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.