Feb 9, 2020
#forparker #5
God Gives Us Biblical Boundaries
By Louie Marsh, 2-2-2020
22 Do you not fear me? declares the LORD. Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot pass over it. Jeremiah 5:22 (ESV)
25 The LORD tears down the house of the proud but maintains the widow’s boundaries. Proverbs 15:25 (ESV)
Wait! Those Scriptures refer to physical boundaries!! Right! God created the entire universe and puts limits on everything! These physical things are examples of those limits! There’s a place for everything in God’s Order – and everything has its place – gravity is a good example.
23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. Proverbs 4:23 (NIV)
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Genesis 1:26 (ESV)
The Lord wants us to place the boundaries in our lives that will protect our heart – guard that precious center of our being!
He also wants us to rule! We were made to do so under His Guidance. If your life is totally out of control – you are violating God’s Will!
2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5 For each will have to bear his own load. Galatians 6:2-5 (ESV)
Burden = “excessive burden, that crushes you;
Load = old word for ship's cargo, your daily toil
We are responsible to: help others with things THEY CANNOT DO.
We are responsible for: dealing with the everyday STRESS OF LIFE.
3) DETERMINE Biblical boundaries.
15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15 (ESV)
10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. Ezra 7:10 (ESV)
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. James 1:22-25 (ESV)
4) I must ACTIVATE Biblical Boundaries in my life.
17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. James 2:17 (ESV)
11 Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. 12 I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. Psalm 86:11-12 (ESV)
Soul & heart = mind, will & emotion.
7 And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Genesis 2:7 (ASV)
Never used of whole person, but of something the person possesses, used in the sense of conscience – the Hebrew has no word for conscience.
It’s the Nexus – or the controller or the Flux Capacitor of the soul!
Whole = shalem: complete, safe, at peace
Transliteration: shalem
Alignment:
Bringing my mind, will & emotions into line behind setting & maintaining a Biblical Boundary.
a• lign• ment or a• line• ment (n)
TheraTogs ULTRA Posture and Torso Alignment System PTA
I LEARN the truth with my mind.
I CHOOSE to obey with my will,
I WARM UP to the truth over time.
5) WITHSTAND pressure to withdraw them.
2 I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. Galatians 2:2 (ESV)
24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” Matthew 7:24-27 (ESV)
11 Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. 12 Greet one another with a holy kiss. 2 Corinthians 13:11-12 (ESV)
6) INTERNALIZE my boundaries.
20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. Colossians 2:20-23 (ESV)
17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. 1 Corinthians 1:17 (ESV)
13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13 (ESV)