Rules and Boundaries Give Meaning to Sports and Life.
-Practice setting Boundaries for Your Life-
Matthew 7:21-27
It is the rules and boundaries that make sports an exciting game. Take away the rules and boundaries and you have no game. Even so in the Christian life God’s commandments are given for our own good. God gave us boundaries to keep us safe and remove confusion from our lives. Without rules and boundaries your life would be in constant chaos and all relationships would implode.
To play tennis you first need to know the rules and then play by the rules. You can go out on a tennis court and hit the ball but unless you know the rules of the game you’re just hitting a tennis ball with a tennis racquet. You’re not really playing tennis.
There are 4 points to a tennis game – Love is zero, the second point is 15, third point is 30 and the fourth point is 40. You have to win by two points so after 40 your have either duce, add in or add out.
To play the game of tennis you need to know where to stand to serve. You need to know where to serve and the difference between singles lines and doubles lines. In scoring you always call the servers score first.
God has set boundaries for your own good. When you know the boundaries and practice them you enjoy a fun filled life. When you know and practice boundaries you enjoy freedom and security.
I. Boundaries Give Freedom
Jesus said in John 8:31-32, “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
What is a boundary? One description of a boundary is a legal description of property. A legal description gives the beginning and end of our property. This past week we found the Title to this property in our safety deposit box at Wells Fargo Bank. In the title we have our legal description of our 3.2 acres of property owned by the Willow Vale Church. The legal description defines the property owned by the church. We are limited to build only on the land we own. To go beyond the boundaries would be to break the laws of the city and county.
God has given everyone the freedom to choose. You can choose to stay within His boundaries or go outside His boundaries. It is in that true freedom to choose that you find authentic love.
Freedom defines love.
Whether it is your relationship to God or to others if you take away freedom you take away love. It is only when you are free to chose and disagree that you are free to love. When you live without freedom you live in fear and love dies. You cannot actually love someone if you don’t feel you have a choice to love or not to love.
It is possible to live without boundaries. The devil will try to fool you into thinking that living without boundaries is the way to freedom.
You may say the Ten Commandments are not relevant today. Ted Turner, owner of CNN New Network, and TBS television said in a speech: “The Ten Commandments are out of date.” He offered to replace the Ten Commandments with his own version which he called the Ten Voluntary Initiatives.
Breaking outside of boundaries can be dangerous. One of the sad times in our children’s life happen in Florida when our little dog, “Brownie” got out our fenced back yard and ran out into the street and got run over by a car and died. The dog’s desire for freedom cost him his life.
#Can you imagine what would have happened if the captain of the Titanic had said to the people when he knew the ship was sinking, “Everything on board this ship is free. Take whatever you want it is free.” The people would have said, “We are not looking for free stuff, we are interested in staying alive.”
USA Today report: Research on the sinking of the Titanic has concluded that a series of slits, not a giant gash, sank the Titanic. The 900 foot cruise ship sank in 1912 on its first voyage, from England to New York. Fifteen hundred people died in the worst maritime disaster of the time. The most widely held theory is that the ship hit an iceberg, which opened a huge gash in the side of the liner. But an international team of divers and scientists used sound waves to probe through the wreckage, buried in mud two and a half miles deep in ocean water. Their discovery? The damage was surprisingly small. Instead of the huge gash, they found six relatively narrow slits across the six watertight holds. Small damage, below the water line and invisible to most, sank the Titanic.
It is often the little seeming insignificant things like small compromises, little white lies, and not telling the whole truth that erode away at a persons integrity and cause him to fall.
Just like the small damage that sank the Titanic. In the search for freedom a person may reject some of God’s Commandments but in seeking freedom the person will end up in bondage.
When a person’s life is threatened the important things in life become clear. A frightened woman on the Titanic found her place in the lifeboat that was about to be dropped into the raging North Atlantic. She thought suddenly of something she needed in light of death that was breathing down her neck. She asked for permission to go to her state room. She was granted just a moment or so, or they would have to leave without her. She ran across a deck that was already slanted at a dangerous angle. She ran through the gambling room that had money pushed aside in one corner ankle deep. She came to her stateroom and pushed aside her jewelry and reached above her bed and got three small oranges and found her way back to the lifeboat and got in.
Death had boarded the Titanic. One blast of its awful breath had transformed all values. Instantaneously priceless things became worthless. Worthless things had become priceless. And in that moment she preferred three small oranges to a crate of diamonds.
Boundaries give true freedom. Matthew 7 is the concluding chapter of the Sermon on the Mountain given by Jesus in Chapters 5-7. Jesus says in Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly. ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”
Jesus makes it clear that true freedom does not come by turning from the commandments and boundaries God has given. To say that you are free to do what you want to do with no regard for God’s Word is the way to bondage not the way to freedom.
One word gives the key to “freedom.” That one word is obedience. You can know about the commandments and boundaries God has given. You can brag on how much you know about spiritual truths, but the important thing to Jesus: “Are you walking the talk.”
Boundaries give freedom in relationships. In family relationships points of conflict and abuse often involve issues of control verses freedom. Rather than own up to our part in conflict we often play the blame game.
This lack of ownership and playing the blame game goes back to the beginning of the creation of Adam and Eve. God told the first couple they could eat of all the fruit of the garden, but not the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam chose to not obey God and ate of the tree. When God confronted Adam he denied ownership of his choice.
God asked: “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree I commanded you not to eat from? Adam answered: “The women you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it. Adam blamed his behavior on his wife.
Eve also had the same problem. When God confronted her about her part in the disobedience she responded: “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” In other words, If it weren’t for this serpent…….
Have you ever thought, “If it weren’t for my dad, or mom, or brother, or sister, or wife or husband, I would be a more loving, responsible person?” It’s not really my fault. A husband may say to his wife: “If you would only change, then I would be happy?” The fact is you can’t change others in your family you can change your behavior and attitude.
God designed the entire creation for freedom. We were not created to control each other we were created to love each other freely.
Paul wrote to the Galatians, 5:1 “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” Loving relations in your family are deeply rooted in freedom. Where there is extreme control and abuse there is not love. Boundaries are not something you set on another person. They are something you set on yourself.
Determine to set boundaries for your life. You can make a willful choice to obey the teachings of Jesus and the Ten Commandments that serve as the foundational pillars of society.
From time to time sit down with your family and discuss your boundaries and together make a commitment to keep each other accountable. When boundaries are broken natural consequences follow.
Don’t play the blame game. Own up to your part in family conflicts and misunderstandings. Confession is good for the soul and is the only way to reconciliation.
Boundaries give freedom. Boundaries also give security.
II. Boundaries Give Security
Matthew 7:24-27 Jesus gives a parable of two men, one wise and one foolish that built their house. One built on solid rock and the other built on sand.
The man who built on solid rock lived with security. Security is closely related to freedom. Each man had the freedom to build on whatever foundation he desired.
When you build your life on Jesus you have a rock solid foundation to construct the rest of your life. Only the person who builds his life on Christ is secure, all other ground is sinking sand. The life build on Christ is delivered from fear. The life grounded in Jesus has no need to fear the present or the future.
Romans 8:31b, 35, 37-39 gives the Christian assurance that his life is in God’s hand.
“If God is for us, who can be against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
God is true to his promises. His guarantee is 100%. God’s guarantee is better than you can get on any appliance or any other purchase.
Jesus said that the key to building on a solid foundation is what you do with His teachings. Obedience is the key to freedom and also to security.
The people listening to Jesus’ teaching, understood well the significance of building upon rock verses sand. But very few people in ancient Palestine wanted to live in the rocks. It meant grading the side of a slope and hauling up materials. Living in the hills made for more difficult travel. Water had to be toted and winter winds were colder. Most people followed the path of least resistance and built along the riverbeds. The scenery more pleasant, the water more conveniently located, and the house was sheltered from the cold winds of winter. And though flooding was a danger, most of the year the streams trickled pleasantly down the hillsides into the river nearby.
But on rare occasions, perhaps only once a generation, the 100-year flood would come. There would be a combination of an unusually heavy snow, a quick spring thaw, a torrential downpour. The result was a vicious flashflood which swept away everything in its path. Entire hamlets washed away. House after house would be gone.
Jesus is speaking of the absolute necessity of building your life on the right kind of foundation. Because the foundation is what holds everything up; it’s what holds everything together. No matter what quality of materials you use; no matter how carefully you join the frame together; no matter how skilled your craftsmen may be – if the foundation isn’t solid and stable, your “house” will lack integrity. Over time, cracks will develop in the walls. The windows will stick. The roof will leak. And sooner or later, the storms of life will bring it crashing down, and everything you’ve worked so hard to build will be lost.
#In recent years, the “Leaning Tower of Pisa” was finally reopened to the public, after having been closed for almost a dozen years. During that time, engineers completed a 25 million dollar renovation project designed to stabilize the tower. They removed 110 tons of dirt, and reduced its famous lean by about sixteen inches. Why was this necessary? Because the tower has been tilting further and further away from vertical for hundreds of years, to the point that the top of the 185-foot tower was seventeen feet further south than the bottom, and Italian authorities were concerned that if nothing was done, it would soon collapse. What was the problem? Bad design? Poor workmanship? An inferior grade of marble? No. The problem was what was underneath. The sandy soil on which the city of Pisa was built was just not stable enough to support a monument of this size. The tower had no firm foundation.
Both the wise man and the foolish man build a great house. Both worked hard. One was wise and the other foolish. Why? The wise man build on a solid foundation and the foolish man build on sand.
#For the past couple of years construction has been going on Gaudalope road near the airport -- In due time we will be able to have easier assess to the airport. I’m happy to leave the planning of how it will all work out to the road engineers. They know how all the pieces will come together.
Even so Jesus knows what is best for your life. You can trust Him to guide you. Day by day you can build your life on Jesus.
Edwin Markham has written an appropriate little story called the Builder. You may have heard the story at one time of another. A certain rich man wanted to help someone. He saw the squalor in which a certain poor carpenter lived with his large family. The rich man sent for the carpenter and placed in his hands the blueprint for a nice home. He ordered that the house be made beautifully and sturdy, and that the best materials be used, regardless of the price. He further explained that he was going on an extended trip and wanted the house completed when he returned.
Seeing the chance to make a huge profit, the carpenter skimped on materials, hired inexperienced workers at low wages, and covered mistakes with paint. When the rich man returned the carpenter handed him the keys to the house and told him that his instructions had been carried out to the letter. Good, replied the rich man as he returned the keys to him. For the house that you have been building is yours. You and your family are to live in it. In the years that followed, concluded Markham, the builder often regretted that he had cheated himself.
You and I are building houses with either good or shoddy material. We are building according to code or we are cutting corners. Jesus warned us to build our houses wisely, because the keys are going to be handed to us and we are going to have to live with what we have created. The apostle Paul admonished the Christians in Corinth: Let every man heed how he builds. The poet R. L. Sharp worded it this way:
Isn’t it strange that princes and Kings,
and clowns that caper in sawdust rings;
and common people like you and me,
are builders for eternity?
Each is given a list of rules;
A shapeless mass; a bag of tools.
And each must fashion, ere life is flown,
A stumbling block, or a stepping-stone.
Jesus gives you the choice where you will build your life. You can build on temporary sand. You can disregard His teachings. Or you can choose to build your life on Christ the solid rock. You build on a solid foundation by
-Obeying the teachings of Christ
-Paying attention to the building codes – regular pray,
Bible study, worship, small group fellowship and by
Making choices that honor and please the Lord.
