Sermon Tone Analysis

Today we are talking about self-control.

We come to last part of the fruit that above all others is most difficult.

It seems to me that if we get control of our lives in one area it becomes obvious that another area comes to the fore; perhaps one we didn’t even realise we did not control.

It also seems to me that we will die trying because every sin we commit is evidence of lack of control.

But we have the promise of Scripture that we are being changed from glory to glory and then, at last, we shall see Him as he is and become like Him.

I think that our going through the fruit of the Spirit has made us think about where we are in scale of things and recognise that we fall so far short of God’s standards.

So, let’s get to defining self-control: It is moderate or sensible behaviour.

Someone said that it is the trait of resolutely controlling one’s desires that contribute to behaviour and actions.

It is the ability to control one’s emotions or behaviour, especially in difficult situations such as intense provocation or temptation.

Self control is to be governed by God not self.

Alexander the Great was ruler of Macedonia at age 16, victorious general at 18, king at 20—and then died aged 32.

We think for history from that far ago is not that clear that he collapsed from drinking at one of his parties in Babylon from a rather large cup he was downing for the 2nd time in honour of the Greek god Hercules.

12 days later he was dead.

He had conquered the then-known world, but not conquered himself.

The root of the word for self-control means: to have power, have might, to be devoted, to become strong, to become better, to endure, to persevere, and to be noble.

It is for this reason that we find Peter writing:

It truly is an indictment upon us if we do not purposely do these things we are short-sighted.

What does this mean?

I think that this shortsightedness is something that we can all be.

We live in the here and now.

We live in the instant society.

It is revealed in our expectations too when we vote in new governments, gain a new Pastor, get a new job and so on…we expect results right away.

The honeymoon period is over so quickly today revealing just how malcontent we are.

It is the same with self-control or rather the lack of.

It is the desire to have things now regardless of the consequence.

Hear what Miley Cyrus had to say: "Be who you are, do what you do, be who you want to be, live your life and don't worry about what people have to say about it."

(Newsbeat BBC 23rd September 2013)

This is just how people are living today.

There is some sense to what she said, so I’m not blowing it out of the water, but the way she is saying it is to give her the excuse to live in a way which is abhorrent to God and others.

What she is saying is ‘let us throw off moral restraint and live licentiously and don’t care what others think’.

In fact, if anything, she is suggesting living a life without answering to anyone.

She thinks that this is freedom.

But freedom in Christ does not give believers liberty to cast off all moral restraint.

Nor does it call for a withdrawal from life and its temptations.

It calls for a self-disciplined life following Christ’s example of being in the world but not of the world

We have to listen carefully to Peter with his warning about the freedom that is promised by others:

This liberty is not freedom at all but slavery to the base things of this world of which we are we should have already moved on from.

What is the Gospel?

Gospel translates as ‘good news’.

Good news is obvious sometimes such as getting a pay-rise (of course, this is good news for the Church too for the amount that we can do with the extra offering is enormous!).

Sometimes though people do not know that we bring good news because they do not realise the predicament they are in.

That one day they and we have to give an account to God and that there is hell to pay for rejecting the good news.

Hear Paul:

Paul’s gospel contained self-control.

I wonder at what point Felix was afraid?

About righteousness?

About the judgement to come?

Or about self-control?

It surely was a combination of all three.

Did we know that self-control was part of the good news?

When have we said to others that self-control is part of the Gospel?

When did we last include that?

Self-control relates to repentance.

It is our lack of self-control that is going to put us before the Judgement Seat.

Let’s make sure in sharing the Good News we don’t forget righteousness, self-control and judgement.

Let us look at some examples from Scripture of a lack of self-control.

One of the most obvious examples is Samson:

Already we see that a man who has been set apart from birth for the purposes of God is disobeying God because of a woman he likes.

And we can read further how he had out of control anger.

Then he liked a prostitute and then he like Delilah.

As well as not keeping sexually pure he could not keep his mouth shut either in revealing the secret of the riddle and the secret about his hair.

And in the end it caused his own death because he allowed a razor to be used on him because he thought his own strength would save him.

This should be a lesson to us all.

If you think you are strong you can most certainly fall.

There are many other examples of those who were out of control in the Bible such as Amnon with his sister, Moses and the rock, Saul with David and so on.

But just as there are example of a lack of self-control there are examples of self-control:

This seems all the more pertinent after this morning and the sin of adultery starting with the eyes.

Who of the men here can claim we do what Job did?

But I think the greatest example of self control in the Old Testament is Joseph who could have got angry with his brothers and sought revenge; who rejected Potiphar’s wife’s advances and instead did what we are told in the New Testament to do…which is to flee…and though accused of wrong doing whilst innocent still did not blow the plot.

He was very much a man under control.

He made for a great Prime Minister.

Jesus, when in the Garden of Gethsemane did not call for legions of angels to destroy his enemies or when on the cross when berated to come down from the cross he did not though it was within His power to do so but instead prayed for their forgiveness.

Let us take a closer look at self-control and so let us start with Paul:

If you want to do a marathon or half-marathon then you should have trained beforehand to make sure you can complete the race.

It takes discipline or it could end in failure or pain afterwards.

We are to be temperate in all things – so not given over to sex, to alcohol, to food, to shopping, to addictions of any kind.

It covers the whole of life.

It is to live a disciplined life with self-deprivation and the capacity to resist sin.

It is sane, serious and sensible.

There are days when the athlete’s body is tired and sore, but he continues training.

There are days when he doesn’t feel like training, but he does so anyway.

There are days when he begins to doubt his ability to outperform the other competitors, but he keeps on training.

Can we put ourselves in this camp?

Or do we instead focus on our gratification for the moment.

This is very interesting.

We are not to tangle ourselves in the affairs of this life.

Er, too late!

Right?

We don’t have time to invest in anything except the Kingdom of God.

Time is short.

We are to discipline ourselves in every way not so that we see the benefits such as health etc though good in itself but so that we can be fit to serve the Kingdom of God.

The Christian philosophy is a philosophy of self-denial, self-control, and self-restraint.

The satanic philosophy is a philosophy of “live as you please,” “have what you want,” “don’t let anyone tell you what to do,” and “it’s your life, you have a right to live it.”

—Bob Jones

So, let us get down to business: There are three things Scripture talks to:

1)Physical Self-control

So, we are to be pure sexually, we are not to get drunk, we are to eat right.

You all see that I have mastered this one.

But it is no joke.

It is probable that my long-term health will deteriorate if I don’t do something about it let alone the fact it is not a good example to you and others.