Guardrails

We began a new series at the Ridge last Sunday. It's called Guardrails. this will be a 6 part series, with me preaching 3 messages in the series. Here is the first message in this series. Enjoy!

 
            Well, I’m excited to being our new sermon series today; it’s one that I hope you won’t soon forget.

            To help you remember at least the name of the series, I have a huge visual. (Many thanks to my Creative Team for their behind the scenes work on this one)

            Most of us know what guardrails are; but we may not be familiar with the definition of what a guardrail is.

Keep this definition handy, because it will serve as the key thought for this entire series:

            “A guardrail is a system designed to keep vehicles from straying into dangerous off-limit areas.”

            A guardrail is designed to keep you safe. A guardrail is there to remind you of impending danger.

It might be oncoming traffic; it might be a steep embankment; or it might be a rising river, whatever the danger might be, a guardrail is put in place to keep you from straying into dangerous off-limit areas.

ILLUSTRATION- With the exception of this one, guardrails aren’t noticed very much. But they do their job. Think about it for a second.

            If there were no guardrails on the Confederation Bridge, you and I know there would be someone who would ride as close as you can possibly get without falling off the edge of the bridge.

            Someone else would see that person riding too close to the edge, have a brain cramp, and try the same thing, only to end up in the waters below.

            Guardrails are put in place to keep you and me safe. They warn us of impending danger. Guardrails are meant to keep vehicles from straying into dangerous off limit areas.

            So, if guardrails are designed to keep our vehicles from going off on dangerous paths, shouldn’t there be personal guardrails to keep people from going off on dangerous paths?

            Should followers of Jesus have personal boundaries makers, personal guardrails in place to prevent them from straying too close to dangerous off-limit zones?

            Allow me to illustrate what I mean:

ILLUSTRATION- there are some stores that I should not enter. There are some magazines that I should not read.

There are some TV shows that I should not watch. There are some movies that I should not watch.

            Because of certain addictions from my past, I know that if I enter these stores, if I read and watch certain things, I will stray into dangerous off limit areas.

            If I am to be the man that God wants me to be—pure—I must put in place certain guardrails, certain safety structures, certain “off-limit” parameters to prevent me from straying into off limit danger zones.

            I know the things that trip me up, and I must avoid these things at all cost, because if I don’t, I will crash and fall.

            I am trying to establish guardrails to keep me from straying into danger-zones.

            How about you? 

Do you avoid watching certain TV shows, avoid going to certain websites, avoid shopping at certain stores, even avoid certain people, because these things might lead you off the right path and lead you down a path Christians have no business going down?          

            Our culture certainly doesn’t have guardrails! Our culture teaches us that if you see something that you want: go get it!

            If you see another man’s wife/another woman’s husband, and you want him/her: Go get it!

            Our culture teaches us that it’s ok to “drink responsibility”, but we forget that one drink often leads to another drink, and another drink…..

            Our culture teaches us that it’s ok to have sex outside of marriage.

Our culture teaches us that it’s ok to have several credit cards and spend, spend and spend some more.

            But God’s Word tells us to be cautious. The Bible teaches us that followers of Jesus are to establish guardrails.

            Followers of Jesus are to have a system to keep them from straying into off-limit danger zones.

            It could be that you have a list of family friendly TV channels; it could be that you have a list of safe stores; it could be that you only go on the computer at certain times,  whatever it might look like for you, the Bible teaches us that followers of Jesus are to establish personal guardrails.

            The key verse for this entire series is taken from Proverbs 27:12. “The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.” (NIV)

            The NLT translates this verse like this: “A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.” (NLT2)

            Friends: Let's do our best to memorize this verse over the course of this series, because it’s very important!

            It tells us that a prudent man—a wise man, someone who is sensible—sees the danger and takes precautions.

            A prudent man recognizes what his tripping point is and will avoid being in that situation.

            A prudent man—someone who is wise—hears what God has to say about sex, money and marriage, and applies this truth to their lives because “application makes all the difference”

            But not the simple man. No, the “simpleton”—someone who is not wise, and remember wisdom comes from God-- the simple man will hear what God has to say about sex, money and marriage, but will ignore it, smashing right through the guardrail, setting himself up for a fall.

            “The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.” (NIV)

            Wise people establish a system to keep them from straying into dangerous off-limit areas.

What is that system? What does it look like? This guardrail will be different for everyone, but it will be anything that will keep you from going down a road you don’t need to go down.

ILLUSTRATION- I call my wife regularly when I’m in town. I let my wife read all the emails that I send. I tell her everything that happened to me in the run of a day.

        I have set up certain guardrails in my life and I am doing my best to abide by them.

         How about you? Are you just flying in the wind, with no real plan to avoid danger?

        Evenually you will come up against something that you cannot defeat on your own... and simply trying harder will not work either. you need to establish guardrails

            Just so you don’t think this is simply an Old Testament truth, Paul wrote to a culture that was worse that our current culture.

            In Ephesians 5:15 he said: “So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise.” (NLT2)

            Paul was expressing the truth of Proverbs 27:12. Paul was telling the followers of Jesus to be prudent; to put guardrails in place to protect us from going off the deep end.

            Think before you speak, think before you post something, think before you watch that TV show.

Have preventative measures in place to keep you from straying into dangerous off-limit areas.

            But, he doesn’t stop with this one verse. Look at the next verse: “Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.” (Eph. 5:16, NLT2)

            If Paul was telling us to establish guardrails in verse 15, in verse 16 he is telling us why: because the days are evil.

            There is a lot of junk in this world that will lead you astray. There is a lot of stuff in this world that isn’t good for the Christ follower.

There are things that will hinder your walk with God if you have not established guardrails in your life.

            Paul continues by saying: “Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.” (Eph. 5:17, NLT2)

            In this verse, Paul is giving us a command, he is telling us to step up and do what it is that God is asking you to do.

We are to stop playing games; stop pretending that what we’re doing is right when it’s actually wrong.

            God’s will is for you and me to walk in the Light as He is in the light; it’s not going off on an unmarked path.

            God wants us to be prudent, to be careful in all areas of life.

            We all know where the line of disaster is. We have all played the “how close can I get to sin without it actually being sin” game.

            Paul is telling us to stop being so foolish. Stop flirting with disaster, stop walking on the edge of the cliff, set up a guardrail and avoid the things that will lead you astray.

            In verse 18 he says: “Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit….” (Eph. 5:18, NLT2)

            Paul could have chosen anything to explain to us that there are consequences to sin.

Unless we are establishing guardrails in our life, unless we have a system to keep us from straying into dangerous off limit areas, we will crash and have to face the consequences from our sin.

            Paul wants us to have clearly established standards of behavior—guardrails—so that when we bump up against them, something inside of us will remind us that doing that thing will potentially ruin our lives.

            I don’t have to tell you what those things are, because you already know what that wrong thing is, who that wrong person is.

            The question is “are you brave enough to establish a guardrail in your life to prevent you from straying into a dangerous off-limit area”?

            Are you willing to set up a guardrail in your life?

            It takes more control to say no to something that to say yes to anything.

      So, what do you need to say no to? What area of your life needs a guardrail?

            No one plans on messing up their marriage. No one plans to get messed up with pornography; no one plans on becoming an alcoholic.

            The problem is not that we plan to mess up our lives; the problem is that we don’t plan not to. We don’t put precautions in place to prevent us from going off the cliff.

            Paul wants us to establish guardrails so that when we come up against something that we know to be wrong—because God’s Word tells us it’s wrong—we will hear God’s still small voice and we will turn away because we too close to the guardrail.

            There are two types of people in this room today: those who are prudent, and those who are simple.

            The prudent are establishing personal guardrails to keep them from straying into dangerous off-limit areas, the simple do not.

            The prudent recognize an area of danger; the simple do not. The Prudent are walking in God’s grace, the simple are not.

            I want you to know that if your life is a mess because you’ve blown past your personal guardrail, God can fix the broken road you are travelling on.

            It will mean stopping what you are doing, and coming to Him for forgiveness, and it will also mean establishing personal guardrails in your life.

            God doesn’t want you and me to fall off the cliff; He wants us to be careful about how we are living the life He gave to us.

            (BAND)

            If, as I’ve been speaking, God has brought to mind an area of your life where you are on the line, or where you have blown right past the guardrail that has been set up—either in Scripture or of your own making—I want you to know that there is hope, peace, grace and forgiveness.

            But also want you to know that in order to get victory over this particular sin, you are going to have to establish a system that will keep you from straying into dangerous off limit areas.

            You know what those areas are, and flirting with them will lead you to certain disaster, avoiding them will protect you because “The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.” (Prov. 27:12, NLT2)

            Some of us need to spend some time in prayer today; some of us need to confess areas where we’ve messed up and blown right past the guardrail that we had set up.  

Others of us need to prayerfully consider our life this week and examine all areas of our life and see where God might be asking us to set up a guardrail or two.

            We all need a guardrail in life. We all need God to fix--- and bless—our broken road.  

           

Life Apps, 5

The following post is the final sermon in our Life Apps series. It deals with confession. Enjoy!

            We are in the last week of our Life Apps series. This is a series that reminds us that “application makes all the difference”

·      It isn’t enough just to hear about something;

·      It isn’t enough just to know that you ought to do something

            For us to get the most out of any application, we must apply it, because: “application makes all the difference.”

            Our main Bible verse for this entire series has been James 1:22. This tiny verse packs an enormous punch. This verse reminds us that listening isn’t enough.

            James, the brother of Jesus says: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (James 1:22, NIV)

            James was reminding Christians—the followers of Jesus--that it’s not good enough just to show up to church; it’s not good enough just to hear that you’ve got some things to change.

·      Simply hearing about something doesn’t change your life;

·      Owing that piece of gym equipment won’t help you get in shape;

·      Looking at a full can of paint, will not change the color of your walls.

James reminds us that we are deceiving ourselves if we are only hearing the Word.

James reminds us that the application is in the doing, because application makes all the difference.   

We’ve taken the time to look at 3 specific life apps; three tools that God wants His people to apply to their lives.

The first life app was Trust. This app helps me—you—deal with the sin of worry.

The second life app was prayer. This app helps us deal with, get through, endure, any situation.

The third life app was rest, and we looked at ways to incorporate this app as we are on the treadmill of life.

(I heard that some of you, men, followed my advice to the letter…Awesome!!)

The Life app that we are going to be looking at this morning is one that we'll all have to use at one time or another. It’s the Life app of confession.

As we get underway, I want to clear something up. Confession is more than just saying: “I’m Sorry”.

 A person can say “I’m sorry”, until they’re blue in the face and still never change their ways.

Confession is more than just saying “I’m sorry”

ILLUSTRATION- My daughter, Erica will say I’m sorry after she does something wrong. Every time. A few moments later, she will do that very thing she just said she was sorry for.

              I will correct her, and a few moments after that, she’ll do the same thing again, and the cycle will continue, because there is no change.

            In order for Erica—for me, for you—to change our ways, we’re going to have to do more than “I’m sorry.”

Saying “I’m sorry” each time we’ve done wrong might be true, but it does nothing to address the problem.

Allow me to share a personal story to illustrate what I’m trying to say.

ILLUSTRATION- Several years ago, while attending Kingswood University, I was living a life I wasn’t supposed to be living.

            When the truth finally came out, I was suspended for two weeks, and forced to spend some “quality time” at home.

            Several weeks after I had served my suspension, I was scheduled to meet with the DBMD- District Board of Ministerial Development. This would be the equivalent of you meeting with your boss’s boss…

            As I was sharing with these people about what I had done, I made it sound like, that after reading and praying, and much soul searching, I discovered on my own that I wasn’t living the life I was supposed to be living, and I went to tell the Dean of the school in order to make things right.

            Then one of the board members helped me see the error of my ways.

       They made me realize that I went to the dean of students that day because I was scared of getting caught, not because I was sorry for living an inappropriate life for a man of God.

            It was after that encounter that I realized that I needed to be more than sorry for my wrong doing.

I needed to do more than say: “I’m Sorry”, because my being sorry actually led me deeper and deeper into sin, because nothing changed. I was still doing the same things over and over again.

            I needed to confess that I was wrong and I needed to turn and go in the opposite direction.

            Someone once remarked that: “confession is good for the soul.”

       It might be, but confession isn’t done just to make me feel better—because I feel terrible when I confess my sin to my wife or to my accountability partner.

            Confession isn’t done just to make me feel better; confession is done to change my life. 

            I think that’s huge, and we need to hear it again: Confession isn’t done just to make me feel better; confession is done to change my life. 

            Andy Stanley reminds us that: “The goal of confession is not a clear conscience, but a changed life. Genuine confession leads to genuine change.”

            A changed life is the purpose of today’s life app. We confess, not to make ourselves feel better, but to live a changed life.

            Take the story of David for example. One day, when he should have been out at war, he took a walk on top of his palace and saw a smoking hot woman taking a bath.

            Instead of diverting his attention, he said to his officials: “I WANT HER RIGHT NOW.”

            They bring Bathsheba to his room, things get intense, she gets pregnant,  David finds out and tries to cover it up by bringing Bathsheba’s husband home from the war.

Because Uriah was a noble man, he did not sleep with his wife while his friends were out in battle. Even when he was drunk, Uriah still acted better than David did.

David becomes furious with Uriah, and orders that he be sent back with the army, and stationed at the front of the line, where he is killed in an intense battle.

Word comes back to David that Uriah has died, and David says: “I’m sorry” and he then summons Bathsheba into his care, they marry and she gives birth to a son.

The only time that God is mentioned in this entire passage is at the end of verse 27: “the thing David had done displeased the LORD.”(2 Sam. 12:27b, NIV)

You know that thing that you are constantly doing; that sin that keeps tripping you up; that thing you do that really hurts your relationship with God and other people, you know that thing you are doing, it displeases the Lord.

God never intended for His children to be bound by chains.

Jesus didn’t make His way to the cross over 2000 years ago this week so you and I would keep getting tripped up over and over again by the same stupid sin and all we have to say about it is “I’m sorry”.

Jesus paid the ultimate price so you—me, we—could be free.

Paul said it like this: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Gal. 5:1, NIV)

Jesus never intended for us to keep getting tripped up by the same sin over and over again.

He intended for His people to be free; but freedom only happens as we move away from saying “I’m sorry”—to actually being sorry, sorry enough to change, because genuine confession leads to genuine change.

The writer of Hebrews said it this way: “…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” (Heb. 12:1b, NIV)

The wording here suggests taking your sin and throwing it as far as you can. It doesn’t mean pick it up whenever you want to.

It means throw it away and don’t touch it again.

Some of us are letting the same old sin trip us over and over again.

It’s not because God is not strong enough to save us from our sin. It’s because we’re not sorry enough to do something about it.

In order for real life change to happen, we must experience genuine confession, because genuine confession leads to genuine change.

How do I know this to be true? Because I’ve see it played out in my own life.

ILLUSTRATION- It wasn’t until I got serious about God, and serious about living the life that He wanted me to live, that I confessed and repented of my sin.

I was tired of messing up my life, tired of hurting the people in my life, and when I experienced genuine confession, I experienced genuine life change.

            David also knew this to be true.

The length of time between 2 Samuel chapters 11 and 12 is almost an entire year.

Bathsheba is now David’s wife, and no one is taking about how she became his wife, for you didn’t dare talk back to the king.

Some of the people might have forgotten what David did; but God didn’t forget.

In 2 Samuel 12 we read that God sent the prophet Nathan to David.

Nathan begins by telling David this story: “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor.

² The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, ³ but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children.

It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.

⁴ “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him.

Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”

⁵ David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this must die!

⁶ He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.” (2 Sam. 12:1b-6, NLT2)

David is oblivious to the fact that he is the central character in Nathan’s story. After all, it had been an entire year and he had said: “I’m sorry.”

Then, Nathan hit David right between the eyes: “…Nathan said to David, “You are the man!” (2 Sam. 12:7a, NLT2)

“You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.” (2 Sam. 12:9b, NLT2)

Nathan confronted David with his sin, and what happens next is a picture of genuine change, and remember genuine confession leads to genuine change.

The Bible records for us, in Psalm 51, David’s honest confession. In the middle of this Psalm we read these words:

“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

¹¹ Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.

¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” (Psalm 51:10-12, NLT2)

For the first time David came face to face with his wrong doing and he owned it.

He confessed his sin and his life was genuinely changed.

He still had to face the consequences of his sin: his son still died, his family was still a mess, but David’s heart was now pure, because he had confessed his sin.

Some of us in this room have been carrying around a particular sin for a long time.

This one sin has been messing with your mind, messing with your life, messing with your relationships. This sin controls you.

Simply saying “I’m sorry” will not address the sin problem that you have. Simply hearing about the life app of confession will do nothing to fix this problem.

If you want to experience genuine life change, you must confess your sin.

The Bible says: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9, NIV)

(BAND to come)

I wonder this morning, how many of us need to spend some time at the foot of the cross? I wonder how many of us need to confess the sin that is in our lives.

You may have been hiding this sin for years, but God’s not blind, He has seen your sinful actions, but He still invites you to come to the Cross and receive the forgiveness that He longs to bring.

You’ll never break the vicious cycle of sin without genuine confession.

You’ll never break the vicious cycle of sin on your own, you need to confess your sin to God and to someone who will love you and pray you through this time.

If God has been speaking to you about a particular area in your life that you’ve been hiding, the time to stop hiding is now.

You won’t feel condemnation at the foot of the cross, you’ll only –find freedom. 

James reminds us that simply hearing about confession and the changed life it brings, isn’t enough.

James would remind us that the application is found in the doing, because application makes all the difference.

If you’ve got business to do with God, please take some time this morning and kneel at the alter and confess because genuine confession leads to genuine change.  

           Confession isn’t just limited to me and God, to you and God. Most of the time confession also involves another person.

It could be that my sin hurt my wife, then I need to go and tell my wife I was wrong, I need to confess to my wife.

            It could be that while you are confessing your sin to God that He brings to mind another person. If this happens, chances are that we need to confess our sin to that person as well.

            James 5:16 says: “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” (NLT2)

            Part of the application of this life app is talking to God, but the other part is talking to that person who you have wronged.

            Can I encourage you to take some time this week to not only restore the relationship between you and God, but to also restore the relationship between you and that other person?

Why? Because application makes all the difference (genuine confession leads to genuine change)