Psalm 16

Don’t Eat the Forbidden Fruit (by Rev. Morgan Murray)
Whenever your kids are out of control, you can take comfort from the thought that even God’s omnipotence didn’t extend to God’s kids. After creating  heaven and earth, God created Adam and Eve. And the first thing he said was:

"Don’t."

"Don’t what?" Adam replied

"Don’t eat the forbidden fruit." God said.

"Forbidden fruit? We got forbidden fruit? Hey Eve! We got forbidden fruit!"

"No way!"

"Yes way!"

"DON’T EAT THAT FRUIT!" Said God.

"Why?"

"Because I am your Father and I said so!" said God, wondering why he hadn’t stopped after making elephants.

A few minutes later God saw his kids having an apple break and was  angry.

Didn’t I tell you not to the fruit?" the First Parent asked.

"Uh huh," Adam replied.

"Then why did you?"

"I dunno," Eve answered.

"She started it!" Adam said.

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did NOT!"

Having had it with the two of them, God’s punishment was that Adam and Eve should have children of their own. Thus, the pattern was set and it has never been changed. Sound a bit familiar?

We expect our children to obey, because we are looking out for their  best interest. But then we turn around to our loving Heavenly Parent and act the same way as our kids. We wrestle with God. We question God and his wisdom. We question his loving care for us. We question the God who has chosen us; who has adopted us and grafted us into his family. We question the God who gave his only Son to die on a cross for us. We question the God who created us and knows us better than ourselves. We question the God all-knowing, all-powerful, always present.

But this is the God who gave us free will that we might choose to obey, choose to follow, and choose to love him.

Teach your children
Ephesians 6.1-4; Proverbs 22.6; Proverbs 23.13-14

As you teach your children, you give them more and more freedom. It is your goal to raise them to one day be independent.

Trust God
At the same time God teaches us more and more and so that we can trust him more and more and depend on him more and more.

One of my favorite passages is Psalm 16.6: "The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places." That’s a reassuring passage to me. It tells me God is watching over me.  That he has a hedge of protection around me. That he is guiding me.

Families with small children who live near a road sometimes put a fence up: to protect their children; so that when they don’t know any better they don’t wander out onto the street. As children get a little older they may figure out how to open the gate. And they test the boundaries.

And we do the same with God. Sometimes we bump into God’s boundaries and we think, I’m older now. I know a little more now. I think these boundary lines need moved out a little bit. Or we need to test the boundaries to see if God really does know what is best.

Adam and Eve were given boundaries, “Don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” They began to wonder, “But why?” “I wonder what it tastes like?” And Satan comes and after questioning Adam and Eve, says, “Surely you will not die.”

None of us likes to feel “boxed in.” But sometimes, we feel God’s boundaries and we feel boxed in. We see other people doing other things and we wonder, “Why can’t I do that?” “It doesn’t seem to be hurting them.”

God’s Boundaries

Sabbath Boundaries
Even a lot of people who are not Christians are good at taking a day of rest. Putter around the house. Have brunch guests over. Spend time with the family. And this is Father’s Day today, so what about the priority of family?

Read Matthew 10.37-39. This is a more specific paraphrase of the first commandment. “Have no other god’s before me.” Put nothing before me, not even family.

God’s boundaries help us prioritize. Love God and he will teach you to  love one another. Discover God’s love and you will discover how to truly love your family.

The charge of Ephesians 6.4 4 is, "Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord." Caution: Love of God is not equated to church work. If you live at the church and are consumed with the work of the church, your family can suffer. God first; family second; then the work of the church. A good guideline is one hour of worship, one hour of ministry, one hour of Bible Study each week.

“Work smarter; not harder.” Invisible line, the harder you work the less effective your work is.

Financial Boundaries
"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." (Matthew 6.24)

This is another specific example of the first commandment. “Have no other god’s before me.”  Are you going to trust God’s boundaries? Or rely on self? Are you going to give to God what is his?

Malachi 3.8-11

Another family application: Where do you balance family and work? Is providing financially for your family the same as spending time with them? Does financial provision equate with love? Where are the boundaries?

Sexual Boundaries
One message from the Song of Solomon: "never awaken love before it is ready." Sex is a gift of God to a man and woman who covenant together in marriage. The world, however, shows us a different picture. Our young people are pressured by other voices.

Statitistics indicate that those who live together are twice as likely to get divorced after they do marry. Studies show that the more premarital sex you have, the less likely you’ll be happy in your future marriage and the more likely that you or your spouse will cheat after you’re wed. Married couples are less likely to have a satisfactory sex life if they live together first. Married couples reported being the most physically pleased and emotionally satisfied. Physical and emotional satisfaction started to decline when people had more than one sex partner.

TV/movies do not show the consequences: teenage pregnancy, 1.2 million children born each year without fathers (disadvantage socially, financially, emotionally, behaviorally, academically, and even
physically), 1 out of 7 high school students graduate with STD, AIDS.

1 Corinthians 6.16-19

Will we trust God? Will we trust his boundaries? That they are for our good.

Test them and see if you can say, "The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places" (Psalm 16.6).

As we continue our look at some aspects of the fruit of the Spirit,
today we look at mission passion. Passion is a deep, yearning desire in
your heart, and mission passion is a passion for God’s mission.

We’re going to look at an event that took place early in David’s life, and is one of the greatest Bible stories. (Read 1 Samuel 17). David was a man after God’s own heart; he was a man of great passion and courage, and we certainly see that in this story.

The Philistine and Israeli armies gathered on opposing hills 15 miles
west of Bethlehem overlooking the Elah Valley. Each army waited for
the other army to take the offensive and go down into the valley. But
instead, the giant named Goliath, the champion warrior of the Philistine surprised the
Israelite army by challenging them to send their best warrior for
single, hand-to-hand combat to settle the dispute. Goliath said, "I defy the armies of
Israel! Send me a man who will fight with me!"

Goliath, in a full suit of armor (weighing at least 125 pounds), and
carrying extremely heavy weapons put fear in Saul and his army. In fact,
Scripture says, “When Saul and the Israelites heard this, they were
terrified and deeply shaken.” For 40 days, Goliath terrorizes the
Israelites, taunting them morning and evening.

Finally, a young guy, named David, comes along and overhears Goliath’s
threats and challenges.  David’s father, Jesse, had sent him to
take supplies to his three brothers who were members of Saul’s army.
David observes what’s going on, and he wonders why no one is doing anything
about it!

David’s passion for God gives him courage
After a brief squabble with his older brothers on the frontlines, David convinces Saul to
let him go up against Goliath, saying, "Don’t worry about a thing. I’ll
go fight this Philistine!" Even though Saul thought that was
ridiculous at first, David convinces him to give him a chance noting
how God has used him in the past when taking care of his father’s
sheep, protecting them lions and bears. Saul consents, "All right, go
ahead. And may the LORD be with you!"

Wear your own armor
David learned a valuable lesson, and teaches us one as well. Saul gave
David his armor to fight Goliath, but it didn’t fit and David was
unfamiliar with it. So David stuck with his own set-up, and chose to rely on the way God had
shaped him. We, too, we need to wear our own armor, living the way God has shaped us.

Rick Warren talks about the importance of knowing your SHAPE: Spiritual gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality, and Experience. Just as each of our sets of DNA and fingerprints are different, so is our shape.

David takes a risk
Goliath walked toward David with his shield bearer ahead of him,
sneering at him. But David, unfazed, says, "You come to me with sword,
spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD
Almighty—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. Today
the LORD will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head.
And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild
animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel!
And everyone will know that the LORD does not need weapons to rescue
his people. It is his battle, not ours. The LORD will give you to us!"

As Goliath moved closer to attack, David ran toward Goliath! David’s
passion gave him courage, which led him to take a risk for God. There’s
a great line in the movie, "Princess Diaries 2," in which
Princess Mia is being trained to become queen as her grandmother
prepares to retire. Mia is struggling with the whole process, but the
turning point comes with words of wisdom from her father,
"Courage isn’t the absence of fear, but the judgment that there
is something more important than  fear." She makes her choice to
follow her calling rather than her fears, and so does David.

David was a catalyst
After David conquers Goliath, the whole army of Israel is filled with
courage and they charge the Philistine army in what becomes a great victory for the Israelites, but it all started when
one passionate person took a risk!

What is God calling you to do? What is God calling you to risk?
I can’t think of anywhere in Scripture where God asked someone to do
something easy. God always, it seems, calls us to do something that is
bigger than ourselves. What is God calling you to do?

Quotes & Resources

Quotes from Bishop Dan Solomon at the 2005 CPC Annual Conference …

 
• “I’ve never seen a mission statement yet that came with the batteries included.”

 

• “God is a missionary God, and God is asking what happened to the missionary church?”

 

• “Mission is not an add-on; it’s at the very heart of who we are!”

 

• “Has anyone asked you lately about the hope you have? If not, why not?”

“The core problem is not that we are too passionate about bad things,
but that we are not passionate enough about good things.” (Larry Crabb)

“The world is full of the walking weary. Yet that is not the life that Jesus called us to live.” (A Passionate Life, Mike Breen & Walt Kallestad; lifeshapes.com)

SoulSalsa: 17 Surprising Steps for Godly Living in the 21st Century (Leonard Sweet)

 
• “I must learn to count on one thing: life never turns out as you
  expect it will. In other words, I must learn how to play. Life is about
  playing.”

 

• “A whole-soul existence is not an ‘in-control’ life; it’s an
  out-of-control life. Disciples of Jesus don’t want the upper hand. God
  gets the upper hand. All of life is placed with God’s control.”

 

• “Start each day with these words: ‘Today, in every action I take,
  in every word I say, I am going to love God with everything in my
  soul.’”

“I believe that one of life’s greatest risks is never daring to risk.” (Oprah Winfrey)

“Wherever there is fear, there is opportunity. Wherever there is great fear, there is great opportunity.” (Andy Stanley)