Let's take today to kind of slow down. Make sure we're staying in our lanes. Because that's vitally important. I believe we should do all we can do--that's what love is, giving everything you have and everything you are--but we can ONLY do what we can do. Let me say it another way, "For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached not unto you: for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:14). And if you read it in the Amplified Bible, "For we are not overstepping the limits of our province and stretching beyond our ability to reach, as though we had not (had no legitimate mission) to you, for we were [the very first] to come even as far as to you with the good news (the Gospel) of Christ," we can kind of glean that Paul was talking about having the "right" to preach at certain churches because they had been there before. Repeat business, so to speak. But I think we can also see the value in not overreaching. Not stretching ourselves beyond our measure. So the measure is the fulness. The measure of God--the measure of a man--is the love that he (He) gives. I hope we can all agree on that. But we need to get to the place where enough is enough. Doing what you can do... is all you can do. I think we wear ourselves slap out by trying to do too much. And that doesn't help anybody. We wear ourselves out, and we don't (can't) give our best to those we are trying to help. Ron Swanson on Parks and Rec said it like this (and pardon his French), "Don't half @$$ two things. Whole @$$ one thing." Don't try to do to much. Do what you're doing to the very best of your ability. Do it because its in your heart to do it. Do it as unto the Lord. Heartily. And don't get down on yourself for saying no. No is a valid response. There are some things you can, and should, do. But not everything. Its not your job to do it all. Its not your job to solve every problem. And the more you try, the more of a mess you oftentimes make. Trying to do too much almost ensures that nothing will get done. Or at least nothing will get done right. So while, one more time, love IS giving all you are and all you have... understand that you can't give MORE than that. Once you've given something all you've got its either enough... or its not. And either way, all you can do is all you can do. Sometimes you have to just, what's that old saying? "Let go and let God." Banging your head against the wall only ever results in you getting a headache. So work smarter, not harder. Pick your battles. Slow down. Stay in your lane. Don't overreach. Don't stretch yourself too thin. Its better to do one thing greatly than to do a lot of things poorly. You'll be better off for it, and, honestly, so will everybody else. People deserve our best, so we need to make sure we're not doing too much and can give them our best. The measure of faith has shown us the measure of love that we have. It is up to us to not stretch ourselves beyond that measure. To give what we've got... but only what we've got. To love in a way that is actually love. Not whatever we have left because we've been running around like chickens with our heads cut off. But maybe doing more BY doing less. Doing what we can do, and not worrying so much about what we can't!

The measure of God is the fulness of God. Now let me explain that a little bit, and let me link two memory verses together to do it. "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9). That's the first one. And it pretty much just lays it out there. In Jesus is ALL of God. All of love. God is love. Jesus is God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR body. So that goes right along with John 1:16, "And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." We don't need anything from God, because He has already given everything He has and everything He is to us. Grace for grace. From glory to glory. Not starting at the bottom and working our way down, as the world would have us believe, but starting at the top and staying there. Seated at the right hand of the Father. The power seat. Love is all powerful. And, as always, that doesn't mean MOST powerful. It means love has all of the power. Love IS all of the power. There is no power in this universe except love. Now, I'm not denying that we EMPOWER things in our lives that don't have any power. We give things power over us, if I can say it that way. But we don't need to. And we shouldn't. In Jesus dwells all of the fulness of God. And in us dwells Jesus. So in us dwells all the fulness of God. THE measure of faith has been given to us. We have all received His fulness. We have no lack because our God has not lack. He gave it all to us. Simply because He wanted us to have it. To experience it. To give it away. To share it. Yesterday I said the measure of a man is in how he treats people. Who you are, at the end of the day, is your relationships. Because relationships are built on a foundation of love... or they're not. And which way it goes defines who you are. If you use people in order to "get" "love" (and yes I put both of those in quotation marks on purpose, because love is never about getting, because love is giving)... that's a type of relationship. But its an abusive relationship and its no good. That's not love. That's manipulation and control. Again--abuse. But if you understand that you have been literally filled to overflowing with the gift of God--His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life--you won't ever have to worry about what you're "getting." Because you will know (and believe) that you have everything you will ever need. And in having it, you will be able to give it away. Receiving and releasing that gift. That life. That love. Fulness. Filled to overflowing. What's inside coming out. Naturally. We have received of His fulness, grace for grace. Freely we have received, freely we can give. Because we have something to give. You can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. That's why hurting people hurt people. That's also why loved people love people. The measure of faith is knowing that we are loved. The measure of a man is what He does with that knowledge--that love. And the measure of God is the fulness of His love exploding out of us, the people that He loves!

THE measure of faith. In capitals letters. That's what we've been given. In other words, everything we need is what we've been given. "You gotta have more faith!" How? Faith is the SUBSTANCE of things hoped for. The EVIDENCE of things not seen. If God doesn't give it to us, we don't have it. But now, in the good news column, watch this: John 3:34, "For whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him." Let's look at in the Message Bible, because I think its plainer. "The One that God sent speaks God's words. And don't think he rations out the Spirit in bits and pieces." So, to be clear, the One (capital letters again) is Jesus. Jesus speaks the Word of God because Jesus IS the Word of God. But the part that is germaine to our discussion is the part about Him not rationing out His Spirit. Love is giving. Giving everything you are and everything you have. That's what God gave us when He gave us His only begotten Son. He wanted the best for us so He gave the best to us. He gave it ALL to us. It was the fullness of the sacrifice Abraham was willing to make when God asked for Isaac. And if you read that story you'll see that a ram--a male lamb--was the ultimate sacrifice. God gave HIMSELF in that case too. In every case. He always gives Himself. Because He is love. And love is giving. God doesn't ration Himself out. He gave all of Himself to us on the cross. Laying His very life down. Giving His life for us, yes. But also giving His life TO us. So that we could have it. So that we could experience it as He lives it in us, and through us, and as us. And, listen, we DO learn and grow step by step. Here a little and there a little. Line upon line. Precept upon precept. But we start with the whole deal. We aren't changed from crap to glory when we look in the mirror and see Jesus. We are changed from glory to glory. We start at glory. We were created in the image of God. What the cross did was it CONFORMED us to the image we had already been CREATED in. It SHOWED us who we are. That's what that mirror does. It shows us what's inside. Shows us who we really are by showing us who Jesus really is. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR body. Let me say it like this, because this is really where I think I want to go for the rest of this Rant series: The measure of a man is who he is. What he does. How he treats people. And what you do flows from what you believe. God gave us THE mesaure of faith. He gave us all the faith we would ever need. By being faithful. By saying, "Have faith in God," and then doing what we needed Him to do. For us. In us. Through us. As us. He wanted us to be able to believe right, so (again) He gave us something to believe in. He gave us someONE to believe in. Himself. His love. And when we believe in Him, we've got it. His love in us coming out of us. That's what its all about. We believe we are loved, and then we can love. Receiving it and releasing it. The measure of a man is the love that he gives. And that comes from the faith that he has IN love. Loved people love people. We have it all. We can (and ought to) give it all!

There's a lot in this memory verse that I want to dive into. So let's get it out there and then we can examine it properly over the next few days. "For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith" (Romans 12:3). And, obviously, the part I want to get to is "the measure of faith" that has been dealt to every man. But I think there's so much more than that to touch on. Like I always say about not thinking more highly than we ought--I don't believe being humble means thinking less of yourself, I just believe it means thinking of yourself less. Thinking of others. The difference between being self-centered and Christ-centered is simply who, and what, you think about. Because being Christ-centered is being people-centered. "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others" (Philippians 2:4). And that doesn't mean you don't take care of business. It means be cognizant of what's going on around you. You are not the most important thing in the world. Love is. And love is giving. So don't bring someone else down to try to elevate yourself. That's selfish. That's not ok. Also, when you bring someone else up... the tide raises all ships. When you do for others you are, in a sense, helping yourself. Because we're all in this together. Think soberly. Understand that you DO matter... but so does everybody else. Don't puff yourself up. Edify and encourage others. Remember when Jesus spoke of His meat (His food, the thing that sustained Him) being Him doing the will of His Father? We are filled up when we give what we've got. When we give the LOVE that we've got. Because it comes out when we fill ourselves to overflowing with that which we've already been filled with. So don't worry about yourself so much. If you take care of me and I take care of you, neither one of us has to worry about ourselves. When we've got each other's backs, everybody is covered. So that's a few of the things I want to touch on here, but I don't want to run out of room before I get to my point. And my point is simply this: We all--every man (and woman)--have been given THE measure of faith. Faith is not a blind leap in the dark. Or the light. There's nothing blind about faith. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word (which is Jesus, which is love) of God. The Word that says, "I love you." Having faith in God is having faith in love. He gave us THE measure of faith by taking away the sin (unbelief) of the world. He gave us THE measure of faith by giving us something (someONE, Himself, LOVE) to believe in. The truth is what allows us to ignore, and disregard, the lie. I always hear people talking about needing more faith. Needing to pray harder. Or do more. Guys. Works and labor don't work. We have been GIVEN what we need. THE measure of faith. We don't believe in something we wish was true. We believe in love because we know it (HE) is true. Because He has shown us His love. Given it to us. Freely. And freely we have received, so freely we can give!

You guys know I'm kind of into the law of first mention--where, in the Bible, the first time a word is used it kind of sets the stage for the rest of the times it is used. Well, I also like to end at the beginning. So tonight, to end this Rant series, let's look at the first time the word "liberty" is used in the King James Bible. Leviticus 25:10, "And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family." Now, without getting too far into the context of everything that was going on at the time, I really just want to pull out the idea of what we're looking at here: Return. Restoration. Not something "new," as we saw in the last Rant series, but something new... to you. Something that has always been, but perhaps you thought YOU could never have. Something you thought you didn't deserve, or couldn't earn no matter how hard you tried. But let's look at Strong's first, since we're here. "Liberty" is number 1865 in Strong's Hebrew Concordance and it means, "to move rapidly; freedom; hence spotaneity of outflow, and so clear:- liberty, pure." And that, of course, takes me straight to Hebrews 4:11, "Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." "Labour" meaning "to use speed." Its the same idea. What we want--what our heart desires... love--is available to us. So hurry up and receive it. That's the good fight of faith; laying hold of the gift we've already been given. Receiving it and releasing it. Receiving it BY releasing it. Releasing it by receiving it. Filling ourselves to overflowing with what God has already filled us with. PROCLAIMING the liberty that has already been established. Because where the Spirit of the Lord is, there IS liberty. Where love is, there is freedom. Where love is, there is restoration. Reconciliation. A return to how things should be. How things really are, if we could only see it. See it, because the light of the world (the light of love) is shining. See it through the doves' eyes of the Spirit. See it as God sees it. And when God looks at us, He sees Jesus. When God looks at Jesus, He sees us. As He is, so are we in this world. There is no difference. No separation. Jesus said that He and His Father are One. He is the light of the world. We are the light of the world. Its the same light. The light of love! This liberty is here. It is inside us. It IS us. So we need to start letting what's inside come out. We need to proclaim that liberty. So that we can enjoy it, and so that those we come into contact can enjoy it. Life is for living. And the only life worth living is a life of service. So let's return to our first love--God loving us! Let's let Him love the hell out of us so that we can then love the hell out of each other. That's truly living. That's what freedom, or liberty, is all about. Free FROM sin. Yes. Jesus took away the sin of the world. But also free TO love. To be loved by God and to love Him back by loving each other with that same love!

My favorite part of our key verse for this Rant series is the end of it. Let's look at the whole deal again, "For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another" (Galatians 5:13). I've been thinking a lot about Acts 20:35, "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." Serving others. Giving rather than receiving. That's the key. That's the secret of life. You can try try try to get get get but that just leaves you empty. Because if you think you need to get it means you think you don't have. You believe you're in lack. And that's a horrible place to be in. Especially when its not true. We have no lack because our God has no lack. And He has given all things into our hands. I'm telling you, its such a radical, amazing shift when you go from trying to get to trying to give. Rather than using our liberty for an occasion to the flesh... we can use it to love. And that means serving one another. That means giving what we've got. And its more blessed to give than to receive. That's kind of the hardest part for me when I see someone who doesn't get it. Like... they think they're doing what's "right" by only taking care of themselves, at the expense of others. But that's such a horrible way to live. That's not truly living at all. To live is to love and to love is to live. I've said this before, but the things in my life that give me the most joy are when I do for others. Giving people what they need really fires me up. And I don't do it for the applause. I don't do it for a pat on the back. I don't do it for a thank you, even. I just do it because its in my heart to do it. I just give because I have something to give. Something WORTH giving. A life of service is the best life you can live. And, listen, I'm not talking about putting yourself in a bad position. I always try to hammer this home: I don't believe you should ever put yourself, or keep yourself, in a bad position. People WILL try to take advantage of you. So give what you've got, and let it either be enough... or not. And when its not enough, shrug your shoulders and move on. If you give something everything you've got, you've done your part. That's all you can do. All you NEED to do. We are commanded to love as we are loved (by Jesus), right? The "new" (true) commandment that has always been and will always be. And the way Jesus loved us was serving us. He literally got down on His hands and knees and washed His disciples' feet. He literally went to the cross and laid His life down for us. Gave us everything He had. Served us in every way. So that we could serve each other. Blessed to be a blessing. More blessed to give than to receive. Free FROM sin... but, almost more importantly, free TO love. And by loving, free to live. To experience His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of Love by letting Him live it in us, and through us, and as us. Serving one another by love. Through love. Because of love. In love. Its all about love!

When you're free, you can do anything. But, like my grandpa always says, "You can do anything... as long as you're willing to pay the consequences." And, listen, that doesn't necessarily mean something bad. There are good consequences out there too. It all depends on how you use your freedom. It depends on understanding what you are free FROM, as well as what you are free TO. As simply as I can put it, we are free FROM sin. We are free TO love. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Where LOVE is, there is freedom. Sin is bondage. I wrote a whole book about being freed from the bondage of unbelief. Because when you don't believe right, you can't act right. What you do flows from what you believe. That's why behavior modification doesn't work. Not in the long term. Not really. But if you get your beliefs right... everything else will flow. And its not supposed to always be a struggle either. Jesus spoke about the river of living water FLOWING out of our bellies, or our hearts, or our innermost being. Who we really are on the inside coming out as we begin to know and believe that we are who God says we are. We are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. We are unconditionally loved by our heavenly Father. Unconditionally. No matter what. Because love is not about what you do. Its about who you are. God is love. As He is, so we are in this world. We are loved... and that means we are love! But if you don't know who you are, you'll always try to be someone you're not. That's not freedom. Trying to fit into a box, or conform to the world--what you think you're "supposed" to be--will never work. Its too much work, and you can't make it work. At the end of the day we are who we are. That's why its so frustrating so much of the time when we're trying to deny our true nature. Our "new" nature. The love nature. We've gotten so used to this idea of taking care of ourselves at all costs that we've become slaves to that selfish idea. Going from trying to get, get, get to being able to give what you've got is a big change. Its radical. A complete 180. From bondage to freedom. That's part of what the 10 Commandments and the wilderness wandering of the people of Israel was all about. God brought them out of some 400 years of slavery... and then had to teach them how to be free. And, come on, mistakes were made. They built a golden calf, etc. Because whn you CAN do anything, you'll probably end up trying some things. Again--its important to count the cost, because all actions have consequences. But maturity is a journey. Sometimes you need to go around the mountain a few times, so to speak, before you can find the right path. That's ok. Freedom, liberty, grace, mercy... love!--allows us to learn and grow. To figure out what it means to be free, and to use our freedom the best way possible. Not as an excuse for the flesh, but as an opportunity to love. Not trying to get anything... but as an opportunity to give what we've got. We CAN do anything. But we SHOULD only do what's in our hearts to do.

When you understand freedom, true freedom, you have to understand that there ARE some people out there who will abuse it. And that's ok. You can't stop people from doing what they're going to do. Love is never about manipulation or control. People are going to be who they believe they are, and they're going to act accordingly. The best you can do is show them who they really are by showing them who YOU really are. By loving them no matter what. And that, as I hope we started to see yesterday, is what liberty is really all about. Its freedom FROM sin, yes. But its also freedom TO love. The freedom to love people no matter what. The freedom to let people be who they are, and do what they do, and love them anyway. And, look, I'm not talking about enabling people. You can't stop someone from drinking, for example. But you don't have to go to the bar with them. Or give them money for booze. But if they call you up, drunk as a skunk, because they need a ride and don't want to drive... You can always be kind. You can always help people--if it is really helping. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. Where the Spirit of the Lord is... there is love. Love is what frees us from the bondage of sin. So don't use your freedom as an excuse TO sin. Use it as an opportunity to experience this abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love that we've been given. And we experience that life--Jesus' life--by letting Jesus live it in us, and through us, and as us. We experience what we've got by giving it away. By sharing it. What we have inside is exactly what everybody needs. Because what we have inside... is love. The desire of our hearts--everybody's heart--is love. That's the only thing the heart cares about. And when you think you don't have love, the only thing you can possibly care about is getting it. Its that important. But when you know you have love, when you know you are loved, when you know you are LOVE, the only thing that matters is sharing that love. Living from the inside out. Giving what you've got. Simply because it is what everybody else needs. It is more blessed to give than to receive. I've never felt joy in my life like when I made someone else's day. When I could meet a need that I saw in them. I can't tell you how powerful it is when you think something is impossible--its never gonna happen--and then someone steps in and makes it happen. That's a miracle. YOU are a miracle. And you don't have to be afraid to effect someone like that. There is no fear in love. Because perfect love casts out all fear. We don't have to be afraid to give what we've got. Where the Spirit of the Lord (LOVE) is, there is liberty. We are free to give what we've got, knowing that we are connected to the unlimited source. The more you love people, the more love you have. Its not about getting--because we already have it, God already gave it to us--its about giving. Receiving and releasing the love of God. Receiving it by releasing it. Releasing it by receiving it. Filling ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with by filling each other up with it!

I quote this memory quite a bit, so I thought this would be a good time and place to really dig into it. Give it a few days. Some time to breathe. Ready? Let's go. "Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Corinthians 3:17). And just so we're totally and completely on the same page about what we're talking about, "Liberty" is number 1657 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, "freedom (legitimate or licentious, chiefly moral or ceremonial)." There it is. Freedom. And as often as we might hear this in religious circles, freedom (or grace) does NOT mean you have a license to sin. I heard one preacher say it like this, "People have been sinning without license for a long time." Its not freedom TO sin, is what I'm trying to say. Its freedom FROM sin. Let's be real. Sin is bondage. Look at Galatians 5:1, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." Liberty is freedom FROM bondage. It is freedom FROM sin. And freedom TO love. I think Galatians 5:13 is actually my key verse for this Rant series, so let's read it. "For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another." And its like this: All things are lawful, but not all things are expedient. You CAN do anything, but that doesn't mean you SHOULD. I'm over 21, that means I can legally drink. But it doesn't mean I legally HAVE to drink. And I choose not to. Because I've never found that anything good comes from it. Not a judgment, or a condemnation of anyone, just a personal choice. Earned through hard experience, by the way. Sometimes you have to do things wrong before you can do them right. You can't learn from your mistakes if you never make any (or if you're unable to admit that you make any). So while I'm well within my rights to pick up that bottle... I've made the decision that there's nothing in it for me. Rather than using my liberty, my freedom, as an occasion to the flesh... I'm choosing to serve others. By love. I'm choosing to use my freedom for others, not myself. The difference between being self-centered and being Christ-cented (or people-centered). Doing things FOR people because I'm free FROM doing things FOR myself. And I'm not saying you shouldn't take care of yourself, physically, and mentally, and emotionally. I'm saying, if I look after you and you look after me, neither one of us will have to worry about ourselves. And I know its hard to see past yourself sometimes, but it really is the only way to live this abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God. This life of love. We live it by letting Jesus live it in us, and through us, and as us. And, again, that's not bondage. That's simply LOVE flowing in us, and through us, and as us. Doing things because they are in your heart to do them. Letting love guide the way. Its not freedom FROM the straight and narrow path that leads to life, its freedom TO walk that more excellent way in faith! Its freedom to do whatever we want, and the faith to understand that what we really want is to love. To be loved, and to love!

I hope we're starting to see that we shouldn't do things just to do them. Change just for change's sake isn't necessarily a good thing. We don't always have to be seeking something new. Its more important, and better in every way, to understand what the thing is that will last. You can call it "old" with a negative connotation if you want, but the heart wants what it wants. And the only thing the heart wants... is love. I'm convinced that we (already, now, without even realizing it) do everything we do because of love. Either we think we don't have love and we do everything we do in order to try to get it... or we know that we we are loved and we do everything we do to share that love. The difference between getting and giving. And, by the way, love is never about getting. Because love IS giving. This isn't a new Word. This is the Word that was first spoken in the beginning, when the light began to shine and the darkness was made to flee. God's love didn't "come." It was always there. Hidden, perhaps, deep down inside, but always there. The Spirit of God hovered over the water even when the heaven and earth (the mind and the body... you) were dark and void and without form. We never needed God to start loving us. As if He didn't, but then did. He always has and always will love us. No matter what. What we needed was the ability to receive His love. The ability to know and believe that He does, in fact and in truth, love us. And that comes from the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Truth that leads and guides us into all truth. The truth that God is love and He loves you. David crying out for a new heart and an upright spirit. God never needed a new plan. His plan was always Jesus. Love. The end spoken from the beginning. Love is the Alpha and Omega. The beginning and the end. And everything in between. This isn't a new word... this is THE Word. The only Word that God has ever needed. And it seems new because it has been hidden and it is now being revealed. But, again, this isn't change for change's sake. This isn't "new is always better." This is God revealing things to be in Divine Order. This is us returning to our first love--the truth that we love because He first loved us. Our first love is God first loving us. It all flows from Him. All good gifts come down from the Father of light, right? And He is OUR Father, so WE are that light! Jesus described Himself, and us, as the light of the world. Its the same light. The light of love. The light that shines into the darkness and reveals that "old" commandment. When Jesus spoke of the NEW commandment, I believe He was telling us HOW to obey, not what to obey. Love one another... as Jesus has loved you. Receive and release the gift you've been given. Let God love you, and love Him back by loving people. Don't throw things out just because they've been around for a while. Tried and true. Made to last. And, listen, some things DON'T fit. Some things DO need to go. But the Word spoken from the beginning... the Word that is Jesus, that is love... is timeless. Priceless. It is all we have ever needed. And it is what we have always had!