Balance + Boundaries | August 11th, 2024

The first week of Balance + Boundaries we saw that our God is a God who operates both in balance and boundaries.  You don’t have to look far to see that his creation is one that balanced.  In Genesis 1, He took what was formless and empty and created life.  He took what was chaos and gave it order.  His creative balance is what hold’s planet Earth in orbit and our bodies operating as it should.  In Genesis 2, he gives all of the garden to Adam and Eve but creates a boundary – the tree of Life.  The enemy comes and plants the seed of deception that God’s only reason to give them boundaries was because didn’t want them to have a full life.  He wanted to restrict Adam and Eve.  It wouldn’t be that big of a deal if they crossed that line and ate from the tree.  They bought the lie: hook, line and sinker.  Sin entered the world and it has been off balance ever since.  The story of Jesus and the Gospel is the redemptive story of making things the way God intended them to be. 
 
Our second week of Balance + Boundaries was about three of the ten laws of boundaries from the book “Boundaries.”  Our world has Laws of Nature.  These are truths that work in our world and don’t change.  The Laws of Boundaries are based on biblical truths that don’t change and often cause us to ignore boundaries or convince us we don’t need boundaries.

The Law of Envy | Envy is what cost Lucifer his place in heaven. He wanted something he didn’t have and that caused him to rebel against God.  He then convinced Adam and Eve to cross the boundaries God gave them. Envy causes us to hate what we have and love what we don’t have.  Envy causes us to have desires that smash through our boundaries and allow our desires to drive us.  

Galatians 6:4-5 | Paul says we must Test his or her work.  Another way to say this, is we have to ask why do we do what we do?  What is our motivation?  Is it to keep up with the Joneses or is it be satisfied in whose we are in Christ?  When our motivation is anything other than Jesus, it often can be trace back to envy that causes much of the pain and difficulties in life.
 
The Law of Sowing and Reaping | Proverbs 22:8, 2 Corinthians 9:6, Galatians 6:7-8  
Sowing and Reaping is seen throughout scripture.  It is a truth from both the Old Testament and New Testament.  Our actions and decisions will produce some type of fruit.  If we sow things of the world and flesh – scripture says it will produce “calamity.”   Or we can place boundaries in our lives that allow us to sow the things of the Spirit and produce eternal and spiritual fruit.   We have choice everyday of what we will sow in our lives and boundaries help filter what we are doing and the fruit we will reap.  

The Law of Action | Hebrews 10:35-39
The writer of Hebrews says that we will need endurance.  We have been redeemed to sit on the sidelines.  The endurance reminds us that we are in a marathon, not a sprint.  We aren’t to retreat, but push forward.  When we have balance and boundaries we have clarity of what and how.  We can’t do everything – so we must tell someone no.  We can’t help everyone – so we must refuse helping everyone.  Having boundaries doesn’t me we don’t do anything, it means we have focus on the greater impact and gives us ability to not burn ourselves out trying to do everything.  

Big Idea: The Laws of Boundaries are truths that God knows about us, therefore commands us to create boundaries out of these truths.