Freedom with Boundaries

Well, good afternoon, everyone. Wonderful to be with you on this Sabbath day.

Brethren, I would like to start with two simple scenarios. Just two very simple scenarios in your mind and you will see the direction that we are going basically here from the beginning. But think about a bald eagle soaring high in the open sky. Think about the feelings that that evokes. What about a bald eagle confined in a cage? Something that’s completely contrasted to one that’s flying freely, soaring high in the sky. What feelings do these two scenarios evoke? Completely different, opposite feelings, I’m sure. When I thought about this, everyone, the soaring eagle stirs feelings inside of mere freedom. You think about the symbol of the bald eagle here in the United States of freedom. Not freedom for the bird per se, but more freedom for people. But that bird represents freedom, maybe joy. When you see an eagle flying, you have joy within you. What about inspiration? I think about myself, and brethren, many of you might not have seen a bald eagle before. I think about the eagles in the Philippines. Beautiful bird. I haven’t seen them, but I’ve seen pictures of them and they are beautiful, big, big birds and you want to go online and see them.

But I remember last year when my family and I traveled to South Africa. We went to the Kruger National Park, and interestingly it’s a relatively big park with a lot of biodiversity. And there are, if you go on the resources, they say they have nine different types of eagles. And within two days, we’ve seen five of those. So, I had that feeling when I drove into the park and you start to see those birds flying, being free, that’s the feelings that I had that I’m sharing with you in asking the question.

Now the opposite. What about that same bird in a cage? What feelings do you have when you see that free bird now put in a cage? Maybe it evokes frustration. I’m frustrated to see that bird should be flying free, but it’s restricted. It cannot be and do what it was made to do. Maybe sadness for some of it. Some of us, you might feel, I’m sad. Or even some of us might feel not just frustration, but a little bit of anger. I’m sure that that will go through your mind. Who put that bird in that cage? It should be able to fly freely.

Now brethren, at first glance, it seems obvious. When we look at these two scenarios of a similar animal, of a bird, a bald eagle, we can say that freedom means no boundaries. When that bird is flying free, to me, you might say in your mind, “That means there are no boundaries.” The bald eagle can fly wherever it wants. If you go to South Africa, you look at the migratory patterns of the eagles. They will come and go as they want. I’m sure the eagles that you know in your areas across the globe, every continent and country have beautiful birds, but they come and go as they wish. You might say freedom means no boundaries.

When you look at that bird in the cage, you might say boundaries means restriction. But is that really true, brethren? Is freedom without boundaries, and does boundaries mean complete restriction? Let’s bring this a little bit closer to home. Certainly, we are not talking about animals, about birds. Brethren, you and I not too long ago came through the days of unleavened bread. God delivered Israel out of Egypt, out of physical bondage. They will remember the bondage that they’ve been in, but for us, God delivered us from spiritual bondage out of sin. That’s something that’s still very fresh in our minds as we move towards Pentecost, thinking back on God delivering us from spiritual bondage.

So the question for us, brethren, is what kind of freedom has God given us? When we think about the bird flying, is that freedom without boundaries? Is that the freedom that God has in mind? Brethren, when we speak about boundaries, does that mean complete restriction? What is in God’s mind? How does God view freedom? Is it absolute freedom like that eagle, without limits, or is it something a little bit different?

Let’s turn to James chapter one. Just one verse here, right in the beginning, James chapter one, oiling our mind with God’s mind, with His thoughts. And we don’t have to dig deep and go deep to find it. We can find God’s mind on this matter here, right in James chapter one and verse twenty-five. I’m reading, “Speaking about us,” brethren, “...but whoso looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues therein, he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this man,” this lady, “...shall be blessed in his deed.” In everything that he or she does, they will be blessed, they will be happy, they will be prosperous.

Who is that? He that looks into the perfect law of liberty. So four words, three of them, perfect, law, and liberty. What do they mean? When you look at the word law, that implies structure, doesn’t it? It implies limits and boundaries, yet God calls it the law of liberty. So interesting meaning as we’re going to, again, asking the question, what freedom does God have in mind for us, brethren? We will find that answer in the meaning of the word liberty. God didn’t say there are no boundaries. When you think about the law, we know, you and I are keeping the law, brethren. That verse says that those that are continuing in the law. We know that we keep God’s law. We obey God.

This message is not going to be about you and I, how do we obey God? We do that, we strive to do that each and every day. We want to do that more effectively. But here we see, I’m just taking you to the Thayer’s Greek lexicon, the Thayer’s Greek definitions for the word liberty, and he defines it beautifully. It means liberty... True liberty, true freedom is living as we should, not as we please. Brethren, God had in mind a way that you and I should live. The world and those that are in it from the beginning did not know how they should live. We naturally also do not know how we should live. But we see that there are certain boundaries.

Today, let’s look into God’s word, everyone, and understand why boundaries are not restrictions, but that they are essential. Boundaries are essential, brethren. When you walk out of this room today, you want to be not just wanting to go and serve God more effectively, but you also want to have a greater appreciation for the boundaries that He established in the first place. So let’s look at the very first point. Let’s make it broad.

Boundaries are not optional. They are woven into every aspect of life. They are necessary. Boundaries are part of life, brethren. Let’s dig into this a little bit. They exist everywhere. Think about visible and invisible boundaries. When I’m sitting here, or you’re sitting in the hall, and I’m standing in the hall, there are walls. When you’re at home, walls define rooms and homes. Those are a type of physical boundary. You can see them. If you run fast as a little child, and run and hit yourself against a wall, you’ll see that’s a boundary that you cannot cross. Property lines of your yard defines ownership. What about neighborhoods and counties, municipalities, cities? Even countries are defined by boundaries.

Think back on history, everyone. What was one of the main reasons that Adolf Hitler’s Germany wanted to go to war? They described it as a desire for more Lebensraum. Lebensraum, if you translate that in Afrikaans, we would say it means they wanted more lievensreimte. Lebensraum, that means they were not accepting the boundaries of the country. They wanted to have more living space. They felt restricted. They felt confound.

What about roads and lanes that organize traveling? You can travel on a road, and you know there are boundaries. There are lines. There are road signs that help us to keep in the lines, keep the boundaries, keep the limits. Imagine the accidents that would happen if you crossed those lines. They do happen, but brethren, those lines are there for a specific purpose, the boundaries. Even oceans have boundaries.

Let’s go to Job. Let’s go to Job. Again, the simple point that we make is boundaries are everywhere. They are part of life. Job thirty-eight, and we will pick up in verse eight. Job thirty-eight, and verse eight. It says, God speaking to Job here, “Or who shut up the sea with doors?” We shut the hall during services. There are doors. Here God said, asking Job, who shut up the ocean with doors? Who can confine the ocean to its limits, so to speak? When it breaks forth, when it’s becoming angry and it wants to overflow its boundaries, God says, who put brakes on the ocean, “...as if it had issued out of the womb?”

When I hear and read that, suddenly, a picture comes to mind. The very first baby that I saw delivered in this world as a medical student, that little one was issued out of the womb in the same way as God described it. Usually, it takes a long time for a baby to be born. This wasn’t the case. The lady, if I remember correctly, it was maybe the fifth child that she had, and this child just issued out of the womb. It just came out almost immediately without any issues.

Think about the ocean that God is describing, putting something in our mind. “When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it,” for the ocean, “...and break up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said, here unto shall you come, but no further.” “Ocean, on my command, I’m putting a boundary on you. You cannot go further. Here and here shall your proud waves be stayed.”

God is speaking with Job, and brethren, we are thinking about boundaries, and we can have a little bit of fun with this. Imagine you go to a beach vacation. You’ve been planning this vacation for a long time with your family. And the first day you go down with your children ready. You have your snorkel in hand, goggles, flippers, sunscreen as thick as it can be. We always joked in South Africa, when you come from the inland and you go to the ocean, you can see who are those that come from the inland. They are usually very white, and they have a lot of sunscreen on. White meaning they haven’t seen sun for a while, and a lot of sunscreen because they are afraid of the sunburn.

So you are ready. You get to the beach, and you look around. You walk a few feet onto the beach, and your children ask you, “Daddy, where’s the water?” You go and ask the lifeguard, “No, sir, the ocean is one mile deeper in today. The tide is one mile deeper in.” “All right.” The next day you do exactly the same. As you go down to the lobby of your hotel, the hotel lobby is six feet underwater. Imagine if the ocean did not have boundaries. We would not be able to have a proper and enjoyable time at the beach, but God set that boundary, brethren, a physical boundary for a purpose. We can have a little bit of fun.

But what about you and I personally? The same is true for us personally. Matthew talks about we cannot increase our height at all. There’s a point that you grow, certain factors in life, your diet, disease, and such things. Those things can determine your height, but then after that, that’s a boundary, a physical boundary that you have reached. Some people want their height to be higher, and they go and do certain operations and surgeries to do that, but ultimately, God set that as a boundary.

Our bodies operate within certain limits. Think about your heart rate or glucose levels or hormones, even your strength. When you are young, you are strong, but there are boundaries to that, to what you can lift. When you get older, we are acutely aware about that. Our strength is not as strong. We are not as strong as we thought or as we were maybe a few decades ago. What about your energy? All of those things are limits.

Even personal space differs from person to person. Some people will allow you to stand close to them, a feet or two away when you have a conversation. In some cultures, people stand almost speaking right eye to eye, just a few inches away from each other, and that’s normal, but we all have that personal space. For some it’s larger, some it’s smaller, but that is a personal boundary, a limit.

Consider relationships, everyone thinking about boundaries in relationships. You make a joke with a friend, but at some point, they may say, “All right, that’s enough.” You continue to try to make that joke, but maybe it worked yesterday, but today, something might have happened in their day, or they don’t feel well. They might be thinking or worried about something or just being irritated, frustrated. You don’t know exactly, but they will say, “There’s a limit. Thank you.” You’ve reached that limit. You know with some people, there’s a limit to reach quickly, and with others, it takes a little bit longer.

Some people, you can joke a little bit more with. Others might not even allow you to joke with them, so people are different. Relationships are different, but there are boundaries, and you know when you crossed that boundary. Some people like to test those boundaries, but if you cross that boundary, it can lead to discomfort or conflict, knowingly or unknowingly. Brethren, we go through all these different boundaries, just showing again that they are part of life. Boundaries define what is appropriate, what is safe, and what is respectful.

I would like to, just as we begin to transition to the next point, just wanted to share with you a note from somebody that wrote in... somebody that was interested to attend services with us, and I felt this short sentence, the reason why this person was looking for God’s church was very fitting to this message. They wrote, “I really need to find God. I have no ‘blank’ in my life.” What would you write in that blank space? I really need to find God in my life. What was that one thing that person realized in their lives to think, “This limit or this something that’s lacking in my life, I can find it only with God’s Church.” I really need God in my life. I have no structure in my life.

Very interesting that a person could look at their lives, maybe a little bit chaotic, a little bit without direction, but they realized that they need God in their lives. That statement, brethren, reveals something very, very important. Without boundaries, life can feel unsure and unstable. We might ask, “Is that what God intended? Is that what God wanted for human beings, to have no structure in their lives?” And that leads us to the second point. In a natural way, brethren, boundaries provide order and structure in your and my life. It brings clarity. It brings direction, and it brings stability.

Remember, we are talking about God’s boundaries. You and I already obey God, but we are looking at why. Why do we want to appreciate what God has given us, those boundaries? Appreciate them more, understanding the meaning of those boundaries and what God intended for us, how to live, not as we please, but there’s a way that He intended for us to live. And it’s certainly not, brethren... He did not intend for us to live without structure, without order. And we all understand that. I’m not bringing anything to you today that you never heard before. But we want to put that into context and, again, have a little bit more of appreciation of what God did, brethren, when He gave us freedom. Freedom with boundaries, not without.

Let’s look at a simple definition of boundaries. I mentioned it a little bit just in the previous point, but boundaries are limits, they are lines, they are principles that define what is acceptable and safe and appropriate in relationships, in an environment, and in any system. That’s a very broad definition. Let’s make it very simple. Boundaries help us to know what should be inside and what should stay outside of those boundary lines, whether it’s a relationship, whether it’s in an environment, whether it’s in a system, what is inside and what should stay outside of those boundaries.

Imagine a city where all the traffic lights suddenly stop working, what would be the result, that each and every day, everyone goes to work and they can put their clock, time it. I know that that traffic light will turn green when I go. If I go eight minutes past seven, the traffic light is green. If I go one minute later, it’s red. But what if all those lights go out, suddenly go out? The result would be confusion and frustration and eventually chaos. There’s no order, no structure.

Now, as I give this example, everyone, I realized that might have not been the best example of all, speaking about traffic lights. Why would I say that? I realized that many brethren live in areas where the traffic lights do not work on a daily basis in any way. I know what you call it. You call it organized chaos. You know why? Because I’ve been in that organized chaos. Human beings are resourceful. When chaos ensues, then we find ways even to circumvent that. But that’s just an example, brethren, of ordinary daily lives, a simple example of boundaries.

Now, consider God’s instruction from the beginning. Let’s go back to God’s word, getting His mind from the beginning as we think about boundaries, bringing clarity and order and structure in our lives. Genesis chapter two, and we pick up in verse sixteen, God commanding man, Adam and Eve, after he recreated the surface of the earth, put plants and animals back, he put Adam and Eve into the garden, and he said, “And the Lord commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat. “Have you ever noticed that, brethren, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat?

“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it. For in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die.” Now, our mind immediately go to what God restricted, the boundary that He put in place, that one tree. But in verse sixteen, it actually says of every tree, how many trees were in the garden? We don’t know. When Adam looked around, when God gave that command, did he see ten trees? Did he see a hundred? Did God allow him to name a thousand, ten thousand? How many trees were in the garden that he could eat of? How many fruit trees? We do not know, but at least we know it were more than two.

The tree of life, they were allowed to eat of the tree of life, but it was only that one restriction that God placed on them, brethren. That’s significant. That one tree. God’s boundaries are not restrictive. They have a purpose. They are selective. They have a specific purpose. David understood this. Let’s go to Psalm one hundred and nineteen. Very interesting how David writes right in the Psalm that’s speaking about God’s law, and certainly he had God’s law of liberty in mind. But brethren, I’m sure when we read this verse, we’re going to pick up in verse ninety-six. David took a lifetime for him to understand what he has given us. A treasure for you and I to understand, brethren, to hold fast, to think about, to meditate on.

Verse ninety-six, that he see an eagle fly without limitations, and I’m sure he saw in his life people and animals in bondage, and he might have asked that same question that you and I ask in the beginning. But verse ninety-six says, “I have seen the end of all perfection.” I’ve seen the boundary. I went to the boundary of perfection. That perfection means human accomplishment. I’ve seen everything that humans can do. The end of all perfection. But listen to what he said, the conclusion that he came to, brethren, “...but your commandment,” your law, “...is exceeding broad.”

David realized that God’s law, brethren, of liberty, didn’t restrict him. End of perfection, as we said, the boundary of perfection. But exceeding broad means to be vast, to be wide, to be spacious, to be expansive. Is that how you think about God’s boundaries, brethren? You and I, I’m sure we do, but we want to expand our mind today on that. Boundless, like an open plain. Endless. An endless horizon, and it also means freedom.

When we obey God, and you and I do, brethren, we are truly free. When we are inside God’s boundaries, that’s when you and I are truly free. In other words, within God’s boundaries, brethren, there are vast space, room to grow, room to thrive, and live fully, live the way that God intended. That’s the middle ground between freedom without boundaries and boundaries that restricts us. That’s that middle ground. That’s God’s mind on the matter, brethren.

Think about the Sabbath. You and I, we all keep God’s Sabbath. We know how to do that. But some, when they learn about the Sabbath, sometimes think about it as being restrictive. Our mind, just as Adam and Eve’s mind went immediately to the boundaries when Satan tempted them, our mind as human beings can go to the restriction of the Sabbath. I cannot play the sports that I’ve done in the past. My favorite sport is only on the Sabbath. I cannot go to the mall as I usually did in the past, or I cannot hang out with friends and family the way I did before. It feels restrictive.

But think about it this way, brethren. Think about the structure and the order that only the Sabbath alone brings to you and me. Not just to that one day, but actually to our whole week. My wife and I, even before I thought about and prepared this message, thought about this in detail. Spoke to each other when we, before we knew God’s truth, how we fell in and out of a weekend. Think about Sunday, that you came into the week unprepared, and ultimately it felt like a blue Monday when you hit Monday, or as people would say, Monday is back to reality. You felt like your routine was thrown out. For some reason, you didn’t know what was going on.

But once you begin to obey God’s Sabbath day, not just the Sabbath begins to become orderly, but each and every other day, there’s time that God allows us to prepare for a work week during Sunday. You get things done. You prepare, and you are much more at peace, and things are done decently, in order during the week. Not every week, but as you keep God’s law and keep the Sabbath, you see that that one day does that for us. It brings order in our time management.

What about your finances? I’m sure that before we came into God’s way, many of us, your finances was something that you worried about, constantly worried about. Now, when we begin to obey God, there’s a certain limit. When we pay tithes and we give offerings, we might say that ten minus one is nine. That means I’m restricted. I cannot do more with my money. But as you obey God for a long period of time, you begin to realize, “No, my money can stretch much further. If I obey God’s financial laws, my money can go much further.” You have more peace. You can do more with less than you have. God gives you blessings.

Brethren, what about all the other blessings? Opportunities, friendships, peace, and joy that you and I have living within God’s way, within His boundaries. Those are just a couple of examples, everyone. Within God’s boundaries, life becomes clearer, becomes more stable, more meaningful. We live the way we should, how God intended it. Now, I would like to pose a challenge as we think about the third point here, everyone

. Is there any boundary of God that God has established that you can think about that’s not connected in one way, shape, or form with the purpose to benefit us? Is there any of God’s boundaries, any of His laws, any of His commandments that are established that is not in some way or form connected to benefit you and me, that help us, to benefit us? Let’s go to Job chapter one. Job chapter one. And we will pick up in verse ten. The third point is, brethren, very simply, boundaries protect us. They are safeguards. They are there to protect us.

Let’s see, when Satan appeared before God in heaven, he spoke about Job. We can pick up in verse nine. “Then Satan answered the Lord, and he said, Doth Job fear God for nothing? Has not you made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he has on every side? That you has blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land?” “Haven’t you built a hedge around him, God?”

Brethren, God’s boundaries are described there as a hedge. He’s building a hedge, not a cage. He built a hedge. When you think about a hedge, when you go online and look at hedges, they are usually beautifully manicured boundaries. A hedge. It’s not a cage. Let’s go to Psalm thirty-four. God doesn’t want to restrict us. He wants to protect us. He wants to protect you and me. His boundaries are there to protect us.

Psalm thirty-four verse seven. Think about you and me, brethren. “The angel of the Lord encamps around about them that fear Him, and He delivers them.” You and I need protection. We can go deep into and give messages about that, brethren. But God encamps around us. When you talk about encamping, what does it mean? Usually, it’s an army that encamps around something to protect it.

Certainly, you and I need protection. We cannot always see the invisible protection that we receive. But the point is, brethren, if you and I obey God, do you see that hedge, that encampment around you each and every day that God protects us? Certainly, we want to stay within those boundaries. Certainly, we can see the purpose for those boundaries that if we are sheep, are in his pen, so to speak. We want to stay there and be protected.

Now, consider Christ’s words in Matthew. Let’s go to Matthew chapter seven. Matthew chapter seven and verse thirteen. I’m sure as we speak about boundaries, these two verses came to mind to you at some point, and I wanted to read them. Verse thirteen, Matthew seven, it says, “Enter you into the straight gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in there. Because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it.”

Straight means to be narrow, or tight, or confined. Narrow means to be difficult, disciplined, and restricted. Now, we talked a little bit about roads before, generally, but in the United States, there are about four point two million miles of roads, and you and I, brethren, are free to travel. When you go to the feast, you can rent a car, and you can travel wherever you want to go. You have the freedom to travel wherever you go, but there are boundaries on the road, aren’t there? Those hedges, we could say, those safeguards, those guardrails, prevents us from going into a ditch with our car, or even falling off a cliff. Think about those mountainous roads, there are guardrails to protect us.

The same way, brethren, God’s way are there... God’s way of life is there to protect us, to safeguard us. Almost like training wheels on a bicycle. I remember when my daughter was young, a point came that those narrow training wheels wasn’t enough anymore. They held her back. So, it’s, again, an example to a certain point, those training wheels. But they keep you upright. They keep you safe.

Let’s turn to Galatians chapter three. Galatians chapter three. Just one verse here, Galatians chapter three, and we will read verse twenty-four. Still thinking about God’s protection, His boundaries, His limits that protect us. Verse twenty-four. “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” If you read a little bit earlier on in the verses, it speaks about the laws of sacrifices that was added because of transgression, because of sin. But ultimately, those laws of sacrifices, they were a guide. A schoolmaster, ultimately, guiding the nation of Israel to Christ.

In the same way, brethren, we need guidance. As we are walking, remember we talked about coming out of the days of unleavened bread and moving forward to Pentecost, we are walking and we need guidance towards perfection, towards eternal life. That’s the direction that we are walking. The law of sacrifices was added to guide the nation. Brethren, God’s boundaries are there to guide you and me, to protect us. We do not always see the harm. We don’t have perfect vision, spiritual vision. We need guidance ultimately to get to the point where God wants us to be. That guidance that you and I need on a daily basis.

Let’s go back to where we started. Comparing bondage with freedom. Let’s go to Jude. Jude, there’s only one chapter, so we will read verse four. Comparing that free bird with the one in bondage. Comparing freedom with bondage, verse four of Jude. It says, “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of God,” the way that God intended us to live, “...into lasciviousness.” And what does lasciviousness means? We can just read on, and says, “...and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Lasciviousness means license to sin. In other words, they use the freedom that they’ve been given for an excuse to sin. The freedom that’s been given for an excuse to sin. And what does that lead to, brethren? Second Peter two and verse nineteen. Second Peter two and verse nineteen. While they promise them liberty,” the will promises people liberty, “...they themselves are servants of corruption. For of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.” Ultimately, brethren, here is the truth. Freedom without boundaries is not freedom at all. It leads back to bondage. So where does it leave you and me?

Again, we found that middle ground, brethren. God’s law of liberty, God’s boundaries, God’s freedom with boundaries. God has not only freed us from sin. He has shown us how to truly live. Boundaries, brethren, are part of life. They bring order and clarity. They bring protection and they will preserve us. The next time we see a boundary in God’s word, we should not ask, what is this boundary keeping me from? We should actually ask, what is this protecting me from? And where is it leading me towards? Because, brethren, true liberty is found not in doing what we want to do, but in living the way God intended.