Reel Talk
Pt. 2 - Fences
I. Introduction
Some of the women in the congregation feel like they have already had a spiritual encounter just cause I showed a little Denzel this morning. The story line is simple . . . A high school star in baseball feels like life has kept him down. Instead of being the rich, successful, applauded athlete he anticipated he is now in midlife and a career garbage man. Married at young age and now has two sons. The oldest he doesn't understand because he is a musician and he can't relate. The youngest wants to play football, but let down by sports in his own life, Denzel's character tries to force the young man to quit sports and go to work. The tension in the family is high. It is a family that is together but torn apart at the same time. The movie focuses on Denzel's wife Rose's insistence and almost fixation on having Denzel construct a fence around the tiny, beat up, scraggly, barren little yard. One day Denzel's character and his best friend have a discussion about why Rose wants this "unnecessary" fence so bad and it leads the best friend to make this statement . . . "Some people build fences to keep people out and some people build fences to keep people in!"
Fences . . . I have discovered in my short time on earth that we don't like fences! This is especially true about Americans. We don't like to be confined, walled in, constricted or restricted in any way or by anyone. Let me see if I can prove this too you with a much older piece of video.
VIDEO - Don't fence me in.
The song was written in 1934 as a poem and then sung by Cole Porter. This song has been covered by the likes of Roy Rogers, Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Willie Nelson and most recently The Killers in 2013 as part of a tourism campaign for Nevada. Listen to the lyrics:
Oh give me the land, lots of land
Under starry skies above
Don't fence me in
Let me ride through the wide open
Country that I love
Don't fence me in
Let me be by myself in the evening breeze
Listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees
Send me off forever but I ask you please
Don't fence me in
Just turn me loose let me straddle my old saddle
Underneath the western skies
On my cayuse let me wander over yonder
Till I see the mountain rise
I want to ride to the ridge where the west commences
Gaze at the moon till I lose my senses
I can't look at the hobbles and I can't stand the fences
Don't fence me in
These lyrics are burned into the conscious of American's. You may not know the words but you are branded with the concept. No fences. No barriers. No rules. No restrictions. No boss. No one can tell me what to do. I am my own truth. I am my own standard. Don't judge me! Don't fence me in! We don't like fences and it doesn't matter who builds those fences and yet, I want to suggest to you that God establishes fences to keep some people (things) out and He establishes fences to keep some people (things) in!
Almost immediately in Scripture we read about fences.
Text: Genesis 2:8-9, 15-17
Then God planted a garden in Eden, in the east. He put the Man he had just made in it. God made all kinds of trees grow from the ground, trees beautiful to look at and good to eat. The Tree-of-Life was in the middle of the garden, also the Tree-of-Knowledge-of-Good-and-Evil. God took the Man and set him down in the Garden of Eden to work the ground and keep it in order. God commanded the Man, "You can eat from any tree in the garden, except from the Tree-of-Knowledge-of-Good-and-Evil. Don’t eat from it. The moment you eat from that tree, you’re dead."
Genesis 3:22-24
God said, "The Man has become like one of us, capable of knowing everything, ranging from good to evil. What if he now should reach out and take fruit from the Tree-of-Life and eat, and live forever? Never—this cannot happen!" So God expelled them from the Garden of Eden and sent them to work the ground, the same dirt out of which they’d been made. He threw them out of the garden and stationed angel-cherubim and a revolving sword of fire east of it, guarding the path to the Tree-of-Life.
Adam and Eve are confronted by a fence. You have the entire run of the garden. You can eat of any tree. You have complete and total freedom. Then God introduces one fence. He surrounds the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and makes it off limits. He fences it off with instruction and says don't touch or you will suffer the consequences.
And being our father and mother . . . we get this trait honestly . . . Adam and Eve didn't like being fenced in so they disobey and cross into the restricted area and fall. God sees this and responds by fencing them out of the garden. We seldom talk about that but we need to go back and understand what a moment of great grace this was. On first read you would think this was a very harsh punishment. But God in His great mercy understands that if they are allowed to stay in the garden in a fallen condition it would just be a matter of time before they entered the next restricted area and eat from the Tree of Life and they would have lived forever in a fallen state. So, God's goodness takes action and He fences them out of the garden!
So, with this passage in mind maybe we need to rethink fences. We always think about what fences keep us from. We think about fences as restriction. Maybe I can help you see fences differently. Fences are designed not JUST to keep in but to keep some things out. Maybe they are for our good rather than our bad! Maybe fences are mercy! Our world (eons = ages = times) are framed/fenced in by God! Fences are God ordained and ordered!
So, although we don't like fences . . . maybe we need to build some fences today.
I believe there are four protective fences that God built and continues to try to establish, strengthen, and for many of us repair in our lives and we must pay attention to these fences.
Protective fences:
a. Conscience
Conscience is defined as "the innate, impulsive force that God has given us so that we know right from wrong."
Romans 2:12-15 says: "He will punish sin wherever it is found. He will punish the heathen when they sin, even though they never had God's written laws, for down in their hearts they know right from wrong. God's laws are written within them; their own conscience accuses them, or sometimes excuses them."
So, we are told that inside of us on our own hearts God has written laws so that we know right from wrong. In other words, that sick feeling in your gut when you do something wrong is more than just being afraid. It is more than just being a goody-to-shoes or a freak. It is in fact a fence that God has built into you to help protect you and not only keep you in but to keep sin out. You don't even have to be saved and God uses this fence to try to protect us.
But unfortunately man can override and destroy his conscience. 1 Timothy 4:1-2 says "that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron."
Man can sear his conscience.
So, in order for God to use our conscience to protect us we must be willing to reestablish it and reconstruct it in our life. You have to be willing to be bothered again by what should bother you! And the standard should be if it bothers Him, then it should also bother me! Some of us now laugh at what used to cause us to blush. Some of us now do what we used to point at in others as sin. We need to rebuild a fence.
b. Conviction
The word convict means "to convince someone of the truth; to reprove; to accuse, refute, or cross-examine a witness."
We are told in John 16:8 that the Holy Spirit's first job is to convict of sin! He acts as a prosecuting attorney who exposes evil, reproves evildoers, and convinces people that they need a Savior.
How many of us embrace the Holy Spirit for gifts but reject His convicting power? We like Him for stimulation but not stipulation!
To be convicted is to feel the sheer loathsomeness of sin. This happens when we’ve seen God’s beauty, His purity and holiness, and when we recognize that sin cannot dwell with Him (Psalm 5:4). When Isaiah stood in the presence of God, he was immediately overwhelmed by his own sinfulness: "Woe to me! . . . I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips . . . and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty (Isaiah 6:5)."
To be convicted is to experience an utter dreadfulness of sin. Our attitude toward sin becomes that of Joseph who fled temptation, crying out, "How could I do this great evil and sin against God?" (Genesis 39:9).
We are convicted when we become mindful of how much our sin dishonors God. When David was convicted by the Holy Spirit, he cried out, "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight" (Psalm 51:4). David saw his sin primarily as an affront to a holy God.
We are convicted when we become intensely aware of the wrath it exposes to our souls (Romans 1:18; Romans 2:5). When the Philippian jailer fell at the apostles’ feet and cried, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" he was under conviction. He was certain that, without a Savior, he would die.
The dilemma we face is that we can learn to ignore conviction and in very real terms we don't just climb the fence . . . we tear it down! We have to become very sensitive to the Holy Spirit's conviction. When He says, "stop" we stop. When He calls foul we respond. He fences us in to keep us from sin!
c. Thought Life
Philippians 4:8
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.
Proverbs 4:23
Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life.
Proverbs 23:7 - as a man thinketh in his heart so is he.
Unless we learn to control our mind, manage our mind, and sanctify our minds we will find ourselves outside the fence. Our relationships, our marriage, our spiritual life are all directly impacted by whether or not we stay inside this fence.
Your thought life will be key in determining whether or not you stay pure! Every problem you are going to come out of you must come out of head first!
Romans 12:2 - "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."
Romans 8:6-7 says this:
For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
If you could just get this fence erected, then you would deal less with temptation, anger, lust, and sin!
d. Accountability
Left to our own devices we will almost always step outside the fence! We will install a gate rather than a solid stop.
One of the key fences that you must establish in our life is to intentionally and purposely place folks in our life who we will allow to say, "NO!" and we learn to trust them for our own good. We need to take stock of who is for us. These are people who when they say "NO" we don't try to negotiate or argue our way into permission. When they say "no" the debate is over. Even when their "no" keeps us from something we want to do. We give them veto power in our dating life, our activities, our entertainment choices, our friend choices. No areas off limits or restricted in which they can't say "No"! We don't turn them into an enemy because we recognize they are a critical section of the fence that God establishes in our lives!
I would submit to you that if we are going to make it, then we must learn to love fences. We must recognize that fences are there for our good! They keep some things in but they also
keep some things out! It takes all four fences in place to protect us. If one panel is out of place, then we are exposed!
Which fence do you need to establish or repair in your life?
Step inside the fence saying, "God I will allow you to fence me in for my own good! I will allow you to keep things out! And as bad as I hate fences I will pay heed to these fences!"
