All right, take your Bibles and turn to Joshua chapter number 19 or 13. Yeah, 13 would be better. Let's look at 13 first. So here's our sermon title for this morning. Why are there these borders and boundaries in the promised land? Why is the promised land filled with all these borders and boundaries? Let's look at chapter number 13 for just a moment, Joshua 13. I'll let you remain seated for just a moment as we kind of introduce this idea. Now, guests and visitors, we are preaching through the book of Joshua. And what I want to make sure I do not do is I miss something, miss something good, miss a great truth in one of these verses or in one of these chapters. Now, you say, why are you talking about missing something? Well, when you started, first, let's see, let's look at 15 of chapter 13. And Moses gave unto the tribe of the children of Reuben inheritance according to their families. And then from 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, it is nothing but a list of locations, cities, descriptions of the border for the area area that Reuben was to receive. And then the next seven chapters, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19, are dedicated to making sure that you know all the towns, all the cities, all the rocks, every river, every corner of this giant border. If you read through this in your daily devotions, you're like, wow, I can't even pronounce nearly any of these. And I can't even follow it mentally as he describes these locations. So what is the point of all this? There are 24 chapters in the book of Joshua. 25% of the book is dedicated to boundaries. Think about that. 24 chapters and over 6 chapters are dedicated just to communicating boundaries. Turn over to chapter 19. Zebulon, which is just a great name. Name your kid Zeb. That is a cool name. Any of these babies out there, you're not sure what to name your child in the womb. Zeb. That's just a, I mean, that's a man's name right there. And the third lot came up. Let's stand for the reading of God's word. And the third lot came up for the children of Zebulon according to families and the border of their inheritance was Sarid and the border went toward the sea and Malorala, however you pronounce it, and reached and then it's Dabasheth and reached onto the river. And it's almost embarrassing for me to see this because I can't do a very good job of reading it. And he turned to Sarid eastward toward the sun rising onto the border of Chislath to Tabor, and then goes to, and here's another location, and from verse 10 all the way until verse 16 is nothing but a description of the land that was allotted to Zebulun. And then in verse 17 to 23 is another description of the land that was allotted to Issachar. And then from 24 to 31 is another description of the land that was allotted to Issachar. Asher. And then you can see in 32 on is the land to Naphtali. And then you turn the page perhaps in your Bible and you get to the land that was given to Dan. And then you look at verse 49 and the land that Joshua receives. And suddenly you realize that I've been reading seven chapters of nothing but borders, descriptions. Now turn over to Acts 17 please. Acts 17. This is a sermon that the apostle Paul delivered to the men at Athens on Mars Hill. And in verse 23 says, I passed by an altar and on that altar was a devotion to the unknown God. I'd like to talk to you about that unknown God. In verse 26, Paul says that this unknown God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth. By the way, that's an amazing apologetic against evolution. One, not a multiplicity, one. And what did you do with these people? And God had determined the times before appointed. And what else has God done? And he made the bounds or the boundaries of their habitation. This morning, I wanna talk about borders and boundaries. Let's pray. Father, help us this morning. to speak with great clarity, conviction, carefulness, and compassion in Jesus name, amen. Would you be seated? Let me say to you this morning that as we get into this message, that I believe the Lord has laid down my heart from this unique idea of borders and boundaries in the promised land, that our intent is not to offend anyone. But there is a possibility that you might get offended. That's not the goal. There are no families in mind. There are no names behind any of this. Nothing like this. So please do not allow that adversary Satan to rob you of the potential of learning something this morning because you perceive that I crossed the line I shouldn't have. And instead of being sensitive to the Holy Spirit, you allow your mind to go a particular way and you get offended because there's a chance that that might happen. Because we're going to be very practical this morning. We're going to speak to the issues of our nation and the issues that we're struggling with as a people in America through this idea of borders and boundaries. Borders and boundaries. We surveyed, a few minutes ago, a quarter of the book. The quarter of Joshua is dedicated to describing geographical boundaries of portions of land given to each and individual particular tribe. And then with even greater specificity, Joshua's given a piece of land and Caleb's given a piece of land. And then we're going to see next week how each of the priests were given cities that they were responsible for. So we want to ask this morning, where's that clicker at, Joey? Alright, we'll find it. Here it is. We want to ask, what's the point of all this? And here's our thesis. The boundaries and borders in the promised land established by God and communicated by Joshua serve as a tremendous example for why 21st century Christians, that's us, need to establish in our own lives biblical boundaries. That's what we want to talk about. You see all these boundaries on this map up here. This is Judah right here. Here's Simeon inside Judah. There's Reuben right there in Gad's chunk land. West Manasseh and East Manasseh. There's Zebulon, what we read right there in chapter 19. That little tiny tribe right there is the Kars just south of the Naphtali, up north of them. See each of these little areas were in particular described with great detail so that we can reconstruct this map. The word border in the King James or boundary in the ESV is found over 50 times. Over 50 times. So obviously these borders and boundaries are important. What is a boundary? Well, a boundary is something that indicates a fixed or limit or an extent of it. It's establishing. It could be a line or a point or a circle, but it's something that says, that's the line, that's the point, no more beyond that. Chapter 13 begins with Reuben and chapter 19 ends with Dan. And we've got 12 tribes receiving a chunk of land. So you asked me this morning, preacher, what's all this about? Are we going to have any application today? Is there any relevancy to six, seven chapters devoted to boundaries? Let's get started. Point number one. Borders and boundaries help define ownership. They help define ownership. If you're taking notes, flip your bulletin over and jot that down. Borders and boundaries help define ownership. Ownership. But wait a minute, more than ownership, Responsibility. Borders and boundaries help us establish responsibility for particular tasks, sectors. I mean, imagine Joshua saying something like this. Go get them. They're out there. Have at it. How effective do you think that would be? How effective do you think that would be? You see, each tribe needed to be given a portion of land so that they would take ownership for it, or they would take responsibility for it. Why in the world do you feel the need of bringing this to our attention, preacher? Because we are living in a day and age in which fewer and fewer people are taking ownership. Ownership, personal responsibility. This is my car. This is my house. This is my porch. This is my yard. This is my responsibility. I need to take care of this. I made that mess. Those were my trash cans that created the mess in the road. And I need to clean that trash up. I told you we're gonna get very, very practical this morning. That's ownership. We're having a great, great struggle in America to get young people and middle-aged people and old people to take personal responsibility for themselves. You see, each tribe was given a particular sector of the promised land as an inheritance. Each of these sectors still had inhabitants that needed to be destroyed or driven out. Each sector had cities that needed to be conquered and subsequently reoccupied and rebuilt. And so when Joshua, the leader of God's people, said, that's your sector, there were implied tasks in that sector that had to be accomplished. Ironically, each of the tribes did not follow through. Many of them left the inhabitants and land. Even though they were responsible for that area, they did not follow through and do what they were told. Imagine the chaos if every Israelite was responsible for kicking every enemy out of every territory. How well would that have worked? How many of you have ever been in a group project and you spend so much time in the group project frustrated because individual responsibilities were not outlined? And everybody's responsible for everything and nothing gets done. Yes or no? Y'all need to get into this message this morning, because they said it's going to be very practical. This is a top-down view of the neighborhood I live in. One of these houses represents the house I live in. Each of these white lines are superimposed boundaries on there. This establishes who's responsible for mowing that grass, who's responsible for keeping those bushes cut, who's responsible for painting that house. You drive into a neighborhood in Fayetteville and you see much, much overgrown and houses in shambles. You know what the issue is? People are not taking ownership. They're not taking responsibility. You say, is this just a secular problem or do we have Christians having struggles with this area? The answer is there are born again people that have struggles with the same thing. You say, can you find a New Testament example of this? Yeah, let's turn over to Titus 1.5 and let's see if we can find a New Testament example of this. Titus, you find yourself in 1st or 2nd Timothy and you're almost there. Let's see if we can find a New Testament example of this same kind of idea. quickly flip those pages and let's find Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, somewhere around there, and then get the first, second Thessalonians, find some Timothy books, and then you'll find Titus, a little tiny letter, only three chapters long, and a simple idea from a simple verse. verse 5 it goes something like this Paul the apostle writing to Titus the preacher said for this cause for this reason I left you Titus in Crete for what reason Paul that you Titus should set in order the things that are wanting or lacking. And then what should I do furthermore? You should ordain elders in every city in the same manner that you were appointed do the same thing. What's your point preacher? Paul didn't say to Titus, go everywhere and fix everything. That wouldn't have worked. That wouldn't be very effective. Instead, Brian, what he says, you go to Crete. You take responsibility for that island right there. You take ownership of that island. And then that island, you identify the cities in that island. In that island, you figure out whether there are elders there or not. And if there are not elders, you appoint elders there. And you recognize on the island of Crete, get things fixed. He didn't say, go to Europe and fix the world. That would not have worked. Instead, he assigned them a particular island with particular responsibilities there, and it was Titus's responsibility to take ownership of Crete. You know what we need to do in this church? We need to take ownership of Fayetteville. We need to say, we can't fix America, and we can't fix North Carolina, and we might not be able to fix Cumberland County, but this is our city. And in our city, we're gonna make an impact. All right, number two, and this is it. This is a two-point sermon. We're gonna run out of time. We'll never get to three. Boundaries establish freedom and limits. Now let's recognize something this morning, because each of us are born depraved, in iniquity, according to Psalm 51. We have a bent towards being what? Negative. So the minute I say to you boundary, you think limit. You don't think freedom. You don't think I've got the freedom to do whatever I want within the boundary. You think someone is constraining me. Someone is limiting. Don't you put a boundary on me. Boundaries have a negative perception, don't they? We don't naturally think, wonderful, and now I'm thrilled to know my boundaries. And yet in reality, parents, in reality, parents, boundaries give your children great security. Great security. All right, let's go on. My experience has been for the last seven years as pastor of Brand, and I know my brother Brian can affirm that, and anyone else that works with people can affirm the fact that the lives of many Christians are like roads without lines. So it's no wonder that there are so many issues, problems, and accidents in their lives. You know why? They don't have personal boundaries in their lives. They don't have boundaries that limit their conduct and describe for them what direction they're going. They don't have a left and right limit. Their lives are absolute chaotic. It's like driving around in favor with no lines on the road. No lines. Can you imagine the chaos that would ensue if you came to church this morning and there was no red lights, no stop signs, no speed limits, no lines on the road? That would be unbelievable. What we need to begin to think of as we think about boundaries church is that within this side right here, I've got all the freedom I want to move forward. Instead of feeling like I cannot believe they got another line on the road that's constraining me. Say preacher, hey, hey preacher, we're not a legalistic church. Pastor Jonathan talked all about grace this morning. It sounds to me like you're getting ready to deliver one of those sermons that's legalistic. You know, you're trying to put us back under the law. You're going to give us a bunch of rules, and we're not interested in rules. So let's see. Let's turn to our Bibles and let's turn to 1 Corinthians and let's see if that's in fact the case. Let's see if the New Testament is absolutely free of guidance and only legalistic, law-bearing kind of guys would preach a sermon like this. Or could we find in the New Testament this morning, could we find indications of the need to put personal boundaries in our lives? Turn to 1 Corinthians 5, please. I want you to notice verse 11, please. Paul, the apostle, writing to the church at Corinth, which surely needed boundaries. wrote this, but now I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or a covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such a one know not to eat. Wait a minute. Hold on. That almost sounds like a boundary. Let's look at it. The ESV says, but now I'm writing to you not to associate with a particular person. Because why? They claim to be a brother, but their conduct is so unbecoming of Christians that it calls into question their very testimony. Wait a minute, you're telling me that I'm not to fellowship with them? That's correct. What you'll have to do is create a boundary between you and them. You know those kind of people. They bring you down. And the more time you spend with them, the more they impact you. And yet, for some reason, you will not put a personal boundary in your life. You will not say, I'm sorry, I cannot spend any more time with you. You're not helping me in my walk with the Lord. You're hurting me in my walk with the Lord. That's a boundary. That's a personal boundary. Preacher, can you tell me where to put it? No! I cannot tell you any more where to put the boundary than you can tell from me. But I will submit to you, both of us need boundaries. Let's turn over to Galatians, chapter number 5, and let's see if we can find a supporting idea. Galatians 5, just a little bit from where you're at. 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, and then we should be there. Galatians 5 and let's see if we have another kind of the idea Galatians 5 But if you be led by the Spirit, all right, so we're not talking about the law are we you're not under the law according to verse 18 you're led by the Spirit, but if you be led by the Spirit you are not under the law and Okay, that's what he says. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, and these are they, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envians, murders, drunkenness, reviles, and such like of which I tell you before, as I have told you in times past, that they which Do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Now isn't that interesting? I find that quite ironic because I know that any time the preacher gets up and declares that this is wrong, And this needs to be fixed in your life. You're almost immediately branded as a legalist, obnoxious fundamentalist, right-wing guy. Don't tell me what to do. We've left that behind. But hold on. Paul says, if you are led by the what? By the spirits. He didn't say the law. In fact, what does he say? You're not under the law. And then he goes on to say, after saying you're not under the law, that if these things characterize who you are, let's look at them, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, you're not gonna inherit the kingdom of God. So what I need to do, Meredith, is I need to put personal boundaries in my life to make sure I don't fall into fornication. I need to put personal boundaries in my life to make sure I don't get over here." I said, preacher, why are we addressing this this morning? Do you know what? I'm not sure in my seven years of being the pastor at Brian that I can remember a time where we haven't had somebody in the church dealing with adultery. In seven years. some family, some couple dealing with adultery. Say, how does it happen? We want to talk about that this morning. We want to talk about this failure to put boundaries in place. See, notice after Paul tells the church of Galatia that they are not under the law, he goes on to identify sins that are so serious that they that do these things are not going to inherit the kingdom of God. But you say, Pastor, it's not the boundary that saves us from our sin. To which I say, you're right! I agree, it's not the boundary. Nobody's saying these boundaries make you more pleasing to God. No one's saying these boundaries elevate your karmic. No one's saying anything like that. No, the boundary doesn't save you. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ that saves you. And all God's people say, but wait a minute. I want to say to you that the willingness and the desire to establish boundaries in my life is strong evidence of the presence of God's grace. The evidence of God's grace in my life, the evidence that I've received Christ and that I'm a recipient of the grace of God is manifested in the fact that I'm willing to have boundaries in my life, that I'm willing to eliminate things in my life, that I'm willing to restrain myself, that I'm willing to deny myself, and I don't do it of my own self-will. I do it by the grace of God. So here's the message this morning. Biblical boundaries are healthy. We need boundaries in our life. Christians who establish personal boundaries are denying themselves something. They might be denying themselves alcohol, or drugs, or extra food, or pleasure of all sorts, or maybe attention from an opposite sex. But pastor, isn't that legalistic? Isn't that mosaic? Aren't you trying to take us back to the 70s? Let's look at this text right here. Let's look at this text together on the screen. Titus says that the grace of God, the grace of God that appeared to all men, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, the revelation of God incarnate that saved you from your sin, that that same grace is teaching us to deny stuff. Wait a minute, to deny stuff? How would I deny myself something? I'll tell you how you deny yourself something. You create a personal boundary. And you say, within this boundary, I am lawful to enjoy this all I want. But outside of that, I will deny myself. Most of you know that I am just crazy about ice cream. I could eat ice cream seven days a week. I could eat ice cream at lunch and at dinner. I could eat ice cream all the time. One of the things I do in my house is I serve myself ice cream in a little small white cup. It's small. I mean, it's like this big. It's one of those little tea cups, you know, that the ladies have and you kind of like, you hold it like that. That's what I serve ice cream in. You know why? It establishes a limit. Now I'm free to enjoy the ice cream inside that cup as much as I want without feeling one bit guilty. You know why? Because in an appropriate portion. and I can enjoy that ice cream and just savor that ice cream. And I take every bite and I'll take that spoon and I'll turn it around like that. I mean, I'm gonna get every, but you know what? It comes to an end. And you know what? I don't feel one bit guilty after I've had that much ice cream. But we've got larger bowls in our house. They're this big. I mean, we've got larger bowls and I could fill that bowl up, but I would know after eating that much ice cream that I overate. See, what Satan does to you is he convinces you to think more about what you're not getting than enjoying what you do have. Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldliness, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. See, we have almost forgotten in the church in the 21st century that in order to live a godly life, I must deny myself of ungodly things. It's unbelievable where the church is going. The church in America is almost throwing off all boundaries under the guise of, we don't want to be legalists. Over eating or drunkenness. We want to be very careful in this area. Every person's body is different. Some people can't metabolize stuff the way others can. Some people have thyroid issues. So let's talk about overeating. Because clearly, America has a problem with overeating. See, obesity is not the sin. It's the overeating that's the sin. That means a skinny person could be guilty of the sin of a gluttony. There are people in our congregation that are just battling this and they are just doing everything they can to get this under control. But there are others that are not. And that same person who will be very critical of the person who has one beer will take his third trip to the buffet at Ryan's. What a hypocrite. You follow me or not? Are y'all connecting with me? See, we can't talk out of both sides of our mouth. See, it's very easy to beat up on one and not talk about the other. But instead, may I suggest to you that we need to establish personal boundaries in both areas? Both areas. There isn't a person in this room that doesn't know when you've overeaten. Every one of us does. We know. We know. We know what an appropriate portion is for ourselves. And we know when we're just pigging out. And somehow we justify these sins. We think of ourselves as better than the person who had five ounces of wine with their steak, as we have our fourth steak. And we're just gouged. We can't fit another bite in. Does the Bible speak about boundaries? Yeah, look at this one. It says, put a knife to your throat if you're given to appetite. Now church, does the author really mean put a knife to your throat? Of course not. What then is he describing? It's a boundary. It's a personal boundary. You establish a limit for yourself. You know, I'm prone to overeating. I'll order a smaller portion. I'm prone to having a struggle in this area. Stop going to places that have all-you-can-eat buffets then. You're not going to be victorious there. Learn to put personal boundaries in place to get a hold of your issues. Now, I want you to notice this morning in this sermon, I'm not telling you where the boundary is. This is not the preacher who knows everything and is trying to drive your life in a particular way. That's not what's happening. But what I am telling you is there's not a Christian in this room that doesn't need boundaries in their life. And you, between the Lord, pray and establish those boundaries. You, John, study the scripture. You, John, pray to the Holy Spirit. And then you establish those boundaries and then live within them as much as you can. Why are you bringing this up, preacher? Because I know. I know in a church of 1,200 people that are coming every other Sunday or so that there are Christians in this church that are struggling with this. I know that. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Nobody starts out saying, tonight I'm getting drunk. Not a Christian. Certainly guys out on Bragg and various college students, but typically a Christian doesn't say, tonight I'm getting drunk, because they know drunkenness is a sin. So they don't say, tonight I'm getting drunk, and suddenly they find themselves drunk, and they ask this question, how did this happen again? Let me answer it for you. You did not establish a personal boundary and stop at your boundary. Now, once again, I'm not establishing it. For myself, listen to me very closely, the boundary is zero. That's for me. That's for me. I'm not trying to tell you where your boundary should be unless you're on staff, and then you join me with zero if you like your job. But everyone else that's not on staff, you've got to figure out where your boundary is. But if you do not establish a personal boundary, stop asking yourself, how did I am drunk? Say preacher, is there anything more you can add from a scriptural perspective? Or is this, are you kind of crossing the line and getting into your own opinion now? Here's my thought. The ability to establish and live within personal boundaries according to the Word of God is further evidence of personal salvation and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. You say, where'd you get that from? Well, let's look at the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and what? Self-control. Self-control. The King James uses the word temperance. You know what it is? Self-control keeps me from getting drunk. Because I stop at my limit. I know what my limit is and I don't cross my limit. Let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter number 6. Go there in your Bibles. That'll cause you to wake up. If you're not in 1 Corinthians, you're sleeping. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. 1 Corinthians chapter six. Let's see what the apostle Paul has to say to us this morning about this idea. 1 Corinthians chapter six. Paul tells me this morning, 1 Corinthians chapter six, verse 12, all things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient. Hold on. He goes on to say, all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any." So here's what I want to say to you, brother and sister in Christ that's getting drunk, in Berean, as part of Berean, regular attender, visitor, you're getting drunk, you're under the power of alcohol at that time. You're not under your own power. You say things that you would not otherwise say. You do things that you would not otherwise do. You allow men to touch your bodies you otherwise would not be allowed to touch your bodies. You will take clothing off that you would never take off in a sober state. And why do you find yourself going from sober to drunk and half naked? Because you did not establish a personal boundary. That's why. And suddenly you're under the power of alcohol. You see, my brother and sister in Christ, when you are drunk, you've been under the power of alcohol. And the reason you are drunk is because you did not have a boundary, a boundary, a boundary that says no more. Let me ask you what you think when I show up at the restaurant that you're at and on the table where you're sitting is beer bottle after beer bottle after beer bottle after beer bottle. Does someone say, glory to God, another Christian's in the restaurant? We should be hearing a gospel presentation real soon. Is that the perception that immediately comes to your mind when you see that? Tell me, does it or not? So are you more concerned with your lack of boundaries and the freedom that you think you have in Christ or the testimony of God and His people and the church? Am I speaking to you this morning? Because I want to. Say, pastor, can you help us understand why we're talking to this? And preacher, aren't these personal matters? And shouldn't this be like off limits to you? And aren't you kind of crossing a line that you shouldn't cross? Would you go to Proverbs with me, please? And even though I'm gonna put the words on the screen in just a moment, I would actually like you to turn there, because I'm gonna ask you to take a pen out and jot a note down next to this verse. Brian, this verse is probably one of the most misquoted, misused verses in the entire Bible. Brian, this is the verse you use when you're a building program and you're trying to get God's people to give lots of money, but it has nothing to do with the verse. It's so misunderstood and misquoted, it's unbelievable. So let's look at it together. It's Proverbs chapter number 29, verse 18. Let's look at it first in the King James. The King James rendering is something like this, where there is no vision, the people perish, but they, or he, or she that keeps the law, happy is that person. Well, quite frankly, that vision is normally communicated as, we're building a new building, and that building is going to keep us from perishing, or something like that. It really is so unbiblical, it's not even funny. Actually, the ESV rendering is just excellent. It says, where there is no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint. I want to talk about that. when there's no prophetic vision. You see, the author of the proverb is saying, when there are not preachers painting a picture with words. The author of the proverb is saying, when there aren't prophets receiving from God divine communication and then communicating by words that picture of what God expects, when there are no prophets communicating truth, when there are people that are not saying, thus saith the Lord, that there is a right and a wrong, that there is good and evil, that there is behavior that's expected of God's people, when there isn't a prophet on the ground who's declaring with great authority right and wrong, and with narratives and stories, painting pictures, vision, that the people can see with their own eyes and hear with their own words. When that absence of prophetic vision exists in a country, the people cast off restraint. There are two reasons why I take off my jacket when I'm preaching. I couldn't wait to get to this point so I could finally illustrate it. Number one, I'm either hot or number two, I can't stand the constraint. I feel like I don't preach well when I'm in a jacket. I want to rip it off, get it off, because I feel less restrained. And when I feel less restrained, I feel like I can move more, that I have less something constraining me. Here's my thought for you. This blue, navy blue jacket right here, blue, navy blue jacket, yeah, that's kind of redundant. This jacket right here is a restrainer on me. And so when I don't hear from the Lord, when the message of right and wrong is not routinely being presented in my life, I'm ready to throw it off and let it go. I get rid of the personal boundaries. I throw those personal boundaries off, that they're limiting to me, they're affecting my conduct. I'd like to get in bed with that person, but I've got a boundary that limits it. So what I need to do is I need to cast off that boundary so that I can be unrestrained and fulfill my carnal desires. Hold on. Preacher, can you illustrate this? Is there any way you could illustrate this for us this morning? How many remember what the Israelites were doing at the bottom of Mount Sinai when Moses, the preacher, was up communing with God for 40 days and 40 nights? You see, they hadn't heard from Moses for 40 days and 40 nights. There was no prophetic voice. There was no vision. Moses was up there with God. And what were the people of God doing down at the bottom of the hill when Moses, the prophet of God, wasn't speaking into their lives every day? They were casting off restraint. Moses comes back and says, hey, Aaron, how'd this golden calf get here? And Aaron says, well, I don't know, it just kind of appeared. I don't know, I mean, it just came, like it's just here. and why are you laying with her but you're not married to her? And why are you, get dressed, and why are you drunk? See, without a prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint. I believe, please listen to me, young people, I believe the reason where we are at in America, with the casting off of restraint is because the preachers are no longer communicating a prophetic vision. You know what they're doing? They're having conversations. They're having dialogues. They're not standing up from the pulpits of America, boldly declaring, this is the only book God wrote. Instead, they're saying things like this. There are life lessons in here. There are wonderful stories in here. This is no longer the authoritative book that should be boldly proclaimed with great clarity. Instead, nice stories are communicated, clever tales are told, entertainment occurs, nice jokes are communicated, and in the end, everyone walks away feeling a lot better about themselves, and no one is convicted of sin. I'll submit to you that as the pulpits of America grew more and more silent, that more and more Americans cast off restraint. They just cast it off. That's why, please listen, that's why we're struggling so much with getting young people to stay in the church. At 19, 20, 21, 22, they can't wait to cast off the restraint. We need to teach them, listen to me, to establish personal boundaries in their lives and live within those boundaries. Wow, we're way out of time. Preacher, is there any way you could kind of communicate this in the 21st century? Wrap it up. Do you have an illustration of this today in the 21st century? I'm glad you asked. The upper right-hand corner on the screen is Brian Holloway. Brian Holloway was an NFL football player, an ex-NFL football player. He played for the New England Patriots. He has two homes. He has a home in Florida and he has a home in upstate New York, right on the western Massachusetts border. In Labor Day weekend, about three weekends ago, Labor Day weekend, Brian and his family were down in Florida enjoying the good weather in Florida. The house was in Upper State, New York, and it was empty. It was empty. It was an empty rural house that he vacations in. Until some teenagers who were casting off restraint decided that that would be a great place to party. So those teenagers crossed the first boundary. The boundary was the property line. Remember those things? They establish who owns the land. A property line? It's on a 200-acre farm. And then they moved forward in their vehicles and got to the door. Amazingly, the door was locked. Imagine that. The door was locked, but that did not restrain them. They kicked it in. Then in order to have more ways into the house, they moved left and right to the windows. Amazingly, the windows were closed and there was glass on the windows, establishing a boundary to keep something in and something out. But these teenagers cast off the restraint and kicked in the glass so they could enter the home. But that wasn't enough, Brian. Then they decided they needed to get upstairs. And so instead of using the stairs, they went out to the outbuilding, got a ladder, climbed up on the second floor, and broke more windows. When they were inside, it was not peanut butter and jelly and whole milk that they were drinking. Instead, they commenced to bringing kegs into the house. Kegs of beer. By the way, that's what you're associating yourself with when you insist on drinking, Christians. They took those kegs of beer and they drugged them across his oak hardwoods, creating huge gouges in the hardwood. Of course, people who drink and drink and drink, they need to urinate. And so instead of using that normal method of going to the bathroom in a toilet, they found corners in his living room and commenced to draining themselves any old way they wanted to. But they weren't done with beer. They were not done with alcohol. They brought drugs into his house. You take alcohol, you take drugs, and suddenly you have teenagers acting like that. But of course, we cannot keep it to ourselves. And so we take our apps on our iPhones and we decide that we need to share what we're doing with the entire world. And so we start tweeting. Brian down in Florida initially thinks, oh my goodness, what a joke. Until he sees pictures of people inside his home and suddenly realizes this is not a prank. Someone's really in my home. Suddenly, tweets are just exploding. Instagram pictures are everywhere. And the numbers are over 300 teenagers converged on his property. And they cast off utter restraint. The personal boundaries of personal property were completely ignored. But it doesn't stop there, folks. Those teenagers decided that the restraint of a shirt needs to come off. The restraint of pants needs to come off. The restraint of underwear needs to come off. So all types of perversion is occurring in his house. Does the story end there? No. No, it doesn't. The story continues. Brian decides that he's going to try to help bring some clarity to the lives of these teenagers who obviously are troubled youth. And so he begins to upload the pictures that they uploaded to the web to a particular website so that parents could identify their sons and daughters. And so at this point, we would expect that the parents would take personal responsibility for the conduct of their young people and to begin writing checks to Brian Holloway for the damage that their son or daughter did. But that's not what happened. Instead, they do what most Americans do. They contacted a lawyer and threatened litigation for posting the pictures that their own children posted on the web. Now folks, listen to me very closely. We are now living in the day and age in which good is called evil and evil is called good. We're now here. We're not wondering about when are we going to get there. We're not talking about someday in the future. We're there. Right now, we're there. And you young people that refuse to put personal boundaries in your lives, where you feel like these personal boundaries are legalistic and obnoxious, and you don't want to be part of a fundamental church that's got obnoxious, ridiculous standards, let me just get out of here and go somewhere else where I'm not challenged with a prophetic voice from a preacher, are completely misunderstanding the grace of God. You're completely misunderstanding the gospel. God did not save you from the miry clay so that you could go get in another pig pen. You were saved from the debauchery of this filthy world so that by the grace of God and in the power of the Holy Spirit, under the influence of the gospel, you would establish personal boundaries in your life and you would say, this is my limit. And you will not associate with those that cross those lines. I'm right here. Last story. This is Jack Scopp. Jack Scopp was the preacher of the largest independent fundamental Baptist church in the United States. 15,000 members. Giant independent Baptist church. That's his portrait on the left side of the screen. That's his portrait on the right side of the screen. The portrait on the right side of the screen represents his picture as an inmate in a federal prison. You say, what's he doing there? Scop, the preacher, refused to live within personal boundaries. personal boundaries. In fact, the reason he's in federal penitentiary is because he crossed two boundaries. He crossed the Michigan boundary in order to take a minor child up to his cabin in Cadillac, Michigan to engage in counseling. But there was no counseling going on. He took that same minor child and crossed another boundary into the state of Illinois for more counseling, but there was no counseling going on. At the height of their relationship, there were 600 tweets a month, I mean, text messages a month going between this minor child and this 50-year-old preacher. Do you know why that was happening, church? Because there were no boundaries established, no personal boundaries. All restraint was cast off. Wait a minute. Were there evidences of the grace of God? Yes, there were. There was a staff member who confronted him with his sin, and he fired him. See, that's what happens in this church. What do you mean, preacher? This church? What are you talking about? It's when some brother or sister in Christ comes to you and graciously tries to breathe into your life some grace. And they suggest to you, you sure are spending a lot of time with that person. Maybe you need to exercise some restraint and you tell them, mind your own business. Actually, that's the grace of God coming down into your life. Hold on, the story gets worse. There were staff members bringing the child to him. How does this happen, preacher? How does this happen? A culture is created in which no one has personal boundaries. That's how it happens. No personal boundaries. A man or woman elevates themselves above personal boundaries and decides that all things are lawful for them and that no one can speak into their lives. And suddenly, when the grace of God is bringing someone into your life that's helping you, whether it be your conscious or the Holy Spirit or a brother or sister in Christ, and bring into your attention your drunkenness or your overeating or your flirtatious appetite or your eyes that won't stop wandering, you ignore them. And suddenly, you find yourself doing things that you would never, ever do. And the reason is there are no personal boundaries in your life. Let's pray. Father in heaven, this morning, our plea to all of God's people is to hear the urgent plea to bring personal boundaries into their lives so that adulterous relationships do not begin with an innocent text message or a dinner engagement or a look. That drunkenness doesn't begin. that sexual immoral behavior doesn't start. The message from the Word of God is abundantly clear. It's not legalistic. It's filled with grace. I pray that if there's anyone this morning that's struggling in a particular area, that they would earnestly and diligently seek to establish a personal boundary in their life to help get them right. And I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.