Today is part 7 of the Guardrails series. We're finally wrapping this up and so if
you're tired of seeing these guardrails up there we'll be taking them down this
week but that doesn't mean you take the guardrails down around your heart, right?
Some of our life groups are also doing this study and so I've made discussion
questions for them to use and you can download those at our website at argile.church.
You can also get a copy out in our welcome center of those discussion
questions. If you're not currently in a life group you can see someone in our
welcome center and they'll give you more information about how you can also be a
part of a life group. Next Sunday we begin a new study in the book of Jeremiah
called Stand Tall, Carrying Enough to Seek God's Will and Having the Courage to
See it Through. We'll begin that next Sunday. Our mission at the Church at Argyle
is to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. That's
what we're all about. Our calling is to be a church for people who don't like
church. We believe that we should all connect with others and we think the
best place to do that is in a life group. We think that we should all use our
time and talents to serve each other. We believe that we should all give
generously and that we should invest in the lives of others and invite them to
get involved here at Argyle. Guardrails. We all know what a guardrail is. We
probably don't pay much attention to them. Nobody does until you actually need
one and then we're so thankful that it's there. A guardrail is something designed
to protect us to keep us from drifting into dangerous areas. You usually find
guardrails in one of three areas. You find guardrails on bridges because bridges
don't have much room for mistakes. You find guardrails on medians because we're
moving real close to people who are going in the opposite direction and that
can be very dangerous. You also find guardrails around curves because there
are unexpected changes in direction and that requires extra protection. Guardrails
aren't found on the most dangerous parts of the road. Guardrails are located on
parts of the road where you could actually drive. The reason for a guardrail
isn't telling us we can't drive on this part of the road. It's what is on the
other side of the guardrail is where the danger is. The theory of a guardrail is
that if you hit the guardrail you will do less damage to your body or to your
car than if you hit what is on the other side of the guardrail. That's the idea
behind a guardrail. We were talking about guardrails but not as they relate to
driving but how this principle can apply to other areas of our life because I
think we would all agree that the greatest mistakes in our life, relationally
the biggest mistakes financially, morally, ethically, in our marriage, our
biggest mistakes probably could have been avoided if we would have had some
guardrails in our life. So for the last six weeks we've been using the guardrail
as an illustration of how this principle can protect different areas of our
life. So this is our definition of this kind of invisible personal guardrail
that we can put in place to protect our life. A personal code of conduct that is
connected to my heart. It's personal. That's what we mean by connected to my
heart. That means that these guardrails that we're coming up with are just for
you. It isn't for everybody. It isn't the law for everyone. It's specific just for
you. Now here's the two verses that we've been talking about that I want you to
remember. Perhaps you could memorize these as we consider putting up guardrails
in our life. Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 23, above all else, guard your heart for
everything you do flows from it. One of the best ways to guard your heart is
to have personal invisible guardrails. And then Proverbs 22 verse 3, the wise see
danger ahead and avoided, but fools keep going and get into trouble. So for six
weeks we've been talking about these personal codes of conduct and we've all
had a chance to consider the value of putting these guardrails up in our life.
So why would some of us still choose not to use them? One reason might be that we
think it's a great idea for our family and our friends. We think it's a great
idea for everyone else. We hope that our kids are listening to this. I hope that
my spouse does this, but it's just not for me. I'm fine. I'm okay. I'm good. The
wise see danger ahead and avoid it, but fools keep going and get into trouble.
Another reason could be that having guardrails could actually get in the way
of what I want to do. We want to do some things that we know that guardrails will
only hold us back from. So we think things like this. Okay, I'll be honest. I
don't want to give. I want to spin. I don't want to put up guardrails at work
because flirting is fun. I like the way it makes me feel when I talk with the
married guy at work about his marriage problems. That's not a sin anyway. Me
looking at porn doesn't hurt anybody. It's my business anyway. You can keep your
guardrails. We want to get as close to the edge as possible, but refusing to set
up guardrails does not take away the temptation. It only increases the
consequences. Giving in does not take away the pressure. It just makes it
harder to say no. Refusing to set up guardrails does not solve anything. All of
us know that there is a line somewhere that we should not cross, and if we
refuse to set up guardrails, it doesn't solve anything. All it does is make it
easier for us to cross that line, and when we do, there will be more damage done.
Our appetites, whatever they are, are never fully satisfied. You never eat a
meal that you never need another meal. Just like you, I've enjoyed some amazing
meals in my life. Donna and I are blessed to be in a life group where we eat
dinner together every week, and our life group host, Lori Krantz, is an amazing
cook. Each week she prepares a delicious meal. After one of those meals would be
a perfect time for me to begin a new diet, because I am full and satisfied, and
at that moment, I don't care if I ever eat again. But guess what happens in
about 12 hours? Some eggs and bacon sound really delicious. You never eat a
meal that you never need another meal, and whatever it is that you have an
appetite for, food, stuff, money, power, drugs, sex, alcohol, tobacco, attention,
whatever it is, they will never be fully satisfied in your life, never. And that's
why we all need personal, invisible guardrails, a personal code of conduct
that is connected to my heart to protect us from our appetites, and the further
you stay back, the better. So let me tell you a story from the Bible, and then all
this talk about food is making me hungry, so we're going to go to lunch after I
tell you this story from the Bible. About 600 BC, there was a king named Nebuchadnezzar
who lived in what is now modern day Iraq, and he decided to take over the city of
Jerusalem, which is in Israel. Nebuchadnezzar was a smart guy, and when he
would attack a city, instead of just destroying everything, he gave his
commanders instructions that they should capture the royal family. Usually the
royal family was the most educated, the most talented, the healthiest, the best
looking of all the people. So they were to go into the city and take captive the
best people and bring them safely back to Babylon. They would put those people
into a training program. He would slowly begin to remove all of their culture
and replace it with the Babylonian culture. His capital city of Babylon
became a magnificent city, full of the best, most educated, most talented, best
looking people from all over the world. So the king conquers Jerusalem, and he
takes captive Israel's best people. For those people, you may have heard of
Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They were part of the group that the
king captured in Jerusalem and brought back to Babylon. So he brings these
people from all over the world, and he begins his training process with the
goal of removing their heritage and all of their beliefs and replacing it with
Babylonian beliefs. And here's how the story begins in Daniel chapter 1 and
verse 5. The king, this is king Nebuchadnezzar, assigned them to a daily
amount of food and wine from the king's table. Now usually when you're captured
and thrown in prison, you're lucky to get bread and water because they're in a
special program. They're fed right from the king's table, the very best food and
the very best drink. They were to be trained for three years, and after that
they were to enter the king's service. So Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
were captured, and they thought that they were going to die in a prison or maybe
worked to death as slaves in a work camp. But here they are living in the
king's palace, eating the king's food and receiving a free education. It seemed
that this was going to be awesome. They were to be trained for three years, and
after they finished the three-year program, they would take a test and then
only the very best of all of them would get the work for the king and live in
his palace. I mean it doesn't get any better than this, but Daniel saw through
the whole plan. He realized what was about to happen. They had given him new
clothes. They had given him a new name, Bel Shazzar, and slowly they would begin
to take away everything he believed, everything he knew, everything that he
had faith in, and one day he would wake up as a Babylonian if he didn't do
something. Daniel recognized something that many of us completely miss when it
comes to the influence of culture, and here's what he saw that many times we
don't see. Refusing to set up guardrails does not take away the temptation. It
only increases the consequences. Giving in does not take away the pressure. It
only makes it harder to say no. Refusing to set up guardrails does not solve
anything, and Daniel knew better than that. Giving in does not take away the
pressure. It just makes it harder to say no. If you cheat once, it's easier to
cheat the next time. Once you take on a bunch of debt, it's just easier to take
on more debt. Once you abuse alcohol and drugs, it's easier the second time. Once
you believe a lie from culture, it's easier to believe the lie the second
time. The pressure doesn't go away. It's just harder to say no, and Daniel saw
this and realized that they've changed my clothes, they've changed my name, they've
changed where I live, and I see where this is going, and one day I will completely
give up everything I believe if I don't take a stand now. And so Daniel decided
to do something that all of us should also do, and here's what the Scripture
tells us in verse 8. Daniel resolved. Another translation says it this way.
Daniel made up his mind in Daniel chapter 1 verse 8, but Daniel resolved not to
defile himself with the royal food and wine. He asked the chief official for
permission not to defile himself this way. People have guessed why Daniel did
not want to eat the food and drink the wine. One guess is that the food and wine
had been offered to Marduk or one of the Babylonian gods, and to eat this food
would be acknowledging that these gods exist. Another explanation is that Daniel
is Jewish, and he didn't know if the food was kosher, and to eat it would be
violating the Mosaic law. But what we do know is this, that he decided that they
could push and push, but this is as far as he will go. If you grew up in Sunday
school you know how this story ends, and it ends up good for Daniel, but this is
what's so cool about this story. Daniel resolved. Daniel made up his mind before
he knew how this story would end. Daniel made up his mind, and he hadn't even
read the book of Daniel yet. He's just a teenager. He had been captured and taken
away from his home, and he had just insulted the most powerful people in
all the world by saying that eating their food would defile him. This could
cost him his life, but he made this decision. He made up his mind because he
knew where this was leading him. You see, the wise see danger ahead, and they
avoid it, but fools keep going, and they get into trouble. So Daniel asked the
chief official for special permission. He said, my friends and I, we cannot eat
this food. I know this could be a problem, but we just cannot eat it. And now
look at this next verse. The first two words change everything. And Daniel
chapter one, verse nine, now God. This is and should always be the most important
part of every decision that we ever make. God should always be at the center. As
you're deciding, if you're going to put up guardrails or not, as you think about
your life and your future and the decisions you need to make, this is the
part that many times you forget the factor in, and this is the part that
Daniel knew not to leave out. It's the now God part. We'll come back to this in
a minute. Let's finish the story. Verse nine, now God had caused the official to
show favor and compassion to Daniel. You see, because of God, Daniel and his
friends would not have to eat the king's food for 10 days, and then the
official could test how healthy they were. After 10 days, Daniel and his
friends were healthier than everyone else who ate the king's food, so they
were allowed to continue not to eat it. Verse 17 says, to these four young men,
God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning.
After three years, these four guys were tested by the king, and he found them to
be 10 times wiser than anybody else in the kingdom. You see, that's the kind of
stuff that happens. That's the kind of stuff that God does when we trust him,
but we are in such a hurry to solve our problems ourselves that most of the time
we don't even consider God. We're gonna fix it, or we're gonna find someone to
fix it for us, or we're gonna hire a professional fixer, and usually God is
not even considered as an option until we're at the end of our rope, and
there's nowhere else to turn, no one else to turn to, and then we finally come to
church. Then we finally pray. When Jesus should be the center of our life, we
live as if he's not in our life at all. Thank God for his mercy and his grace to
us. The now God part is that God will not only use guardrails to protect you, but
also to direct you. Because what happens from this part of the story on, because of
Daniel's resolve, because Daniel made up his mind, this was the thing that God
used to direct the rest of his life. Had he not made this decision, we would not
be telling this story today. There would be a book called Daniel Missing from the
Bible. There would not be Daniel in the lion's den. There would be no fiery
furnace. That guardrail that Daniel set up became a defining moment in his life,
and God used that defining moment to direct his entire future from that moment
on. You would be amazed at the number of times that God becomes the most real and
gives the clearest direction in life when we make up our mind to set up guardrails
in our life. Maybe we weren't even praying for God's will in our life, but in a
moment of temptation, in a moment of trial, we decided, we resolved that it
was time to set up some guardrails. Maybe we weren't even trying to make a
decision about direction in our life, but God used that guardrail to not only
protect us, but to direct us. The summer before my junior year in college, I took a
job as a music director at a summer camp in Central Florida, and you would think
that would be okay. But the summer before, I had worked as a music director at
Donna's father's Bible camp in Georgia, and he was expecting me to come back the
next summer. But he didn't know or understand that I was in the process of
running from the ministry which I knew God's will was for my life. So I had the
choice to work at a Bible camp or a non-religious camp, and since I was doing
the Jonah thing, I opted for the non-religious camp. Donna and I had been
dating for over a year at that time, and I decided to break off our relationship
before I headed for the camp. That was also part of my running from God, because
I knew she was part of God's will for my life, too. I had been at the camp in
Central Florida for about a month. When unknown to me, Donna had called the camp
director to see if they needed any help. He hired Donna to come work with the
horses at the camp for a few weeks, but she wasn't coming to work with the horses.
She was coming to work on me, so thank God for a lady with some spunk.
So she hadn't come after me that summer. Who knows who I'd be today?
So God used her visit to change my life.
After she left, I had some quality time with God, and like Daniel, I resolved not
to defile myself, drew a line in the sand, set up some guardrails, and decided
to make Jesus the center of my life. And God used those guardrails that I've only
protected me, but to direct me. And I believe it's because of those guardrails
that summer that I'm sitting here today. No one who has ever set up personal
guardrails has ever regretted it. But there's a lot of us who look back and
wish that we had. The wisest man who ever lived said, above all else, guard your
heart for everything you do flows from it. So the question I want all of us to
answer today is Jesus the center of my life. So if in this series you've been
challenged to set up a personal guardrail, maybe financially, maybe in your
relationships, maybe in your friendships, in your marriage, in your dating, in your
parenting, maybe spiritually, we've made some cards for you to use as a reminder.
They're laid out here in the front on the front step. And in a moment I'm gonna
invite you to come and take a card. If you feel led, you can stay here and pray
over it for a moment. And come and get a card and then take it back to your seat.
And either here or later this afternoon, fill it out what your guardrail is, your
personal invisible guardrail. And you might want to put it up somewhere at
home where you can see it as a reminder. Maybe keep it in your Bible. This is just
something just for you to make a move just to make it more real to you. So as
Cindy sings, I invite you to come. If you feel led to pray, you can stay here and
pray for a moment. Take your card back to your seat as a reminder of your
decision to set up a personal guardrail in your life today. So you come and
Cindy sings.
It will always be, it's always been you, Jesus. Jesus. Jesus at the center of it all. Jesus at the center of it all.
From beginning to the end, it will always be, it's always been you, Jesus. Jesus, nothing else matters.
Nothing in this world will do.
Jesus, you're the center and everything revolves around you. Jesus, you at the center of it all.
At the center of it all.
Jesus, be the center of my life.
From beginning to the end, it will always be, it's always been you, Jesus. Jesus, nothing else matters.
Nothing in this world will do.
Jesus, you're the center and everything revolves around you.
Jesus, nothing else matters.
Nothing in this world will do.
Jesus, Jesus you're the center and everything revolves around you.
Jesus, you're from my heart to the heavens. Jesus, be the center. It's all about you. Yes, it's all about you.
From my heart to the heavens. Jesus, be the center. It's all about you. Yes, it's all about you.
From my heart to the heavens. Jesus, be the center. It's all about you. Yes, it's all about you.
From my heart to the heavens. Jesus, be the center. It's all about you. Yes, it's all about you. Yes, it's all about you.
It's all about you.
Jesus, be the center of your church. Jesus, be the center of your church.
And every knee will bow. And every tear shall come from you. Jesus, Jesus. Jesus, Jesus.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Jesus, Jesus. From my heart to the heavens. Jesus, be the center.
It's all about you. Yes, it's all about you. From my heart to the heavens. Jesus, be the center.
It's all about you. Yes, it's all about you. Lord, it's all about you. Oh, it's all about you.
Lord, it's all about you. It's all about you. Be the center of my heart.
It's all about you. Be the center of my heart. It's all about you.
