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

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