Fruit of the Spirit Sermon 3 - Self Control

We'll read from Galatians 5 1 one more week. These are the words of God For freedom

Christ has set us free Stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery

Look, I Paul say to you that if you accept circumcision Christ will be of no advantage to you

I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law

You are severed from Christ you who would be justified by the law you have fallen away from grace

For through the spirit by faith. We ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision

Excuse me circumcision or uncircumcision counts for anything but only faith working through love

You were running well who hindered you from obeying the truth This persuasion is not from him who calls you a little leaven leavens the whole lump

I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty whoever

He is but if I brother still preach circumcision Why am I still being persecuted in that case the offense of the cross has been removed

I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves For you were called to freedom brothers only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh

But through love serve one another For the whole law is fulfilled in one word.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself But if you bite and devour one another watch out that you are not consumed by one another

But I say walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh But the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh

For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things that you want to do But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law now the works of the flesh are evident

Sexual immorality impurity sensuality idolatry sorcery enmity strife jealousy fits of anger rivalries dissensions divisions envy drunkenness orgies and things like these

I Warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherit inherit the kingdom of God But the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self -control

Against such things there is no law and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh flesh with its passions and desires if we live by the spirit

Let us also keep in step with the spirit. Let us not become conceited provoking one another envying one another

This is the word of the Lord I'll just pray Lord God. Thank you for your words. Thank you for the clarity of the words from from Paul Thank you that he is so smart and that he preempts any possible

Objections that we have and that he explains things so thoroughly and carefully we can we can it can be hard to understand

Lord But he has provided the answers that we need So God we we ask that this word from from your from your from your words.

God this this passage from your words would Penetrate our souls and would change us

That the spirit would use his own words to change us into the ways that he wants to change us

God and that we would be forever impacted by By these words that we would internalize them that we would remember them at the key moments

God So I thank you for your for for the words That you spoke through Paul and that we're about to talk about today in Jesus name.

Amen All right this this morning we have the final four fruit of the spirit to talk about But I'm actually gonna focus really on one in particular

If you remember last time what we were doing was I was using the book of Proverbs to Demonstrate each of the fruit of the spirit how you can apply it and expand it to specific situations

You know, it's one thing to talk about love But it's another thing to know what love is and and what it looks like in everyday life

It's one thing to talk about patience But it's another thing to know how patience expresses itself in our everyday life in the civil life and social life

The book of Proverbs is a great place to go for that because it applies the law of God to everyday situations and As we said last time the law cannot make you good only the gospel of Jesus Christ and the

Spirit of God can do that the law cannot make you good, but it can show you what goodness is and That is the point of the fruit of the spirit the book of Proverbs and the law of God It shows you what these things mean what these things are

And so for example, it is easy to see how central the law of God is to the first of the four remaining fruit the fruit of goodness

Since we only know what is good based on what God has told us is good from his word

And so as we live the Christian life the Spirit of God will change our lives to make them lives full of good works

According to again the scriptural standard of what is good The next fruit is faithfulness.

The the fruit of the Spirit is faithfulness Now I use this verse last time, but I'm going to use it again

Proverbs 3. It says let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you

Bind them around your neck write them on the tablet of your heart Just like we asked last time.

What what is written on our hearts? The law of God is written on our hearts Romans 2 says that Jeremiah 31 says that again

You can see the Spirit the fruit of the Spirit is so closely connected to the law of God The next fruit is gentleness the fruit of the

Spirit is gentleness, this is Proverbs 15 Verse 1 says a soft answer

Turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger Two sentences later.

It says a gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit what's interesting about these is if you if you

Look at the foundations here. Both of those Proverbs are really applications of the commandment against bearing false witness

Because harshness when you really think about it if we're honest with ourselves when we're harsh with people even our own children

What we're doing is we're actually bearing false witness against them as if their lives were not as valuable as ours as If they did not bear the same image of God that we do

And so harshness is really bearing false witness and the Proverbs applies it that way So gentleness, of course would be the opposite side of that where there is no law against gentleness

Proverbs 25 says with patience a ruler may be persuaded and a soft tongue will break a bone

Ecclesiastes 10 says if the anger of the ruler rises against you Do not leave your place for calmness will lay great offenses to rest

These are also sort of applications of the the commandment against bearing false witness But they're also civil applications of the commandment to honor father and mother so gentleness in the face of authority

We can see that that gentleness is part of the law of God. It's commanded in the law of God The law is central to the fruit of the

Spirit. That's why Paul even says against these there's no law He lost central to the fruit of the

Spirit because it provides us with a guide on what the fruit of the Spirit actually mean in everyday life

We dare not take these words that Paul says love joy peace patience We dare not take those words and define them in any other way

Besides what the Spirit of God has revealed to us that doesn't that wouldn't make any sense, right? Like we wouldn't say okay.

The definition of the fruit of the Spirit is something besides what the Spirit has revealed That wouldn't make any sense

The same spirit that that Paul's talking about. These are the fruit of that spirit

That's the same spirit that inspired the rest of the scriptures and so we would of course define these words according to the scriptures

But what I want to focus on today is the final fruit of the Spirit The fruit of the

Spirit is self -control The fruit of the Spirit is self -control Now if you're maybe if you grew up on the

King James Version or maybe you're just a fan of the King James Version This is a different fruit of the

Spirit it's called they don't call it self -control the King James Version calls it temperance Fruit of the

Spirit is temperance. I like that word. I Like that word because it kind of captures the essence of what self -control is temperance.

I like that Now the Greek word is used a few different times in the

New Testament So I thought it's not used that often So I thought it might be helpful to talk about each time

It's used to get a little insight into the meaning of what self -control or temperance means

The first time that it's used is Acts 24, this is interesting This is when Paul is is he's in custody.

He's in prison by governor Felix, right? And it's and this is what happens. Listen to what it says.

It says Felix Having a rather accurate knowledge of the way put them off saying when

Lycaeus the tribune comes down I will decide your case then he gave orders for the centurion that he should be kept in custody

I'm talking about Paul not the centurion But have some liberty and that none of his friends should be prevented from attending his needs

After some days Felix came with his wife Drusilla who was Jewish he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus and As he reasoned about righteousness and self -control and the coming judgment and then it goes on from there

I'm not gonna quote the rest of it You see what happens there. Paul's in prison Governor Felix knows about Christianity.

He knows pretty accurately what it's all about and He goes to Paul.

He's looking to teach me about this. You know, I want to know more and Paul is teaching about Christ Jesus it's very specific. It says

Paul is talking about faith in Christ Jesus. And what does it say? He teaches about teaches about righteousness

Self -control and the coming judgment how many of our gospel presentations would talk about those three things more than anything?

That's interesting thought to think about So Paul's focused on this Next up is 2nd

Peter chapter 1. Look at what 2nd Peter says. Well, I guess this is just regular Peter but in his second letter this he says for this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge and knowledge with self -control and self -control with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love

For these qualities are yours and are increasing they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our

Lord Jesus Christ That's almost like the same list of the fruit of the Spirit right

Paul Peter Is giving this list of different virtues different things that should mark the Christian life and it's a similar list to Paul's list

And self -control is there This is like a fruit but a fruit of the Spirit list in its own very interesting.

I think It's also used in 1st Corinthians 9, here's what

Paul says there He says do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize?

So run that you may obtain it 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 is one beating the air But I discipline my body and keep it under control

Lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. That is so interesting as well

Paul is using the concept of self -control and discipline and he's using it as an

He's showing us an example of an athlete a premier athlete He's like that's the example.

That's what you should do in the Christian life with your self -control Now if you know anything about athletes

When you would you do because I know you sat under preaching from from Jared for so long So, you know at least about one athlete

If you've ever read about his like Tom Brady, we're talking about Tom Brady Obviously his diet and his exercise regimen.

It's insane It's obsessive like he has certain things that he eats certain measurements certain amounts and he's obsessed with it

There are many reasons why No one will probably ever achieve what he has But one of the reasons is most are not willing to put the effort that he has put in And Paul uses that as an illustration for us.

That's the kind of self -control we should be exercising in our Christian lives not with diet and an exercise and football but With self -control over other things

Lastly we have Titus chapter 1 and this is a quick one Paul's telling

Titus He says for an overseer as God Stewart must be above reproach He must not be arrogant or quick -tempered or drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable a lover of good self -controlled upright holy and disciplined

Obviously, that's the qualifications for elder but but you know when you think about it Those qualifications are just simply a list of what every mature

Christian ought to be like So interesting usages of self -control or temperance in the

Bible, I think It really does seem to be a hallmark of sorts for Christians This is something that should mark the lives of all believers.

Yet if we are all honest with ourselves There are some areas in our life where we have good self -control and other areas of our life where we simply do not

And so what I want to do today is I want to focus on a couple of strategies or ideas For us all to focus on so that we can practice better Self -control in more areas of our life through the power of the

Holy Spirit And the first thing I want to say about self -control is that The very word itself gives you a clue about who is responsible for it.

It is self -control Self -control we're required to have control of ourselves

This is an important distinction to remember as we live in a day where triggering is a thing

The concept of microaggressions is being affirmed by everybody And so this idea of self -control is super important if you don't know what triggering is someone says they're being triggered when

Someone has done something or they've heard something that has caused them to react a certain way usually a very negative over -the -top reaction

And a microaggression is what you call being triggered by something very small that was an attempt intended to offend you

But you choose to let it offend you It's a concept that excuses harsh and bad reactions

It is a concept that excuses bad behavior The whole idea of being triggered by a microaggression is an attempt to put the blame of your reaction on someone else

Something you saw that you didn't like someone something someone said that you didn't like and so you put the blame on them for your reaction not you

And what it creates is a situation that everyone else is responsible for what you do

Everyone else is responsible for making you react a certain way And Paul says that's the exact wrong person to put the blame on If you're being triggered by something if you're if you're if you're caving to this idea of microaggressions

Forcing you to do some that's the opposite of self -control You are responsible to control your own reactions you

Being triggered is not an excuse not to practice self -control Being triggered is not an excuse to sin.

The scripture addresses this directly Romans 12 the Apostle Paul Paul Paul Paul kept it real man.

It's almost like he could see into the future, right? But this is the thing people have been the same for forever Paul says this in Romans 12 he says repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all and then he says this if Possible so far as it depends on you live peaceably with all

Beloved never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God for it is written vengeance is mine. I will repay says the

Lord You see what Paul says he says if it's if it's if it's in your power, right?

As long as it depends on you Sometimes it doesn't depend on you, right? Someone could just come up and punch you in the face or something or someone could just come up and attack you then it's not

You know, you're not at peace, but it's not really your fault But as far as it depends on you control yourself you are responsible for your own reactions not the other person

Paul goes on this is what I find so awesome about this passage Paul goes on He says to the contrary if your enemy is hungry feed him if he is thirsty Give him something to drink for by doing so you will heat burning coals on his head

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good now

What I found so cool about that. I didn't know this before I didn't I didn't know this before I wrote lap the last sermon

But this is a direct quotation from Proverbs Paul's doing the exact thing. We were doing last week

Applying pop Proverbs to the fruit of the Spirit self -control Starts with the word self for a reason

We must remember that what other people do does not determine what we do We can with the power of the

Holy Spirit learn to exercise control over ourselves. No matter what someone else does So, how do we do that?

So here's my second point about self -control The key to not being

That the key to not being Someone who gives in and just gets triggered by everything the key to self -control

Is to not be ruled by your emotions We cannot be ruled by our emotions that is something that I know that I need to practice

I Think we probably all could practice it, but I'll speak for myself. I need to not be ruled by my emotions

Now emotions are not a bad thing right like we don't have to disregard them We don't have to suppress them like in Star Trek, right?

I don't know if you guys know anything about Star Trek, but there's a race in Star Trek the Vulcans who basically they said

Okay, emotions are inherently Counterproductive and inherently bad so from an early age

We're gonna learn how to suppress them all and then by the time they're adults. They're just completely emotionless

It's completely logical no emotions at all and that's what their whole race is all about they do that We don't have to do that We don't have to do that And it might be tempting to think well, yeah, you know if I didn't feel anger that would be a good thing, right

If I didn't feel these things that would be a good thing, but our Lord Christ felt emotion so they can't be inherently bad

But the point is to harness your emotions and control your emotions instead of letting them harness and control you

The point is that we should use our emotions and do our bidding instead of letting the emotion

Letting us do the emotions bidding, right? The exact opposite of microaggressions and getting triggered.

That's what we need to do and the Bible talks about this as well Ecclesiastes 7 it says be be not quick in your spirit to become angry for anger lodges in the bosom of fools

Proverbs 16 it says better a patient person than a warrior one with self -control than one who takes the city

Ephesians 4 says be angry and do not sin do not let the

Sun go down on your anger So you see patience and self -control over your emotions is so crucial, right?

So how do we do this? How do we control our emotions because let's be honest emotions are powerful

Is anyone here an expert at being angry but not sinning It's hard it's hard so how do we do it how do we do it that's the question

Now that is the third kind of section The first thing we need to do if we're gonna learn how to be in control right self -controlled is we need to pray to God fervently

This is impossible to do on our own This is a contextually accurate place and a good place to apply the famous passage with man

This is impossible. But with God all things are possible That's so true with this specific example

The motions are powerful and we need help from above to get control over them. So the first step is to pray

And the second step is to just wait Right when somebody says something to you or something happens and you feel the emotion start to well up I don't know about you

But when I feel the emotions in me like I can almost physically feel it right like I can feel my heart rate increase

I can fear feel my blood pressure almost rising Almost feel a little bit warm sometimes

When you feel that just take a step back just wait Pause do not respond right away.

This isn't just self -help mumbo -jumbo. This is biblical Proverbs says this Proverbs 29 says do you see a man hasty in his words?

There is more hope for a fool than for him What's the implication here right like don't be hasty take a step back wait

Don't just react to triggers That's it. That's the mark of someone who's undisciplined someone ruled by their emotions.

This is hard. This is really hard That's why you got it The first step is to pray right because this is super hard to get to the second step where you don't just react where you take

A step back you pause and you think before you respond, but the Proverbs says that that's applying the law of God That's what you have to do

Proverbs 13 says every prudent man acts with knowledge, but a fool flaunts his folly

Do not be hasty to speak Do not be impulsive to make a speech before God You see this is the thing you to practice self -control you have to pray to God because we need help to do it

And then also we have to pause and think before we react to anything That's the antidote to being triggered, right?

That's the antidote to microaggressions So, how can we do this

Why should we do this, right? Because you know, it's it's one thing to say what we should do it because God says so, right?

Well, that's true. We should do things because God says so but this this is so much deeper than that This is about the gospel of Jesus Christ, right?

Like this is the answer of this and it's not just hypothetically the answer or just kind of like abstractly the answer

This is so this is the this is one area where I need to Remind myself of the gospel over and over and over because look at this, right?

When somebody sins against you Especially when it's a fellow member the Church of Christ When somebody sins against you or someone else we need to recognize and remember that God is the one who is the offended party

Okay, so when someone sins against you God is the one who was offended Because when we sin we ultimately sin against God Now if God has forgiven the brother of all his or her sins

Then we have no right to get triggered by them none See we can live peaceably with all especially those in Christ because we know that Christ died for them just as he died for us

So God doesn't hold anything over on them Just like he doesn't hold anything over on us

God has wiped their slate clean just like he did for us. So what right do we have to not do the same?

The answer is none. We have no right. We have no right So if we really believe the gospel the gospel is important to us, right and We have to if that's true

Then we have to remember that the complete forgiveness available in that gospel from Christ is the key to self -control

We don't have to turn into robots We don't have to just be like we I don't feel anything. I don't feel anything. It's not like that We don't have to suppress our feelings.

We can have the emotions without sinning. We don't have to overreact because The old man was crucified with Christ We can criticize people or accept criticism without crushing them or being crushed by them

Because the old man was crucified with Christ freed from sin Like we said it earlier therefore if anyone is in Christ He is a new creation the oldest passed away and see that the new has come

That's how we do it. That's why we do it. That's why we practice this This is what how we practice all of the fruit of the

Spirit right the key passage This is this is so important. I've been thinking about this passage a lot in the last, you know few weeks

And this is just so important so applicable to this idea of self -control And all the fruit of the

Spirit rather It comes from Matthew 18 we talked We all said this together earlier about Peter saying how many times do

I have to forgive and and Jesus says to him 77 times so basically as many as it takes and Then Jesus tells a parable to Peter He says

Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants when he began to settle one was brought to him who owed him 10 ,000 talents and Since he could not pay his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had in payment to be made

So the servant fell on his knees imploring him have patience with me, and I will pay you everything

And out of pity for him the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt but when that same servant went out he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii and Seizing him he began to choke him saying pay what you owe

So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him have patience with me, and I will pay you He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt

When his fellow servants saw what had taken place they were greatly distressed and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place

And his master summoned him and said to him you wicked servant. I forgave you all the debt

Because you pleaded with me Should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant as I have had mercy on you?

And in his anger his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt So also my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart

It's just so instructive for us right like did God lose patience with us

He did not he did not Did God get triggered at our rebellion and our myriad of microaggressions against him?

No, he did not Did God choose to forego his goodness his gentleness with us?

No, he did not So then we can't We dare not do the opposite to our others to our brother brothers made in his image and that's the key to self -control because you have to remember that like No matter what the other person does to you, whatever happens to you, right?

It's nothing compared to what we've done to Christ to God So even the greatest triggering you can imagine it's nothing to what we've we could have triggered

God to do So may God help us to take this all to heart all of us take this to heart so we can practice

Self -control in light of the amazing forgiveness available in Christ. Let's pray Lord God, thank you for this passage of from Paul from the fruit of the

Spirit God. Thank you so much for Again the clarity that Paul gives us in this

Thank you that the message is so consistent as well. God. Thank you that Peter taught the same thing Thank you for the fact that Christ taught the same thing.

This is this is just amazing. I always kind of find it funny when

When people will say that the Bible is so inconsistent. I I can't imagine why they would say that it just seems so amazingly consistent from start to finish

And so God I pray that that you would That you would send your spirit inside of us

To help us grow and all and be fruitful in all of these areas in all of these areas love joy peace patience kindness

Goodness faithfulness gentleness self -control God. I pray that you would increase all in all of us these things

Like Peter said like we have these things but let them be increasing Because we all have areas in our lives where we do not exercise the self -control that we ought to I know

I do I Know I do God and so I pray that you would help me in particular, but also each one of these people

To grow in these areas father Thank you for your mercy. Thank you for your grace.

Thank you for your Holy Spirit sanctifying us moment by moment In Jesus name