Hey my friends, it's Matt. This is the Ten Minute Bible Hour podcast. And right now we're working our way through the book of Galatians. There are probably some of you who hear me say that, and you're like, Yeah, but are we now? Are we working through the book of Galatians? Because it feels like we've almost done a whole mini season within a season just on Galatians 5, 22, and 23, which is but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control against such things, there is no law. And yeah, it's true. We've basically done a whole bonus season within a season just on this. And that is very weird. If you're new to this podcast, if you've been here for a few weeks, you are probably thinking, well, this is a podcast where we look at a verse or even just one word, and then we riff on it for a while and we think about what we ought to do better. But that isn't really what this podcast is. What we do is we pick a book of the Bible and rain or shine, no matter what it is, whether I have a voice or not, we just power through it every day and we take whatever ground it makes sense to take. And sometimes we go on rabbit trails and we chase all over the Bible or through history or whatever. Other times we cover a lot of ground in one day. A lot. I'm kind of making air quotes there when I say a lot. Part of the beauty of how we get to come at this is that there really isn't any rush. We don't have the constraints of a sermon or a page count limit or a character limit on a tweet. We can just chip away. And if something is interesting, and I've decided that I think you would think it's interesting too, then we go run it down for a while. Most of what we've looked at in the Bible together has been about God. It's been about the big picture of the redemptive story of the Bible. There have been some cool stories in there. In the book of Matthew, there's a whole bunch about Jesus and his disciples. It's all, I mean, it's it's been a lot of story, frankly. Galatians is a little bit weird because it's a letter, but really, Galatians is a story. It's just presented to us in letter form, and it's got serious theological punch to it. So normally we just, I mean, we haven't encountered that many passages that are so overtly applicable feeling or so overtly get into our lives as this fruit of the spirit passage. But it'd be really easy if you've just been here for a few weeks to be like, oh, well, the point of this little season within a season on the fruit of the spirit as we're getting down here to the very last of them. The whole point has been like do these things more. You people should feel guilty out there on the internet because that is what real Christianity produces in people is feelings of guilt that you're never doing enough. And this podcast helps remind me that I need to do more. That's not really our relationship, actually. Rather, why we've lingered on this passage is because I think it's beautiful and it's all set up beautifully by Paul saying that this isn't really even a thing you do. Yes, you can do loving things and you can do joyful things and you can make peace and you can choose to be patient in a difficult moment. You can be kind, you can do the goodness thing, but really these are things that you theologically you're not making and conjuring by your own effort. Rather, the larger argument of the book of Galatians has been the things we conjure by the powers of the flesh apart from God. Yeah, yeah, it doesn't produce the best stuff. And the previous list, right before this fruit of the spirit stuff, is a whole list of the acts, the doings of the flesh. Then it's not a great list. You know, Paul is probably highlighting, like, hey, Galatians, this is stuff I know that you do, that is born out of the flesh and your behavioral efforts. And Paul seems to be saying that your force of will, your how we do things in the larger world and most of the time, just actions of doing stuff and transactions, uh, that's great. I mean, that's what you do. It gets you certain results or whatever. But life by the spirit, life by the power of God, is different. It's a completely different game. And so he doesn't say the acts of the spirit, he says the fruit of the spirit, the outgrowth of the spirit. So it's been pretty fun for me to go through this. I mean, of course, as we've been doing this together, I've been running a spiritual inventory. Am I these things? Is this fruit visible in my life? What would the people who like me the least say in regard to that? What would the people who like me the most and are willing to be honest say in regard to this? And maybe it's not the point of the exercise, but yeah, I'll admit there's some of these where I look at them and I go, Wow, there's a lot of fruit there in my life, even in my invisible life. A few of these I'm going, yeah, hey, thanks, God. I believe what this text says, that these things are from you. Thanks for you, however, this works. Thanks for helping me stay out of my own way. Thanks for just being generous in that regard. All of the above. I don't know. I'm just grateful. There's other stuff on here where I'm like, yeah, I see some of that. And apart from God, I would see none of that in my life, but huh. Um, is that how it's supposed to work theologically? I don't know. Is this supposed to be like a hundred out of a hundred on all of them? And that proves that it's all true. I mean, I don't think that's what it's saying. But this last one is probably this has been the hardest one for me to evaluate as I'm running this mental background process as we've gone through the fruit of the spirit and lingered here. How do you evaluate self-control? Where am I at on that? Hmm. I don't know. There's a ton of things that I suppose I could do, or all kinds of behaviors that I could engage in that would be wasteful or destructive. And most bad things you could do, I guess I don't do or even really think of. But also, there's just a whole bunch of little things in my life that aren't real scandalous or anything, but they don't demonstrate tremendous self-control. And what is the opposite of self-control? Is it out of control, or is the opposite of self-control indulgence? Is the opposite of self-control that little equation that I think we run in the digital age for all of us, where it's like, I did these things that I had to do, and I accomplished the things I'm supposed to, therefore I am entitled to this thing that may not be scandalous, but it might not be the best result and reward system or setup that one could possibly imagine. I don't know. It's kind of a difficult one because I do feel like sometimes impulses dictate to me more than I would like. And other times I'm like, it's just weird. I've heard that people have trouble with this thing or that thing. Dang, that never even crossed my mind. Oh, I guess uh thank you, God, I guess. I mean, that's why they got the saying, right? The uh there, but for the grace of God, go I. I suppose you could watch a videotape of my life, which I would hate, by the way, and come away from that saying, yeah, self-control. That that might be the fruit that is perhaps the uh the least evident. Or maybe some of you would watch it and be like, yeah, I don't know. Seems like there is self-control in your life. I don't know. This one's just made my compass spin a little bit, and I decided that I would share that with you. Here's one thing that I do know before we actually, it'll be next time around now, I guess, as so often it is, before we actually go and look at some other stuff from the Bible to try to triangulate what it means here when Paul says self-control and you know clarify that a little bit better. Before we do that tomorrow, I will say this. I know exactly what the item in my life is that is exemplary of not self-control. There is one item, and I invite you to picture what that one item might be for you as well. But there is an item, a thing that I encounter in the rhythms of my daily life that is a physical, visible metaphor for not self-control. This I'm not even gonna do this stupid unichard joke this time around because I don't want you to actually yell it out because it's probably embarrassing. What's what's your thing? Do you have an item that's a metaphor for not self-control? Do you have a thing that just breaks you? I mean, maybe I'm talking about stuff that's really sensitive. Like maybe some of you are deeply in the throes of battling addiction right now. I'm sorry, by the way. I've seen that up close, and I I know that's a lot of times harder than just being like, I'm just not gonna do that anymore. I understand that there's a whole lot of levels to that. So maybe for some of you it's a pretty tragic item that you're picturing. And maybe you're gonna laugh at me when mine is this boring, but here it is. It's my stupid phone. My phone is the metaphor for not self-control right now. And I'm guessing a lot of you said the same thing, right? My friends, this moment in the history of existence is so weird. Something is off. Now we're at an AI into the equation, something that strikes at the heart of our sense of reality and knowledge and connection with each other, that coming right off of the age of social media. It's weird. We live in a weird time. This is bizarre, even if you're listening to this years from now. That's probably still pretty weird. I think the next monasticism is going to be people who get rid of smartphones and simply don't do it. No social media, no smartphones. I don't like what this does to me. I think there's a whole movement. It's coming and it's coming quickly as we kind of figure out what these things are doing to us. But here's what they do to me they make it so that my high-minded principles go away. I think all the, I know all these things about the absolute butchering of my life energy and the time I have to live on this planet and the time I have to do far more valuable things, relational things, even, and how that phone that's the siphon. And I'm aware of it. And I take steps to prevent it, and it still seems to defeat this. Look, I've clearly wandered from the passage at this point. I'm just gonna say my little thing and then I'm gonna shut up and then we're gonna look at Bible verses tomorrow. Here's what I want to throw out to you. I'm I'm throwing this out to myself as well. A few months back, I thought to myself, okay, it's not just the phone. Which apps on this phone break me? Which are the ones that I'm I'm not proud of? Again, they're not scandalous. Just I'm not proud of it. I don't feel good when I use that app. It was Twitter, straight up. It was X. And so I decided, okay, that has to go off of my phone. Now it has to go away. And so now I can access X for a little while every day on my editing computer, and it tends to stay only a little while. That's better. I don't like what that app was doing to me when I had it in my pocket. I don't feel like it's ruining my brain nearly to the same degree when I have to make the effort to go and look at that on a computer. Here's my point. It was abundantly clear to me when I just stopped and thought, what is the one thing on this device that I'm the least proud of, that I the least like? And what would happen if I just right now, in this moment of clarity, deleted it and didn't put it back on? And it was X, and my life has changed. I'm not kidding. My life has been better for the last few months since I just added this one hurdle to using this one stupid website. Is there an app on your phone? Yep, we're going there. Like this is this is me cashing in some chips with you. This is weird. But is there an app on your phone that you don't feel great about? That you're like, I just I don't feel good when I do that. This feels like the opposite of what I want to do with my life. And if so, and this is making sense to you right now as we talk about self-control today and tomorrow. Is there an app that you might just uh like to reach down right now and make go away? And be like, okay, yep, moment of clarity, it's gone. Let's see what that does to my life. Let's see if that makes things better or worse. Maybe think about it. Maybe you're not like me. I am gonna have my own set of weaknesses that are different than yours. Either way, all the way back to the point. I'm so abundantly grateful that God takes things that are dead, like me, and breathes life back into them by his power. And that is such a huge take-home, not just of the book of Galatians, but of the whole Bible. And it isn't just a one-off moment whereby we encounter God and, like, there, now you're back to life. Now go get them. Good luck. Like, use the powers of the flesh once again, and let's see where that gets you. Maybe it'll work out this time. Nope. The sustenance of that new life, the sustaining of that new life is also from God. That's the big take-home point of the book of Galatians, or a central take-home point. And so ultimately, if any of this fruit is present in us, that's the work of God. And I'm abundantly grateful. And ultimately, when this fruit seems to flag or isn't as visible, that's the work of me. That's the work of the flesh. If something is right, all credit to God. If something is wrong in me, that ain't his fault. And the self-control one, well, that one hits me a little different than the rest of the list. I have things to think about there. Maybe you do too. We'll look at more Bible stuff about it tomorrow. I'm Matt, this is the 10-minute Bible hour podcast. Let's do this again soon.