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Andy Stanley - Guardrails, Part 1 Direct and Protect · Andy Stanley Sermons

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: If you've been around for a while, you'll know that
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: about nine years ago that we did a series called Guardrails.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: So today, we're actually beginning, or depending on how long
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: you've been around, re-beginning this incredible, incredible series, Guardrails. Now,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: we all know what a guardrail is. A guardrail, the
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  Speaker 1: official definition of a guardrail It's a system designed to
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  Speaker 1: keep vehicles from straying into dangerous or off-limit areas. It's
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  Speaker 1: a system designed to keep vehicles from straying into dangerous
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  Speaker 1: or off-limit areas. You generally find guardrails in three areas. Bridges, medians,
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  Speaker 1: and curves. Bridges to keep us from going off the
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  Speaker 1: edge of the bridge into the abyss. Medians to protect
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  Speaker 1: us from oncoming traffic or to protect the oncoming traffic from...
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  Speaker 1: from us, and curves because there are oftentimes unexpected changes
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  Speaker 1: in the road. Guardrails, as you probably know, in fact,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: as you do know, maybe you haven't thought of it
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  Speaker 1: in these terms, guardrails accomplish two things in particular. Guardrails
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  Speaker 1: direct us and they protect us. They direct us and
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  Speaker 1: they protect us. And the other thing that's going to
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: be important for our discussion in these next few weeks
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  Speaker 1: as we talk about guardrails is this, that guardrails are
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  Speaker 1: not placed in the danger zone. Guardrails are always placed
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  Speaker 1: in the safety zone. They're always placed just a few
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  Speaker 1: feet away from what's dangerous in the safety zone. So
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  Speaker 1: if there were no guardrails and you were driving on
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  Speaker 1: a bridge, you could actually drive closer to the edge,
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  Speaker 1: but we don't because there's a guardrail there to protect us.
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  Speaker 1: And even though it kind of takes up some safe space,
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  Speaker 1: no one argues, no one argues with the logic, no
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  Speaker 1: one argues with the logic of placing a guardrail inside
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  Speaker 1: the safe zone. The other thing about guardrails, and maybe
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  Speaker 1: you've experienced this, is that guardrails are designed to minimize damage,
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  Speaker 1: to minimize damage. The damage done when you hit a guardrail,
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  Speaker 1: the damage done when you hit a guardrail, as you know,
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  Speaker 1: maybe from personal experience, is minor by comparison to the
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  Speaker 1: damage that would have been accomplished if there had been
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  Speaker 1: no guardrail. guardrail. So why are we talking about guardrails?
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  Speaker 1: The reason we're going to talk about guardrails and the
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  Speaker 1: reason we entitled this message series guardrails is that the highway,
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  Speaker 1: the highway, the roadways, the byways, the highway is not
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  Speaker 1: the only place we need guardrails. In fact, if we
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  Speaker 1: were perfectly honest and if we had time to go
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  Speaker 1: around the room and everybody could share a story, we
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  Speaker 1: The truth is, most of us, maybe all of us,
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  Speaker 1: but most of us for sure, would agree that our
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  Speaker 1: greatest regrets, our greatest regrets would have been avoided and
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  Speaker 1: could have been avoided if we had had some guardrails
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  Speaker 1: in our lives, if we had financial guardrails, if we'd
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  Speaker 1: had some moral guardrails, if we'd had some relational guardrails.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe even if you'd had some professional guardrails. Which means,
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  Speaker 1: and the reason we're talking about this, is that future
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  Speaker 1: regrets can be avoided if you are willing and if
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  Speaker 1: I'm willing to establish some personal guardrails now. Now, the challenge,
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  Speaker 1: and we'll talk about this for the next few weeks,
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  Speaker 1: the challenge is culture doesn't really encourage guardrails. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: culture doesn't really encourage any kind of rules or any
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  Speaker 1: kind of firm guidelines at all. Culture is perfectly content
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  Speaker 1: with painted lines. some suggestions, some warnings. But culture doesn't
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  Speaker 1: like guardrails. And when you begin to establish guardrails, and
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  Speaker 1: when people find out about your guardrails, even people who
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  Speaker 1: are close to you and love you, they're not going
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  Speaker 1: to necessarily encourage you. Because again, we live in a
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  Speaker 1: culture that has gray lines and doesn't encourage guardrails. In
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  Speaker 1: our culture, we hear things like this, drink responsibly, which
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  Speaker 1: is really good news, except what does it mean? And
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  Speaker 1: if you drink responsibly, if you drink it all at
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  Speaker 1: some point, you become so inebriated, you're not really a
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  Speaker 1: responsible person. So I'm not sure responsible drinkers know when
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  Speaker 1: they're being irresponsible, and I'm not sure. But it's a
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  Speaker 1: great guideline, but it's not really a guardrail. Or how
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  Speaker 1: about this one? We tell teenagers, tell college students, but
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  Speaker 1: teenagers in particular when it comes to sex, wait until
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  Speaker 1: you're ready. Now, my theory is a woman came up
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  Speaker 1: with that suggestion, and that's not a knock on women,
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  Speaker 1: but I think that might be, maybe it's good advice
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  Speaker 1: for women, but if you were to say to a
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  Speaker 1: teenage boy, wait until you're ready, he would just look
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  Speaker 1: at you like, I was born ready. Ready. Now, I'm
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  Speaker 1: not knocking that as advice. I don't think that's, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I'm not saying that's terrible advice. I'm just saying that's
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  Speaker 1: a painted line. That's not a guardrail. Wait until you're ready.
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  Speaker 1: Or here's the one we hear all the time. Consolidate
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  Speaker 1: your debts. Consolidate your debts. Consolidate your debts. That may
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  Speaker 1: not be bad advice either. But that's not necessarily a
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  Speaker 1: great financial standard. Or if we kind of go to
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  Speaker 1: the bottom of the bucket, you know, listen to your heart.
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  Speaker 1: What is your heart telling you? That's... I just think
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  Speaker 1: that's like maybe the worst advice anyone's ever given anyone.
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  Speaker 1: But again, in our culture, there is resistance to rules.
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  Speaker 1: I understand that because nobody wants to be told no.
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  Speaker 1: I don't want to be told no. You don't want
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  Speaker 1: to be told no. So culture disses guardrails. In other words,
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  Speaker 1: you're not going to get applause. You're not going to
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  Speaker 1: become the most popular person in the office or maybe
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  Speaker 1: even your family when you establish guardrails. Culture doesn't encourage guardrails,
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  Speaker 1: but at the same time, culture shames us and mocks
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  Speaker 1: us when we end up in a ditch. financially, right,
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  Speaker 1: or morally, or in our marriage. Now, here's a great
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  Speaker 1: and controversial illustration of what I'm talking about. For years,
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  Speaker 1: it has been referred to as the Billy Graham rule,
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  Speaker 1: the Billy Graham rule. Back in the 60s, it became
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  Speaker 1: known that Billy Graham had a rule, so it became
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  Speaker 1: the Billy Graham rule, and the Billy Graham rule, his
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  Speaker 1: rule was that he would not ride in a car
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  Speaker 1: alone with a woman have a meal alone with a
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  Speaker 1: woman other than his wife, and would not meet with
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  Speaker 1: a woman in a place where people didn't know they
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  Speaker 1: were meeting together or with a closed door. That was
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  Speaker 1: his rule, and so it became known as the Billy
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  Speaker 1: Graham rule. Then it became known as the Mike Pence
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  Speaker 1: rule because our vice president, it was discovered that he
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  Speaker 1: applied the same rule. And when people found out about this,
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  Speaker 1: people kind of went berserk. And there's reasons why, because
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  Speaker 1: this rule, as we're going to talk about in a
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  Speaker 1: few weeks, certainly has been misapplied. But the truth is,
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  Speaker 1: many married men and many married women have applied this
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  Speaker 1: rule for years. And yet, when it became known that
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  Speaker 1: our vice president didn't travel alone, meet privately with, or
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  Speaker 1: eat alone with a woman other than his wife or
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  Speaker 1: family members, he was mocked and ridiculed. But at the
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  Speaker 1: same time, the people that would mock and ridicule someone
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  Speaker 1: with that standard, what did they say about a man
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  Speaker 1: who cheats on his wife? Or about a woman who
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  Speaker 1: runs off with her yoga instructor? What did they say
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  Speaker 1: about these people? We say, well, we won't even say
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  Speaker 1: in church what the kinds of words that are used.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, these are just disgusting people and she's a
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  Speaker 1: home wrecker. Now, during this controversy with our vice president,
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  Speaker 1: the Harvard Business Review published a really good article. So
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  Speaker 1: I'm not knocking this article at all. It was a
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  Speaker 1: really fascinating article. And the name of the article was
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  Speaker 1: Men Shouldn't Refuse. I mean, they just put it right
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  Speaker 1: out there. The article title, Men Shouldn't Refuse to Be
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  Speaker 1: Alone with Female Colleagues. I wonder what that's about. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: that's the title of the article, Men Shouldn't Refuse to
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  Speaker 1: Be Alone with Female Colleagues. And the point of the
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  Speaker 1: article was that when this rule is applied, according to
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  Speaker 1: the authors, that it hurts women in the workplace, it
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  Speaker 1: minimizes their importance, it reduces their potential for moving up
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  Speaker 1: in a company. And the article made some really, really,
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  Speaker 1: really good points. But as the authors went on and
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  Speaker 1: on and on, kind of tearing apart and ridiculing this
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  Speaker 1: whole idea of the Billy Graham rule, they must have realized, okay,
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  Speaker 1: there's a reason. There's a reason that, you know, logical,
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  Speaker 1: rational people have established this rule. And the reason is,
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  Speaker 1: there's a lot of stuff going on in the workplace
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  Speaker 1: that isn't healthy between men and women. And when men
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  Speaker 1: and women travel together, things happen. And when men and
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  Speaker 1: women eat together, you know, married men and women eating
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  Speaker 1: with other people's husbands or wives and drinking with other
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  Speaker 1: people's husbands or wives, things happen. No one can deny
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  Speaker 1: the fact that the workplace, because of the goals, the
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  Speaker 1: late nights, all the things that happen, the camaraderie in
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  Speaker 1: the workplace, that the workplace is, you know, fertile soil
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  Speaker 1: for some bad things to happen between people who should
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  Speaker 1: not allow bad things to happen. There's plenty of stories
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  Speaker 1: to substantiate the need possibly for a rule. So at
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  Speaker 1: the end of this article, HBR, the authors of this
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  Speaker 1: article in Harvard Business Review, they make the following suggestions.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm not knocking this article. The article makes some
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  Speaker 1: great points. But my point in showing you this is
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  Speaker 1: to say that when it comes to our culture, our
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  Speaker 1: culture is not going to encourage you and encourage me
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  Speaker 1: to establish guardrails. It's gray lines. It's just lines along
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  Speaker 1: the side. So here's how the article concluded in terms
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  Speaker 1: of what should we do in light of this dynamic
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  Speaker 1: that happens in the workplace, but in light of the
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  Speaker 1: fact that we shouldn't have this particular guardrail. So here's
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  Speaker 1: what the authors wrote. I said, so what's an evolved
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  Speaker 1: male leader to do? So this is addressing men in particular.
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  Speaker 1: So I'm not leaving women out. This, the article is
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  Speaker 1: addressing men. So what is an evolved male leader to do?
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  Speaker 1: In the simplest terms, become what we call a thoughtful caveman. Now,
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  Speaker 1: I don't mind being called an evolved caveman. It's so
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  Speaker 1: interesting in culture, you dare not talk about cavewomen. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: no one ever talks about cavewomen. And I think there
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  Speaker 1: were cavewomen. But imagine, so we don't go there, okay?
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  Speaker 1: So the advice of the article is you're going to
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  Speaker 1: work with attractive women. You're going to travel with attractive women.
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  Speaker 1: You're going to eat with attractive women. You know, you're
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  Speaker 1: going to be... flirted with. I mean, you're going to
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  Speaker 1: have all this dynamic. And so the way you handle this, men,
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  Speaker 1: is you become a thoughtful caveman. Okay, that's not helpful.
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  Speaker 1: But then there's another statement, okay? Here's how they conclude
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  Speaker 1: the article toward the end. Healthy, mature, self-aware men understand
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  Speaker 1: and accept their distinctly male neural architecture. I'm not even
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  Speaker 1: sure I understand that sentence. So if this is supposed
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  Speaker 1: to help me, if this is supposed to help us
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  Speaker 1: in the workplace, if this is supposed to somehow create
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  Speaker 1: some boundary and some healthy boundaries between men and women
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  Speaker 1: in the workplace, I... Maybe, okay? But here's the real problem.
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  Speaker 1: And let's just assume for a moment this is true.
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  Speaker 1: And it probably is. But women, here's the problem. Let
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  Speaker 1: me just ask the ladies, okay? Ladies, okay, ladies. How
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  Speaker 1: many of these are there? Right? Right? Ladies, it's true, okay, ladies.
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  Speaker 1: Some of you have never met one. You're not sure
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  Speaker 1: they exist. In fact, you would say if anyone sees one,
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  Speaker 1: capture them, bring them in, and let's study him because
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  Speaker 1: it's a unicorn, okay? This is like the most unusual
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  Speaker 1: thing imaginable, a healthy, mature, self-aware man. So let me
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  Speaker 1: just say one more thing about this, okay? These guys
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  Speaker 1: don't need guardrails, okay? But the other 99.999% of us do.
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  Speaker 1: And ladies, it's that other 99% that is the reason
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  Speaker 1: you need guardrails. Now, the Billy Graham rule, the Mike
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  Speaker 1: Pence rule, it's a rule I've had since I was
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  Speaker 1: married or even before I was married because I'd heard
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  Speaker 1: about this. It's just sort of a way of life
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  Speaker 1: for me. It's been this way for a long time.
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  Speaker 1: This rule has been, on one hand, mischaracterized, and I
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  Speaker 1: believe the HBR article actually mischaracterizes it. And it has
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  Speaker 1: been misapplied where it has made it difficult in some
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  Speaker 1: circumstances for women to rise up through the workforce. So
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  Speaker 1: it has been both mischaracterized and misapplied. And because of that,
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  Speaker 1: in just a few weeks, we're going to come back
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  Speaker 1: to this very notion, this very guardrail. So if anything
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  Speaker 1: that I've just said is offensive, all I ask is
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  Speaker 1: that you wait a few weeks before you let me
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  Speaker 1: know because we're going to come back to this. Now...
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  Speaker 1: Here's the point of all that. If you opt for guardrails,
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  Speaker 1: if you opt for personal guardrails, you may not be celebrated,
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  Speaker 1: but I promise you will have fewer regrets. Now, this
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  Speaker 1: is not a new idea. It is certainly not an
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  Speaker 1: original idea. The idea behind the idea of guardrails has
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  Speaker 1: been around for a long, long time. In fact, the
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  Speaker 1: Hebrew Bible, what we call our Old Testament, the Hebrew
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  Speaker 1: Bible talks about setting up standards and boundaries. The New
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Testament talks about setting up standards and boundaries. And today
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  Speaker 1: I want to take you to a passage in Paul's
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  Speaker 1: letter to the Ephesians, Ephesians chapter five. It's a passage
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  Speaker 1: that we've talked about before, not necessarily within this context.
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  Speaker 1: The apostle Paul has just finished telling these Christians in
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  Speaker 1: ancient Ephesus that there's things they should stay away from.
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  Speaker 1: There's things they should do. There's things that are harmful.
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  Speaker 1: It's sort of predictable, typical list of behaviors to embrace
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  Speaker 1: and behaviors to be careful of. or to stay away from.
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  Speaker 1: And then he says to this audience, he realizes, okay,
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  Speaker 1: they're going, okay, I want to stay away from that.
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  Speaker 1: I want to embrace that. I want to move toward that.
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  Speaker 1: I want to move away from that. And it's like
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: the apostle Paul realizes, okay, I need to give my
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  Speaker 1: listeners and my readers some handles. So then he goes
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  Speaker 1: into how to approach or how to live in such
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  Speaker 1: a way that you don't end up in a ditch
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  Speaker 1: on the left or a ditch on the right as
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  Speaker 1: it relates to relationships, finances, morality, friendship, you know, just
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  Speaker 1: about any area of life. And here's what he says.
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  Speaker 1: I want to walk you through these verses kind of slowly.
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  Speaker 1: Ephesians chapter five, the apostle Paul writes this. Be very
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  Speaker 1: careful then how you live. So the standard for living
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  Speaker 1: for a Jesus follower in particular, but even if you're
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  Speaker 1: not a Jesus follower, this is just great advice. Be
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  Speaker 1: very careful then how you live. And the little Greek
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  Speaker 1: word translated in this translation, live, literally means walk. So
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: there are other translations of the Bible that say be
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  Speaker 1: very careful then how you walk. If you have a
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  Speaker 1: large dog and a small yard, you understand what the
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  Speaker 1: Apostle Paul is getting at here. That when you walk
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: out into your small yard and you had your large
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  Speaker 1: dog out there, you are very careful then how you walk,
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  Speaker 1: where you step. That's the idea behind this. He says,
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  Speaker 1: look around. He continues, he says, be very careful then
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  Speaker 1: how you live, not as unwise walk. but is wise. Now,
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  Speaker 1: wisdom serves as the decision-making template. Wisdom serves as the
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  Speaker 1: decision-making template in both the Jewish scripture and in the
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  Speaker 1: New Testament. That both in the Old Testament and the
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  Speaker 1: New Testament, we're told that we are to walk Wisely
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  Speaker 1: and walking wisely our wisdom is better than simply right
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  Speaker 1: and wrong. I mean, it's sometimes we're not sure what's
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: right We're not sure what's wrong. But when you ask
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  Speaker 1: yourself the question, what is the wise thing to do?
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  Speaker 1: Suddenly there's clarity the wisdom question brings clarity where the
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  Speaker 1: simple is it right or is it wrong question oftentimes?
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  Speaker 1: Does not the way we say it here if you've
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: been around is that when we think about wisdom we
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  Speaker 1: ask the question in light of my past experience my
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  Speaker 1: current circumstances, and my future hopes and dreams, what is
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  Speaker 1: the wise thing for me to do? In light of
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: my past experiences, my current circumstances, and my future hopes
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  Speaker 1: and dreams, not what is the right thing for me
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  Speaker 1: to do, what is the wise thing for me to do?
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  Speaker 1: So the apostle Paul says, be very careful how you live,
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  Speaker 1: be very careful how you walk, not as unwise, but
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  Speaker 1: as wise. And then he says this, making the most
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  Speaker 1: Of every opportunity. Literally, this says redeeming the time. That
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  Speaker 1: as you live your life, time is a limited asset.
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  Speaker 1: Time is your most valuable commodity because there's a limited
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  Speaker 1: amount of it and you don't know how much you have.
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  Speaker 1: You know how much is in your checking account. You
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: do not know how much time you have left. He says,
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  Speaker 1: so I want you to be very, very careful with
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  Speaker 1: your time. And it reminds all of us that don't
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  Speaker 1: we wish we could go back and redeem or take
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  Speaker 1: back or reuse some time that we wasted. Don't we
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  Speaker 1: wish we could go back and have our freshman year
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  Speaker 1: over again? Don't we wish we could go back and
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  Speaker 1: have that first year of marriage and have a do-over
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  Speaker 1: for that first year of marriage? He says, you already
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  Speaker 1: know what happens when you're not careful with your time.
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  Speaker 1: So as you live, don't live as unwise, but as
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  Speaker 1: wise and pay attention to how fast time flies. And
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  Speaker 1: then he says this, because, be very careful then how
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  Speaker 1: you live, not as unwise, but as wise, making the
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  Speaker 1: most of every opportunity. Why, Paul? Because, and then he
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: says something kind of odd, the days are evil. Now,
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  Speaker 1: this is 2,000 years ago. And he's talking to a handful,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: maybe 50, maybe 100 people in Ephesus. He says, you're
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  Speaker 1: living in dangerous times, so you can't just walk around
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  Speaker 1: and not pay attention to what's going on. You need
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  Speaker 1: to be careful how you walk because the days are evil.
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  Speaker 1: You can't afford, he said, to be careless. For example,
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  Speaker 1: how many of you I've ever had to take a
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: defensive driving class. Let me see, I'm kidding, don't raise your, no, no,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: don't raise your hand. Okay, that was terrible, okay? So
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: it's like, no. This is, it's okay to lie, so
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna raise my hand, of course. Now, I
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: actually know that a lot of you have had to
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: take defensive driving classes because many years ago when we
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: had a minivan, Sandra got pulled over for going too
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: fast and there were a bunch of minivans and she's
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: pretty sure The officer got her white minivan confused with
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: all the other white minivans there on that particular road.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: And so she was so sure she was innocent, she
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: decided she was not going to pay the fine. We moved. No,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: I'm just kidding. She wasn't going to pay the fine.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: She decided to do the defensive driving class. And so
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: she gets the defensive driving class and there's, I don't know,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: 40 or 50 people in this class where we live.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: And the instructor had a name plate for each person
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: in the class facing him so he could call everybody
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: by name. And so as he begins the class, he
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: looks over and he says, Sandra Stanley. Sandra Stanley. Sandra Stanley,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: and without thinking, he says out loud to the whole
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: defensive driving class, everyone's there because of DUIs and other
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: kinds of things, he says, are you the pastor's wife?
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: Are you that Sandra Stanley? And then he realized, and
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: it's too late, and she says yes, and before he
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: knows it, he loses control of the class, and people
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: start going, I go to North Point, we go to
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: Buckhead Church, I go to 722. Half the class went
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: to one of our churches, so I know that a
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: bunch of you have been in defensive driving class, right?
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: And that was just the one class. Now, the point
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: of bringing it up is simply this. What is defensive
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: driving about? It's learning to pay attention not only to
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: what you're doing, but what everybody else is doing as well.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: And this is Paul's point. Be careful how you live
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: because you live in a dangerous environment. Be careful how
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: you live because if you are not careful, you may
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: end up someplace you do not want to be. What
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: did your parents tell you when they were teaching you
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: to drive or whoever taught you to drive, your uncle
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: or your grandfather? What did he say? He said, you
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: got to look out for the what? The other person,
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: the other guy, the other drivers. That's Paul's point, that
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: you live in an environment, you live in a culture
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: where it's not enough to simply pay attention to what
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: you're doing. You live in a culture to where you
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: have to pay attention to what other people are doing,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: what other people are asking, what other people are inviting,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: what other people are offering as well. Then he continues,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: he says, therefore, therefore, therefore, do not be foolish. Do
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: not be foolish. In other words, don't approach life as
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: if life is all disconnected. Don't approach life as if
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: your past doesn't impact your future. Don't approach life as
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: if what happens today doesn't impact tomorrow. And then he
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: says something really sort of difficult to get our arms around.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: He says, don't be foolish, but understand what the Lord's
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: will is. Now, it's a command, and in the Greek text,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: this is an imperative, understand, which doesn't make any sense.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, if you tell somebody, I don't understand, and
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: they say, understand, it's like, okay, I do now. Since
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: you told me to, I mean, that doesn't even make
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: any sense, right? So the idea here, this is so powerful.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: The idea is to face up to, to acknowledge, to embrace,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: to be honest with yourself. Stop deceiving yourself, the Apostle
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: Paul says. He says, come on, come on, come on.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: You know what wisdom is. You know where you live.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: You know what's going on. You know your past. You
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: know your propensity towards certain things. So be honest with yourself.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: At least be honest with the person in the mirror.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: Face up to what you know the right thing to
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: do is. And if you're a Christian, face up to
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: what God's will is for your life. In other words,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: you know, he's saying, you know what you need to
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: do to ensure you do what you ought to do.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: You know what you need to do now to ensure
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: that you do what you ought to do later. You
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: know where you're kind of dancing on the line. You
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: know where you're flirting with disaster. You've had a couple
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: of near misses. You've had a couple of close calls.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: Paul's going, come on, be honest. You know, you know,
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: you know. You know you. Then he gives us a
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: one thing leads to another illustration. And this is so powerful.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: And these next verses have been so misunderstood for so long.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: So I'm glad we're talking about them today. You see, guardrails,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: as we're gonna discover in this series, guardrails are the
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: one thing that keep us from another. One thing leads
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: to another. Guardrails are the one thing that keeps us
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: from the other, another thing. And wise people understand this.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: So he says, let me give you an example of
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: what I mean by be careful how you live. Let
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: me give you an example of what it means to
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: walk in wisdom. He says, do not get drunk on wine.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: This is his illustration. Now, you need to know that
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: in the first century, in fact, in almost all of
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: ancient times, that wine was actually safer than than water, okay?
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Wine was safer than water. You can imagine what they
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: stored water in. You can imagine how long they stored it.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: And they didn't understand bacteria, but they knew this. If
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: you drink water that had been sitting still for too long,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: you got sick. In fact, sometimes you could get real sick.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: Wine could make you drunk. Water could make you dead, okay?
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: So watered wine, or really the better way to say it,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: wined water was a staple in ancient times because it
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: was safe. Now, water wasn't safe. Now, for us, water's safe.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: It's a whole new thing. But this is a one
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: thing leads to another illustration. So look at how the
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: Apostle Paul says this. He says,' Do not get drunk
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: on wine, which leads to.' Because that's the point. This
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: is a one thing leads to another thing. This is guardrails.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Guardrails are about the one thing that keeps us from
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: ending up where we don't want to be. One thing
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: leads to another. Now, I want everybody here, if you would,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: just tune back in if you tuned out for just
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: a second. Those of you at home, tune back in
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: for a second, okay? When you see this, I want
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: you to fill in the blank, not out loud, but
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: in your mind. Do not get drunk. And let's just,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: if we just remove the words on wine. Do not
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: get drunk, which leads to, think about that. Do not
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: get drunk because it leads to anything come to mind?
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Anyone come to mind? Do you know anybody that probably
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: wishes that don't get drunk was a guardrail because of
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: what it led to? In fact, chances are in our
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: audience all over the city and all over the country
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: and in some cases all over the world, somebody's watching,
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: somebody's listening. And your life, your life would be completely different.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Your life would be completely different if your mom or
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: your dad had stayed sober. Now think about that. Their
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: life would be different for sure, but your life would
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: be different. Now, we're not gonna spend the whole message
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: talking about alcohol, but just wanna make one other statement
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: while we're here because we don't go here very often.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: If more than one person has told you you drink
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: too much, You do. You do. You do. Now, back
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: to Paul. The problem with getting drunk, I mean, it
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: was kind of heavy there. It got real quiet here.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: in this room, okay? I don't know about everywhere else. Okay,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: back to Paul. The problem within the context of this passage,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: the problem with getting drunk is what it leads to.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: Drunk is the guardrail. Now, I know for some of you,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: it's the goal, but for the Apostle Paul, drunk is
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: the guardrail, and you laugh, right? And it's funny, right
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: up into the point that a woman gets punched. That's
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: not funny. Right up into the point where somebody veers
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: across the median. Then it's not funny. Right up to
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: the point that a college student realizes everybody else quit
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: and I can't quit. And suddenly, what was kind of
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: a pastime becomes a pathway for somebody. And it has
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: the potential to wreck and ruin their life.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: And culture mocks us and laughs at us and then
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: disses us when they find out that we have a
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: drinking problem. Here's how the Apostle Paul fills in that blank.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to a
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: word we never use anymore, debauchery, which is basically primarily
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: sexual indulgence as a result of a lack of self-control.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Any kind of indulgence that results from a lack of
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: self-control or a loss of self-control. And once again, it
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: points back to the value and the power of what
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: we're talking about in this series of guardrails because guardrails
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: safeguard us. Guardrails safeguard us from handing over control of
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: our lives to someone or something else Guardrails will safeguard
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: you and your kids and your husband and your wife
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: and the people you work with will safeguard you from
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: handing over control of your life to someone or something else.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: The apostle Paul in another place says, do not be
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: mastered by anything and do not be mastered by anyone.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: And guardrails is a step toward ensuring that in your future,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: you are not mastered by anything or anyone. And then
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: he says, instead, do not get drunk on wine, which
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: leads to debauchery. Instead, now. If you are not a
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: religious person, if you're not a Christian, if you're not
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: a Jesus follower, everything I've said so far is kind
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: of common sense. You may not have heard it said
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: in this way, but you're going, okay, I'm not really
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: a church person. I've never read that before. I've heard
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: of Paul, but okay, you got me. I feel a
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: little bit bad about myself. You're right, I have some regrets,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: which leads to, I knew what it led to, so
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: I'm with you so far. Okay, but at this point,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: the Apostle Paul kind of changes directions just a little bit.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: And at this point in his writing, he's writing to
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Christians in Ephesus, at this point, he dips into his
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: faith in Jesus. At this point, he begins to leverage,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: just for one verse, he leverages the fact that he
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: truly believed that God sent Jesus into this earth, to
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: the earth, as his only son to die for the
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: sins of mankind. And the apostle Paul came to this early,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: maybe seven years after the resurrection. So the Apostle Paul
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: believes that Jesus was who Jesus claimed to be and
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: that he actually rose from the dead. So now he
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: dips into this basic Christian teaching. And here's what he says.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: He says, don't be drunk with wine, which leads to debauchery,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: but instead be filled with the Spirit. And the New
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: Testament teaches that when a person puts their faith in Christ,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: that the Holy Spirit comes to reside in them in
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: some mysterious way, but where you experience it is in
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: your conscience. So the Apostle Paul says, instead of giving
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: over control of your life to anything or anyone, whether
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: it's alcohol, Being a workaholic, finances, greed, a hobby, a person,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: an affair. Instead of giving over control of your life
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: to anything or anyone, I want you to submit your
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: life to the nudging, the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: And he says, when we become believers, the Holy Spirit
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: moves into our conscience. Now everybody, pretty much everybody has
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: a conscience unless you're a sociopath and you're probably not
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: in church if you're a sociopath. But other than sociopaths,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: pretty much everybody has a conscience. And the strangest thing happens.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: I've seen this so much. Many of you, this would
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: be your story. When you became a Christian, isn't it true?
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: It's like your conscience began to be fine-tuned to a
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: whole different way of thinking in a whole different way.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit taps on our conscience. The Holy Spirit
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: doesn't yell, it doesn't scream, it's not a ghost, it's
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: not spooky, it's not strange. It's basically what everybody experiences,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: but the Holy Spirit takes it to another level. It's
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: a gentle nudge. You're about to pick up an answer
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: and there's just a uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh. You're about to
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: hit send and there's a uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh. You're about
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: to take a left instead of going straight and there's
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: just that uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh. That's the Holy Spirit. So
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: in conclusion, here's what Paul says. Be very careful then
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: how you live. Be very careful where you walk, where
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: you step, not as unwise, but as wise, making the
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: most of every opportunity. Why? Because the days, the culture
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: is not working for you. It's working against you. Therefore,
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: do not be foolish. Do not live as if life
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: is disconnected, but understand what the Lord's will is for you. Now,
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: for the next few weeks, we're going to come back
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: to this over and over and over. Come on. Nobody
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: plans to wreck their life any more than they plan
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: to wreck their car, right? Nobody plans to wreck their career.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: Nobody plans to wreck their marriage. Nobody plans to wreck
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: their health. Nobody plans to wreck their profession. Nobody plans
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: to wreck their body. Nobody plans to wreck any of
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: those things any more than we plan to wreck our cars.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: The problem is we just don't plan not to. And
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: guardrails is how you plan not to. Not to. Guardrails
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: is how you set yourself up to walk wisely, to
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: live carefully. There's a sense in which guardrails are the
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: equivalent of defensive living. Now, I know what you say
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: because we all say the same thing. I'll be careful.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: Guardrails is how you be careful. And there's an added benefit.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: We'll close with this. The added benefit is this. At
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: the very beginning, I told you that guardrails, remember they
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: protect and they direct. They direct and protect. You will
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: find it, even if you're new to faith, even if
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: you're not sure you embrace faith, and if you've been
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: a part of chasing faith for a long, long time,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: you're gonna discover it is much, much easier to discern
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: God's will for you with guardrails than without. And the
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: reason is this. Stepping away, stepping away from what can
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: harm you is a step toward the one who loves you.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: And at the end of the day, this discussion isn't
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: simply about becoming better people. At the end of the day,
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: this whole series, this whole message series, this entire discussion
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: is about becoming more surrendered people. Surrender to the God
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: who loves you, to the God who sent his son.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: to pay for your sin and to pay for mine.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: And to live in such a way that our lives glorify,
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: big Bible word, Christian word, that our lives glorify or
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: speak well of our Father in heaven. So this is
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: about you, but it's not just about you. So, final question.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: Where do you need to start? Where do you need
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: to start? What is it that you need to face
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: up to? What is it that every once in a
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: while something reminds you, every once in a while somebody
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: reminds you and you just push it off to the
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: periphery and you just, you know at some point you
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: gotta face it, at some point you gotta deal with it,
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: at some point you need to step back from it.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: What is it for you? Where are you flirting with disaster?
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: Where are you driving too close to the edge? And
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: would you be open for the next few weeks for
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: the Spirit of God to begin to move in your
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: heart and to help you establish some guardrails? Think about
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: that and we'll pick it up right there next week.