Psalm 16:5-6 “LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.”
Verse 11:“You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”
One of the roles of the referees in today’s game will be to watch for players who go out of bounds. Getting the ball down the field has to be accomplished within the boundary lines that have been established. There will be great celebration for the team that can score the most touchdowns, for the team that while keeping the ball in bounds, can get it into the end zone. I guarantee you we will see some goofy dances as touchdowns are made. That is probably my favorite part of a football game! I love the individual expressions of victory. There will be great joy expressed every time a team scores. When one person scores, millions will rejoice.
Learning to live with the boundaries that have been established for us, by God in His Word, will also produce great joy and celebration. Look at the words on the screen. “You have made my lot secure.” Security is a byproduct of living life in bounds. In verse 11, we read that the path of life, real life, the kind that produces joy, is lived within the boundary lines.
The Psalmist calls the spaces inside the boundary lines, “pleasant.” Here, the writer is speaking about the Promised Land that was divided and given to the 12 tribes of Israel. Each tribe was given a space to conquer and occupy. There was a connection between the tribes as one tribe’s property line met another, but they were separate entities. Lengthy portions of Old Testament Scripture are devoted to the details of how far north, south, east and west, each tribe’s land would stretch and what other tribe of people group it would border. Borders and boundaries were clearly defined and were very important. People were to manage their families, to manage their livelihoods, to manage their lives, inside those boundary lines.
Just as important as physical property boundaries, perhaps more so, are the boundaries we need to live by when it comes to spiritual, physical, emotional, and relational boundaries. The Christian life is a life lived with God-given boundaries. God has established boundary lines for us. We are to live inside of those lines. We are to live “in bounds.”
In football, boundaries are established so that the game can be played in a strategic, disciplined, and focused way. Picture a football game being played on a field with no boundary lines. The ball is snapped, it is thrown and successfully caught, but instead of looking for ways to advance the ball down the field toward the end zone as usual, the receiver takes off running up through the stands. He climbs over people who are just trying to enjoy the game and eat their popcorn, and a mob of players from both sides is in hot pursuit of him, knocking hot dogs and pretzels with cheese all over the place, breaking every fake foam finger, while people in row after row are getting tackled and beaten up in the stands and they aren’t even the ones wearing shoulder pads! They are just there to watch and paid a pretty penny to do so but because the boundaries aren’t respected, they are now the ones headed out on stretchers to go get xrays! That would be crazy, right, but it happens way too often. It happens when people live outside of the boundary lines. Other people get hurt becoming casualties of someone’s inability to live focused on the victory God has declared.
In addition to creating chaos and pain for other people, how much more difficult would a player make it for himself if he crossed the boundary lines, left the field and started running up the steps and through the aisles of the stands? It would be like creating an obstacle course for yourself with all kinds of crazy challenges where you were more likely to get hurt. The field provides a straight, level path to the end zone. People who aren’t supposed to be part of the game aren’t on the field. Only those who sign up for the physical altercations, who have trained for the roughness of the game, who are also wearing the appropriate gear, only they will be part of the play which ensures there is actually a game being played and not just random chaos like you see at a four-year-old soccer game! Just sayin! If players were to continually disrespect the boundaries of the game, there would be no point to watching it. The boundaries God sets for us help keep us and other people safe and ensure there is a point and purpose to our lives.
In addition to the chaos that would ensue as a player left the field, the receiver would be running away from the end zone with the ball. He would have turned his body away from the place of victory and would be running in the wrong direction. He might be running with all his might. He might have a tight grip on the ball. He might be entertaining some people with his razzle, dazzle skills along the way, he might even be able to run faster than those who are chasing him, but he isn’t going to score because he isn’t moving toward the end zone. Boundary lines keep you focused on the end zone so you can score! God has an end zone for your life. He wants to take you to a place of victory. He wants you to score multiple times in your lifetime, but you won’t experience it if you don’t respect the boundaries. When you step outside of the boundaries, you are turning your back on the victory God has for you.
God hasn’t established boundaries for His children because He wants to limit us, but because He wants us to succeed. God’s blessing is inside the boundary lines. When we go outside of the boundaries God has established for us and pursue the sinful things of this world, and live our lives to please ourselves, we run the risk of impairing our relationship with God and others. There are spiritual, emotional, relational and financial prices we pay when we cross God’s boundaries for our lives, but there is blessing in the boundaries.
God’s boundaries will protect our peace! When we go beyond where we are supposed to be, for example, financially, we will suffer the feelings of anxiety and stress that accompany calls from creditors, threats to foreclose on our homes, repossession of our vehicles, etc. When we go beyond where we are supposed to be in our relationships, we deal with the drama and stress that comes from taking on other people’s stuff in inappropriate ways and we become mentally overloaded with the issues of other people. When we try to cheat the system for some-kind-of-personal gain or take unethical and immoral shortcuts and are caught sometime later, there will be a tsunami of emotion and stress that follows. There is an emotional price to pay when we step outside of our God-given boundaries.
As God created everything in the beginning, He also created boundaries in the beginning. God’s very first words God spoke to Adam, the first words from God’s mouth to man’s ears, included the establishing of a boundary. Genesis 2:16-1716 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” God said, “Here is the line. Don’t cross it or else.” Boundaries are supposed to be a normal part of life. Even before sin entered the world, God established that the way to live in paradise with Him included a boundary.
God was very clear about the boundary. And guess what? By Genesis 3, Adam and Eve crossed the boundary. They didn’t misunderstand what God had said. He wasn’t vague about the boundary. Eve even told the serpent in Genesis 3:3 what the boundary was and what the consequence was for crossing it. She said: But God did say, “You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.” The word “surely” carries a certainty with it, right? God doesn’t leave any wiggle room or gray areas when it comes to His expectations and the consequences are clear. Yet, we often keep on testing the boundaries. We keep on living as if God doesn’t really mean what He says or as if the consequences won’t apply to us.
Many people still acknowledge God exists, yet they live their lives as if to say to Him, “So what?” Let me remind you Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” If you live to please God, you will say like the Psalmist you are on the path of life and that the boundaries are pleasant to you. If you live to please self, you won’t have quite the same testimony. What you reap won’t lead to rejoicing, but to ruin and regret.
Respecting God’s boundaries are one way to stay in alignment with Him. Matthew 6:33 God has given us boundaries because He wants us to have an abundant life. The Ten Commandments aren’t meant to keep us from experiencing life at its fullest but life at its folly. There are things that are foolish for a person to do because they bring harm to themselves and others and disrupt their relationship with God. So, God established clear boundaries, that when followed, keep us in peace with Him and others.
When each individual person is focused on the living in bounds, we can truly learn to play as a team. God’s boundaries create a team mentality. While we have been made free in Christ, that freedom is to be expressed inside God’s boundaries to keep us all on the field and working together. We have all seen the train wreck that occurs when teams don’t work well together, when some are bent on control, when there is jealousy and division, when players refuse to listen to each other, when players don’t think well of each other, when what is best for the individual is elevated above what is best for the team. Winning means winning together. There is no quarterback without the other players. Look at Galatians 5:13-16 13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.
Paul is saying that we need to live a life in bounds which includes not indulging ourselves, but rather, serving one another in love. Can I put it this way? Your success as a Christ-follower should be just as important to me as my success as a Christ-follower. We are supposed to get down the field together. Paul goes on to say in verse 14:
14 The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. 16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
Here is perhaps the most valuable nugget of this message. Living by the Holy Spirit, being Sprit-led, is the way to live in bounds. Your love for others will increase as you pursue life with the Holy Spirit. Your humility and team mentality will increase as you pursue life with the Spirit. Your success in Christ and ability to get into the end zone will increase as you chase the Spirit. The Jesus-life is life with the Holy Spirit. If you get Jesus, but stop there, you haven’t gotten it all. It is the Holy Spirit who knows how to coach you, how to call the plays, and how to put you where you need to be to receive the ball. It is the Holy Spirit who knows how to block the challengers that will come against you and create wide places for you to march on down the field to victory. It is the Holy Spirit who will help you zig when you need to zig and zag when you need to zag. It is the Holy Spirit who will give you the ability to leap over challenges and to run faster and farther than you ever thought possible.
Pastor Melissa, I thought this message was about boundaries. Why are you shifting gears to talk about the Holy Spirit? Because the Holy Spirit is the Referee! The Referees in today’s game will blow the whistle when the player with the ball goes out of bounds. There will be a resetting of the ball on the field so that a fresh play can be called and another opportunity can be given to get the ball set up to pursue a victory. Believer, it is the Holy Spirit who will whisper to you when you are about to step out of bounds, and if you will listen to Him, He will help you regain your footing solidly on the field so that you can start again. If you will listen to Him…
Ezekiel 36 is one of my absolute favorite chapters of the Bible. Look at what is declared by God in verses 24-28: 24 “‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. What is God saying here? He is explaining that due to their sin, they were exiled, displaced from their homeland, displaced from the playing field that God had established for them. He was going to get them back on the field, back inside the boundary lines. And He wasn’t just going to relocate them, but He was going to change them in the process.
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.
They had violated God’s boundaries. They had embraced the idols of the cultures to which they had been exiled. They had lost their distinctiveness as God’s people. Let me just make that point quickly. When you violate God’s boundaries, repeatedly violate them, you lose your distinctiveness as a Child of God, like the world identifies you with them instead of with God. Because Israel had been swept up into ungodly cultural practices, they needed to be cleansed. They needed to be washed. They had been contaminated by the world and that filth had to be removed from them.
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
They needed to have a heart transplant. I talked earlier about the people who know what God has said, but who in turn, live as if to say, “So what,” that is the heart that is being talked about here. A heart of stone. A heart that is unyielding to the ways of God, the voice of God, the boundaries of God. A heart that is bent on doing life your own way. A heart that decides that the boundary lines don’t matter, that they don’t apply to them. God says, “If you are going to be my people, you are going to have to have a new heart.” When your heart gets away from God, you begin to follow yourself instead of God, and you walk right off the field, forfeiting your chance to score God’s blessings.
Here is the best part of the text: 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
God isn’t just going to deliver laws and set up boundaries without putting Holy Spirit power inside of us to help us carry out what is being asked. There are rules in a game of football. No one expects any team to win this evening that has decided the rules don’t apply to them. No one expects us to see the teams play as if there aren’t any rules, as if there are no boundaries. This is something we can all agree on when it comes to football. Why do so many people struggle accepting this when it comes to faith?
Listen, there are rules that God has established for our lives, but unlike football that is only rules-based, life with God is first and foremost about a relationship with the Holy Spirit. In football, you follow the rules. With God, you follow the Spirit, and He empowers you to stay in the boundaries God has established.
And guess what? We desire to live this way when our old heart is removed, and our new heart is in place and when the Spirit of God begins to work on the inside of us. Why do we desire to live that way? Because we know we can’t lose!
Verse 28: 28 Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God. Ezekiel 36:24-28
God is saying, “Then you will be back on the field, and we’ll be in a relationship together, one that will lead you to victory.”
Psalm 16:5-6 “LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.”
Verse 11:“You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”
Do you agree with the Psalmist’s statements? Are you living securely and safely? Does your respect for God’s boundaries help keep others safe? Are you focused on the end zone? Have you been experiencing victory? Do you have peace? Have you left the field, leaving team members to walk with Christ without you? What if you are supposed to be passing the ball to someone or helping to block something that is coming after them? The team is vulnerable without you because when you leave the field, you not only walk away from the One who owns the team, but you leave the rest of the team as well. Do you need a reset? Have you resisted the whisper of the Holy Spirit who is calling you back? Do you have a heart of stone? Is your attitude towards God more of a “So what” attitude than an attitude of surrender? Have you gotten Christianity wrong, thinking it was just about rules and not about a relationship with the Holy Spirit? I believe God has great help for those who will respond with an open heart today, and I pray God will help us choose faith on the field, a life in bounds with Him.
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