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 and Spotify and those enjoying this on our YouTube video podcast format. On today's episode, I'm shifting gears in this series on self-control from breakers and war zones to the example of Christ. If you've been with me since the beginning of this series, we've gone a couple episodes in. We looked at things that break down the walls of our self-control. Then we looked at war zones last time. Those were items and environments that are places in which we fight or battle our self-control. Well, this episode, uh, listen, we could talk about threats, items, environments, all of it, but that only identifies the problem. That's half the battle. For victory, we look to who else but Christ. To start off, let's review our definition of self-control. I am biased towards that definition of self-control from a friend of mine named Drew Dick in his book on self-control. It's titled Your Future Self Will Thank You. He says self-control is the ability to do the right thing even when you don't feel like it. Now, I don't want to cross the line into saying that Jesus didn't feel like doing things, because that gives off the idea that Christ was sinning with procrastination or some kind of willful resistance to obeying the Father. I'm not saying that at all. But in using that quote or that definition of self-control, what I want to do this episode is showcase how Christ exhibited self-control by doing the exact opposite of what sinful flesh would do. What our feelings, yours and mine, would be inclined to driving our behavior towards, he did the opposite. He did the right thing even when it wasn't something that normal humans would do. He went against the grain of the flesh. He modeled how to think differently than the sinful pattern of this world. He was the perfect picture of self-control. And since we are in him and he's in us, guess what? As believers, we can have the knowledge for what to do from his word and the power to do what we ought to from his word. I want to break down some truths about Christ and then one particular truth about the power of the Holy Spirit. There's going to be five truths about Christ and one key truth about the power of the Holy Spirit. Let's talk through some things biblically. First, self-control is seen in the humility of Christ. If you and I are going to have self-control, we need to hone in on the Lord's humility. And you're going to see why I would say that first. Philippians 2, 3 through 8 is a key passage here. In this text, Paul the Apostle is using the humility of Christ to call on the church to do, and I quote, nothing out of selfishness or empty conceit. Then he goes on to say, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves. Why do I start there? Because humility as a mindset keeps us thinking about others as, and I quote again from Paul, more important than ourselves. If we were to apply that to our self-control, we would eliminate so many issues with our lack of self-control when we think about others above ourselves, like the Lord did, whether that be selfish ambition, greed, lust, pornography, indulgence, undercutting someone to get ahead, or ignoring your conscience in the name of giving into the flesh. Sins rooted in a lack of self-control can often be rooted in us not being thoughtful of others and in particular the Father and what his will is for us. But instead, we're selfishly motivated. So now you probably understand. Okay, that's why we're starting in Philippians 2. I never thought about applying that to my own self-control, perhaps. Paul goes on and says in verse 4, do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Paul, again, not saying don't think about yourself at all. He says, Don't merely look out for your own personal interests, which means you can do things that take care of your needs. You could work hard. You could enjoy your life. You can give glory to God and all that you do to succeed, and you're allowed to have ambitions. But be careful that your life and your decisions don't become all about you. When that is the case, it is a lack of self-control. It's going to lead you to self-indulgence. And pretty soon, nobody matters but you. And so, with that in mind, right off the bat, if you're going to be self-controlled, it's going to be rooted in an others-focused way of life. The Father, his will, Christ, his example. And not merely getting yours, but looking out for others. So, with that as sort of our establishing principle, let's build on this with some more key truths. Second, self-control is part of our new nature in Christ. We've talked about the humility modeled in Philippians 2. Now think about 2 Corinthians 5, 17, one of the earliest passages I memorized when I was in college, and we went through this scripture memory program. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Behold, the old is gone, the new is come. What do I mean? Well, what Paul means, the old you may have been impossibly out of control. But in Christ, the same humility, the same self-restraint, the same self-control, living under the authority of God's will can be and is available to you. If you're in Christ, He's given you all things needed to live a godly life. Maybe one of the passages that you overlook is 2 Peter 1, verse 5. Peter, to these Christians who are enduring trial and in a tough situation, he says, Now, for this very reason also, applying all diligence in your faith, supply moral excellence. He's saying, Bring these things into the equation. Strive for these things in the Lord. They're available to you. Get after it. Moral excellence. You know what that means. It's living above reproach. It's excellent morality, seeking to do what is right. And in your moral excellence, knowledge. And in your knowledge, self-control. And in your self-control, perseverance. He's saying, stay the course. And in your perseverance, godliness, in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. Peter is telling these first century Christians that those pursuits are part of the Christian life. And if these are coming out of us, they are rendering us fruitful as followers of Jesus. So what can we say? A genuine Christian looks to Christ for his example of self-control and then is able to be self-controlled, is able to put on moral excellence, is able to be diligent with brotherly love and obedience to God because you, he or she, you're in Christ. Every man or woman who's a believer is in Christ. There's an implication to this, and that's the next point. Self-control is seen in Christ's situational awareness. Where do we go from here? Well, you've got the humility of Christ, others focused. You have this uh ability to be self-controlled because you're in Christ, and then that plays itself out in situational awareness. Christ did this perfectly. You can do it, although imperfectly, following his example under the power of the Holy Spirit. There are times when you dial up the intensity in the name of truth, or you operate one way in certain situations and another in other situations. Maybe there's certain people you speak to firmly and clearly. Maybe there's others that you speak to differently. And yet you remember Christ wasn't one speed all the time, except that he was self-controlled all the time. In his famous uh tirade that some people would say it is. He went into the temple and he just tore everything up. Well, hold on. In the very well-known story about him clearing out the temple, I recently heard a fantastic sermon on the gentleness of Christ in this by Travis Allen. And he touched on this in our manhood series to kick off the new year. We ought to think about this when we're thinking about self-control and the way that we as believers who are in Christ can model the situational awareness that Christ had. In John chapter 2, verses 13 to 17, we see this captured. It's the scene at the temple that day. John records the Passover of the Jews was at hand. Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and in the temple he found those who were selling oxen, sheep, and pigeons, and the money changers were sitting there. He made a whip of cords, verse 15 says. And he drove them all out from the temple with the sheep and the oxen. He poured out the coins of the money changers, he overturned their tables, and he told those who sold the pigeons, Take these things away. Do not make my father's house a house of trade. Other translations will say a den of thieves, a den of robbers, because they were uh having a markup on some of these things, and they were undercutting people. His disciples remembered that it was written, seal, for your house will consume me. I want to relate this to our self-control. Notice the varying degrees of response from Jesus. He first made a whip of cords. And uh Travis Allen highlights that takes time, it's thoughtful, it's premeditated. There is a measured, purposeful response from Christ. He then uses the whip to drive a number of people out with what does the text say? Sheep and oxen. Those are larger animals. Second, he doesn't whip everyone. No, he goes over, he pours out the coins of money and overturns the tables where the money changers were. That's a different response. But third, he, and I quote from John, told those who sold the pigeons, take these things away. Those who were dealing with the pigeons or the doves would have been poor. He doesn't whip them, he tells them. I believe when we look to Christ's example, we see a way of dealing with certain people in certain situations a certain way. When he cracked the whip, it was strategic and thoughtful. When he approached those selling pigeons and doves, he modified his approach but kept the same goal. He was there to accomplish that purpose, to clear out the temple. But in his self-control, he operated with certain people a certain way. Let's apply that in your life, in mine. There are some people that we might crack the whip on, so to speak. It's a strong approach. Jesus was like this with the religious people, the Pharisees, with spiritual threats to his precious people. With others, he was gentle. Even with Peter, sometimes it was get behind me, Satan. And then on the shoreline at the end of the Gospel of John, he restores Peter. There's many different situations where Jesus is self-controlled, but his responses vary. The common denominator is his maturity, his righteousness, obviously his perfection. But for us as imperfect people who are serving a perfect Savior and filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, we will see through sanctification this kind of balance begin to form in our life. You can't fast track it, but for you and for me, let's identify our patterns of imbalance. Are there places in your life or with certain people you're too soft and you need to be strong? Maybe there's others that you're too strong with, you're too aggressive towards, and you need to be more gentle. Self-control through the model of Christ is linked to situational awareness. Fourth, self-control is seen in Christ's obedience to the Father no matter what. Luke 22, 42, one of my favorite passages in the Gospels, records a moment when we see Christ display an awareness of what waited for him on the cross. He says in that prayer, on his knees in the Garden of Gethsemane, if possible, let this cup pass from me. He's talking about the cup of wrath. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. Leon Morris commentates, his prayer reveals a natural human shrinking from the awful death that lay ahead of him, and thus he asks that if the Father is willing, this cup be removed. The cup has associations of suffering and of the wrath of God. We see that in Psalm 11:6, Isaiah 51, 17, Ezekiel 23, 33. This is a common visual or illustration, the cup of wrath being drank. It was no easy task that Jesus looked forward to, but his prayer centers on the Father's will rather than his being spared. Leon continues, he prays that God's will may be done. And specifically, he says, not my will. Now, this does not mean that his will is in opposition to that of the Father. Like, I don't want to do this, Father, but we'll do what you want, but I don't. No, the very praying of this prayer shows that it's not. It's a strong affirmation of his desire that the Father's will may prevail. In other words, he's saying, Oh, it's not about my will at all. It's about your will, and that's what I'm going to do. When we're in situations that are pulling at our emotions, putting us in positions of vulnerability and weakness, and our self-control is being tested, we need to look to Christ and ask one question. What is the Father's will in this situation? Right now, what does God the Father want me to do? What would He want me to say? How does He want me to think? How does He want me to react? What is in line with righteousness? What reflects Jesus? If we operated that way when we're thinking about self-control, how many problems, breakdowns, uh, marriage conflicts, church divisions, all of that, how many of those things would be solved rather than us inflicting more damage on people that we love? Self-control is linked to Jesus and his submission to the will of the Father. And fifth, self-control is seen in Christ's victory over temptation. Matthew chapter 4, verses 1 through 11. I won't read the whole passage to you, but if you've never spent any time thinking through the temptation of Christ, it records that section, Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. He's fasted 40 days and 40 nights. He then becomes hungry. Satan comes and tempts him first with turning a stone into bread. Jesus fires back with Deuteronomy 8.3. Then he tempts Jesus on the pinnacle of the temple. Says, throw yourself down. Tell the angels, they'll come save you. Jesus fires back Deuteronomy 6.16. And then third, Satan shows Jesus the kingdoms of this world and their glory and then says, Hey, all these will be yours. All you got to do is bow down and worship me. And Jesus finishes the accuser, Satan himself, finishes him right off with Deuteronomy 6.13. He overcomes temptation just like you and I can by anchoring his response to the temptation in Scripture. You know the overarching theme of the temptation of Christ in the wilderness is Satan trying to get him to disobey the Father. Hey, act independently. Turn this stone into bread. You deserve food. Just like he tempted the first Adam through eating. He tempts the second Adam, but has no victory. And then he takes him on the temple and, oh, show yourself. If you're the Son of God, show off your superiority. Come on, put on a show, put on a display. And then, third, of course, offering the position of king of all kingdoms, but without the cross. Satan had no power to. He was simply trying to deceive the one he could never overcome. Jesus, our Savior, was perfect, never sinned. In his temptation, he was not like you and I in that it came from inside of his heart, and his heart was wicked. No, his heart was righteous and perfect. It came from the outside, but he modeled perfect obedience and victory in that area. We can look to him. We fight the urge to lose control by coming under the control of the Word of God. This is what Jesus did. I want to offer one final truth and a word of encouragement here. It's that self-control is available through the Holy Spirit. You can learn this. You could be taught this. You could be baptized in the body of Christ at conversion, filled with the Holy Spirit throughout the Christian life, walking by the Spirit and bearing the fruit of the Spirit. It is possible. Maybe you say, I've been terrible at self-control. This is just not a strength in my life. I guess I'm just relegated to this life of being out of control. Not true at all for the Christian. An article I recently read mentions the marshmallow man. Some of you have heard this story before. Maybe you haven't. Walter Michel, he's an Ivy League professor. He did these experiments in self-control. Nearly 50 years ago, he created a test to see how various five-year-olds, and I have a five-year-old, so I know how this might go, how they'd be respond, how they would respond to being left alone with a marshmallow for 15 minutes. The instructions were don't eat it. And the promise was if they didn't, they would be given two. The New York Times reports this. Famously, preschoolers who waited longest for the marshmallow went on to have higher SAT scores than the ones who couldn't wait. They did these later studies and followed up. In later years, they were thinner and better shape. They earned more advanced degrees. An interesting one, they used less cocaine and they coped better with stress. Now, as these first marshmallow kids now into their 50s later on, when this article was written, Mr. Mischell and his colleagues are investigating whether the good delayers are richer too, but no one knows yet for sure. And if you're a parent of a toddler who might fail this test, you even now might be worried, and they were then, but fear not. And see, that was the secret. Like children can be taught self-control, so can you and I. Like growing in self-control can change the outcome of a child's future, it can change the current reality for any adult. And you, my friend, if you're a Christian, have the best teacher, the Holy Spirit. He has not left you to fend for yourself. You don't need to be stuck in the same cycle of sin you're in right now. Philippians 1 6 says, He who began a good work in you You will perfect it until the day of Christ. I think that is the passage I have quoted the most in my podcast, the most on videos, and the most at for the gospel or in sermons. Why? Because you and I need the constant, everyday reminder that God never fails to finish what he started in your life. Rest assured, God's not done with you yet. But listen, you got to look to Christ. You can't look to yourself. You can't say, oh, I'm just gonna muster it up. Yeah, the breakers in episode one, food for thought. You gotta identify them. Yeah, the war zones, you need to be aware and go into battle every day. Yes, you you need to cut some things off for sure. Make some behavior modifications, okay, but none of it will last if you don't look to Christ. He's your perfect example. And by the way, he's your perfect motivation. So what if you're moral for the sake of morality? So what if you you do better and and you obey more for what? You look more religious? All right. You want to please Christ. I want to please Christ. He's the one we look to because he's our motivation. It's all about him. I have seen more sin fade from my life, more sanctification. Not from, alright, I gotta do it. Now I'm gonna discipline myself. All right, here we go. Less from that. That's actually just exhausting most of the time. And more from looking to Jesus and loving him all the more and asking him to put a hunger in me and a love and affection for him that he can only give me through the power of the Holy Spirit. That has changed my life more than I've just gotta muster up the strength to be a better Christian. It is his power that works mightily within you. If you don't look to him, you're not gonna see the change last. Look to Jesus. Okay, that's episode three in the series. I pray that that challenges you and it encourages you, and maybe even uh sharpens or shapes your prayer life this week. Next up, we're gonna look at lessons from the Apostle Paul on self-control. And there are some things to do in the sense that we discipline ourselves, but it's all again rooted in Christ and an eternal perspective. And then we'll conclude the series with six bricks for building a life of self-control. And I really want to do a listener QA. And so if you want to start DMing questions my way, we'll post again this upcoming week as well and solicit your questions. I'll give you a whole episode, any situation, any theological question rooted in self-control, anything you're facing. Let's dig in together. I'd love to answer your questions. As always, thanks for listening, for watching, and for supporting. If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and take advantage of our video teachings there. To check out our team or partner with our ministry by becoming a gospel patron, go to for thegospel.org. I'll be back next Monday with another episode. Keep on living for the gospel.