* You might have heard it said that rules without relationship lead to rebellion.
* It’s true, for the most part.
* But relationship without rules leads to rejection!
* Love is “compassion with standards.”
* If we don’t operate by the standards, we don’t have love.
* It’s our commitment to following the rules that shows our surrender to the rule-giver.
* God’s fences (boundaries) are not to keep you from good things, but to keep bad things from you!
* Look at what David says about rules in these verses:
* vs 44-45 - “So I will keep Your law continually, Forever and ever. And I will walk at liberty, For I seek Your precepts.”
* David loved God’s rules because he saw how God’s blessings were found inside of them.
* Why rules?
* His boundaries bring freedom!
* Freedom is the greatest blessing you can have.
* EX: One boundary in the Garden - don’t eat the fruit.
* If they obeyed, they were free forever.
* If they disobeyed, they were enslaved forever.
* EX: Doctor Dobson playground experiment.
* Without properly defined boundaries we don't have freedom.
* When boundaries are clearly defined we can move about freely and not be scared.
* EX: Balcony with no railings.
* Boundaries bring freedom, and God's boundaries are the answer to our fear.
* Like a kite held by the boundary of the string, so we are free to fly so long as we don't let go of God's boundaries found in His Word.
* If we want true freedom, then we need to operate within God’s boundaries.