SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning.
unknown: Good morning.
SPEAKER_00: Two professors.
SPEAKER_00: I know it sounds like a joke, but this is a serious story.
SPEAKER_00: Two professors were at a conference.
SPEAKER_00: It was an academic forum that discussed human intelligence.
SPEAKER_00: They were in conversation.
SPEAKER_00: One of the professors happened to be a man named Richard Nisbet.
SPEAKER_00: Nisbet was at the time the world's greatest authority on intelligence.
SPEAKER_00: They had a forum discussing human intelligence.
SPEAKER_00: This man who is the foremost authority on human intelligence, having a conversation that shifted to something quite surprising.
SPEAKER_00: Nisbet confessed, said he would rather his son be high in self-control than intelligence.
SPEAKER_00: He'd rather his boy have self-control than a high IQ.
SPEAKER_00: He would rather his son be high in self-control than intelligence.
SPEAKER_00: You have to ask, well, well, why is that?
SPEAKER_00: Why is that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because the research is very clear.
SPEAKER_00: Self-control is more important to a well-functioning life.
SPEAKER_00: Segment of a show 2020 reporter John Stossel was interviewing another doctor, another professor, an expert, Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Roy Bomister from Case Western Reserve University, and they were talking about the same subject.
SPEAKER_00: Bomister said, if you look at the social purse and personal problems facing people in the United States, we're talking drug and alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy, unsafe sex, school failure, shopping problems, gambling, over and over.
SPEAKER_00: The majority of them have self-control failure as central to them.
SPEAKER_00: Studies show that self-control does predict success in life over a very long time.
SPEAKER_00: As part of the video report, part of the included in the segment, Stossel conducted an experiment that actually mirrored an experiment that had done 30 years earlier.
SPEAKER_00: It was an experiment that was done with kids in kindergarten.
SPEAKER_00: It went like this.
SPEAKER_00: These kids were brought into a place where they were sat down and on a table they were given two pieces of candy.
SPEAKER_00: And they were told, hey, you can have five pieces of candy if you can wait 10 minutes.
SPEAKER_00: But if you want the two pieces of candy, you can do that right now.
SPEAKER_00: Push the button and you can eat it.
SPEAKER_00: So the kids tried.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't easy.
SPEAKER_00: Most of them fidgeted, looked as if they were being tortured.
SPEAKER_00: Some touched the candy.
SPEAKER_00: One boy kept counting the candy, maybe just to remind him that five is more than two.
SPEAKER_00: One little girl apparently looked heavenward as she waited, seeming to ask for God's help to be able to wait ten minutes for the five pieces of candy.
SPEAKER_00: Out of the experiments, seven of the nine kids tested lasted the full ten minutes.
SPEAKER_00: And what we're having here, as I said, was a recreation of a famous experience that was conducted by the Columbia University, many of which I think remember this.
SPEAKER_00: I may have I showed this in a video where these kids were given the same sort of test using marshmallows.
SPEAKER_00: It was done with a much larger group of children, and what they found is that the kids that had self-control to resist temptation to hold off, to delay gratification, and which did not, and then what they did was they followed these kids as they grew up and went into life over years, and the results of the study were astonishingly clear.
SPEAKER_00: Kids who did well on the test, kids who were able to be self-controlled, to delay gratification, they tended to do better in life.
SPEAKER_00: Self-control is a key indicator of whether or not you will be successful.
SPEAKER_00: We can't control everything in life, but if there's one thing we can control and must control, it is the self.
unknown: Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Bomister concluded 2020.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: He said, if we're concerned about raising children to be successful and healthy and happy, forget about self-esteem.
SPEAKER_00: Concentrate on self-control.
SPEAKER_00: Now, happiness expert, a man named Arthur C.
SPEAKER_00: Brooks, tells a story of his father-in-law who spent most of his life on the same working class street in Barcelona, Spain.
SPEAKER_00: Fallon was born in 1929.
SPEAKER_00: He saw Spain's bloody civil war take place literally in front of his house.
SPEAKER_00: His family experienced a lot of suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Some died, some spent years in jail, others were forced into exile.
SPEAKER_00: He himself spent a year in a refugee camp, an experience that affected his life.
SPEAKER_00: He just continued, always reflected him the rest of his life.
SPEAKER_00: One evening, just a few months before he died, he read in his local newspaper an article that was written by his son-in-law, Arthur, about unhappiness.
SPEAKER_00: You have a lot of complicated theories, he told his son-in-law, but the real reason people are unhappy is very simple.
SPEAKER_00: They don't enjoy their dinner.
SPEAKER_00: Arthur asked him what he meant.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, during the Civil War, we were always hungry.
SPEAKER_00: But one day a year, Christmas, we got to eat whatever we wanted.
SPEAKER_00: And we were so happy.
SPEAKER_00: Today, people snack all day long, are never hungry, don't enjoy their dinners, and aren't happy even on Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: Happiness rises when you do not get whatever you want whenever you want it.
SPEAKER_00: Why are there?
SPEAKER_00: Well-being requires that you discipline your will to defer and defer your gratifications.
SPEAKER_00: Still in the house, let me say this.
SPEAKER_00: If you want your children to do well in life, to be happy, to be joy-filled, to be content, to be able to succeed, teach them to wait.
SPEAKER_00: Teach them self-control.
SPEAKER_00: Teach them delayed gratification.
SPEAKER_00: Teach them that if they want something, they can save their allowance and pay for it in cash.
SPEAKER_00: Don't allow them to eat their dessert until they finish their dinner.
SPEAKER_00: And if they say, I don't like this, I'm gonna die if I eat this, say, I'm so sorry.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we have.
SPEAKER_00: It can go into the refrigerator and cool down, and you can eat it when you get hungry enough to eat it.
SPEAKER_00: You're so cruel.
SPEAKER_00: No, you're giving life.
SPEAKER_00: I said this before.
SPEAKER_00: Give your children chores that they have to do before they go out to play and do what they want.
SPEAKER_00: Before.
SPEAKER_00: Make sure they go to bed on time, even if they say they're not tired.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because self-control is better than intelligence.
SPEAKER_00: Self-control is the key to contentment, joy, and happiness in life.
SPEAKER_00: Self-control actually is the foundation of confidence.
SPEAKER_00: Now we are moving through this series.
SPEAKER_00: We're calling the series bloom.
SPEAKER_00: And what we're saying through this, we're discovering this as we work through the message that we have through the Apostle Peter, what he wrote on is probably the last letter he wrote before he's executed, 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 1 through 7.
SPEAKER_00: And what we've discovered is that is that when you're made right with God through faith in Jesus, if you are a Jesus follower, God promises by his divine power to provide you everything you need for what?
SPEAKER_00: For a life and godliness.
SPEAKER_00: Life in God produces fruit, fruit of righteousness, fruit that bears testimony to a supernatural work going on within you.
SPEAKER_00: You're given peace with God, and that peace results in thriving.
SPEAKER_00: As a Jesus follower, you have all the resources you need available by the power of God to bloom in your relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: And so we read first chapter of 2 Peter, verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: For this very reason, make every effort, we've talked about what that means, to add to your faith goodness, and to goodness knowledge, and verse 6, here it is, and to knowledge, self-control.
SPEAKER_00: Now I would say, based on what I've just said, what science has revealed is the truth that God has instilled in the world from the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: What science reveals is the power of self-control to be something that brings life and contentment.
SPEAKER_00: It's been revealed to us in the Word of God, right here in the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: So it shouldn't be a surprise that self-control is a character trait included in this list of things that Peter says, make every effort to add to your life as part of your walk with Christ, as part of you accessing the power that comes from God for life and godliness.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to bloom, you have to add self-control.
SPEAKER_00: And for those of us that know the story of Peter, his life story, it shouldn't be a surprise that self-control is listed here, right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you're familiar with Peter's story, you know the man had a serious problem with self-control.
SPEAKER_00: We would say he had a serious problem with foot-in-the-mouth disease.
SPEAKER_00: One moment he's saying something brilliant.
SPEAKER_00: Like the time when Jesus said, Hey, who do who do everyone say I am?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, You are the Christ, the Son of Living God.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus' like, wow, Peter, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: On that faith test to me, the church will be built.
SPEAKER_00: But then just moments later, Jesus tells him, Hey, part of the way for us to for me to make a path for us to be you to be right with God is I have to go to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter's like, No way! He freaked out.
SPEAKER_00: And and what did Jesus have to say?
SPEAKER_00: Get behind me, Satan.
SPEAKER_00: So he goes from being commended to being called Satan.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he couldn't control himself.
SPEAKER_00: He couldn't control his impulses, he couldn't control his tongue.
SPEAKER_00: On the night when Jesus was to be betrayed, he told them, Hey, I'm gonna be betrayed, I'm gonna be arrested, I'm gonna be handed over to the authorities to be executed.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter lost his mind.
SPEAKER_00: He said, No way, I'll never let that happen over my dead body.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus was arrested.
SPEAKER_00: What happened?
SPEAKER_00: Peter lost his self-control.
SPEAKER_00: You get the sense that he's running, he pulls out his sword and he swings wildly, cuts the ear off of the servant of the high priest, and runs away, unable to control himself.
SPEAKER_00: He circles back around, we're told, and he and he sneaks into the temple, the courtyard of the of the palace of the high priest, so that he might be able to see what's happening to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And around the campfire, the people there begin to ask him about his affiliation with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They say, Hey, you were with him, you're a Galilean, and what did he do?
SPEAKER_00: He denies he even knows Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Not just once, but three times.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Lack of self-control.
SPEAKER_00: He couldn't control his impulses, his emotions, he couldn't control his tongue.
SPEAKER_00: So it's it's no surprise that Peter includes self-control here because he knew about all about the way God works in bringing about self-control in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And so, like we've been doing throughout this entire message series, let's get into the meaning of the original word.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that 2 Peter was written in an ancient language called Common Greek.
SPEAKER_00: Common Greek was the language that was spoken during the first century time of the Roman Empire.
SPEAKER_00: It was the language that everyone knew, so they could all talk to each other.
SPEAKER_00: All these different people groups had to have a common language.
SPEAKER_00: That's why it's called Common Greek.
SPEAKER_00: Why Greek?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because before the Roman Empire was the Greek Empire that was established by a man named Alexander the Great.
SPEAKER_00: And Alexander the Great, wherever he conquered, he enforced Greek culture and Greek language.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Romans, being very practical people, said, hey, already everybody's speaking Greek.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just use Greek in order to run this empire.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Bible, the New Testament, it was written in Common Greek.
SPEAKER_00: And so the word that Peter uses for self-control is this Greek word.
SPEAKER_00: I'm making it into English.
SPEAKER_00: It's egratia.
SPEAKER_00: Now, because common Greek is a den language, no one speaks it anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I can pronounce it however I want, and you can't argue with me.
SPEAKER_00: I can say egratea or egratia.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: But we don't know how it's pronounced, but we do know what it meant.
SPEAKER_00: It basically meant to hold, to grip, to have power over.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why I love about this word, and it's the same throughout any kind of Greek word.
SPEAKER_00: The meaning is captured in the word itself.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's a it the literal really helps you understand the conceptual.
SPEAKER_00: To have, to grip, to have power over.
SPEAKER_00: Over what?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the application in this is that to have power over yourself.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we have that saying, right?
SPEAKER_00: When someone's losing their mind, what do we tell them?
SPEAKER_00: Get a grip.
SPEAKER_00: What do we mean?
SPEAKER_00: Get your emotions in check.
SPEAKER_00: Calm down.
SPEAKER_00: Stop losing your mind.
SPEAKER_00: Take a deep breath.
SPEAKER_00: Get a grip.
SPEAKER_00: Well, this is this is the power of this word, a gratia is to get a grip, to get a grip of yourself, control of your emotions.
SPEAKER_00: Don't lose control of yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when we apply the basic meaning of agratia to what he means, it means mastery over your appetites, impulses, and desires.
SPEAKER_00: Mastery over your appetites, impulses, and desires.
SPEAKER_00: Now, we all have been given within us appetites, impulses, and desires, and by and large, they're God given for good things.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we all have an appetite for food, right?
SPEAKER_00: Particularly if it's well-cooked food.
SPEAKER_00: I have an appetite for food.
SPEAKER_00: And that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: We need food in order to live, right?
SPEAKER_00: But if you overeat, if you cannot control the appetite to eat, what happens?
SPEAKER_00: You overeat.
SPEAKER_00: When you overeat, it causes obesity, and obesity brings illness and early death.
SPEAKER_00: We all have an impulse for self-preservation.
SPEAKER_00: And the impulse for self-preservation is usually what we call is fear, the dump of adrenaline into our system to do what?
SPEAKER_00: To fight or to flight, right?
SPEAKER_00: We either fight to save our lives or we run to save our lives.
SPEAKER_00: That is a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: But what happens when that impulse becomes out of control?
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's where we talk about anxiety disorders and phobias and obsessive compulsive issues.
SPEAKER_00: And when you live in these places with chronic anxiety, what happens?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's destructive, causes all sorts of problems, physically, mentally, emotionally, relationally, spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: We all have the good desire to be loved, to be loved, which is good.
SPEAKER_00: But what happens when that desire gets out of control?
SPEAKER_00: When it's applied in the in places it's not intended.
SPEAKER_00: What happens when it's out of control?
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's where we get into addictions and promiscuity and pornography and destructive relationships.
SPEAKER_00: Self-control is mastery of your appetites, your impulses and desires.
SPEAKER_00: It's saying yes to the good, but also no to the bad.
SPEAKER_00: Now I love that we're using this word mastery because I think it really brings up an important question when it comes when we're discussing how do we make uh how do we go about making making every effort to add some self-control to our faith walk.
SPEAKER_00: It brings up the question is who is your master?
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible word for that, Bible word for master is a word that maybe you've heard before.
SPEAKER_00: If you've been around church, you've read the Bible much, you know, and particularly in when it comes to the titles of Jesus, what is he called?
SPEAKER_00: He's called Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the word savior means that he is the means by which we are able to be made right with God.
SPEAKER_00: We are saved from the wrath of God, the consequences of our sin, because of what Jesus provides.
SPEAKER_00: Faith in him who died on the cross, was buried, and rose again on the third day, to provide those who are not right with God, a way in which to be right with God by faith.
SPEAKER_00: And we like that, right?
SPEAKER_00: Savior is a good thing, and we typically don't have a problem with that concept of being able to be saved from our sins, being saved from the destruction that's due for to us, being forgiven, to be set free, to be released from the burden of guilt.
SPEAKER_00: We like Jesus as our Savior, but the problem many times is comes in now when we have to talk about Jesus as Lord.
SPEAKER_00: What is Jesus as Lord?
SPEAKER_00: It's He's He's our master, He's the one we follow, He's the one we look to to find direction in life.
SPEAKER_00: He's the boss, He's the CEO, He's our leader.
SPEAKER_00: And trusting God, God's Son Jesus, in our life by His Spirit as our leader, well, that's when it becomes a little tricky for us.
SPEAKER_00: We don't mind following Jesus when he asks us to do things we want to do anyway, and we're okay with.
SPEAKER_00: The rob comes when he asks us to do things that cause us as us to suffer.
SPEAKER_00: Or might result in us going through difficult times, or might be something that we may not necessarily agree with, or might be something that we think we may have a better angle on and a better handle on in terms of getting what we want in life.
SPEAKER_00: But if Jesus is our Lord, it means then that we obey Him regardless.
SPEAKER_00: It requires submission, it requires trusting that his way is the way to follow.
SPEAKER_00: And especially when you have those doubts or fears, or you flat out just don't want to do it.
SPEAKER_00: And so, in order to have self-control, we have to recognize it originates in the commitment to make Jesus Lord, to make Jesus the master.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because self-control is not self-in-control, it is who controls yourself, who is the master.
SPEAKER_00: Who is the master of your impulses, desires, and appetites?
SPEAKER_00: Because if you're run by your impulses, desires, and appetites, well, you may think you're in control, but you're not.
SPEAKER_00: You lack self-control and lack of self-control is destructive.
SPEAKER_00: But if Jesus is Lord of your life, then self-control means being obedient to Him, following Him.
SPEAKER_00: When Peter says make every effort to add self-control, what we actually need to ask ourselves in this context is, well, how do I make Jesus master of my soul?
SPEAKER_00: How does Jesus become master of your soul?
SPEAKER_00: How does that work?
SPEAKER_00: And it's a process.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a process, thankfully, that we see outlined in this teaching of Peter.
SPEAKER_00: We see one character trait built on the other that that brings us to the place where we are with self-control.
SPEAKER_00: He says it begins with faith, right?
SPEAKER_00: And the first thing he says in verse 5, faith.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is the way we access God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is the means by which we are we're made right with God.
SPEAKER_00: We're a child of God, now with an identity filled by his Spirit to live for God by faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's the belief that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: No one can be made right with God without Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Faith then usually says, add to your faith goodness.
SPEAKER_00: I uh we talked about this a few weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: What is goodness?
SPEAKER_00: Goodness is the commitment to start living your life by faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's the commitment to live your life, knowing that Jesus is real because he is in your life, and you want to live in a way that honors him because you know Jesus is with you and sees you.
SPEAKER_00: It's moral excellence, it's living out your identity as a child of God, one who belongs to God and wants to live for God.
SPEAKER_00: And to your goodness, he says, then he says, add knowledge, because your goodness will grow when you grow in knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about this last week.
SPEAKER_00: What are we talking about?
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about the knowledge that's contained for us in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: God has spoken what we need to know in order to be able to know Him.
SPEAKER_00: Learning Scripture so you can live Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Learn God's word so you can live by God's word, and you can have the confidence that you're doing God's will.
SPEAKER_00: Doing God's will means that you live as Jesus is your Lord in life.
SPEAKER_00: And now we come to self-control, right?
SPEAKER_00: When you live as if Jesus is Lord of your life, the master of your life, you will have self-control.
SPEAKER_00: Yourself will be controlled by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Now I want to just point this.
SPEAKER_00: This this control is not enforced control.
SPEAKER_00: My mom used to always say, the Holy Spirit is the perfect gentleman.
SPEAKER_00: He never enforces you, forces you to do what he wants you to do.
SPEAKER_00: God, God never works that way.
SPEAKER_00: That's how the enemy works.
SPEAKER_00: The enemy works for domination and possession.
SPEAKER_00: God works by his spirit where he invites.
SPEAKER_00: It's called fellowship, meaning it's it's a coming together in an agreement where you choose to live in harmony with the directives of God's Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: God is the perfect gentleman.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we say Your life becomes led by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: It's you submitting yourself to the leadership of the Spirit, giving yourself to surrender to His Word.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, If you love me, you will obey my commands.
SPEAKER_00: And what are the commands of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Love God with everything you have and love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to share with you a couple of practices that I think are particularly helpful, making every effort to add self-control to your life.
SPEAKER_00: The first is fasting.
SPEAKER_00: What is fasting?
SPEAKER_00: Well, fasting in this concept is simply to say no to an appetite, impulse, or desire in order to focus that time and energy you would put into following up on that appetite, impulse, and desire to connect with God.
SPEAKER_00: So at the most basic level, you have an appetite for breakfast.
SPEAKER_00: To fast, you would say, I'm not going to eat breakfast, and the time and energy I would use to eat the breakfast and prepare the breakfast, I'm going to invest in praying.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to invest in connecting with God.
SPEAKER_00: Now you can add it on and say, well, I'm going to do that for a day or two days or three days or a week.
SPEAKER_00: But it's it's it's a substitution.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's not, it's it's choosing to restrict an appetite in order to focus on connecting with God.
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm saying this this way because we're discovering, and it's been a topic of many conversations that I've been in, is the power of fasting for your body.
SPEAKER_00: Uh to restrict eating for your body in certain circumstances over a time is shown to be beneficial health-wise for many.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not what we're talking about here.
SPEAKER_00: We don't do it for the benefit of our health, we do it in order to learn this discipline, to acquire this discipline of self-control, to learn that what Jesus said, man does not live by bread alone, but every word that comes from the mouth of God.
SPEAKER_00: You can do this with your impulses.
SPEAKER_00: Confession time.
SPEAKER_00: You wake up in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: What's the first impulse that you have?
SPEAKER_00: What's the first thing you reach for when you wake up in the morning?
SPEAKER_00: Come on, speak up, confession time.
SPEAKER_00: My phone! Right?
SPEAKER_00: Some of you sleep with your phone under your pillow.
SPEAKER_00: Or you sleep with the phone right next to you, and if you don't, aren't able to reach out and touch it, I'm just looking at the time.
SPEAKER_00: And now I'm scrolling, and now I'm looking, and now I I've oh, I've if you don't touch your phone, you don't feel complete.
SPEAKER_00: That's an impulse.
SPEAKER_00: That's an impulse that unfortunately is beginning to take control of yourself.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe you can do a Sabbath from your phone and from electronics.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I've done on some of the days that I take as a Sabbath a rest.
SPEAKER_00: I put the phone and it puts it in my bedroom.
SPEAKER_00: I don't look at it, and it's not easy.
SPEAKER_00: I struggle with it too.
SPEAKER_00: But it's in a real way, I'm saying I'm denying this impulse in order to focus on the things that matter, that are more important.
SPEAKER_00: Time with God, time with my family, paying attention to the things that are in front of me.
SPEAKER_00: You could say, in a real way, that if you get into the practice of saving your money, cash, in order to pay for something you desire, that's a form of fasting.
SPEAKER_00: That's a discipline of fasting.
SPEAKER_00: When it's something you could just charge on the card, why?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's a desire, it's a want, you want it, it's not bad, but you say, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Instead of just putting it on the card, I'm gonna take the time to put away money over time so that I'm not gonna go into debt.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna presume on the future earnings that I assume God will give me, but instead I'm going to honor what God does give me in the present, putting it away and saving so that I might have the satisfaction of paying it in cash.
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: You are learning, you're exercising self-control.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here's a second practice I think helps every uh to help you make every effort to add self-control to your life.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to suggest this for you community.
SPEAKER_00: When I talk about community, it's being around a group of like-minded, same-faith friends who hold you close.
SPEAKER_00: Now remember, notice I'm saying to hold you close.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people like to be in accountability groups and they're powerful and they're good.
SPEAKER_00: But what I've found is that if there's a group that's simply an accountability group, it's hard to be accountable.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because who wants to go into a group where you feel like every meeting is an inquisition?
SPEAKER_00: Or every conversation is someone looking at you with a stick.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to be open, it's hard to be vulnerable.
SPEAKER_00: And so I say be held close in love so you can be held accountable in love.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you're held close, you will be held accountable.
SPEAKER_00: If people see your heart and know what's going on in your life, if you're vulnerable with them, they'll see what's happening and be able, if they're filled by the Spirit, to give you feedback that will provide you an ability to see where you might be out of control, where you lack self-control.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm so grateful for the groups that I'm a part of.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a part of a couple of pastors' groups where we foster this amongst us, where we hold each other close.
SPEAKER_00: And in holding each other close, these guys speak into my life because we're we're vulnerable, we're safe, and we know that we're for each other, and they are able to address issues that are going on.
SPEAKER_00: They're able, they've called out my arrogance, or they've called out my uh being ungrateful, or they've called out my practice of being a workaholic.
SPEAKER_00: And and what they provide for me by by this fellowship, by this group, and we've got a lot of groups here, discipleship, small groups, friendship groups that you can be part of where this can be fostered, where this helps you develop this gift of self-control.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because you're in a fellowship, a community where you're held close.
SPEAKER_00: And in being held close, you're held accountable.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to end with an example of self-control from the Bible for you to look at.
SPEAKER_00: What does self-control look like in real life, in the real world?
SPEAKER_00: Man I want to point to is a man named Joseph.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to know what self-control looks like, be like Joseph.
SPEAKER_00: You can read Joseph's bio in the book of Genesis, the very first book of the Bible, probably about uh 25% towards the back, or maybe a third, it's mostly about Joseph.
SPEAKER_00: Joseph was uh the favorite son of a man named Jacob or Israel.
SPEAKER_00: He had 12 brothers.
SPEAKER_00: His ten older brothers were not happy with uh the favoritism.
SPEAKER_00: This was a dysfunctional family.
SPEAKER_00: They were gripped with sibling rivalry and jealousy.
SPEAKER_00: Long story short, they took an opportunity when Joseph was away from home to rough him up, and then they sold him into slavery.
SPEAKER_00: Sold into slavery to Egyptians, and the Egyptians took him to the slave market, and he was bought by a man named Potiphar.
SPEAKER_00: Potiphar was a high-ranking military official in Pharaoh, the king of Egypt's army.
SPEAKER_00: Joseph was put in was put to work in the estate, the household of Potiphar, and he rose, was promoted to eventually being the top guy, the head manager, the number one steward, however you want to say.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 39, verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph's care.
SPEAKER_00: With Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.
SPEAKER_00: Now Joseph was well built and handsome.
SPEAKER_00: Woo-hoo! Right?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: And after a while his wife took notice of Joseph and said, Come to bed with me.
SPEAKER_00: But he refused.
SPEAKER_00: No, listen to what he said.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to his rationale.
SPEAKER_00: With me in charge, he told her, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house.
SPEAKER_00: Everything he owns, he has entrusted to my care.
SPEAKER_00: No one is greater in this house than I am.
SPEAKER_00: My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife.
SPEAKER_00: How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?
SPEAKER_00: Now I just want to take a pause right here.
SPEAKER_00: What we have here is demonstrate the demonstration of self-control.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you, in an imagining of this, you know, Mrs.
SPEAKER_00: Potiphar was probably a good-looking woman.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this temptation wasn't made easier because she was ugly.
SPEAKER_00: This was a woman that was sophisticated, that that was well resourced, she worked in high society and and you know knew how to how to conduct herself as a woman in that world.
SPEAKER_00: Joseph was tempted to take something that he wasn't given.
SPEAKER_00: But he resisted.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll get into his logic behind his resistance.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to see self-control in action in verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: It says, and though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.
SPEAKER_00: Did you catch that?
SPEAKER_00: Day after day.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't a one-time thing.
SPEAKER_00: He said no and she left him alone.
SPEAKER_00: Day after day.
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't, I don't think, one day and then the next day, and then she left him alone.
SPEAKER_00: Day after day.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking maybe a week, we're maybe talking two weeks, maybe it was a month.
SPEAKER_00: Point being, Joseph was a fit, young, good looking man.
SPEAKER_00: With no doubt he had fit, young, good looking men, impulses, desires, and ambitions.
SPEAKER_00: Yet he refused her day after day.
SPEAKER_00: And how did he do that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we find out clues into this in what he said to her.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing he said to her, I'm not entitled to this.
SPEAKER_00: Now I think it's important to understand this.
SPEAKER_00: I heard someone say that we're celebrating 250 years as America.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that wonderful?
SPEAKER_00: Uh 250 years.
SPEAKER_00: And and and you know, what a we've got a full history, but I heard someone say this.
SPEAKER_00: We should be very grateful because guess what?
SPEAKER_00: We are trust fund babies of freedom.
SPEAKER_00: We have access to things that that were only accessible to kings not too long ago.
SPEAKER_00: The average American has available to them whatever they want, whenever they want, however they want it.
SPEAKER_00: If they don't like something, most of us can can go to management and get it fixed.
SPEAKER_00: If we have an issue medically or emotionally, most of us have opportunities to get it corrected, to be healed.
SPEAKER_00: We are trust fund babies of freedom, and so in many ways, instead of being grateful for this, we've got a culture of people who are entitled, who aren't content with what they have, and are not able to recognize the lines of responsibility that they've been given.
SPEAKER_00: They believe that they deserve more.
SPEAKER_00: But Joseph wasn't that way.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he had self-control.
SPEAKER_00: And how did he learn self-control?
SPEAKER_00: Well, he learned self-control, no doubt, because he was raised in a family that knew God, practiced restraint.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta believe Joseph would have been one of those kids that waited for the five pieces of candy.
SPEAKER_00: No doubt Joseph was a man that recognized, you know, he got into this mess.
SPEAKER_00: He was sold in slavery because his brothers had no self-control.
SPEAKER_00: And understood, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: He said, look, lady, uh, I have access to everything in this house.
SPEAKER_00: My master has trusted me with everything in this house except you.
SPEAKER_00: How could I dishonor him that way?
SPEAKER_00: But more importantly, more importantly, how could I honor dishonor God?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna tell you this the more you recognize God in your life, the more you acquire a biblical mindset, knowledge, and you commit to goodness to build on your faith, what you acquire is this ability to recognize that many times short-term gains that come at the price of long-term destructions are not worth it.
SPEAKER_00: And too many times we do not do what I've often encouraged my kids to do: play the tape.
SPEAKER_00: How in doing this thing today, if you play the tape, because God has blessed you with his truth and his God has blessed you with this ability to imagine down the road, how is this going to end up where you are?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you may feel happy now, you may be gratified now, you may be thrilled now, but if you play this tape, where is it taking you?
SPEAKER_00: Is it a place where you want to be?
SPEAKER_00: Is it a place more importantly where God wants you to be?
SPEAKER_00: That's the power of self-control.
SPEAKER_00: Joseph learned self-control.
SPEAKER_00: And God in our lives help us recognize that the best rewards come from long-term faithfulness, honoring Him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Hey, if you're the one, if you're the one that can put your soul into eternal damnation.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be afraid of the short-term opinions of people.
SPEAKER_00: So, what is your part of his wife?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, is it an issue that keeps coming at you day after day where you need to add self-control in order to be able to resist?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a who.
SPEAKER_00: Who is your part of his wife?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's you just can't control your spending.
SPEAKER_00: You feel bad about something, and I I just need to go shopping to feel bad for better.
SPEAKER_00: And so what you do is you spend money you don't have by putting on the charge card the presumption that you will have in the future before you even earn it.
SPEAKER_00: And you take on the position of crossing a line that says, I'm God, and I'm gonna do it because I want it.
SPEAKER_00: One way to look at it.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a thinking pattern that's destructive.
SPEAKER_00: You're in constantly wanting to control things, worry about things, think you are in control because you worried about how things will go badly.
SPEAKER_00: And and really the truth is like you you try to control things that are uncontrollable, and what you end up is losing self-control.
SPEAKER_00: Who is your Mrs.
SPEAKER_00: Potipher?
SPEAKER_00: And where do you need to make every effort to add self-control, which is a gift of the Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: Please don't see this as I I'm gonna will it, I'm gonna do it.
SPEAKER_00: No, make every effort is is a matter of learning to submit your life to the leadership of God's Spirit, who gives you by his power everything you need for a life of godliness.
SPEAKER_00: Who controls yourself?
SPEAKER_00: And how do you make Jesus the master of your soul?
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna take communion, and the communion uh reminds us that the basis of all of this is faith, faith in Jesus Christ that gives us salvation.
SPEAKER_00: But we build on our faith, goodness, on our goodness, knowledge, and on our knowledge, what do we build?
SPEAKER_00: We build self-control, make every effort.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna take communion together, but I'm gonna ask this.
SPEAKER_00: After I pray, after we do communion, we're gonna keep the lights kind of dim because I want to provide you an opportunity perhaps to come forward and maybe ask for prayer for one of the guys that are up here to pray on an issue that you might have, to maybe make a decision on you know what's next in your Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: But also, maybe you just like to come up here quietly and you kneel.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever your struggle is, whatever burden you need to go, whatever's challenging, whatever it is, your potter for his wife, whatever struggle you might have, you can come forward and just take a moment to lay that before God.
SPEAKER_00: To lay for God, cry out to God for the gift of self-control.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you think about practices of fasting that you develop.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you think about a community where you can be held close, where you can be real, and it can help, however that looks.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to take that moment and and I'm gonna ask that if you are as we're leaving, if you're not coming forward, that as you go towards the back, you just kind of do it quietly, and then when you get out into the fire, then you can go wild and talk and shout and scream and sing.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you shouldn't sing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but you know, uh we can do we can do that.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take the bread, remember the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Let's drink of the cup, the blood of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we just uh thank you for your word and thank you for 2 Peter 1.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to add to our faith goodness and to our goodness knowledge and to our knowledge self-control.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I I want to access the divine power that you provide for life of for life and and godliness, and I want that to be for everyone that's here so that our lives may be uh just testimonies of your power and our lives will bloom as you intended.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.