I'm going to say it as simply as I can say it tonight: "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (1 John 3:16). And I really like the word "perceive" there. The way we SEE, or FEEL, or EXPERIENCE the love of God is by knowing that He laid His life down for us... and knowing that because of Him laying His life down for us--giving His life for us and to us--we can lay our lives down for each other. And not only can we, but we ought to. That's the New Commandment, "Love one another as Jesus loves you." Receive and release His love. Let what's inside come out. That's what this life is about. That's what this abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love is all about. Letting God love us and loving Him back by loving each other. Receiving and releasing the gift we've been given. And seeing is believing, right? What you see is what you be. Understanding what God did for us (and as us) is what equips and empowers us to be able to do that for each other. You can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. So you need to know what you've got. You need to know what love is. That's why Jesus came: He came to show us the Father. God is love. He came to show us love. Show us HOW to love. And He did that by laying His life down. He did it by healing people, and by feeding people, and by teaching people. Yes. But in the fullness of it... He did it by laying His life down. By (again) giving His life FOR us, and TO us. And then, just for the record, AFTER Jesus laid His life down, that's when God's judgment came into play. God's judgment was not to kill His only begotten Son. God's judgment was to raise His Son from the dead. His judgment was not a death sentence, it was a life sentence. An eternal life sentence. A Resurrection Life sentence. God's love was not killing anybody. God's love was destroying death so that we can experience life. True life. And, as we know, to live is to love and to love is to live. Love is giving. Everything you have and everything you are. I'm not saying you have to literally die for people. Although, quite frankly, it could come to that. I would lay my life down for my son in an instant. I would take any hurt, any pain, from him if I could. Any time. Every time. But I think putting others first is just as important as literally taking a bullet for someone. Because love isn't about you. That's where I want to end this Rant series tomorrow, but I'll drop a little bit of it here. Love is not about the longing for something. Because love is never about getting. Because love IS giving. Giving what you have to the people in your life that need it. Letting what's inside come out. By knowing and believing it's in there. And the ability to feel love best BY loving people is just a fringe benefit. Love is... laying your life down, just as Jesus laid His life down. Giving everything you have and everything you are. Giving your life. Giving yourself. Because love is... giving.

When you love somebody, it's not about you. It's about them. Seeing a need that THEY have and meeting that need. That's what our heavenly Father did for us when He gave us His only begotten Son. He didn't want us to perish. He wanted us to experience Jesus' abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of Love. Jesus didn't just give His life FOR us, He gave His life TO us. So that we could have it. So that we could (again) experience it as HE lives His own life in us, and through us, and as us. Having a kid doesn't give you a slave for life. And having a kid doesn't make you a "parent." Putting your kid first makes you a parent. Doing what you do for THEM. Sacrificing yourself. Those are the lessons God taught us. That is the love God showed us. Love is giving everything you have and everything you are. Laying your life down for your friends. Putting others first. If your mindset is, "I want..." then it's not love. Because love is never about getting. Because love IS giving. "I want" is selfish and self-centered. Truly living life is about being Christ-centered. Which means being people-centered. Being selfless instead of being selfish. Esteeming others higher than yourself. Putting the needs (and sometimes the wants) of others ahead of your own needs and wants. And, I'm telling you, Acts 20:35 is such an important truth: "I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive." If you want to feel love... love somebody. Stop trying to get things you think you don't have. Give what you've got. Love is giving. If I haven't mentioned that yet. Receiving is important, because you can't give what you don't have, and you can only give what you do have. But you don't just receive for receiving's sake. You receive SO THAT you can release what you've received. And that second part is more blessed. The first part--receiving--is necessary. In order to get us to the second part. And the second part is what really brings it all together. The receiving is what makes life worth living. The second part is HOW we live our life. Because to live is to love. To love is to live. You can't have one without the other and you can't do one without the other. Putting others first is what love is. Supporting the weak. Living out of our abundance. Not over-stretching or over-reaching. But, if we have two coats, and someone is cold... that's pretty easy math. Give what you've got. And in the giving, experience the joy--the love--that you've been given. To end this Rant tonight, let me give you a key to the kingdom: In order to truly love someone, you have to have a relationship with them. You have to understand what needs they have. "See a need and meet it" sounds pretty simple, but if you don't see it--if you don't see THEM--how are you going to be able to meet that need? How are you going to be able to love someone else if all you can think about is yourself?

Love is... what makes the world go round. To live is to love and to love is to live, right? You can't have one without the other and you can't do one without the other. They aren't just connected, they are the same thing. Let me say it like this, "Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith" (Proverbs 15:17). In other words, what's on the inside is more important than what's on the outside. You can have all the riches in the world, but if there's nothing filling that God-shaped (love-shaped) void inside you... you'll always be in a place of misery. Money can't buy happiness, right? Better to be content with what you have... and the PEOPLE you can share it with. I've always said there are only two important things in this universe: God and people. And, as always, I know the environment is important. I know animals are important. But when you get down to why we were created, it is all about love. Loving God and loving people. Loving God BY loving people. We are love-fueled in the same way that cars as gas-fueled. A car without gas won't run. It just sits there and won't do anything. Won't even start. People without love CAN'T do anything. Except try to get the love they think they don't have. 2 Corinthians 5:14 in the NLT says, "Either way, Christ's love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life." So either we think (wrongly) that we are not loved, and that belief controls us to the point where we do everything we do in order to get that love we think we don't have... or we know (the truth) that we are loved and that love controls us to the point where we do everything we do in order to share that love that we have. We let our old life--of trying to earn something that can't be earned--go. We've died to that life. So that we could rise up in newness of life. So that we can experience the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God. And we experience it by letting HIM live it. By letting HIM love us. Love is... loving God by loving people. Letting HIM love us so that we CAN love Him back by loving each other. Listen, nobody knows you better than your heavenly Father. He knows what you need. Jesus said as much in Matthew 6:8, "Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him." And what He did--because He wanted the best FOR us--is He gave the best TO us. Because love is giving. Giving everything you have and everything you are. That's what Jesus did on the cross. He gave us His life. So if your choice is all the money in the world, or someone who loves you... it ought to be an easy choice. Money can buy stuff, but it can't buy the one thing we really need. It can't buy the TRUE desire of our hearts. Which, of course, is love. Love is the only thing the heart is concerned with. Love is the only thing the heart knows, or cares about. Love is not what you have. Love is who you surround yourself with. The PEOPLE in your life. The connections you make. The relationships you build. That's what matters. That's what makes life worth living. Its all about love!

Many many moons ago, when I worked at a grocery store, there were these things known as newspapers. I know they still exist, but I also know that people really don't read--especially if it's not on their phone or tablet. But I digress. The point is, there was always this little comic in the paper that I would read in the breakroom. And it would say, "Love Is..." and then have a little picture and a caption. Just little things. Love Is knowing her favorite song. Or Love Is knowing your heart is in the right place. Or Love Is being loved back. I always thought it was kind of cool. I may seem like a tough guy because I'm tall and quiet, but inside I can be a bit of a softie. Anyway, I was thinking about those little comics, and I thought that was a good excuse to spend a few days on what love is. Now, I say this all the time so it should be no surprise, but love is giving. John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." God loved... so He gave. And, of course, my personal definition of love: "I will gladly spend myself and all I have for you, even though it seems that the more I love you, the less you love me" (2 Corinthians 12:15 NLT). Giving everything you are and everything you have, without worrying about how it's received. And, listen, there is a degree of wisdom that needs to be exercised here. You can't force your "love" down people's throats. Anytime you try to force something down someone's throat--be it good, bad, or ugly--they will choke on it. Throw it up. Reject it. So you don't always have to be over the top. Sometimes the least you can do is the most you can do. Sometimes just being there for someone is enough. It's not about overwhelming people. It's about seeing a need and meeting it. Because love doesn't demand its (HIS) own way. Love is soft and sweet. And, yes, I know we like to throw the term "tough love" around. I get it. Sometimes you need to say no to people. Because enabling is not loving. Sometimes you hurt by trying to "help" too much. Sometimes you hurt YOURSELF by trying to help too much. We try to go the extra mile... and then keep going. I'm telling you right now, if I'm worn out, I'm not really good for anything or anybody. So give what you've got. Always. But once you've given what you've got... you have to let that be enough. It's either enough... or it isn't. And either way, you've done what you can do. So when we're thinking about what love is--the nature of love--it's giving. Giving everything you have and everything you are. Seeing a need that you can meet... and meeting it. Building relationships with people. Getting to know them, so that you can have that wisdom. So that you can play her favorite song for her to cheer her up, because you know what her favorite song is. Little things that mean a lot. Little things that mean everything. As simply as I can put it: Love IS giving. But you have to know what to give. And you have to know what you've got. Because you can't give what you don't have, and you can only give what you do have. But you SHOULD only give what THEY need!

I want to make this as simple as I can: Love is the only thing that can satisfy our appetite. Love is the only thing that can truly fill us up. If you feel like you have a God-shaped (love-shaped) hole inside you... the only thing that will fit in the hole is God. Is love. Look at Proverbs 7:18, "Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves." And I think its important that it mentions filling ourselves until the morning. Because, lets be real, in the dark times, the dark of night so to speak, that's when we need love the most. It's easy to "love" people when everything is going well. But I always say the people who are hardest to love are the people who need love the most. Because they aren't getting any. Because they're hard to love. Love is not a feeling. Love is a decision. A decision to stand by someone no matter what. To give people what they need. Not necessarily always what they want... but I think the easiest and best way to love someone is to see a need, and meet it. If you have two coats, and someone doesn't have one... live out of your abundance and give them a coat. It's not rocket science. See a need and meet it. But the trick is, you can't give what you don't have. You can only give what you do have. So you need to fill yourself with love before you can love people. God has already filled us up. That happened. He took up abode in us. He lives in us. LOVE lives in us. So we have what we need. We are connected to the unlimited source of love. We have what we need. And because of that we can give people what THEY need. The Beatles said it best, "All we need is love." That is the universal human condition. We all need love. Love is to us like gas is to a car. We can't go anywhere or do anything without it. So the tragedy is, we waste so much of our lives--our three T's: Time, Talent, Treasure--trying to get something we already have. And we disqualify ourselves from experiencing it because we don't think we're worthy of it. We try to earn it, and we always fall short. Instead of just realizing that Jesus has prepared a table for us in the presence of our enemies. Jesus did all of the work. All of the heavy lifting. All we have to do is sit down and pig out. Stuff ourselves full of His love. When the Bible says, "God is love," the word love means "love feast." Because you are what you eat. What's inside comes out. And you fill yourself to overflowing with what you've already been filled with by eating the fruit. The fruit of the Spirit. So let's end this one where we started it tonight: Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning. When you need it the worst, you can have it. When it's darkest out, you can shine the light. You ARE the light of the world. The light of love shines on you, and in you, and through you, and out of you. So fill yourself up with it. When King David was in a rough spot he strengthened himself in the Lord. We can--and we need to--take solace in love. That's our refuge. Our safe place. That's where--and how--we fill ourselves up with what we've already been filled with. Its all about love. When you need it most... dive into it. Fill yourself with love!

Eating is how we fill ourselves, right? We are what we eat, right? So diet is important. What you fill yourself up with is what will come out. Because what you believe is inside WILL come out. Whether it is good, bad, or ugly. Now look at Leviticus 25:17-19, "Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the LORD your God. Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety. And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety." Don't opress people. Be kind. Listen to God and do what He says. Obedience, I'm telling you, is a trust issue. If you believe that God has your best interests at heart, why would you not do what He's telling you to do? Especially when you consider that what He is telling you to do--the only thing God ever tells us to do--is love. Love God and love people. Love God BY loving people. Love controls us. Either because we don't think we have it and we do everything we do in order to try to get it... or we know and believe that we DO have it, and we do everything we do in order to share what we have. Its all about love. Either the quest for, or the giving of, love. And when we understand that we are loved, that we have love, that's when we can stop trying to get it. When we understand that the gift of God is just that--a gift--then we can stop trying to earn something that can't be earned. And here's the cool part: When we listen to God, when we do His statutes, and keep His judgments, we dwell safely in the land. The Promised Land. The land that flows with milk and honey. And dwelling therein means eating the fruit. When we love God (by loving one another and not oppressing one another) the land yields its fruit to us. When we give love, we experience love. That's what love is; love is giving. When you're trying to get, you're robbing yourself from experiencing what you already have. When you give, you're experiencing what you have. If you want to feel love... love someone. Eating the fruit is nice--its necessary. It sustains us. Fills us up--but sharing the fruit is even better. In the book of John Jesus speaks of Him being the vine and us being the branches. Think about that for a minute. What do the branches do? They bear the fruit. They extend the fruit to those that are hungry. That's what the branches are for. They are connected to the vine, and they reach out to the rest of humanity. Receiving and releasing the love of God. Letting what He has filled us with flow out of us. How? By doing His statutes and keeping His judgments. Obeying the New Commandment--love one another as Jesus has loved you. And understanding that God's judgment was not to kill His Son. God's judgment was to bring His Son back to life after Jesus sacrificed His life for us. After Jesus gave His life for us, and to us. God's judgment is life! Eternal, everlasting, abundant, Resurrection Life! That's what eating the fruit of the Spirit does for us. It (love, HE) fills us up. And when we are filled to overflowing then what is inside comes out. Automatically. Naturally!

I'm going to try to give a key to the kingdom tonight. And it comes from Philippians 1:9-11, "And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God." As simply as I can put it: How do we fill ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with? We fill ourselves with the fruit of the Spirit! How else do you get filled? By eating a good meal, right? And you are what you eat, right? So I guess it comes down to diet. It comes down to eating the right thing. The bread and the wine. The lamb and the living water. The fruit of the Spirit--which is love. The Tree of Life only has one fruit on it. You can't expect oranges from an apple tree. So if you want the fruit of the Spirit--again, love--you need to make sure you're on the right tree. The problem I see so often with the tree of knowledge of good and evil--the tree of death--is that we think we can pick and choose which fruit we get from that tree. "I'll eat the good, not the evil, and all will be well." But all we're really doing is swinging from one branch to the other on the same tree. And, like I said, you can't get two different kinds of fruit from one tree. You don't need to keep trying to turn over a new leaf. You need to understand that Jesus cursed the fig tree. And, if you notice, right after Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and realized they were naked, and were ashamed of their nakedness, they made themselves coverings of figs. I believe the fig tree IS the tree of knowledge of good and evil. So Jesus cursed that tree because it wasn't bearing any fruit. There was nothing "good" coming from it. "If you eat of that tree you will surely die." Not because God will punish you, but because it is the tree of death. What else could happen if you eat from the tree of death? So Jesus cursed it, and it withered and died. Jesus left us--and we see this in the book of Revelation--with only one tree. Only the Tree of Life remains. Only love remains. So we can get on the correct diet. We can fill ourselves with the fruit of the Spirit. Which, one more time, is love. To live is to love and to love is to live. Eating the fruit of the Spirit is how we fill ourselves with the love of God that we've already been filled with. That's how we let what's inside come out. That's how we experience the gift we've been given. Let God love you, and then love Him back... by loving each other. He's already filled you up. He said, "This is my body, eat. This is my blood, drink." He prepared a table for us in the presence of our enemies. All we have to do is sit down (rest) and enjoy the love feast that He IS. You are what you eat. What you feed is what will grow. If you want to be filled with love, you need to let love in. Guard your heart by keeping it open to love. Letting love in and out. Letting the love that's already IN come out! If you want to be filled, if you want your appetite (for love) to be satisfied, then you have to make sure you're eating the right fruit, from the right tree!

I heard somewhere, or read somewhere, that scientifically something isn't filled unless it is overflowing. It has to be filled all the way past the top in order to be considered full. That's powerful to me. Because if we're talking about being filled with the fulness of God, then we have to understand that that means filled to overflowing. What's inside us--the love of God inside us, which is the fulness of God... because God is love--filling us to the point that it (HE) comes out of us. And when something is that full, you don't have to try to get it to come out. It (HE, LOVE) just comes out naturally. Automatically. I always talk about receiving and releasing, right? Receiving by releasing. Releasing by receiving. Because you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. Knowing what we have is what allows us--equips and empowers us--to experience and enjoy what we have. By using it. By giving it away. By sharing it. You can't comprehend the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of God's love for you unless you put that love into action. Unless you love bigger, and stronger, and harder, and better than you ever thought you could. And the best part is: When you give what you've got, you don't diminish what you've got. There's a thing going around in schools these days about being a bucket filler instead of a bucket dipper. About not letting people dip out of your bucket. Basically, not letting what other people do affect you, and instead making sure that you're doing what you need to do to positively affect them. Being a thermostat instead of a thermometer, if I can say it that way. Setting the temperature instead of just taking the temperature. Because here's the deal: We ARE filled with God's love. Right now. Whether we know it or not, whether we understand it or not. That's not something that needs to happen. That's something that happened 2,000 years ago on an old rugged cross. Jesus drew all men into Himself and planted Himself in all men. That's a big part of what the cross was all about--getting rid of the perceived separation between God and man. But what I'm trying to say is: He filled us up. With Himself. His Spirit. His character. His name. His love! And since love is giving... the only way to experience God's love for us is by returning (or giving) God's love back to Him. And we do that by loving each other. It's one thing to be filled. And that's great. But to truly be FILLED means being filled to overflowing. Having so much love inside you that you couldn't keep it in if you tried. Because it's too big. Too good to keep to ourselves. God's love is what everybody needs. Really what everybody desires (again, whether they consciously know it or not). So if you know it... throw it. If you know you have what everybody wants and needs... don't be stingy with it. Let what's inside come out. By knowing and believing its in there. Test God's love by loving more than you ever thought you could. And you'll see that the more you give... the more you HAVE. It isn't diminished in the giving. It is increased. It grows and grows. Like a Holy Ghost wildfire that is out of control!

One of my very favorite passages in Scripture (and I use the word "very" to distinguish it from all of my other favorite passages... you know, almost all of them) is Ephesians 3:16-19, "That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 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 Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." There's so much there. And its all so good. I love it. But for this Rant series I want to key in on being filled with the fulness of God. And I know I Rant about this idea a lot. Filling ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with. But I truly believe that letting what's inside--the love of God--come out is the only way we can experience the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God. HIS life of love! The way we experience what's inside is by letting it out. Receiving it and releasing it. Receiving it BY releasing it. Releasing it by receiving it. We love Him (by loving each other) because He first loved us, right? Its His love inside us that equips and empowers us to love each other. The key, of course, is understanding the nature of love. Knowing the love of Christ--with a knowledge that passes knowledge. Not head knolwedge, but heart knowledge. The only thing the heart knows is love. Either wanting it, because you think you don't have it... or sharing it, because you know what you have and its too good to keep to yourself. And that's the key to this whole thing: We comprehend the breadth, length, depth, and height of God's love... WITH all saints! Its not something you can do by yourself. Because love is giving. And in order to give, you have to have someone to give to. It takes two to tango. Relationship. Connection with others. Its not good that man should be alone. We need each other, because we're all in this together. And love is the only thing that can bridge the gap between people. We're so good at building walls. Drawing lines in the sand. "Members only." You vs me. But that's all surface stuff. Looking for differences that don't really matter. And, as always, I'm not saying you just accept anything and everything. I'm saying you can major on the majors and minor on the minors. Being strengthened in the INNER man means the light IN me responds to the light IN you. Its what's inside that matters. And when you know (and believe) what's really in there--God's love--that's when, and how, we fill ourselves with what we've been filled with. Comprehending, or testing, the dimensions of God's love happens when we love higher, and deeper, and broader, and longer than we ever thought we could. Love isn't about getting. Love IS giving. The more you give what you've got, the more you experience what you've got. Shared experiences fill us up way more than individual experiences. Because shared experiences fill up others too. And that's what's important... loving God and loving people. Loving God BY loving people!

"Love is control. I'll die if I let go." Song lyrics. But also how a large majority of people seem to feel. "If you loved me you would do A, B, and C." We use "love" as manipulation. Control. "I'm doing this because I love you." Are you? Or are you trying to get what you want? That's not love. Ever. Love is NEVER about getting. Because love IS giving. If you're saying "I love you" to someone in order to get something from them... that's not love. If you're saying "I love you" to someone for ANY reason other than because you want them to know that you love them... its not love. Saying it so someone will say it back is not love. That's fear. And there is no fear in love. I think, in large part, the schism we face in our own minds is love on one side and fear on the other. We're literally afraid that we'll die if we let go of that control. If we can't make things be how we want them to be... we'll die. But here's the thing: People are who they are. People do what they do. And, realistically, people do what they do in order to get what they want. That's a very basic level understanding. And you can call it self preservation--a baby crying because he needs to eat, or needs a diaper, or whatever, and has no other way to communicate and no way to take care of himself. But there comes a time when we need to grow up and put away childish things. I know its so hard to see past ourselves. I talk to people at work and no matter what the subject is, it always comes back around to whatever they're thinking about... about themselves. But when you begin to understand, and experience, the love of God--letting Him love you and loving others with that same love... receiving and releasing the love of God--then we start to shift from being self-centered to being Christ-centered. Or people-centered. We start to see past ourselves. Esteem others higher than ourselves. See the needs in others, and meet those needs. And that's when life gets exciting. That's when things start to get real. Shared experiences are so much more powerful than individual experiences. When you see a great movie... that's cool. When you see a great movie with someone who appreciates it the way you do? That's epic. But we're afraid to put ourselves out there. We're pulled in two separate directions. "Head vs heart" some call it. Fear vs love. Trying to do what you want but ending up doing what you don't want. That constant battle and struggle. But, again, there is no fear in love. We don't have to battle that schism. We don't have to let our emotions get the best of us. We can simply fill ourselves to overflowing with the love that God has already filled us with. We CAN let go. Let go and let God, right? Let people be who they are, and love them for who they are, without letting them use and abuse us. The only way two people can really line up is if they both line up with Jesus--with love. Because then they will automatically line up with each other. The only a man can be stable in all his ways is to be singleminded. To let love control him, instead of trying to control others with "love." Love is not control. Love is giving. Giving everything you have and everything you are, simply because someone else needs it!