Everything You Do Matters
The Butterfly Effect
The law of cause and effect is no mystery. The butterfly effect was considered by some scientists years ago, with the idea that when a butterfly flaps it’s wings, the waves created in the air as those flaps traveled around the earth could eventually become a tsunami on the other side of the world. Like when you throw a rock in the water, and the ripples wash out.
Romans 13:8-10 “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
A. As we talk about the Butterfly effect, please keep in your minds the fact that this works spiritually as well!
B. You have influence on others. Your family, friends, co-workers, fellow students, you are being some kind of influence, is it for good or for bad?
C. We owe it to each other to love. And to share our love one with the other!
1 John 3:16-20
By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? 18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. 19 And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. 20 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.
A. The best way to share love? The Gospel!!! In deed and truth! 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, the death, burial and resurrection of Christ!
Ephesians 4:11-16
“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”
A. By what every joint supplies.
B. It is by what you give that God will use to grow the church. It is up to you, and as we noticed earlier we owe each other our love.
C. Do you really believe that God can use you in small ways to change the world?
D. Whatever your talent, whatever your ability, God can use you, He is here reaching out to you, waiting for you to respond. What small “Butterfly Effect” could you be a part of today? Just by doing what come naturally to you?
I. On Friday, April 2, 2004 ABC News honored a man who at that time was 91 years old. The news program was running a regular segment called “Person of the week.”
A. Usually as the one honoree’s accomplishments are listed, most folks have figured
out who it is. This time most people were puzzled!
B. In the 1940’s Norman Borlaug hybridized high yield, disease resistant corn and wheat for
arid climates!!
C. From the dust bowl of western Africa, to our own desert southwest. From South and Central America to the plains of Siberia and Europe and Asia.
D. Borlaug’s seed product flourished and regenerated where no seed had ever thrived before! He flapped his butterfly wings, just doing what he did.
E. Through the years it has been calculated that Norman Borlaug’s work saved from famine more than two billion lives! More than TWO BILLION!!!
II. But there may be a mistake! I believe the anchorman should have named Henry Wallace as person of the week.
A. Who’s Henry Wallace??? Vice President under Franklin Roosevelt. Not Truman, Wallace had been the Secretary of Agriculture, and was Roosevelt’s 2nd V.P. From 1941-1945.
B. Henry Wallace believed in the power of plants and used the power of his office to create an experiment station in Mexico whose sole purpose was to hybridize corn and wheat for arid climates.
C. And He hired a young Norman Borlaug to run it. Based on his work Norman Borlaug won the Nobel Prize, and the Presidential medal of freedom! BUT CONSIDERING THE CONNECTION…
D. It was really Henry Wallace who should be honored as the person of the week, and the one who saved over 2 billion people!
E. Wallace flapped his butterfly wings and pushed scientists to make this great discovery!
III. Or was it George Washington Carver? Remember GWC?
A. Most people remember the great accomplishments of Carver with the peanut, but what most don’t know is that when Carver was 19 years old and a student at Iowa State University, he had a Dairy Sciences professor who, on Saturday and Sunday would allow his SIX year old boy to go on botanical expeditions with the brilliant student!
B. It was George Washington Carver who took that boy and instilled in him a love for plants and a vision for what plants could do for humanity!
C. It was George Washington Carver who pointed SIX year old Henry Wallace’s life in a specific direction – long before he ever became Vice President of the United States.
D. Of all the accomplishments of the great scientist, spending afternoons with a six year old was the one that had the greatest effect on all of humanity!
E. GWC flapped his butterfly wings, he was just doing what he loved to do, he was just using his God-given talents, and he had a part in saving billions of people!
F. So maybe it should have been George Washington Carver - Person of the Week!
IV. Or could it be the farmer from Diamond, Missouri!
A. Moses and his wife Susan lived in a slave state, but they didn’t believe in slavery. This was a problem for psychopaths like Quantrill’s Raiders who terrorized the area by destroying property and killing.
B. One cold January night, Quantrill’s raiders attacked Moses’ farm. They stole his cattle, burned his barn, shot several people, and dragged off a woman named Mary Washington, who refused to let go of her infant son George.
C. Mary Washington was Susan Carver’s best friend, and Moses quickly worked to send word throughout the area and secured a meeting with the bandits.
D. He rode several hours north, and traded his last horse for what the raider’s through to him in a dirty burlap sack.
E. Moses caught the sack, took out the little baby, and held him next to his skin, and walked that baby out!
F. Made promises to him, to educate him, and to give him his name.
G. So when you think about it, Moses Carver should be the person of the week! Or could it be…
V. Is there an end to this story? We could do this all day!
A. Exactly who was it that saved the two billion lives? How far back would we have to go?
How many lives would we need to examine to determine who it really was whose action
saved 2 billion people… a number that continues to increase every minute?
B. And how far FORWARD would we have to go in YOUR LIFE to show the difference you
make?
C. There are generations yet unborn whose very lives will be shifted by the moves you make and the actions you take today, and tomorrow, and the next day, and the next.
EVERY SINGLE THING YOU DO MATTERS!!!
God had this effect in mind when He commanded us in Deuteronomy 6…
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
A. We all must make it a priority to spend time with the children, and give them a vision for the future. A spiritual vision.
B. But also our friends at school, and at work. Showing not only our dedication to God and His way, but teaching them the things that God wants them to know. BEING A FRIEND.
C. Flap your butterfly wings and cause an effect today! Be a friend as Jesus defined the relationship.
VI. Hear Romans 10:17
Believe Romans 10:10
Repent Acts 3:19
Confess Matthew 10:32
Be Baptized Acts 2:38
Live Faithfully Revelation 2:10
Acknowledgement to Andy Andrews, mostly taken from his books: The Lost Choice, The Travelers Gift, and The Noticer
