No Limits…No Boundaries
Zec 2:1 And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand! Zec 2:2 Then I said, "Where are you going?" And he said to me, "To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length." 3 And behold, the angel who talked with me came forward, and another angel came forward to meet him 4 and said to him, "Run, say to that young man, ’Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and livestock in it. 5 And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the LORD, and I will be the glory in her midst."
Ask a man in a wheelchair to climb three flights of stairs and he will say, “I can’t do that”
• Ask a blind woman to walk alone through your house and she will say, “I can’t do that”
• Ask a teenage boy without legs to go and play football and he will say, “I can’t do that”
• Ask a teenage girl without the ability to hear to go and listen to your CD collection and ‘m I sure she will say, “I can’t do that”
Why can’t these people perform the tasks you are asking them to perform? It’s because they are limited in what they can do. I didn’t say they were useless by no means, but they are limited in certain areas of what abilities they do have. You see while each of us is limited in some form or another because we are human….there are absolutely no limits to what God can do.
But yet and still we are constantly trying to figure out why things are not going our way. We want answers as to why we are still struggling. Why are we still not out of the woods?
Why do we continue to limit God…why do we run out and measure what God can do and what He can’t do in our lives???? I’m glad you asked… I feel we put limits on God because we feel we are unworthy or to guilty or not good enough, we don’t know enough, we’re too fearful and don’t understand the power of God and His abilities.
In the 1st chapter of Zechariah we have the promise illustrated and confirmed by God. The vision in the 1st chapter of Zechariah prophesies the rebuilding of the temple in the city of Jerusalem in the days of Zechariah. By the time we get to our text in chapter 2 Zechariah has already had visions about rebuilding Jerusalem. His city, Jerusalem, was in ruins. He was in the midst of lots of destruction and Zechariah sees a man with a measuring line. Zechariah asked the man with the measuring line, “Where are you going? And he said, ‘To measure Jerusalem, to see how wide it is and how long it is.” Then an angel who was speaking to Zechariah was told, by another angel, to tell Zechariah…Jerusalem will be inhabited without walls because of the multitude of men and cattle within it. The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall increase, and multiply so that it shall extend itself far beyond the present dimensions.
You see the purpose of the walls in a city were to defend it. They also kept the inhabitants confined within the boundaries of the walls. But Jerusalem was to be built with out walls. It was to be extended freely with no walls at all, and yet it would be as safe as if it had the strongest walls. When Zechariah saw this vision Jerusalem had no walls about it. “Now the Lord will be to her a wall of fire.” the LORD declares, and I will be the glory in her midst." The Lord will make a hedge around Jerusalem as He did Job.
God speaks to His people and asserts that He will be a defense that will keep all their enemies at bay to allow for a large scale expansion of the city. You see there would have been Jews present building the Temple at this time; who would have ‘rightly’ reasoned that there was no point constructing a Temple in a city that was to be left defenseless - but the thrust of the prophecy is that, even though their defenses are meager when looked upon and considered, they are reckoning without the spiritual presence of God who will be far more than any physical walls could ever be.
Defense walls serve no purpose when God sets Himself as a Divine shield around them. Strong walls had the tendency to cause the constructors to be confident in the strength and powers of their own building work… however trust in God undermines self-reliance, this would allow the nation to throw itself onto the mercy of God and spark faith in His promises.
You see our problem is we frequently build walls in our own lives and in doing so…we limit God. We limit God’s ability to protect, provide and prevail for us. You see Saints God protects without counting the cost; He provides abundantly to those who ask Him, we often put up barriers and prevent God from prevailing in our situations and circumstances. To be limited – is to be at the point, edge or line beyond which something cannot or may not proceed.
Limits are boundaries surrounding a specific area.
Zechariah sees a man who has a measuring line in his hand. That right there is our problem today.
We have our own measuring lines that we are living by.
We are okay with things working out:
• As long as they work out the way we want them to.
• As long as they don’t cross our “measuring line”
• As long as they keep it within our boundaries of comfort
When Jesus came to His home town, He did not do many great works there because people measured Him to what they knew about Him from the past, they did not understand who He had become, so He could do very little there. Yet when Jesus went to the next town all were healed. Why? Jesus was not measured but accepted by them. To receive Gods gifts we must believe in Him without measure, we must understand He does not want to see us sick or in pain nor does He want us to be poor in wealth or spirit.
God gives abundantly!
If we are going to excel for Christ…
If this church is going to do everything that God wants…
If we are going to find ourselves and succeed…
If we are going to better the world around us…
We have to let go of our measuring sticks.!!!
When we have measuring sticks or lines – we are limiting God and what we will allow Him to do for us and through us.
We’ve all prayed the prayer of Jabez: Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain….
When we start praying for God to enlarge our territory we have to come out of our comfort zones. You see my brothers and sisters our comfort zones are the limits we place on God to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that we could ever imagine.
Why do we search in empty places and then when we don’t find Jesus give up and settle for what we understand, why do we limit God’s gifts, why do we limit Him, why do we trust so little in Him for what we need and want. Why do we build walls when God says that He will be our hedge, why don’t we believe without measure that the Lord will provide all of our needs.
The problem is we will not accept God’s gifts upon offer. We often suffer fear, “what if it doesn’t happen, my faith will be shot down or I am not sure if it can happen for me with all that I have done wrong.” We measure all manor of things against Gods gifts, we measure ourselves, do we measure up to the next person…or we may even say I am not as good as him/her. What we measure and how we measure things is our down fall, we just need to know God is our REFUGE. He loves us without measure so why do we measure all things in Him, why do we measure ourselves.
We need to stop getting out our string line our tape measure and just except and believe God is God; all things are possible in Him, all things!!!
There are: No walls, There are: No blockades, No barricades, No screens, No enclosures, No barriers, and No dividers…There are No limits… No boundaries.!!!!!!!
Sickness regardless of how extreme can be healed, our family can mend regardless of how bad the problems are, our direction in God can change to see and hear Him to abide in Him. All things can happen, because He is God!!! He is our Father and He cares for us!!!
We who are sinful know how to give good things to our loved ones, how much more will God give to us. Trust in the Lord, trust in Him to be there for you, and do not set your measuring tape against anything you ask of the Lord. We need to relax in the Lord, love Him and let Him work for us as He wants to. We really need to understand Faith! Not a faith of the flesh, but the faith that comes from God, because God has more faith in us than we have in Him.
If He did not have faith in us He would not have let His Son die for us. So God has more faith than we do, His faith is in us, you and I. So then why don’t we put our faith in Him, we need to know the spiritual things of God, and not just know them but live them. We should abide in the things of God, not in the things of man. If we love Him we would abide in His commands, we would follow His teachings, read the Gospels, know the Gospels and make the changes we need to make in our lives in order to please God and commit to doing what is required by us in Him. We would remove the limits!
After careful exegetical study of this text I was able to extract 3 characteristics that we must have if we are to live without measure, if we are to bring down the walls and remove the limits in our lives.
The 1st characteristic we must have is responsibility: When God enlarges the realms of our influence; he will also enlarge our realm of responsibility. By enlarging our arena of responsibility, He will expand our span of concern and care. Responsibility compels us to be accountable for who we are, what we have and what we do. This responsibility as it relates to us Christians suggests that we fulfill our duty, no matter what obstacles we may encounter, and that we shoulder even more responsibility when others hold back. Often times, we are tempted to not become involved, either with our talents or gifts, because we know others are "not doing their fair share". The temptation to withdraw, to be possessive of our gifts, is great at times such as these, and we can either give in to that temptation, or take seriously our Father’s call to full discipleship with Jesus and shoulder even more of the burden. We must, as Christians, not be tempted to ignore our responsibility to share our gifts with others.
The 2nd characteristic we must have if we are to remove the limits is maturity: God is requiring a greater maturity from us than ever before. And the more God increases our influence, the more responsibility we will face, the more maturity we will need. The level of responsibility we as Christians are willing to accept comes with maturity, the maturing of how we view ourselves in relationship to God and others. As we grow in our relationship with God, we tend to move from a focus on self to God and to others. This maturity allows us to move beyond our families and us to caring for others, especially the marginalized and most fragile of our society. We must, as mature Christians, share our gifts in caring for the poor, the sick, and the aging. Peter encouraged Jesus’ followers to be like newborn babies, "long for the pure milk of the Word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord"
(I Peter 2:2-3)
3rdly we must have self-sacrifice selflessness will be crucial to your life… Jesus said in Luke 9:23, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me”. To deny means to refuse. Self is best defined as an individual’s own welfare, interests, advancement and agenda Selflessness is a life where “self” has been removed from our acquaintance. The selfless life means that “self” has been crucified and therefore has no say in what should be done. So, we must refuse to fulfill our own personal agenda, our own interests, even consider our own welfare. We also must refuse to manipulate the things and the people around us to our own advantage. We can no longer be consumed with fulfilling our own goals.
Jesus desires to reveal to us the Father’s will. His entire ministry was based on the premise that He had come to this earth for no other reason than doing the will of the Father. He expects nothing less from us.
So when we pray for God to enlarge our territory, we are asking God to increase our ability to live. We’re asking God…increase my responsibility…increase my maturity…increase my self-sacrifice!!! You’re asking God to meet you right where you are in your present condition, your asking God to trust you to do His will and to have His way!
God is saying “I’m not a man I can not lie I know the plans I have for your life…I am asking you to dream to again…believe again…and take the limits off me. No I’m not a man I can not lie I the know the plans I have for you their my design…so I’m asking you just to hope again and trust again and take the limits off of me.
The Lord is saying Take the limits off release me to accomplish what I promised you…release me.”
No…Limits….No….Boundaries…I see increase all around me…stretch forth…break forth…release me…enlarge my territory.
God is saying “Take the Limits Off your marriage…Take the Limits off your children…Take the Limits Off your career…Take the Limits Off your ministry…Take the Limits Off your Finances…Take the Limits off your education…Take the Limits off your relationships…Take the Limits off your church…Take the Limits off your Pastor…Take the Limits Off…Take the Limits Off.”
I can take it one step further…Late one Friday evening…through the thorns…through the beatings…I can hear Jesus saying No limits…through the nails…I can hear Jesus saying No limits…From the Hill to the grave…Can’t you hear Jesus saying No limits. Can you hear His voice in the distance…the Lamb that was slain for your iniquities for your sins can you hear Him saying No limits…No boundaries!!!!
