finding out that it is limitless! Building on the foundation that is the love of God--that is the God who is love--means growing. Maturing. Not trying to become someone we're not, but simply coming into the realization of who we really are. 2 Peter 3:18 says it like this, "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen." We grow from our roots. Love is the root, and we grow in grace, and in the knowledge of Him. The knowledge of His love. The knowledge of who we really are. We ARE loved, and that means we are LOVE. It starts with love, and it ends (even though it's never-ending) with love. Love is the beginning, and the end, and everything in between. Love is our foundation. Love is what keeps us from being shaken, no matter what is going on around us. Love is what we have, and love is who we are. AND love is what we do. Love is WHAT we do, and love is WHY we do. But that's the next Rant series...

When something gets you deep inside, that's what you always fall back on. That's why it's so important to train up a child in the way he should go. That's why it's so important to be rooted and grounded in love. The surface stuff tries to knock you off your feet. And no one can hit harder than life. But we know that the just man (Jesus) may fall seven times (the number of perfection) but He gets up every time. And we know that His fall (or His death--OUR death--on the cross) led to Him rising. He laid His life down so He could take it back up. So He could give it to us. So that we, through the Holy Spirit, could know and believe the love that God has for us. The love that God IS in us, and through us, and as us. Jesus fell, so to speak, so that He could keep us from falling. He gave us the measure of faith by giving us something (love) to believe in. That's why He's our Rock. Our foundation. That's why when we stand on Him--on the truth that Daddy loves us immaculately and unconditionally--we cannot be shaken. Let me say it like this: When we know where we come from we can also know where we're going. We can learn from the past--instead of letting it define us, or hold us back--and we can move forward; upward and God-ward. And here's the coolest part: When we're rooted and grounded in love... where we start is WHERE we end! It's love, love, and more love. Jesus is the Alpha and Omega. The beginning and the end. Which means LOVE is the Alpha and Omega. LOVE is the beginning and the end. Because God is love. Because Jesus is God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in YOUR flesh. Love in YOUR body. And when you know and believe that He lives in you--that LOVE lives in you--that's when your roots start to show. That's when what's inside comes out. When you fill yourself with the fulness of God by testing out the height, and depth, and breadth, and length of His love by USING that love on other people. We feel most loved when we are loving others. We experience the gift we've been given when we share it. But it all flows down from the source. We love because we ARE loved. That's our foundation. That's where we start. Where we HAVE to start. That's how we train up our kids in the way we should go. Not by putting demands--heavy yokes that they can't possibly carry--on them. But by loving them. Baptizing them in Jesus' name. Immersing them in the nature of Jesus. And His nature... is the love nature. You can't give what you don't have. So we have to start letting people know what they DO have. Not telling people what to do, but telling people who they are! And who they are is God's beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. When you KNOW that, you stop trying to ACT like that and you start resting in your true identity. You stop trying to be someone you're not and you start to embrace who you are. And then you're able to embrace others. All of a sudden you can obey the New Commandment. You can love others as Jesus loves you. Because you're rooted and grounded IN His love!

I want to link two Bible verses--two concepts--together today. Because I think it's important to understand that in a very real way your roots define you. You can't very well know where you're going until you know where you come from. And listen, I'm not saying we dwell in the past, or let the past define us. I'm saying those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it. I'm saying, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Provebs 22:6). And I'm linking that up with Mark 10:15, "Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein." Train up a child in the way he should go. Receive the Kingdom as a little child. Remember Jesus said unless we're born again we can't see or enter the Kingdom? I think there's something very important about being child-like. Not childish. Not immature. But simply being totally and completely dependent on Daddy to take care of us. I think we lose that faith--or trust--in God when we start to have faith in ourselves. When we think we can--or when we think we're supposed to--do it ourselves. It's the difference between works and labor (which don't work) and rest. It's the difference between the offering Cain brought the Lord--the fruit of the ground, or what he could produce with his own strength and effort--and the offering Abel brought the Lord--a lamb. It's the difference between self-righteousness, which is no kind of righteousness at all and is likened to filthy rags, and the righteousness of God, which is what we became when Jesus became sin for us. Here, to me, is child-like faith: Daddy says it, so it must be true. Not blind faith, not believing everything and anything, but knowing and believing that Daddy would never harm us. Knowing and believing that Daddy loves us and has our best interests at heart. Being rooted and grounded in love. Baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Immersed in the nature of God in the flesh, love in a body. My favorite song, "How He Loves" has a line that says, "If grace is an ocean we are sinking." Because it's too big. Too good. (Not too good to be true, but so good that it must be true!) God's grace, and mercy, and love surrounds us on all sides and fills us to overflowing. We have faith in God because He has proven (and continues, at every opportunity, to prove) Himself faithful. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word of God. A child receives the Kingdom because He knows it's his Father's good pleasure to give it to Him. That's our foundation. A gift freely given from Father to Son. An inheritance passed down. Not something you can earn, but something you must receive. Everything in life must be built on God's love. That's the beginning, and the end, and everything in between. That's where we come from. That's where we going. And that's where we ARE. We make things so complicated sometimes that we miss out on the simplicity of Christ. We try so hard to "figure things out" that we miss out on the ultimate truth of the universe; The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hand. We go every which way looking for love in all the wrong places. Until we understand that we're connected to the source of love. The God who IS love. Until we remember the things of old. Our roots. Our foundation. And that's what keeps us grounded. Child-like. We love because we are loved. It's that simple.

In order to test the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of God's love for us we have to first be rooted and grounded in love. And then we have to understand that we test it... by using it. I really think the greatest (but possibly scariest) part about love is that you experience love... by loving. You "get it" (in a sense) by giving it away. By sharing it. And that's not something you can do unless you know and believe that you're connected to the source. Love isn't just something we have, love is who we are. Love lives in us because Jesus lives in us. And we live in love because we live in Him. It starts with love and it ends with love. That's what it means that Jesus is the Alpha and Omega. But for today I want to talk about staying power. I want to talk about our confidence even when things don't seem to be going our way. Our good cheer in times of tribulation. And in order to do it, I want to quote Matthew 13:20-21 in the New Living Translation. But just as sometimes the best way to understand the Bible is to see what it DOESN'T say, today I'm going to show a negative in order to explain the positive. "The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. But since they don't have deep roots, they don't last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God's word." I don't know why, but it seems like we want to blame God for all the bad things that happen, and we want to take credit for all the good things that happen. First and foremost, we shouldn't be judging by appearance in the first place. We shouldn't be judging according to "good and evil." We should be judging righteous judgment. Executing the judgment that was passed down three days after the cross when the Father raised the Son from death. The abundant, eternal, everlasting, Resurrection Life sentence that is the judgment of God. And second of all, we need to understand that ALL THINGS work together for good. The only way to get off the crazy train, the roller coaster of emotions where we're high as a kite when things are "good" and hit rock bottom when things are "bad" is to be rooted and grounded. In love. When we stand on the Rock we will not be shaken. No matter what happens. We can go with the flow when we understand that God's love flows out of us like a river of living water. And we can understand that no matter what the situation is... love is the answer. So instead of running around like a chicken with its head cut off, we can simply look inside and draw from the well of salvation with joy. We can fill ourselves with the fulness of God and let His love overflow out of us. The outflowing, or outworking, of the indwelling Spirit. Remember Proverbs 22:6? "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." When we have that root... no matter what else happens THAT'S what we fall back on. If you think God is all about religion, and doing what you're told you'll fall away at the first opportunity. But if you know that God is all about relationship--the Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hand--then you have something to hold onto. Something to keep you steady when the wind blows. Solid ground to stand on. You're both rooted AND grounded in His love for you. And then you won't fall away. Then you can't even be shaken!