The Butterfly Effect

1. WE, LIKE THE CATERPILLAR BEGAN AS SOMETHING LESS THAN DESIRABLE

• II Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

• The caterpillar begins it’s life as something other than what it will end as

• What are the conditions of the transformation?

a. It is born to change

b. It has an internal instinct to feed and drink until the time of transformation takes place

c. Due to natural direction, the caterpillar realizes a need to build a place of refuge to allow the transformation to take place

• We too are born to change

• Unlike the caterpillar, we have the option to change

• Every human being has an internal instinct to do better or transform our life into something beautiful

• Often times people fail to put God into the equation which always results in failure

• Like the caterpillar, God would have us all to ‘change’

• II Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

• As the caterpillar is born and bound for beauty, God has reserved for us the beauty of transformation

• We all start out the same:

a. Isaiah 64:6 “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”

b. Isaiah 64:8 “But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.”

• We begin equal, and we end equal, the only difference is the degree to which we allow God to use us

2. THE COCOON STAGE

• After a short life as a fuzzy worm, the caterpillar realizes the need to secure itself inside a protected environment to allow the transformation to happen

• God convicts the sinner to repentance in much the same way:

a. II Timothy 1:9 “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,”

• We have been called for the purpose of ‘becoming a new creature’

• Romans 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

• The church is symbolic of the cocoon;

a. Hebrews 10:25 “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more as ye see the day approaching.”

• Colossians 2:6-7 “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:” “Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.”

• Take notice that the transformation comes only after coming to the ‘place of protection’ [Not before]

• We cannot expect God to be able to work in our lives until we become fully dependent upon him; seeking his will and protection

• First comes salvation, then sanctification

a. Sanctify: “To cleanse, purify, or make holy”

• Romans 10:17 “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

• We are transformed through:

a. Hearing (Romans 10:17)

b. Study (II Timothy 2:15)

c. Prayer (James 5:16)

d. Seeking (Mt. 7:7; Mk. 11:9)

3. THE END RESULT

• “The motor home has allowed us to put all the conveniences of home on wheels. A camper no longer needs to contend with sleeping in a sleeping bag, cooking over a fire, or hauling water from a stream. Now he can park a fully equipped home on a cement slab in the midst of a few pine trees and hook up to a water line, a sewer line and electricity. One motor home I saw recently had a satellite dish attached on top. No more bother with dirt, no more smoke from the fire, no more drudgery of walking to the stream. Now it is possible to go camping and never have to go outside. We buy a motor home with the hope of seeing new places, of getting out into the world. Yet we deck it out with the same furnishings as in our living room. Thus nothing really changes. We may drive to a new place, set ourselves in new surrounding, but the newness goes unnoticed, for we’ve only carried along our old setting.”