Welcome to the For the Gospel Podcast, where we provide sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Kosti Hinn, and I want to welcome our listeners on Apple, Spotify, and those of you enjoying this on our YouTube video podcast format. On today's episode, I'm kicking off a brand new series on self-control. Proverbs 25, verse 28 says, A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls. How many of us end up with broken lives, broken relationships, and spiritual vitality broken down because we lack self-control? My wife and I recently released a book for children titled The King Who Found His Self-Control, and we talk about the importance of teaching this to our kids. But in this series, I'm turning the focus to us now who are beyond the age of childhood. And I want to look first at five self-control breakers so we can identify the kind of attitudes that bring down the strength of our self-control. Picture your self-control like a city and its walls. And these breakers in this episode are the things that break down those walls of self-control. In the next episode, we're going to look at five self-control war zones. I want to identify instruments and environments that the war for self-control is raging within or through. And then in later episodes, we'll look at lessons from Christ on self-control, lessons from Paul on self-control, and then we'll finish the series with six bricks for building a life of self-control. Why is this so serious? Why would we do this kind of series? I would say, why wouldn't we? Self-control is a superpower in life, but it's also supernatural in that we cannot exhibit lasting, sustained self-control without the power of the Holy Spirit. And it's one of the fruit of the Holy Spirit and one of the greatest assets in life, far more valuable than anything material. The ability to self-control is a treasure. And you and I should have it. First, I want to define self-control. I like the definition from a friend of mine named Drew Dick in his book on self-control. He says self-control is the ability to do the right thing even when you don't feel like it. I'll repeat that. Self-control is the ability to do the right thing even when you don't feel like it. Basically, it means you're not controlled by your emotions, your impulses, your reactionary whims, but by an internal discipline, by principles. You know the right thing to do and you do it, regardless of how you feel or what external or internal temptation you're experiencing. This is the idea of delayed gratification. Maybe you've heard that before. It's making the right decision for the long-term good rather than living in the instant gratification. Whatever kind of quick gain or quick pleasure I can get, it feels good in the moment. I have what I want, but it doesn't last. That's instant gratification versus delayed. We do this, we go for instant gratification when we give into our impulse to fire off maybe that vicious word, and it feels good to just let it fly or lose our temper or give into temptation with food or money or sexual immorality, all of these things are a part of these moments where we react without thinking. We're not thinking about the future, we're not thinking about repercussions, we're not thinking about our principles in life or from scripture. Of course, we're Christians. We're just thinking about I want what I want, or I'm gonna go with how I feel. In this first episode, I think it's important for us to talk about the things that break down our self-control. I've made a list. You can reflect on these on your own, discuss them with someone else. Here we go. Number one, breaker number one, biblical illiteracy. I start here because the Bible is where all morality begins. The word of God is what directs and guides our path. So self-control begins with the question: what does God's word tell me to do? Maybe even earlier than what does God's word tell me? Is does God's word control the moral compass of my life? Because you could hear what God's word says or know what it says and go, nah, I'm not gonna do that. Does it control the moral compass of your life? If it doesn't, well, how are you defining right and wrong? How do you define what is out of control or in control? For us as Christians, we're people who have placed our faith in Christ. We trust in him alone for salvation. He guides our way in the truth. And therefore we look to his word. What the Bible says overrides our feelings, our impulses, our attitudes, and everything else under the sun for that matter, for us. But if you don't know God's word, if you're biblically illiterate, it's gonna be a breaker for your self-control. And I'm not letting us off the hook here, anyone, whether you're a new Christian or not, but I want to establish that many people are, and maybe this is you, I want to encourage you, just biblically illiterate, and you'd actually want to do the right thing. You would love to go with what God's word says. You just don't know what God has said on any given issue. And so I want to encourage you to read scripture if you want to have more self-control and know what to do. Make sure you're in a Bible-teaching church. And I don't just mean like the guy opens the Bible and drops in a verse and then goes on his own discourse. I mean a Bible-saturated church. That's what I want to start saying. I'd say it's a good phrase for you to be thinking through, not just Bible teaching. Like, oh, anyone can say, well, I teach the Bible. You know, there's the Bible right there. But Bible saturated meaning the Bible is leaking in and through every area, every ministry, not just the pulpit, but it's flowing. Like one of those soaker hoses that makes your lawn rich or uh waters all of your plants. It's saturating the soil. That's a Bible-saturated church. Not knowing God's word is gonna kill your self-control. So you've got to be around people that love it and that live it. That's why in this series, we're gonna look at how Jesus modeled self-control. How are you gonna get know Jesus and his example if you don't know the word? Uh the apostle Paul, same thing. Lessons from him on self-control. Where are those found? Scripture. All of this is key. God's word is the key. And so we need to know it. If you're biblically illiterate, it's gonna break down your self-control. Number two, indifference. This is the person who goes, ah, who cares? Maybe even already in this episode, you're going, you know, relax. I get it. You got to do one. It's the fruit of the spirit. Okay. No, no, listen to me. If you think there's no war for self-control, you are blind and very ignorant. Not of the Bible, but of reality in this world, spiritual warfare. It is a very big deal. And indifference is like someone who thinks a seatbelt's no big deal, or a speed limit's no big deal, or working hard is no big deal. You're gonna find out pretty quick that a lack of self-control is destroying your life or setting you on a collision course with danger and destruction. Maybe the worst part about your life right now is that you don't realize how indifferent you are to self-control. Breaker number three, overconfidence. First Corinthians 10 12 is a convicting passage in this regard. One of my favorites to remind my own self, my own life pastorally, we never arrive. It doesn't matter what God has done, you never start presuming. It doesn't matter how spiritually strong and mature you are getting, you never think, oh, I'm fine or worse than I'm fine. I've got this. Paul warns in 1 Corinthians 10 12, I'm gonna give you the old King James vibe with it. Let he who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. The idea, don't think you're standing. Just when you think, I've got this, God is in the business of humbling you and I. I think the danger of overconfidence might be one of the deadliest self-control killers because it's rooted in pride. And so even if the most self-controlled person is doing so by their own strength, and they've got it, they've got willpower. God will humble you because that's what he loves to do for those whom he loves. We all have need to stay on guard. The New Testament repeatedly warns against this attitude. Uh, when Paul is telling Timothy how to stay strong in ministry and how to serve people faithfully, he says, pay close attention to your life and to your doctrine. In 1 Timothy 4 16, he never says, Ah, you're fine, you know, you're good, you're Timothy, I'm Paul, I got you. He says, Listen, you need to watch your holiness, your purity, your life, all of it, and your teaching. That's what will keep you, Brother Timothy. This is a good lesson for us. We never think we've arrived when it comes to self-control. Otherwise, we begin to think more of ourselves than we ought to. We got to think it's a daily fight. I don't ever take my gloves off. I don't ever drop my hands. I'm up, I'm ready, I'm always on guard. Another breaker, laziness. The opposite of this would be the Colossians 3.17 mentality. Whatever you do in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. And then verse 23, a passage that maybe you've heard before, whatever you do, do your work heartily. Meaning, whatever you do, do it well, get after it, as working for the Lord and not for man. The lazy person is not thinking about pleasing Christ or using time and talents for Christ and fighting the good fight for Christ. Lazy people are breaking down the walls of self-control. They refuse to put in the work to be self-controlled. They might say, oh, it's all God. He's got to do it because he's sovereign. And you get this hyper-Calvinistic attitude, like, well, we do nothing. Forgetting that Paul says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Well, it's God who works. And so you have this monergistic and synergistic aspect of sanctification, meaning this, God is gonna do it, but you don't sit around and go, well, then I'll do nothing. You gotta move that hand and pick up that Bible. You gotta wake up in the morning and go to gather with the saints. You gotta think about in your own mind what kind of preaching you should be under. You do something, not to be saved and stay saved, but because you're saved. I love what James says in a book that's very punchy in the book of James. Don't be hearers of the word who delude yourselves, but be doers. Your works don't save you. They don't even keep you saved, but they result from a saved life. And so you've got to be pushing aside laziness. You know what you're doing right now is antithetical to laziness. You've done something. You're putting in the work. Why? Because instead of listening to sports talk radio, which might be a little more engaging than me regarding some of our sports obsessions, uh, zoning out, or some carnal music, or texting and driving, or watching some uh YouTube video that's a waste of your time, you're watching this. You're taking steps to build up your self-control, and the Holy Spirit is gonna work through that diligence. How? Galatians 5.16 says, you are walking by the Spirit, and that's gonna produce the fruit of the Spirit. Killer number five or breaker number five, if you want to call it, complacency. At first you might think complacency is like laziness or indifference, but it's not. We define this word and this attitude as being satisfied. It's not really overconfidence, it's this feeling that I've done it once and you know, that's that. AW Tozer once said, complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Why? It thinks, well, I've checked the box. It's not really, again, an overconfidence like I'm the man or I'm the woman or I've got this. It's more, hey, I've done it, and you know, I guess that's that. Maybe you've had some success with self-control. Uh, maybe you're not battling by way of temptation a lot right now, but be careful. You may become satisfied with your current spiritual growth. And while you're not necessarily, again, overconfident, you forget that there's no neutral in the gear shift of your spiritual growth. It's forward all the way. We're never there, we're never arrived, and we don't want to be satisfied because we've checked a box. To hit the home stretch in this episode, let me give you four responses to these breakers. And when you feel like the walls are coming down, take these steps. Number one, identify. I gave you five breakers, and they encompass most of what we face, but you've got to be mindful of what specific attitude plagues you the most. Identify what your struggle is, identify your area of patterned weakness. We're all gonna have unique breakers depending on our situation. So identify. Number two, confess. Psalm 51 is a perfect model. Go read it and look at how David pours out his heart before the Lord with honesty. He confesses his sin and so, in like kind, confess. Have you been lazy? Confess it. Prideful, overconfident, complacent, indifferent. How about ignoring God's word? Confess all that to the Lord, ask him to help you. And I guarantee, because the Bible teaches this, he's gonna meet you right where you are. He opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. Number three, go to war. Go to war. That's what we're doing in this series. Nobody wins when we identify the problem, we confess the problem, but then do nothing about the problem. We need to go to war. And we've got to use the weapons God has given us. Remember being a kid and you get a gift, probably at Christmas, sometimes a birthday, and you open it up. I'm from this era, I think this still happens now, where your toy needs batteries, not necessarily a USB charger, although most toys do now. You open the box, you're excited to play, and you look and it says batteries not included. The dreaded line because you couldn't do anything with what you'd been given. That never happens to a Christian going to war against sin. Tim Chester once wrote, The gospel is a gift that comes with batteries included. You've got to go to war and you've got to trust the power of the gospel to fuel your effort. Finally, look to Christ. Jesus said to his disciples, Apart from me, you can do nothing. And we should keep that in mind when we face the Everest of self-control issues. Nope, you won't conquer it on your own, but with Christ, you can look to him. Well, that's episode number one in the series. And picture us as a sprinter or a horse at the Derby. We just got out of the blocks, off the blocks, or out of the gate, however you prefer. We're just getting started. And next episode, we're gonna continue to go to war. I want to unpack in that episode what I'm calling five self-control war zones that involve items or environments that the enemy uses to assault your self-control and how to fight the good fight against those things. There's many good things that the enemy will try to veer to become a vessel unto our own peril. Thanks for listening and for watching and for your support. If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and check out some of our recent videos with Dr. Steve Lawson on preaching and ministry, our teaching on the Holy Spirit, how to study the Bible, or if you haven't gotten caught up on past series and episodes on forgiveness and the will of God and manhood, go to the playlist titled Podcasts on our YouTube channel and you can catch up. Or if you're on Apple or Spotify, you can just scroll down to prior episodes and catch up on an old series that will strengthen you on a different subject. To check out our team or partner with our ministry by becoming a gospel patron with a one-time or monthly partnership, go to for thegospel.org. I'll be back next Monday with another episode. Keep on living for the gospel.