This morning, we’re continuing our message series that will serve as a guide to healthy relationships.  A relationship is simply a connection between two people.  Just because two people are connected, that doesn’t make it a good connection nor a healthy connection nor a connection that should even be there.

Relationships can be difficult and so God has given us a whole host of tools that we can use to make them function the way that He intended them to.  So far, we learned about the love of God and understanding.  This week, we gain another tool that can radically transform our relationships with others to make them healthy.

The relationship tool that we’re learning about today is boundaries.  Now to understand boundaries, we can go all the way back to the beginning before the human race even existed.

Genesis 1

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 

God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.”

God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear. (He separated them)” And it was so.  God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.”

God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years.”  God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness.

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.

God created by separating.  God created boundaries.  He said that they were very good.

Then, God created Adam and Eve and He said:

Genesis 2:24

That is why a man separates from his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

Matthew 19:6/Mark 10:9

So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no man separate.

God again created by separating.  God created boundaries.

2 Corinthians 6:14;17

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.  Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord.

God creates by separating.  God created boundaries.  God did this all in the very beginning and He said that it is all very good.  Boundaries are a good and healthy thing.  Yes, they separate and divide and they do so intentionally and purposefully.

God created boundaries within His creation so that the connections between things could be good and healthy.  Like the ocean beach or the sunrise or sunset or the moon and stars on a clear night.  We can experience all of these things only because boundaries were created by God.

We recently seen what happens when the ocean waters are forced beyond their intended boundary by a hurricane.  It’s not good.  It’s destructive.  People get hurt and even die.  The same thing happens in our lives when healthy boundaries are not created and maintained!

We started at the beginning.  For time’s sake, let’s skip to the end.

Revelation 21

Heaven, the new Jerusalem, has twelve walls of jasper built on foundations decorated with every kind of precious stone.  Within the twelve walls are twelve gates each made of a single pearl.

Walls that separate.  God created boundaries.  For all eternity, even within Heaven, itself, there will be boundaries.  Boundaries are a good thing.  The only ones who do not understand and appreciate and honor boundaries in our lives are people who do not have our good in mind.

Jesus said,

John 10

I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.  Anyone who does not enter by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.

Matthe