Self-Control
Fruit of the Spirit • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 4 viewsSelf control is a determination to surrender our lives not to the desires of our flesh but to the deliverance provided by the Holy Spirit.
Notes
Transcript
Before we begin update on Bev and Greg
Doing well in Thunder Bay Ontario
They say hi and thank everyone for the prayers
Also an update on Ukraine
Joe Dukes shared this update and has close connections
We don’t hear about it as much in the news
Keep these brothers and sisters in prayer
A damn was blown up and neighborhoods are under 8 feet of water
Make shift rafts floating around looking for food and clean water
Constant bombing
They said the Russians send missiles every night
And the siren alerts go off from 2am-5am
They are now becoming accustomed to these living conditions
More than 3,000 square miles
Which is the size Delaware and Rhode Island combined
Completely destroyed
Let’s pray for these people
Is your life out of control?
Are your finances out of control?
Is your marriage out of control?
Are your relationships out of control?
Are you children out of control?
Mine are
Is your tongue out of control?
Are your thoughts out of control?
Are your selfish desires out of control?
Satan uses our desires to control us
As humans we have desires that attempt to control
Our lives and our hearts
The desire to be accepted
The desire for pleasure
The desire for wealth
The desire for fame
The desire for happiness
The desire to be attractive
We even have to fight the desire for self-acceptance
I don’t know about you but when I wake up and look in the mirror
The first thing that crosses my mind is not
Man I look good
Wow I love how great of a person I am
I love everything about myself
Normally I have to attempt to force myself to believe I am of worth
I have to daily remind myself that I am loved
I have to fight the desire to tear myself down
And remember that I am made in His image
And chosen by Him
When we find ourselves battling these desires
When we find our lives out of control
We are in a tug of war with God
We are saying, we want things to be our way
We want to live out the selfish desires that make us happy
But we also tell God that we want to be followers of Him
The problem is we cannot truly experience the FOTS
We cannot experience true love, joy, peace
When we are not in complete and full agreement with Jesus about our lives
We are on one side of the rope
Jesus is on the other
And we are pulling and fighting against His will
For our desires
It is so challenging to have self-control when the world around us is telling us that we deserve our desires
The world tells us that it is normal to say yes
Our culture tells us that we can have it our way
Burger King - Have it your way
When we have it our way we should see the results never are honoring to God
Worldwide more than 1 billion people have obesity
Worldwide more than 270 million people have used drugs in the last year
Worldwide more than 1.3 billion people use tobacco
Worldwide more than 1.6 billion people gamble
Up to 65 percent of men turn to pornography at least once a week
More than 1.2 billion in the world are in poverty
When we have it our way
Our way is selfish
Our way is idolatry
Our way means that we are choosing something else over Jesus
Many times when we sin we will use the expression
“I couldn’t help myself”
Really?
We can’t help but choosing something else over Jesus
Do we understand that when we choose something else over Jesus
We are declaring by our actions that God is not enough for us?
That we need something else to fulfill our desires?
We are in a battle
Against the world, the flesh, the devil
We are battling these internal desires
The world tell us that it is okay to indulge in these temporary pleasures
People do what they want to do
Journey - anyway you want it
Thats the way you need it
Anyway you want it
Not sure what “it” is
Nor do I want to know
But this is what people are listening to
This is what people believe
We are here not because of what the world believes
But because of the truths found in the gospel
Let’s turn to our passage for this morning
As we conclude our series on the fruit of the spirit
Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”
Reminder - FOTS
1. not dependent on our circumstances
We must choose to be filled with these characteristics of Christ no matter what else happens in our life
2. we cannot produce it on our own
The desires are of the flesh are produced by us
The fruit of the spirit is only obtained when walk in a daily relationship with our Lord
When we abide in the vine
Final fruit
Challenging one
Put on love, joy, peace
Patience - starts to test my strength
Kindness and goodness - generally a good person
Faithfulness - maybe sometimes...
Gentleness is often related to self-control
How we choose to respond in gentleness is often a response of the heart if we choose to control
The world is marked by harshness and cruelty
We must live counter culturally and demonstrate self control
Self- control is not just simply bottling up our anger
And then when no one is around letting it out on a wall.
Self-control is not biting our tongues when the person is around
And then talking about them behind their back.
Self-control is not turning from one sin in public
And then committing another in private
Self control is a determination to surrender our lives not to the desires of our flesh but to the deliverance provided by the Holy Spirit.
Self control is a determination to surrender our lives not to the desires of our flesh but to the deliverance provided by the Holy Spirit.
Self control is thinking before we act and staying within the God given boundaries
Self control demonstrates inner strength through sound judgement
Helping us to say and do things that are pleasing to God
We spent a lot of time looking at desires of the flesh
Desires of the world
Desires that cause us to be in a tug of war with Christ
Let’s look at desires that we should have
Desire to please God
Desire to please God
Growing up Nannan
Just a taste
Taste never was just a taste
Turned into eating half of it
Thinking back on it now
I would love to say to my grandmother
Have some self control over your desires
Now I jokingly say to my dad
Just a taste all the time
Today is father’s day
Wish my own father and all of the other father’s and father figures a very happy fathers day
My own father taught me to have self control over my desires
our parents have to teach us that we cannot always just do as we please
We already established in western culture
The mindset is to enjoy yourself, please yourself, do what you want to do
Imagine if that’s what our parents did
Imagine if they never taught us its wrong to run into the road
Our Lord has give us his word, guidance, direction in our lives
He is our father and has taught us what is wrong and right through His scripture
But sometimes we choose not to listen
Sometimes even though our dad tells us not to run into the road
We start running
And then like Marshall, we turn around and look at our dad and smile at him
Even though we know what we are doing is wrong
We see how far we can push the limit before we get caught
Or get in trouble
God gives us freedoms in this world
But God also knows his children are tempted to over indulge
God establishes boundaries for his children
True freedom is not a license to do as you please, but a liberty to do as we ought - Alistair Begg
James 1:25 “But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”
We need to have the desire to please God by obeying his commands
Would you be considered a follower of Jesus based on your conduct?
Have you turned your back on sin?
Have you made a commitment to the Lord to be obedient to His ways?
Do you have a strong desire to obey and please God?
It is a dangerous thing to listen to the word of God
and then willfully, knowingly, deliberately disobey God
Pastor Greg reminded us a couple weeks ago
Whatever a man sows he reaps
What am I doing in my life that is cheating me out of God’s best and causing a tug of war in my life?
What is it in your life that you just can’t let go of?
When we can’t let go of those things
We find ourselves back in the tug of war with Christ
Surrender requires letting go and letting God
When we surrender we let go of the rope
And let God win our battles for us
Surrender requires self-control
Self-control to do what is right despite the desires of our flesh
Self-control to think before we act
Self-control to think before we speak
On average 7,000 words a day
Are our words tearing people down?
Are our words demeaning to others?
Or do we demonstrate control
Self control is a determination to surrender our lives not to the desires of our flesh but to the deliverance provided by the Holy Spirit.
Self control is a determination to surrender our lives not to the desires of our flesh but to the deliverance provided by the Holy Spirit.
I am not a golfer
But I am told there is a saying
The 6 most important inches are the inches between your ears
Isn’t that true in all of life
How we think, what is in our heart
is a direct result of the self-control that we have over our lives
We know that God’s word tell us
Hatred = murder
Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
We know that God’s word tell us
Lust = adultery
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Maggie swallowing penny
Doctor said wait for it to be expelled
What goes in our mouth will be expelled
What goes in our minds fills our heart
Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”
What are you allowing to fill your heart?
Are you allowing the desires of the flesh and the world?
Or do you have self-control to fill yourself with the power of the spirit?
You may be saying my heart desires to please God
But its tough
Its so challenging to live out these fruit of the spirit
It absolutely is
Which brings me to my next point
It takes
Determination to trust God
Determination to trust God
Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
As many of you know
I am not an athlete
I do understand discipline
Being a musician requires discipline
I am sure the athletes in the room would say it is harder to be an athlete because of the sweat, blood and tears
But the calluses on my fingers might say otherwise
The countless hours required to practice and have the skill level of
Bryant, Jeff, Bri or others on our team might disagree
Either way the apostle Paul talks about the discipline that athletes need
The self control that athletes require
Paul talks about athletes here because everyone was familiar with the Olympic games at the time
Paul knew that Self-control was an essential part of the Christian life
We should make it our goal to please Him
And we should be questioned by those in the world why we don’t do the things of the flesh
Our answer should not be because of the rules of our church
But instead our desire to please him
And our determination to trust Him
We should be motivated by the prize at the end of the race
John Piper put its this way
Life is not a place for proving to God or anybody your strength. Life is a place for proving whose strength you trust—man’s or God’s. Life is not a place for proving the power of your intelligence to know truth. It’s a place for proving the power of God’s grace to show truth. Life is not a field for demonstrating the force of our will to make good choices. It’s a field for showing how the beauty of Christ takes us captive and constrains us to choose and run for his glory.
John Piper, Sermons from John Piper (1990–1999) (Minneapolis, MN: Desiring God, 2007).
We must be determined to trust Him knowing His ways are higher than our own
While the things of this earth, the desires of the flesh seem appealing
We must remember that eternal life with Him is far better
We do not fight because eternal life is based on our efforts
We must demonstrate self-control, discipline, determination
We must fight because faith without works is dead as it says in
James 2:26 “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”
We know as we have seen all through the book of Galatians that our salvation is not found in anything that we do
Our salvation is not based on our works
Our salvation is provided through the saving power of Jesus Christ
Our strength is given through the power of the Holy Spirit
Our life in eternity is provided because of the saving grace of our God
But we are still called as believers to put on the fruit of the spirit
To live lives that reflect Christ in everything we do
And to depend on Him for the strength we need
We are in the midst of a battle that is going to take determination to continue to rely on God
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
Paul tell us that we need to fight our selfish desires and have self-control over our cravings
“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
Jesus himself gives us instruction on the amount of determination and self-control it takes
If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
Just because we tear out our eye
Or cut off our hand
Does not mean that we can overcome all sin
But what both Jesus and Paul are telling us
Is that we are in the middle of a fight
A fight against our selfish desires, selfish impulses
That takes determination to please God
John Piper says
Sermons from John Piper (1990–1999) Olympic Spirituality, Part 2
The body is not evil in itself. God created it. And he will raise it from the dead to exist forever. But the body is the base of operations for sin, and sin uses it to give rise to many impulses that are destructive to spiritual life.
The fight is like a boxing match as Paul says
1 Corinthians 9:26 “So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.”
Whenever I think of boxing I can’t help but think of a famous boxer
Who once said,
Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it.
You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you’re hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!
Rocky knew that it takes determination to fight through this battle
But Rocky’s determination
His self-control
Was misplaced
Rocky believed that He could fight every fight on his own
How often do we believe that we have the strength to fight these fights on our own
Yes we need to have determination
Yes we must have self-control
We must draw our strength from the Holy Spirit
Self control is a determination to surrender our lives not to the desires of our flesh but to the deliverance provided by the Holy Spirit.
Self control is a determination to surrender our lives not to the desires of our flesh but to the deliverance provided by the Holy Spirit.
But when we look at this list of fruit
It seems like a daunting task to put all of these on
But we must remember that this is the fruit of the spirit
We can only experience this fruit
When we are abiding in Christ
Christian behavior and expectations are never separated from the grace of God
“Scripture never expects us to hear God’s command, separate from our focus of God’s word for us in the person of his son and when we divorce these things we almost always go wrong” - Alistair Begg
That brings us to our next point
We can experience
Deliverance because of God
Deliverance because of God
As I mentioned earlier self-control is a very challenging fruit for me
Everything in our lives is about self
So whenever I am able to exemplify this fruit
I often want to be filled with pride and say
wow what a great job I did at have discipline and determination
wow look at how controlled I am in my life
It is humbling to remember that fruit is not produced by the law or by the works we do
But it is only produced by the life of Christ
We must become what God intended for us to be
Alistair Begg also said this
“Self effort becomes the disguise of self control, self effort apart from dependance upon Christ is entirely self focused and ultimately is destined to failure”
The fruit of the spirit is not easy
But it is how we are called to live
It is not natural
Nor can it be produced even by our hardest efforts
It is a gift of God
And we can only live with these Christlike characteristics
When we are mastered by Christ
Every dimension of our lives should be brought under the control of Christ
Our victory and assurance is found in Christ
John Piper says
Sermons from John Piper (1990–1999) Olympic Spirituality, Part 2
So “self-control” is not ultimately control by the self but by the Spirit. We experience it usually as control by our own will, but in fact it is God in us willing and working his own good pleasure
Philippians 2:13 “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
When we come to this understanding that it is not by our own strength or our own doing
This should once again humble us
Bring us to our knees in worship and awe of who He is
How he loves us so much
That not only did he send his son
To be born
To be beaten
To die
To rise again
So that we might have eternal life with Him
But he also gives us the power of His spirit
So that we might have the power through Him
To put off the desires of the flesh
And to instead pursue the desires of our Lord
To have the determination to trust Him in all circumstances
And to have deliverance from all sins for all of eternity
We can experience true self-control because of His never ending love for us
You may be listening and thinking
Well this is a nice message for the younger generation
Or maybe this doesn’t apply to me because I have been a follower of Jesus for my whole life
Or maybe you think that you are not as tempted by things as others are
Paul in his instructions to Titus
Tell us that self-control is a discipline that applies to all ages
All walks of life
Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled.
Why do we need to be self-controlled?
Paul tells Titus
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,
A study in 2010 found that self-control is actually contagious.
When those studied even watched or thought about someone with self control
They were more likely to show the same restraint
People tend to mimic the behavior of those around them
Let’s demonstrate self-control
And be a light and an example to those around us of God’s love
Self control is a determination to surrender our lives not to the desires of our flesh but to the deliverance provided by the Holy Spirit.
Self control is a determination to surrender our lives not to the desires of our flesh but to the deliverance provided by the Holy Spirit.
Story
Greek Mythology
Island - 3 sirens
Half bird half human
Sing songs
Sailors crash boats
Could not resist their selfish desires
Odysseus - wax in ears
Tied to the mast - he wanted to hear desperately
Until they passed safely
Often wax in our ears is the self-control that we can demonstrate on our own
Sure we can avoid the sin
Sometimes we may even be safe on the other side
But when we do it on our own
Without relying on the strength of God
Ultimately we bring all the honor and glory to ourselves
Another captain - Jason
Brought a skilled musician Orpheus
Captivating musician
Whenever he played everyone listened
The sailors gathered under the mast and listened to Orpheus
Sirens played
But Jason and his men only heard the beautiful music of Orpheus
Passed by safely
As sons and daughters of God we are not prisoners to our passion, chained to the mast
We have heard a sweeter song
Gathered under the cross we hear a heavenly song
Holiness, discipline, self-control
They are not burdens that should have to plug our ears with wax
They are a joy to live our lives how Christ created us
Invitation to be free from the chains of the desires of the flesh
The desire to please God instead by obeying
The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
Scripture tells us not only to hear this music from heaven
But also to sing it loud so that others hear it too
And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.”
saying with a loud voice,
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!”
And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”
Let’s let our songs, our worship, and our self-control
Be a determination to surrender our lives not to the desires of our flesh but to the deliverance provided by the Holy Spirit.
Be a determination to surrender our lives not to the desires of our flesh but to the deliverance provided by the Holy Spirit.
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