Matt Hagee - The Blessing of a Border
You see when it comes to border control, one of the problems is that people immediately want to say, "Well it's a politically-driven problem," "It's driven by bad policies," "It's driven by poor decisions in the past". Some will want to make it a moral issue. They'll want to talk about ethics. And they'll want to say that this is something that is culturally inappropriate. Others are going to choose to argue in the arena of economics and law. And the truth is, if you choose politics, or you choose economics, or you choose culture, or you choose ethnicity: all you're doing is swinging at the symptoms of the issue. You're not getting down to the larger issue and hitting it at the root. The root of the problem with border control is not a natural problem. It's not a right versus left problem. It's not a political problem. It's not a legal problem.
The truth about border control is a righteousness versus unrighteousness, light versus darkness, truth versus lie kind of problem. Why? Because all it is, is a symptom of the supernatural situation that we have created at our natural border where we have already supernaturally violated every one of God's borders. The Bible says, "Righteousness exalts a nation". Say that with me. "Righteousness exalts a nation". God has a book of borders. And as long as we live within his borders, we receive his blessings. The moment we cross the line, we begin to struggle for everything we possess. And it doesn't matter which direction you look: our world is struggling. We're struggling with all kinds of issues. And the reality of those issues is there's nothing more than a symptom of the spiritual problem that we've created. We crossed the line! Whose line? God's line.
God is not looking for a political policy to be written that he can see bring order to the world. God is looking for the people that he bled and died for: that he sent his son to redeem, to begin to act like the righteous children he created us to be, to become the kind of people that will do what the Bible says. "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, then I will hear from heaven, and I will heal their land". My prayer is that we do find a balance on border control in this nation: that we get back to being the kind of people that are governed by God's borders established in this book of truth. If you found John 10, let's read the truth together. John 10:9 and 10. If you're there, say, amen. Jesus said, "I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to kill, to steal, and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly".
Heavenly Father, let us see your truth today, not only as a border and a boundary, but as a blessing, as a resource that we might live the life more abundantly that you have called us to, not by choosing our own path, but by choosing to be obedient and faithful to the life-giving Word of God. In Jesus' name, we pray and ask. And all of God's children said, praise the Lord.
You may be seated. When it comes to border control, the reality of the situation is we've made it a lot more complicated than it should be. Why? Because we have changed our perspective on borders. Until recently, borders were considered blessings. Now, borders are considered burdens. Why? Because we would like to believe that the second we crossed the line, the second we get outside of the boundary, we have found a new level of freedom. That's not true. Whenever you cross the line, you don't find a new level of freedom: you find chaos. Borders are a blessing. Say that with me. Borders are a blessing. You say, "Well I don't agree with that". Well, fine. Then there is no border on second service: we can stay as long as I want. See: I told you borders were a blessing.
Now how many of you are blessed by 12:30? That's when service ends. That's a boundary. If I go to 12:35, you're going to go, "Preacher, you're crossing the line. You're crossing the line". Everywhere you look, God is a God of order, not chaos. And the way that he keeps order is through borders. The Bible tells us that the very world that we live in was framed by the Word of God. When he created the world, the heavens and the earth, he gave everything borders. The sun does not shine when it chooses to. It has boundaries. God told it when and where to. The stars that he calls by name, that he knows every single one by number, they don't go off whenever they'd like. They shine according to God's borders. The fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the animals that he created for the land, the pastures, the trees, the flowers, all of the things that God did, he gave it a border. And as long as it's within the border, it's blessed. But the second it crosses the line, it's in chaos.
A fish out of water is not blessed with the freedom of air: it's dead. Consider all the natural borders that you have in your life right now that you take for granted that are simply a blessing to you. Oxygen is a border. People say, "Well what do you mean"? Go ask scientists. They'll tell you that if any of the chemicals in our atmosphere get out of whack, we catch on fire. But God, in his genius, put them right in the perfect balance, each and every one of them at the right level, so that when you breathe in and you breathe out, you can live. This is why the Bible says, "In him, we live, and we move, and we have our being". You get outside of the border of this atmosphere, it might sound cool to you to be an astronaut, but you breathe one breath in outer space without the right equipment, you're dead! And the reason that we're having so much struggle with our natural borders on this earth is because we have crossed the supernatural lines that God has drawn.
Three borders that we have crossed, three lines that we have decided no longer matter, and they're burdening our nation. I want to discuss them in the balance of this service. A border that we've crossed comes from Genesis 1:27 established in the very beginning of the book. The Bible says, "So God created man in his own image". Say that with me. "So God created man in his own image". One of the reasons why we struggle with such simple things in this time of our lives is because we have forgotten the most basic truth, you were created. You did not evolve! You are not the latest and greatest version of a two-million-year-old experiment! You were created! You are an expression of the manifested genius of God. He looked at this world, and he divinely designed you, and thought that this planet would be better with you in it, which is why the Bible says, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you".
In the Book of Acts, the Bible says that God set the seasons, and the times, and the boundaries of all men. What the Bible is saying is that God designed you, and he chose you, and he appointed you, and he placed you on the earth for such a time as this! Don't walk around thinking that you're some form of chance! Know that God made a choice! And when he made that choice, he created you! You say, "What's the big deal"? The big deal is when you're created, you understand that you have to behave like the Creator intended. You don't get to choose your behavior. There is an expectation of behavior. So God created man. How did he do it? In his own image.
Now listen to the line that we've crossed. "He created them male and..." Oh, you've heard this. "He created them male and female". How many of you have enough intelligence to see two? Not ten: two. He didn't say, "He created them: be what you feel". "He created them", just in case you missed it the first two times, "Male and female". This is a line that we've crossed. And in crossing the line, we haven't found a new level of enlightenment: we found chaos. We've turned our world upside down. Why? Because we don't want to live within the borders of the facts: we'd like to live outside in our feelings.
And although this sounds like such a basic truth that kindergartners can understand it: you need to know that if we lose this foundation, nothing else can work. God created us. He has given us an expectation of behavior. And he created us male and female. And then in verse 28, it says, "And he commanded them, 'be fruitful and multiply'". Don't you ever forget it: you have a purpose on this earth. God created you. You're not a version of evolution. You are created just a little lower than the angels. God has a decision that he has made in giving you life, which is why the Bible says, "Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord". It is he, who made us, and not we ourselves.
Now God is so exact: he used the word "Multiply". "Multiply" is not when one becomes two. "Multiply" is when two becomes four, when four becomes eight, when eight becomes sixteen. How many of you passed the third grade? Now here's what the scientists, the anthropologists, the historians, and all those other "Gists" will tell you: that if a civilization is thriving, the birthrate is around 4.4. Now understanding that God made them male and female, that's two. When two become four, how many of you see multiplication? The Bible says that, or scientists will tell you that if a civilization is declining, the birthrate is around 2. That's not multiplication: that's just reproducing. And then it says that if a civilization is dying, the birthrate is lower than 2. Right now, the birthrate in the United States 1.9.
There are people in the government that say our biggest problem is melting icecaps. No. Our biggest problem is that we are not reproducing enough people to continue the next generation. The more people you produce, the more consumers you have. The more producers you have, the more things you can buy, sell, and trade. He created them male and female, and said, "Be fruitful and multiply". This is God's statement and his position against homosexuality. Remember I said that God is in favor of people. He died. He sent his son to redeem people. But he does have an expectation of our behavior. And he is against the behavior of homosexuality. You say, "Well that's not politically correct". You're wrong! I'd rather be right than politically correct. "Be fruitful and multiply," it's against the behavior of homosexuality, because if the two people in the relationship are the same sex, then they cannot reproduce: they can only recruit.
Right now in the United States, we do not consider the children that God blesses us with to be what the Bible says, "The inheritance of the Lord". It's not just a homosexual and a heterosexual problem: it's a human being problem, because we have become what Paul told Timothy we would be, "Lovers of selves". How many people do you know that whenever you ask them about their kids, they go, "Hah"? Everywhere I go, I want people to know how blessed I am to be a father. That it is my privilege to call four beautiful things, "Children:" that if I fail at being a father, then I have failed in life. And the most important thing that I will ever do is raise them.
Right now, we're having 1.9 children, and we're raising 2.2 dogs. And what's crazy is we train our dogs, and then we chain them up at night: and we don't teach our kids anything, and we turn them loose at night. Why? Because in order for us to teach our children, we're going to have to live within the borders of training them. We're going to have to sacrifice ourselves in order to lead them. Paul said to Timothy, "You'll become lovers of yourself". Do you know the most sacrificial thing that any human being can ever do? Get married and have kids. Believe me: me time is gone. God gave us a purpose, "Be fruitful and multiply". Then in Genesis 1:28, he said, "Subdue the earth and have dominion over it".
This is God's biblical balance on how we're to take care of the planet. God gave Adam the first job, take care of my creation. That job description hasn't changed. He still expects us to take care of this planet, not tear it up: care for it. But there's a balance. God put everything on this planet for our use, for our purpose, for our resources. And whenever we allow the created things to control us, we're out of balance. But the Bible is so accurate. Romans 1:25, it says, "They traded the truth for a lie". They started to worship the created and not the Creator. How many of you see things in our world where we're worshiping the created and not the Creator? It's time to get back within the borders that God has established. We are created. He is our Creator. We should live and behave as though he designed us to.
The second border that we've crossed comes from Genesis 9:4. In this verse, God restates what he said in Genesis 1, "Be fruitful and multiply". But then he adds this statement in Genesis 9:4. He says, "Life is in the blood". Say that with me. "Life is in the blood". That's a border. If God is the giver of life, and God says that life is in the blood, then we know where life begins. And then he says, "And whoever sheds innocent blood, his blood shall be shed". That's a border. That's an expectation of behavior. Church, simply stated, we've crossed the line whenever it comes to this truth that life is in the blood. We've crossed the line by allowing abortion. We've crossed the line over 60 million times by murdering children. Don't let the political word "Fetus" ever enter into your brain. That's not a fetus: that is a child that God created.
If life is in the blood, then science tells us that on day eight of gestation, every child has a blood supply, which means that before the mother knows she's pregnant, that baby has blood. Prior to that, go read Jeremiah 1. God said to Jeremiah, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you". That means before the woman ever knew she was pregnant, before the two individuals that created the life ever got together, God knew exactly when and where, date and time, hour that that baby would be born. So it's not a matter of pro-life and pro-choice. It's a matter of pro-life and murder. So when we count the number of 60 million aborted children, we're not counting them individually. Consider what they would have created. Consider what they would have done. Consider what God saw in their children and their grandchildren for generations to come. And God says, that blood cries out to me from the ground. God, help us.
We've got to get back within that border. Why? Because the last line that we've crossed that we'll speak about today is the border of righteousness. Proverbs 14:34, it says, "Righteousness exalts a nation". Say that with me. "Righteousness exalts a nation". Now, one of the things that we have to understand about this verse is that it is taking two things and putting them together. It's taking an individual choice and a corporate organization, and saying that your individual choice creates a blessing for the entire body. We say, "Righteousness exalts a nation," and we think that if we get righteousness on a political platform, it'll change everything. Wrong! Because righteousness is not a political platform: righteousness is a personal choice. It's a choice that I make for me. And it's a choice that you make for you.
Righteousness is knowing to do right and doing it. And there isn't a candidate, there isn't a policy, there isn't anything that can be done that's going to force you to make that choice. But when the Bible says, "Righteousness," it's talking about your personal decision to live right, it exalts a nation. Why? Because if I do right, and you do right, and we do right, and everyone's doing right, then corporately, we're going to get better. Don't make righteousness exalting a nation a political point. Make it a personal point. It's not about the political party. It's not about the candidate: it's about you! Why? Because this nation needs change without question. But the change we need is not an outside-in change: it's an inside-out change. And this change from inside-out comes from when you take an examination of your life, and you see where you've crossed the line.
And you say, God, I repent and I'm going to get back within the borders of your blessing. I'm going to get back within the borders of your word. I'm going to get back within the borders of your commandments. I'm going to get back within the borders of how you want me to live, and move, and have my being. And when enough of us do that, then the nation gets right. Until then, there's not enough elections to fix what we've got in front of us. "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people". People often hang the will of reform on some individual. "Oh, I hope they can help us" no. You have to help us. I have to help us. We have to help us. Because until we all personally invest ourselves in righteousness, nothing is going to change. You can't fix it from the outside-in. It's got to happen on the heart, and then move out.
Jesus Christ said, "I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life". Why? Because he wants to work on the inside of you, out. And he wants to make sure that what you do is that you live your life in such a way that brings glory and honor to him. Yes, we are in need of a desperate change. But that change is an inside change that moves on the outside of us. The Bible tells us very clearly that every nation that forgets God is turned into hell. Do you know what hell is? Hell is a place that is void of the presence of God. And this nation is doing everything it can to try and get God out of everything that we are. But if you choose today that you and your house are going to serve the Lord, then I assure you: you are going to make sure that this nation is always one nation under God! Give the Lord a handclap of praise! I want to invite you to stand. I want everybody in this room to raise their hands and repeat this prayer with me:
Lord Jesus Christ, today I thank you for your truth, because it is the truth that has created me. I thank you for the borders and the boundaries that you've established for me, and the blessings that are within them. Today, father, I repent for crossing the line, spiritually, physically, emotionally, financially. I return to your word, to your truth. And I declare today that the truth will set me free. And I thank you for the blessing of my freedom and my liberty through Jesus Christ, my Savior. In his name, I receive this blessing. Amen.