Scripture 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 “It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.”
“Many of the things that you love to do God hates.”
Today we are going to talk about moral boundaries. (Explain “The Seven Checkpoints”)
First what is a boundary? It is a predetermined set of restrictions. Every arena of life has them. Relationship thrives because there is some form, no matter how loose, of boundaries or restrictions. Boundaries are something that should not change. They should be universal.
For example, what happens if you are spending a nice spring weekend with your kids shooting baskets on their 8’ rim? Then you come in for your league game at the Y and the basket is suddenly 10’. What does that do to your shot? It throws it off. Because your mind, eye and body were conditioned to throw the ball in basket that was 8’ high.
No matter how important or trivial a particular boundary may be it was established for a reason. Take stop signs for instance. What is the central purpose for a stop sign? To make you stop so that you and others may be safe. (Talk about stop sign at corner of Independence and Turtleback).
Let’s face it no one likes to be told what they are supposed to do. Your children don’t, your teenagers don’t and neither do you. No one likes to be told they can only go so far. Why? Because we think we know better. We think we are more mature or more sophisticated and strong enough to not let that boundary apply to us. But so what. Who cares what you think. Boundaries are never established on an individual basis. A boundary is always about something else. Honestly, the stop sign does not have a disclaimer, “only if you are a student driver…or…only if there is a police officer watching…or…only if you could get hurt…” It says, “STOP!”
Look what the Bible says about people who think they are smart enough or that a particular rules don’t apply to them. Proverbs 28:26, “He who trusts in himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is kept safe.”
Ephesians 5:15-20, “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Paul is saying, “be careful how you live…” When the scriptures say something such as, “do not get drunk…” what does that mean? (don’t get drunk) It is a command. It is black and white. Let me ask you a question, the last time you had one too many and crossed that line, whether socially or not, did you repent? Or, did you not think it was a big deal? A lot of times we have a “no harm, no foul” mentality with sin. If there is no harm then I haven’t sinned, therefore, I don’t need to repent, because there is nothing to repent from.
Now look what Psalm 36:2 says, “For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin.” The Psalmist says, you have filled yourself with so many lies, you don’t even recognize, let alone hate the sin in your life, or even recognize you have overstepped God’s moral boundaries. What happens when we don’t recognize sin in our lives? (We don’t repent of it)
So many times we fall into this mindset of convincing ourselves we are good enough with the lifestyle we are living. In fact we even bring God into the discussion, we say things like, “Just because I do this or that doesn’t mean God will love me any less.” WOW!!! You got me there.
However what is truth? Notice who the “he” is in this Psalm, it is the wicked. When you flatter yourself with “it’s okay, God still loves me.” You are behaving just like the wicked. Does that make you angry? Does that make you uncomfortable? Good, because God likes that kind of emotion. He hates wickedness and he wants you to hate it as well.
We like most parents teach Esther not to use the word ‘hate’. However, when I searched the word hate I discovered 128 verses containing the word hate. Here are a few in the context of moral boundaries.
Amos 5:15
Hate evil, love good…
Psalm 97:10
Let those who love the LORD hate evil…
Psalm 119:104
I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path.
Psalm 139:21
Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD…
Proverbs 8:13
To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.
Romans 12:9
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
You see no one really questions God’s love them. But one must call into question your love. Your love for God. You see too many times we display an attitude of “What is the bare minimum I have to do and still be saved?” When the real attitude should be, “God what all can I do for you?”
As I was searching the scriptures to see what God has to say about moral boundaries, I discovered a unique pattern. When God would say things like, “Don’t do this.” Or like in Romans 12:9 “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.”
It is preceded or followed by community. Serving one another. Encouraging one another. Putting others above yourself. You see when we display an attitude of “I am mature enough to do this, or this doesn’t apply to me” We are not obeying God by taking responsibility to put others needs before our own.
I want to look at a man in the Old Testament who was considered a good king over Israel, but he did allow himself to be aligned with an enemy of God.
2 Chronicles 19:1-3 “When Jehoshaphat king of Judah returned safely to his palace in Jerusalem, Jehu the seer, the son of Hanani, went out to meet him and said to the king, "Should you help the wicked and love (or make alliance with) those who hate the LORD ? Because of this, the wrath of the LORD is upon you. There is, however, some good in you, for you have rid the land of the Asherah poles and have set your heart on seeking God."
In a commentary on this passage respected Theologian, Matthew Henry states, “In sending him a reproof for his affinity with Ahab. It is a great mercy to be made sensible of our faults, and to be told in time wherein we have erred, that we may repent and amend the error before it be too late.” You see the prophet called the King of Judah out. He said you have made an unholy union with a blatant enemy of God. This sin, could be destructive for the kingdom (note: kingdom of Israel)
Guess how the king responded to this awareness? He repented. He made his fault right in the eyes of the Lord and the people. In verse four we find Jehoshaphat gathering the people and once again turning them towards back to the Lord.
You see you have two choices when you are confronted with sin; 1. To repent or 2. To rebel. Too many times, we choose the latter. Why? Because repentance is admittance, and we don’t like to admit our faults.
Illustration: My Great-Uncle’s wife had passed away several years ago (and he has since passed away too). He finally made the decision to move into an assisted living facility. He was a healthy, debonair widower in his mid 80’s. He began to develop a friendship with a young lady in the facility. He respectfully called her, “My lady friend.” My mom’s brother, a younger man, wise to the ways of the times told him, “You know Harold, it is the 90’s now and you don’t have to be married anymore to have sex.”
All Harold wanted was a friend, a companion. In-fact, he was appalled at the advice given him. When is the last time any of us were ‘appalled’ at the flagrant sin in our culture. Our society parades sin. We are entertained by shows depicting detestable sins. We squirm at the latest slasher flick as it pushes the boundaries of full-on cannibalism and human sacrifice. But it doesn’t matter what we do God is still going to love us.
Living your life within the moral boundaries God has set around his children is a display of his love for us and a very clear example of our love for him. We sit in the same chair week after week. We socialize with the same small group of friends and wonder why we as a church are not growing. Why? Because we are living outside the moral boundaries God has established.
God tells us; don’t go outside these guidelines I have set for you. Instead offer up praise to me. Encourage one another. Pray for one another. Take care of those who have needs. When we as a majority are living foolishly outside the moral boundaries God has established, He will not bless us. One reason we may not be growing is frankly because of sin in our lives.
But when we submit to the moral boundaries God has established for us out of devotion and love for him, he will bless us. Listen when we get caught up in the things God loves he blesses. When we get caught up in the things God hates, he curses. So where are you? I had to do some serious self-accountability in this area.
But you know what? I don’t even remember things I had to step away from. But I do remember stepping away. When we stop the flattery and admit our wrong and that we have stepped outside the boundaries God has established for his children, He will be praised, you will be blessed and the Kingdom will grow.
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