Supplements - Self-Control

It's my first week back in the saddle in a while. I get to continue in this sermon series called Supplements. You guys been liking this series so far? I ask that like every time I talk about a series, like I'm expecting someone to give like different feedback. Like, no, Pastor, it's been horrible. Like, of course you're going to say that, so thank you. But it's all been Casey. Pastor Casey wrote this series. He put it together. He's even been helping me to carry out his vision. And so it's fun to be raising up other. preachers and our family. But this series, like I said, is called Supplements. And we're looking at 2 Peter chapter 1 and considering spiritual formation. And with that, we want to look at why it matters and how we are specifically called to grow. We're not just supposed to say, yeah, I give my life to Jesus and then sit back on our lazy boy and just let the world pass us by. When we say yes to Jesus, that's more of a starting point than a finish line. There are things that are to be added to us. There are changes that God does in us. Our lives are transformed. Our minds are renewed, the Word says. And this happens in this context by adding certain things to our faith. The Apostle Peter offers a list of seven attributes that we're covering in this sermon series that we should add to or supplement our faith by and with the power of the Holy Spirit. And these things are goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection. and love. And today we are going to be talking about self-control. But before we do that, is there anybody in the room today that is ready to have something added to their faith? Like, are you coming expectant that God will add something to your faith this morning? Just give me an amen if you're ready for God to add something to your faith. This is not just about coming and observing a sermon or consuming something. When we come to church, when we gather, It is so that we can receive from the Lord so that it affects what we do outside of these walls. And so I pray that your faith will be added to this morning and your life will be impacted because of what Jesus is going to do to your heart. Amen. So we're going to start out in the scripture. It's always a great part or a great way to start. And we're going to be in 2 Peter 1 and we're going to be in verses 5 through 6a. I believe. We'll start at verse 3 today, but we'll go through 6a. It says, His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these, He has given us very great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith and to your faith. goodness and to goodness knowledge and to knowledge self-control. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. So Father, I thank you for your word. I pray that it would fall upon open ears, open hearts and minds and that it would transform our lives. God, would the receiving of this word not stop at hearing it, but would it be applied in our lives, in our families, and in the way in which we engage the world. So I thank you for your truth. Would you change us? Would you direct us through it in Jesus'mighty name? And everybody said, amen. All right, before we get into it, I just wanna unpack a little bit more that God really highlighted to me in preparation for this message about those verses that kinda introduce what we are to add to our faith. When I start in verse four, and I'm just, have you ever read an amplified version of the Bible? You guys know what that is, where it's like. If you ever look in the translation, it says A-M-P, it's amplified, and what it does is just kind of throws in all the meanings of each verse, and so it's a really long read, but it can really help you see what the bigger picture of what God's trying to communicate might be, because we know that English doesn't always appropriately translate what the Hebrew or Greek meant to say. But when we look at this, the reason that these supplements or these things we're supposed to add to our faith are so important is because God is calling us, when it says, escaped. the corruption, he's calling us to flee from the destruction and decay in this world. It's not just like, oh, I don't want to be a bad person. I don't want to go to jail. I don't want to be mismanaging my money. When we think of corruption, we think of some like white collar crime, right? Like, oh yeah, we don't want to do that. But what he's saying is we want to participate in the divine nature of God by fleeing the destruction, the decay, and the evil that is in this world. So the stakes are kind of high. when it comes to why we add these things to our lives. It's not just some moral management thing and like, hey, work on these things so you don't be like those people. He is saying there is destruction and decay and evil happening. all around you and here are the things that I want to add to your faith so you do not fall victim to those things, so you can escape them, so you can flee them. And he wants us to make every effort to see these things fully supplied in our lives simultaneously that he would contribute and furnish these things in our lives so that we can live a life that honors and glorifies him and contributes to the mission he has of redemption on earth. Now that's a lot really quick, but are you following me so far? Okay, this is important that we understand the why of the what. So now, let's talk about the what. Have you guys ever noticed how hard it is to have self-control? Anybody in here? Don't raise your hand, it'd be awkward. But you can just give me the nod, like no one's looking at you. Self-control is a bear, isn't it? I was recently... This story could seem like it's going somewhere. I was recently in Las Vegas, as I mentioned. Don't let your minds go too far. And all around, there are things that entice people out of self-control. One of the biggest things, funny enough, in Vegas that like draw people is these massive buffets. Anybody ever been to Vegas and just seen these buffets? It's like triple-decker buffet. It's like you can't see the other side of them. I walked by one as I was walking to a volleyball match one day. And I looked through and I was like, I swear that's just a mirror that's reflecting. Collecting like the rest, but no, it just went that far. Do I need binoculars to see the other side of this? Like what is happening here? But have you ever noticed when you go to a buffet, it's really hard not to enter in and be like, I'm going to get my money's worth today. Is that nobody else? I know Christ Rogers. Anybody else? Cole's shaking his head. You just feel like, man, I got it. These people are charging me. I'm going to show them. I'm going to stick it to the system. I'm going to put this place bankrupt today. Right? Yeah. Amen, Christ. But buffets are just one example of what might highlight our lack of self-control. We can yield to a couple things in these moments. We can yield to the flesh of like, I earned it. I want to make the most of this. I'm going to get as much as I can out of that. Or maybe it's the fear coming up. It's the poverty mindset. Like, while I can, I got to get everything I can. Oftentimes in life, when we're lacking self-control, when we're indulgent, it's out of a place of either feeling entitled. Or feeling fearful, right? Like that poverty mindset, like I don't know when I'm going to get this opportunity. I've got to take everything I can because deep down I really don't trust God to provide for all my needs all the time. So right now while he is, I'm going to take everything I can. I'm going to like store it away. Those are kind of two of the ends that we can go on this spectrum. And I think the grand buffet, like I think I've got a picture here for you, highlights what that could be. I hear people like, hmm, come on now. Now, some of you, maybe this isn't your thing. Maybe, you know, the Brazilian steakhouse is more your thing, and this one entices you a little more, and you're like, oh, I've got to make a trip to Portland now. And now, I know there's some of you in here that you're like, ah, that's not really my thing, Pastor. You're not really hitting it on the head today. So, prophetically, I put together a slide of the other things that maybe you need some self-control with, and we can let you just stew over those for a moment. I think it's fair to say that out of those three slides, we probably touched everybody in here. Amen? We have a problem as a people with self-control. There is not a single person that does not have a problem in some area, in some way, with self-control. And I think one of the things that really leads us to this problem is we look at the Bible. Bible and verses that tell us to have self-control. And we look at an entire section in the bookstore and we see self-control and we just focus on that first word so much of self. It's all about me. It's all about what I can do. It's all about pulling myself up by my bootstraps. It's about my strength and my fortitude to plow through this and like master this thing. One of my favorite followers on Instagram is a guy named Cameron Haynes. And he puts out shirts that says, nobody cares, work harder. And that's just like this attitude of self-control. Make a decision to do better. Don't be weak. That's like the rhetoric around self-control. And what happens is this leads us oftentimes down one of two paths. Either we're successful and then we become... super prideful. We're like, yeah, that's right. I conquered that. Look at me. That's right. Nobody cares. Work harder. I worked harder. I made better decisions. Look at me. Anybody ever struggle with that? You're like, I got this self-control thing down. Look at me. My picture's in the dictionary right next to like self-control. control. I'm just a perfect picture of this. Or the other side of it is we don't do so good at trying to self-govern our lives and be in control of things ourself. And we fall into despair. And we get to this place where like, why even try anymore? Why? I've been caring for people. I've been trying to mind nutrition. I've been trying to budget with my finances. I've been trying to love people better. I've been trying to work harder at work. I've been I've been trying to mind what I say so I don't break relationships, but I just keep putting my foot in my mouth. I just keep failing. I lack self-control, and you come to a place of despair, and you just want to give up. So either we have over-inflated egos, or we have completely deflated, depressed egos. I just want to quit. Why am I even trying anymore? And if we think about how this affects the entire world, we have epidemics of entitlement and pride and depression and suicide. focused on self. And it's not something that I'm sitting here like, yeah, I'm proud of this about our society, about where we're at. But I think it's the reality. And all of us are either dealing with this in some way, walking with somebody who's dealing with it in some way, or going to be dealing with it or walking with somebody who is dealing with it. So I want to look at what it actually means biblically. Exercise self-control. To have self-control. Not idolizing your self-ability to do something, but what does the Bible say when it says, yeah, add self-control to that? Does that mean like, hey, toughen up? Or does it maybe mean... means something different. And I want to petition to you that it means something completely different. And we look at what it fully means in biblical context. We go back to when this is written, and we need to understand that Greek philosophers, who this was written in the context of, prized self-control in a lot of the same ways that I just illustrated it for you guys. We think like in America, we're so different than everybody else, and no one in history can understand us because we're just different. We're better, right? Like, no, we're not. It's the same patterns on... repeat. And these Greek philosophers that this is addressing the ideology or the rhetoric of viewed self-control as the ability of the human being to act entirely of one's own free will without being subject to the whims and the pressures of other people. So like I'm not going to be influenced by other people. I'm strong enough. I don't need you. I'm just going to do this myself and it's going to show that I actually am superior to you in this way. That's kind of the philosophical idea. of it that you wouldn't yield to competing philosophies. You wouldn't yield, especially to your emotions. That was a big one. However, Peter and the other New Testament writers who use this term, of course, that's not what they mean by it. The gospel is not like Jesus saved you. Now do better. Jesus saved you. Fix your own life. Jesus saved you, but nobody cares about your struggles. Work harder. Like, no, that's, that's not the gospel. That's not how they're referring to it. it. They don't use this word in a philosophical sense. For them, self-control is actually an aspect of what we read in Galatians as the fruit of the Spirit. It is something that enables believers to avoid falling prey to the temptations, especially sexual and sensual ones. that are so unavoidable in the world we live in. That is what they're referring to. Like, hey, self-control that we'll get to is spirit-empowered, helps you avoid the ditches of the world, the carnal and sensual desires that are all around you. That is what it is for. Self-control, by definition, is the virtue of one who masters his desires and passions, especially his sensual appetites. And... It's proceeding out from within oneself, but not by oneself. That's the original Greek meaning of this. It's not just, hey, master your struggles. But actually, it's something that happens within you, but not by yourself. And that's not saying get the right book, get the right 10-step plan. That's saying get the right source within you, so that you can live in a way that is different from the world. Are we following so far? Can we agree that this is a big deal? This has deep ditches on either side of the path that God calls us to. I pray that today as we dive into this, that this will actually free you from this idea of I. need to figure this out on my own. So as we get into this and what God says about it, before it's an issue of control, it's an issue of self. The question is which self? And I'm not not talking in some schizophrenic type of way. I'm talking biblical old self, new self. Which self is the control applying to? And I want to read for you Ephesians 4, 20 through 23 to help us with this. It says, that, however, is not the way of the life you learned. When you heard about Christt and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus, you were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted. Remember that word? by its deceitful desires, to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Now, in order to understand biblical self-control, we need to understand that this is addressing the new self, not the old self. This is not saying master all of the carnal desires from a perspective of someone separate from Jesus, not indwelled by his spirit, not empowered by his transformative life and the renewing of your mind through him. This is the new self that this applies to. And if you think about it, that changes everything because it's not, I'm depraved. I don't have my life together. I need saved. How am I going to save myself? It's Jesus saved me. He fills me. And because of him, From within, I can have the power of the Holy Spirit to change the way in which I interact with the things that once destroyed me, that once led to decay in my life. And now I can see fullness and fulfillment in my life because of him in those areas. We follow him. The essence of this self-control is a mastery of something or having dominion over something, but we need to understand that it is accompanied with the new self. We need to be able to draw from other places in scripture that quite frankly, we don't have time to go into all of them today. But if we read the Bible, which I encourage you to do, you will know verses like seek first the kingdom and all will be added. And you will know these kinds of things that will start to resonate. in your heart because it's the word of God and you, it will like reverberate in you because of him in you. And now you're like, okay, what do I do about this? Why I need to seek God first. And then he's going to provide these other things. You see, like having him in your mind, in your heart, in dwelling in you, being saturated in him leads you to a different perspective when it comes to self-control involving the new self. Because we know that where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, not captivity and oppression. spirit of the Lord is theirs freedom. And the spirit of the Lord dwells in the believer as they are born anew. And that is what empowers us to live this way. So for example, the old self, here's the way the old self lives, that I am doing these things for a status with God. I'm making good decisions. I'm doing this. I'm doing A, B, and C for status with God. I'm trying to earn some sort of status with him. I want to please him or perform. so that he will love me, so that he will adopt me, so that he will save me. But the new self says, I am doing this because of a status or from a status with God. You're not doing it for a status with him. You're doing it because of the status you already have, from a place of being adopted, being sealed with the Holy Spirit, being called a son or a daughter. The new self comes from that place. And we have to get over this mindset that I don't want to anger my father, but that I want to please him because of how good he is and what he's done in my life. We don't live and make decisions and deal with temptations based out of fear of the nightmare, but of hope of the dream, hope of the vision that what can be and what is to come. We cannot be a people motivated by the nightmare, but rather motivated by the hope for a future, the hope that we have in Christt Jesus returning and redeeming us fully to the Father. That's what motivates us. So it's not for status with God, it's from status with Him, or because of what He has already done. So if we apply this to going with the supplements theme, supplements are meant to strengthen multiple systems in our body, right? I'm no dietician. Maybe I need Lindsay to come up here and give you a presentation. But supplements aren't just targeting one area of your body. There's supplements for everything. Just go to Costco. But the question of which self that we are addressing here, and it being from a status with God, is kind of like bone health. That's realizing that it's new self is like the skeleton to the body that is going to bear the weight of the world. weight of what you get to engage in in this world. So our bone health is like, okay, we got to make sure we got the right self. That's at the center of this. Am I operating as an orphan or am I operating as a son and daughter? Am I operating out of the new self or the old self? This strengthens your skeleton, proverbial skeleton, to handle the weight of kingdom life, the purpose of eternal mission that God has called us to. So we want to get strong bones, amen? We need to recognize what self we are operating out of, that it's a self that is redeemed and saved by Christt Jesus. So then if that's the self part, then we need to ask the question, what will we be mastered by, control or mastered by? So we're operating... out of the new self. We're operating not out of just our own might. It is from within, but it's not by ourselves. So what will we be mastered by? What is our opportunity in this? What perspective needs to change in order for us to live this out? And the reality is, if we go into this without some idea of how God calls us to live and what he's calling us to, then we live in a way of reactionary living. We're just reacting to whatever our circumstances are, whatever our emotions are, whatever thoughts pop into our head, whatever shiny thing we want to buy. We just live reactionarily. And that leads us to being mastered by our circumstances and our temptations of the flesh. And if you've read the Bible, if you know anything about Jesus and why he came to save us, you know that's not the way he's called us to live. to be mastered by our circumstances and temptations. He has called us to live a surrendered way of life, being mastered by the one who created us. It is a completely different way of viewing your life, your relationships, and your purpose. If it's not, oh, shiny thing I want, or this thought occurred to me, I'm just going to say it. And if they don't like it, they can get over it. Stop being so easily offended and just being careless with the way in which you engage with the world. But when you're surrendered to the one who created you and you're mastered by him, now you have calculated intentional living. That's the way that God calls us to live. And it's by the power of the Spirit living in us, it's not the power of our own might and nobody cares, try harder kind of thing. It's because God lives in us. He empowers us by his Holy Spirit to live in a way that exercises these supplements and the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. His power leads us to composure and restraint, led by the Spirit and enabled by submission to transformed living in a renewed mind. Putting off the old self. rejecting. Like, I want nothing to do with the old self. God, would you help me to come fully alive in my new self? That is the attitude and posture in which we are to engage. So if recognizing it's the new self is the skeleton, then what is the mastery by the power of the Holy Spirit supposed to be over? Those are like the muscles we're going to start putting on the skeleton, okay? So we want to, we ready to get some muscles? Yeah, I see some smiles over there. So let's do it. What is the first thing that I believe God wants to challenge us today to allow him and his spirit, his power, his word to help us master? And that is our desires. Our desires. How many of us know that our desires can be deceitful? Temptation and emotions can govern us in this way. Our old self yields to lustful and carnal desires, but our new self surrenders carnal desires for eternal purpose and action. You see, when we lived without Jesus, we would yield to whatever kind of thing popped into our mind, whatever desire we had at some, like, gut level. It was just like, yeah, sure, sounds good, it makes me happy, pleases me, I'll do it. But the new self says, no, we surrender those desires for something bigger, for an eternal purpose, for eternal actions, things that contribute to the kingdom of God forever, not just the kingdom of self now. That is what it looks like to add that to the skeleton, to see self-control in a biblical sense exercise over our desires. The next one is our actions or our behavior. And the old self just simply engages in this carousel of behavior management. Like trying to go buy a self-help book on how do I govern my actions better. Seven steps to making better decisions. Here's the seven effective habits for everyone who wants to be a good leader. Like we've seen versions of these. these titles at the bookstore. But the old self is just trying to manage your behaviors so that you cannot make anybody mad and try to get the most out of life in the next step in front of you. But the new self has surrendered behavior that starts each day saying, God, what do you have for me today? God, in this relationship, how are you calling me to engage? God, I'm going to be honest with you. This person's really frustrating me, and I don't want to talk to them. And when I see them at church, I'd kind of like to just turn around and act like I don't see them. What should I do about it? And God says, you should go talk to them because they're my child too. And this is surrendered behavior. This is surrendered living that leads to redemption and fullness in community and being an example to the world of something other than what they'll see out of those who don't follow Jesus. How do we do that? By the power of his spirit and by surrendering our behavior to him. not trying to manage it within ourselves. The next area is our resources. Our resources. And the old self takes on life thinking of how we can resource our kingdom, how we can resource everything I want, build my legacy, make sure that I got all my funds set in place for some fiscal legacy and that I have everything I need to make sure that my neighbors know that I'm flexing on them and they know who's in charge on this block, right? Whose kingdom are you resourcing? It's kind of like in the Bible when the kings would invite people in, like, look at all my stuff. It's like, let's be honest, we can live that way too. Like, look at my toy, look at this, look at that. When the old self is talking about resources, we are talking about resourcing. or providing for our kingdom, building our kingdom. But the new self, the new self resources God's kingdom. Now, does that mean you need to go live in a tent on the side of the road and take a vow of poverty? Absolutely not. Because God uses homes to facilitate community. God uses cars to transport people to encounter him at different, like, he uses all these things. But is your purpose for obtaining them for your self-kingdom or for his kingdom? And I believe God really wants to challenge our society. That if we're going to say Jesus is king, then our resources are to source his kingdom, not our own. And they should run through the filter of his mission, his purpose, and his calling, not of our desires. Our wants, right? Like there's a little bit of a difference there. So are we going to live the old self or new self when it comes to our resources? God gives us the means and ability to earn money. He gifts us the time we have. Every day is a gift. And our most precious resources of time and money are God-given. So we don't despise him. Like we're not like, oh, I don't want any money. No, that's silly. Like God bless me so I can be a blessing. Right? That's resourcing the kingdom. God, would you multiply my time so I can care for more people? Would you multiply my time so I can disciple my kids better? Would you multiply my time? Would you help me prioritize my time so I can love my wife in a more meaningful way? That is the desires of the heart of someone who's building the kingdom, that they would use their time and their money to resource God's kingdom, make disciples, and see his kingdom flourish in this world that so desperately needs it. So what kingdom will our time and our money contribute to building? Self. or savior? That's the question. Now, the other thing that out of this biblical self-control, God wants to help us master is our emotions. Emotions. See, the old self is emotion ruled, and the new self is emotion informed. Now, people often fall in one of two camps when it comes to emotions. Like, emotions govern and dictate everything. Well, I'm feeling this way, so it's real. It's my truth. I'm going to this. It's not healthy. Spoiler alert. Or, emotions are weak. You shouldn't listen to your emotions. Come on, facts. Not emotions. Like, that's dumb too. Okay? Emotions are God-given and not to be despised. And they're not in charge. We are not in the kingdom of emotion. We are in the kingdom of God. But they're helpful. Like, we can be honest. Emotions are helpful. They're like... dashboard lights that go off and like, hey, you should check your oil. Hey, things are overheating. Something needs attention. Something in your life needs addressed. And I want to let you know now before you blow a gasket. Emotions should inform our lives, not dictate or govern our lives. Please do not hear a pastor telling you, don't worry about your emotions. No, absolutely. They're God-given. He made you that way with a personality to have emotion. Listen to them. Let them inform you, but don't let them run your life. Run them through the filter of God's purpose and God's truth. truth. One of the best intersections that happens every day in my life is when my emotions meet the truth of God. When my emotions have to intersect with God's word. And it's at that moment every day when I'm like, I'm feeling this and I really think this needs to change what I'm about to do. It's like, okay, what does God's word say about that? I'll say, don't be anxious in anything, but with prayer and petition, give it to them. Oh, okay. His word gets to take precedence over my emotions. Now, if I'm feeling disconnected from my wife, and I'm like, gosh, I just feel like I don't have any time for you, and I'm kind of being a baby about it, then you can tell I'm a dude because I just make little of emotions even without trying to. So maybe I should redact that one. But if I'm being selfish about something that I want and I'm not getting, maybe I should be like, you know what? Maybe that's an early warning sign that my wife is not going to be able to do it. wife needs to feel loved in a way that she receives, not that I have time to give her. Maybe it should be about her and what she needs, not about what scraps I have to give because I'm trying to pour myself out. for everybody else. We absolutely need to listen to our emotions. We need to see those dashboard lights and we need to live a life that is informed by them, not dictated by them. Please don't ignore them. Don't ignore them. That leads to blown gasket, all kinds of catastrophic things, but they don't get to be in charge. They don't get to be in charge. So self-control in a biblical sense over our emotions is, God, thank you for highlighting that for me. now I need to have a conversation. Not stuff it down and have some catastrophic failure and now you're getting a lawyer involved instead of having an honest conversation. Praise God for emotions. And praise God that our emotions are not our God. The final thing, and this one is, well, our tongue, our words. Need I say more? This one is... So toxic and so challenging, especially in faith communities that I didn't have time to give you verses for everything, but this one's got a couple. So Proverbs 10.19 says, Sin is not ended by multiplying words or by more words, but the prudent hold their tongues. 1 Peter 3.10 says, For whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. You see, the old self exercises careless speech. We're careless with our words. We're flippant. We just let whatever comes to mind out of our mouth, and we weaponize our words, and we're careless with our words. But the new self has captive speech. It's kind of like the Bible says, take every thought captive. But it also, we see in these verses, it's like, nah, keep your lips from deceitful speech. The Bible has a lot to say about gossip and using your words to build one another up. It's not about, I'm going to get my zinger in so I can put you in your place and establish some sort of dominance over you. It's about, I want to have captive speech. I want to withhold so that my words are more potent than just careless. I want my words to build up. I want them to be calculated. I want them to represent Jesus. When we see the way in which Jesus lived, he was calculated. He asked questions. He combated offense and lies. with truth. He did not combat them insult for insult. He used truth and calculation in the way in which he engaged the world. And if we're called to live in the way of Jesus, then we need to try by the power of his spirit to replicate that. We must be careful with our words. We cannot engage in gossip, deceitful speech. We can't be putting people down. Our words are to be used to build up. One of the things that drives me crazy the most is if I'm in like a prayer meeting or I'm praying with someone and if you've been in the church for more than a week, you've experienced gossip prayer. You guys ever experienced that? Where it's like, Lord, I just pray that you'll convict The of her gossip and that you'll just help her not keep spending her money on all this silly stuff. And Lord, will you just be with her and convict her? It's like, stop gossiping in prayer. Like, that's just gross. But like, that's a real thing. We're like, well, it's a prayer. It's righteous. No. Let's go, stop. Like pray truth and declare truth and love over people. Build them up. But if the church doesn't exercise our words and how we use our tongues in a way that is other than the world, then how will people see that there's a better way? There are so many things that wanna tear us down in the world. Can we please use our speech to build up? Please, let us be evidence. of a different kind of kingdom from the way in which words come out of our mouths. Now, I don't stand here saying, hey, and my book's coming out next week because I got this figured out. No, I have to repent and ask the Lord to renew my mind in this area every day. The point is not the perfection. The point is that the direction of our heart is heading towards Jesus in this manner and that we don't settle for carelessness because it's too hard to be calculated. Amen? This is what self-control looks like when it comes to our words. And it's a mastery, but not just by oneself. It's from within oneself, but empowered by more than just that. So what does it look like to operate in victory in these areas? And worship team, you can come back up. How do we operate in victory right now? Not just like, yeah, when Jesus comes back, everything's going to be fixed. It's all going to be good. Like, we know that. We just preached through Revelation. But when you leave... This room today, and you go out into the world, how can this change your life? What does it look like for a community of gospel-saturated worshipers to live in this way? That should be a question we ask every week, by the way. What does it look like for a community, that's us, of gospel-saturated, hopefully us, believers, to go and be the scattered church and live in a manner that represents or re-presents this into our city? And the first thing is, at the root of this Greek word, it determines that for the believer, self-control is in essence spirit control. It puts them right there next to each other. This root is also referring to spirit control. It can only be accomplished by the power of the Lord in you. So if you're here today and you feel empty, your answer isn't pull yourself up by your bootstraps. It's Jesus, please fill me. Holy Spirit, would you fill me afresh? Would you breathe on me so I can live in the way that you've called me to live? It's not, Lord, give me strength. It's, Lord, give me your strength. That's the essence of this word. And as we go from here, we have no chance of seeing victory in these areas if we're trying to do it in our own might, our own power, our own understanding. It's gotta be informed and empowered by the presence of God in us. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom. And I believe that God wants to bring freedom to each of us today from the ways in which we've yielded to the ways of the world and sacrificed His ways in the new self and living fully out of that. The new self should have a constant awareness of God's presence in us, of what God, his heart is in any given situation, and especially of our need to ask him when we don't have answers. been that place where you're like, I don't know what to do. Well, this seems logical. Like, no, no, no, no, no. You're missing the point. I don't know what to do. God, would you share with me your heart for this moment? I don't know what to say to this person. Holy Spirit, would you give me words that represent you in this moment instead of the turbulence and angst that I'm feeling inside my own soul? Would you help give me words to build up? Would you help me use my resources for your kingdom instead of mine? Would you help me be informed by my emotions, not dictated by them? Casey's threads of encouragement throughout worship were in a essence like, God is approachable. You can come to him. You can ask him for things. He's not some king that sits so far away that you don't have access to him. He's also a father who says, come to me. He calls you child. How many of you sit on the roof and tell your child to shout at you from the ground level? No. You say, come closer. You want them close enough that they can whisper and you can hear them. God is approachable. He wants to hear these things. It honors him when you say, God, what should I do about this? That's not like some abdicating of responsibility. It's simply surrendering to his ways instead of yours. We want to live a surrendered life. We need to remember our old self is about doing something for status with God, but we as a community of believers should live in a way that says, I am doing this from my status of being saved, being a child of God, being accepted, being chosen by him, and that his spirit lives within me to empower me to live out this way. You see, if we pull the power of God out of this equation, then I've just given you a six-chapter self-help book. But if we put God right smack dab in the middle of it, what we give you is a king to surrender to that will inform your ways and breathe life into your circumstances, your journeys, and your behaviors. This isn't about your strength, it's about his strength being perfected in you. your weakness. Praise God for that. Praise God for that. So as we close, I just want to give you the opportunity to respond in a meaningful way. In some weeks that looks like, yes, Jesus, I want to give my life to you. you some weeks it's like yes I need to repent and some weeks it's just like yes Jesus I need your spirit to fill me so I can live the way you've called me to live and I believe this week is one of the latter so I'm gonna ask you all just bow your heads in the spirit of prayer with me And what I'm going to do is I'm going to pray that every person that would raise their hand, God would fill them afresh right now. Not just like a, well, I guess he might fill me, but like, God, I know you're going to fill me. As I raise my hand and I say yes in a posture of receiving. and trusting you in faith, you will fill me. You will empower me to live this way. If that's you right now, just raise your hand. Nobody's looking. We all need it. Don't be ashamed of your weakness because that's where God showcases his strength. So Father, I thank you. thank you for each hand raised in this room. Father, I thank you that you don't say, hey, go do better by yourself, but that you say, let me live in you and give you the power to live the way I've called you to live. Father, I pray that you would fill each person afresh with your spirit right now, that they would experience you in a new tangible way. And that they would anticipate the ways in which you inform their lives and lead them moving forward out of this place. So Spirit, come. Fill my brothers and sisters. Transform their hearts. Renew their minds. And give them the power to live this way you've called us to live. We thank you. And we receive this in faith. In Jesus'mighty name. Everybody said, Amen. Let's go ahead and stand as we close in worship.

Like, no, Pastor, it's been horrible. Like, of course you're going to say that, so thank you. But it's all been Casey. Pastor Casey wrote this series.

He put it together. He's even been helping me to carry out his vision. And so it's fun to be raising up other.

preachers and our family. But this series, like I said, is called Supplements. And we're looking at 2 Peter chapter 1 and considering spiritual formation. And with that, we want to look at why it matters and how we are specifically called to grow.

We're not just supposed to say, yeah, I give my life to Jesus and then sit back on our lazy boy and just let the world pass us by. When we say yes to Jesus, that's more of a starting point than a finish line. There are things that are to be added to us.

There are changes that God does in us. Our lives are transformed. Our minds are renewed, the Word says. And this happens in this context by adding certain things to our faith. The Apostle Peter offers a list of seven attributes that we're covering in this sermon series that we should add to or supplement our faith by and with the power of the Holy Spirit.

And these things are goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection. and love. And today we are going to be talking about self-control.

But before we do that, is there anybody in the room today that is ready to have something added to their faith? Like, are you coming expectant that God will add something to your faith this morning? Just give me an amen if you're ready for God to add something to your faith. This is not just about coming and observing a sermon or consuming something. When we come to church, when we gather, It is so that we can receive from the Lord so that it affects what we do outside of these walls.

And so I pray that your faith will be added to this morning and your life will be impacted because of what Jesus is going to do to your heart. Amen. So we're going to start out in the scripture. It's always a great part or a great way to start.

And we're going to be in 2 Peter 1 and we're going to be in verses 5 through 6a. I believe. We'll start at verse 3 today, but we'll go through 6a.

It says, His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these, He has given us very great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith and to your faith. goodness and to goodness knowledge and to knowledge self-control. This is the word of the Lord.

Let's pray. So Father, I thank you for your word. I pray that it would fall upon open ears, open hearts and minds and that it would transform our lives.

God, would the receiving of this word not stop at hearing it, but would it be applied in our lives, in our families, and in the way in which we engage the world. So I thank you for your truth. Would you change us?

Would you direct us through it in Jesus'mighty name? And everybody said, amen. All right, before we get into it, I just wanna unpack a little bit more that God really highlighted to me in preparation for this message about those verses that kinda introduce what we are to add to our faith. When I start in verse four, and I'm just, have you ever read an amplified version of the Bible?

You guys know what that is, where it's like. If you ever look in the translation, it says A-M-P, it's amplified, and what it does is just kind of throws in all the meanings of each verse, and so it's a really long read, but it can really help you see what the bigger picture of what God's trying to communicate might be, because we know that English doesn't always appropriately translate what the Hebrew or Greek meant to say. But when we look at this, the reason that these supplements or these things we're supposed to add to our faith are so important is because God is calling us, when it says, escaped. the corruption, he's calling us to flee from the destruction and decay in this world. It's not just like, oh, I don't want to be a bad person.

I don't want to go to jail. I don't want to be mismanaging my money. When we think of corruption, we think of some like white collar crime, right? Like, oh yeah, we don't want to do that. But what he's saying is we want to participate in the divine nature of God by fleeing the destruction, the decay, and the evil that is in this world.

So the stakes are kind of high. when it comes to why we add these things to our lives. It's not just some moral management thing and like, hey, work on these things so you don't be like those people.

He is saying there is destruction and decay and evil happening. all around you and here are the things that I want to add to your faith so you do not fall victim to those things, so you can escape them, so you can flee them. And he wants us to make every effort to see these things fully supplied in our lives simultaneously that he would contribute and furnish these things in our lives so that we can live a life that honors and glorifies him and contributes to the mission he has of redemption on earth. Now that's a lot really quick, but are you following me so far?

Okay, this is important that we understand the why of the what. So now, let's talk about the what. Have you guys ever noticed how hard it is to have self-control? Anybody in here? Don't raise your hand, it'd be awkward.

But you can just give me the nod, like no one's looking at you. Self-control is a bear, isn't it? I was recently... This story could seem like it's going somewhere.

I was recently in Las Vegas, as I mentioned. Don't let your minds go too far. And all around, there are things that entice people out of self-control. One of the biggest things, funny enough, in Vegas that like draw people is these massive buffets.

Anybody ever been to Vegas and just seen these buffets? It's like triple-decker buffet. It's like you can't see the other side of them.

I walked by one as I was walking to a volleyball match one day. And I looked through and I was like, I swear that's just a mirror that's reflecting. Collecting like the rest, but no, it just went that far. Do I need binoculars to see the other side of this?

Like what is happening here? But have you ever noticed when you go to a buffet, it's really hard not to enter in and be like, I'm going to get my money's worth today. Is that nobody else?

I know Christ Rogers. Anybody else? Cole's shaking his head. You just feel like, man, I got it. These people are charging me.

I'm going to show them. I'm going to stick it to the system. I'm going to put this place bankrupt today.

Right? Yeah. Amen, Christ.

But buffets are just one example of what might highlight our lack of self-control. We can yield to a couple things in these moments. We can yield to the flesh of like, I earned it.

I want to make the most of this. I'm going to get as much as I can out of that. Or maybe it's the fear coming up.

It's the poverty mindset. Like, while I can, I got to get everything I can. Oftentimes in life, when we're lacking self-control, when we're indulgent, it's out of a place of either feeling entitled.

Or feeling fearful, right? Like that poverty mindset, like I don't know when I'm going to get this opportunity. I've got to take everything I can because deep down I really don't trust God to provide for all my needs all the time.

So right now while he is, I'm going to take everything I can. I'm going to like store it away. Those are kind of two of the ends that we can go on this spectrum. And I think the grand buffet, like I think I've got a picture here for you, highlights what that could be. I hear people like, hmm, come on now.

Now, some of you, maybe this isn't your thing. Maybe, you know, the Brazilian steakhouse is more your thing, and this one entices you a little more, and you're like, oh, I've got to make a trip to Portland now. And now, I know there's some of you in here that you're like, ah, that's not really my thing, Pastor.

You're not really hitting it on the head today. So, prophetically, I put together a slide of the other things that maybe you need some self-control with, and we can let you just stew over those for a moment. I think it's fair to say that out of those three slides, we probably touched everybody in here. Amen?

We have a problem as a people with self-control. There is not a single person that does not have a problem in some area, in some way, with self-control. And I think one of the things that really leads us to this problem is we look at the Bible. Bible and verses that tell us to have self-control.

And we look at an entire section in the bookstore and we see self-control and we just focus on that first word so much of self. It's all about me. It's all about what I can do. It's all about pulling myself up by my bootstraps. It's about my strength and my fortitude to plow through this and like master this thing.

One of my favorite followers on Instagram is a guy named Cameron Haynes. And he puts out shirts that says, nobody cares, work harder. And that's just like this attitude of self-control.

Make a decision to do better. Don't be weak. That's like the rhetoric around self-control.

And what happens is this leads us oftentimes down one of two paths. Either we're successful and then we become... super prideful. We're like, yeah, that's right.

I conquered that. Look at me. That's right. Nobody cares. Work harder.

I worked harder. I made better decisions. Look at me. Anybody ever struggle with that? You're like, I got this self-control thing down.

Look at me. My picture's in the dictionary right next to like self-control. control.

I'm just a perfect picture of this. Or the other side of it is we don't do so good at trying to self-govern our lives and be in control of things ourself. And we fall into despair.

And we get to this place where like, why even try anymore? Why? I've been caring for people. I've been trying to mind nutrition. I've been trying to budget with my finances.

I've been trying to love people better. I've been trying to work harder at work. I've been I've been trying to mind what I say so I don't break relationships, but I just keep putting my foot in my mouth.

I just keep failing. I lack self-control, and you come to a place of despair, and you just want to give up. So either we have over-inflated egos, or we have completely deflated, depressed egos. I just want to quit. Why am I even trying anymore?

And if we think about how this affects the entire world, we have epidemics of entitlement and pride and depression and suicide. focused on self. And it's not something that I'm sitting here like, yeah, I'm proud of this about our society, about where we're at.

But I think it's the reality. And all of us are either dealing with this in some way, walking with somebody who's dealing with it in some way, or going to be dealing with it or walking with somebody who is dealing with it. So I want to look at what it actually means biblically.

Exercise self-control. To have self-control. Not idolizing your self-ability to do something, but what does the Bible say when it says, yeah, add self-control to that?

Does that mean like, hey, toughen up? Or does it maybe mean... means something different. And I want to petition to you that it means something completely different.

And we look at what it fully means in biblical context. We go back to when this is written, and we need to understand that Greek philosophers, who this was written in the context of, prized self-control in a lot of the same ways that I just illustrated it for you guys. We think like in America, we're so different than everybody else, and no one in history can understand us because we're just different. We're better, right? Like, no, we're not.

It's the same patterns on... repeat. And these Greek philosophers that this is addressing the ideology or the rhetoric of viewed self-control as the ability of the human being to act entirely of one's own free will without being subject to the whims and the pressures of other people.

So like I'm not going to be influenced by other people. I'm strong enough. I don't need you.

I'm just going to do this myself and it's going to show that I actually am superior to you in this way. That's kind of the philosophical idea. of it that you wouldn't yield to competing philosophies. You wouldn't yield, especially to your emotions.

That was a big one. However, Peter and the other New Testament writers who use this term, of course, that's not what they mean by it. The gospel is not like Jesus saved you. Now do better.

Jesus saved you. Fix your own life. Jesus saved you, but nobody cares about your struggles. Work harder.

Like, no, that's, that's not the gospel. That's not how they're referring to it. it.

They don't use this word in a philosophical sense. For them, self-control is actually an aspect of what we read in Galatians as the fruit of the Spirit. It is something that enables believers to avoid falling prey to the temptations, especially sexual and sensual ones. that are so unavoidable in the world we live in. That is what they're referring to.

Like, hey, self-control that we'll get to is spirit-empowered, helps you avoid the ditches of the world, the carnal and sensual desires that are all around you. That is what it is for. Self-control, by definition, is the virtue of one who masters his desires and passions, especially his sensual appetites. And... It's proceeding out from within oneself, but not by oneself.

That's the original Greek meaning of this. It's not just, hey, master your struggles. But actually, it's something that happens within you, but not by yourself. And that's not saying get the right book, get the right 10-step plan. That's saying get the right source within you, so that you can live in a way that is different from the world.

Are we following so far? Can we agree that this is a big deal? This has deep ditches on either side of the path that God calls us to. I pray that today as we dive into this, that this will actually free you from this idea of I. need to figure this out on my own.

So as we get into this and what God says about it, before it's an issue of control, it's an issue of self. The question is which self? And I'm not not talking in some schizophrenic type of way. I'm talking biblical old self, new self.

Which self is the control applying to? And I want to read for you Ephesians 4, 20 through 23 to help us with this. It says, that, however, is not the way of the life you learned. When you heard about Christt and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus, you were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted. Remember that word?

by its deceitful desires, to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Now, in order to understand biblical self-control, we need to understand that this is addressing the new self, not the old self. This is not saying master all of the carnal desires from a perspective of someone separate from Jesus, not indwelled by his spirit, not empowered by his transformative life and the renewing of your mind through him.

This is the new self that this applies to. And if you think about it, that changes everything because it's not, I'm depraved. I don't have my life together.

I need saved. How am I going to save myself? It's Jesus saved me.

He fills me. And because of him, From within, I can have the power of the Holy Spirit to change the way in which I interact with the things that once destroyed me, that once led to decay in my life. And now I can see fullness and fulfillment in my life because of him in those areas. We follow him.

The essence of this self-control is a mastery of something or having dominion over something, but we need to understand that it is accompanied with the new self. We need to be able to draw from other places in scripture that quite frankly, we don't have time to go into all of them today. But if we read the Bible, which I encourage you to do, you will know verses like seek first the kingdom and all will be added. And you will know these kinds of things that will start to resonate. in your heart because it's the word of God and you, it will like reverberate in you because of him in you.

And now you're like, okay, what do I do about this? Why I need to seek God first. And then he's going to provide these other things.

You see, like having him in your mind, in your heart, in dwelling in you, being saturated in him leads you to a different perspective when it comes to self-control involving the new self. Because we know that where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, not captivity and oppression. spirit of the Lord is theirs freedom. And the spirit of the Lord dwells in the believer as they are born anew. And that is what empowers us to live this way.

So for example, the old self, here's the way the old self lives, that I am doing these things for a status with God. I'm making good decisions. I'm doing this. I'm doing A, B, and C for status with God. I'm trying to earn some sort of status with him.

I want to please him or perform. so that he will love me, so that he will adopt me, so that he will save me. But the new self says, I am doing this because of a status or from a status with God.

You're not doing it for a status with him. You're doing it because of the status you already have, from a place of being adopted, being sealed with the Holy Spirit, being called a son or a daughter. The new self comes from that place. And we have to get over this mindset that I don't want to anger my father, but that I want to please him because of how good he is and what he's done in my life.

We don't live and make decisions and deal with temptations based out of fear of the nightmare, but of hope of the dream, hope of the vision that what can be and what is to come. We cannot be a people motivated by the nightmare, but rather motivated by the hope for a future, the hope that we have in Christt Jesus returning and redeeming us fully to the Father. That's what motivates us.

So it's not for status with God, it's from status with Him, or because of what He has already done. So if we apply this to going with the supplements theme, supplements are meant to strengthen multiple systems in our body, right? I'm no dietician.

Maybe I need Lindsay to come up here and give you a presentation. But supplements aren't just targeting one area of your body. There's supplements for everything. Just go to Costco. But the question of which self that we are addressing here, and it being from a status with God, is kind of like bone health.

That's realizing that it's new self is like the skeleton to the body that is going to bear the weight of the world. weight of what you get to engage in in this world. So our bone health is like, okay, we got to make sure we got the right self.

That's at the center of this. Am I operating as an orphan or am I operating as a son and daughter? Am I operating out of the new self or the old self? This strengthens your skeleton, proverbial skeleton, to handle the weight of kingdom life, the purpose of eternal mission that God has called us to.

So we want to get strong bones, amen? We need to recognize what self we are operating out of, that it's a self that is redeemed and saved by Christt Jesus. So then if that's the self part, then we need to ask the question, what will we be mastered by, control or mastered by?

So we're operating... out of the new self. We're operating not out of just our own might.

It is from within, but it's not by ourselves. So what will we be mastered by? What is our opportunity in this?

What perspective needs to change in order for us to live this out? And the reality is, if we go into this without some idea of how God calls us to live and what he's calling us to, then we live in a way of reactionary living. We're just reacting to whatever our circumstances are, whatever our emotions are, whatever thoughts pop into our head, whatever shiny thing we want to buy. We just live reactionarily. And that leads us to being mastered by our circumstances and our temptations of the flesh.

And if you've read the Bible, if you know anything about Jesus and why he came to save us, you know that's not the way he's called us to live. to be mastered by our circumstances and temptations. He has called us to live a surrendered way of life, being mastered by the one who created us. It is a completely different way of viewing your life, your relationships, and your purpose.

If it's not, oh, shiny thing I want, or this thought occurred to me, I'm just going to say it. And if they don't like it, they can get over it. Stop being so easily offended and just being careless with the way in which you engage with the world. But when you're surrendered to the one who created you and you're mastered by him, now you have calculated intentional living. That's the way that God calls us to live.

And it's by the power of the Spirit living in us, it's not the power of our own might and nobody cares, try harder kind of thing. It's because God lives in us. He empowers us by his Holy Spirit to live in a way that exercises these supplements and the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

His power leads us to composure and restraint, led by the Spirit and enabled by submission to transformed living in a renewed mind. Putting off the old self. rejecting. Like, I want nothing to do with the old self. God, would you help me to come fully alive in my new self?

That is the attitude and posture in which we are to engage. So if recognizing it's the new self is the skeleton, then what is the mastery by the power of the Holy Spirit supposed to be over? Those are like the muscles we're going to start putting on the skeleton, okay?

So we want to, we ready to get some muscles? Yeah, I see some smiles over there. So let's do it.

What is the first thing that I believe God wants to challenge us today to allow him and his spirit, his power, his word to help us master? And that is our desires. Our desires. How many of us know that our desires can be deceitful? Temptation and emotions can govern us in this way.

Our old self yields to lustful and carnal desires, but our new self surrenders carnal desires for eternal purpose and action. You see, when we lived without Jesus, we would yield to whatever kind of thing popped into our mind, whatever desire we had at some, like, gut level. It was just like, yeah, sure, sounds good, it makes me happy, pleases me, I'll do it.

But the new self says, no, we surrender those desires for something bigger, for an eternal purpose, for eternal actions, things that contribute to the kingdom of God forever, not just the kingdom of self now. That is what it looks like to add that to the skeleton, to see self-control in a biblical sense exercise over our desires. The next one is our actions or our behavior. And the old self just simply engages in this carousel of behavior management.

Like trying to go buy a self-help book on how do I govern my actions better. Seven steps to making better decisions. Here's the seven effective habits for everyone who wants to be a good leader. Like we've seen versions of these.

these titles at the bookstore. But the old self is just trying to manage your behaviors so that you cannot make anybody mad and try to get the most out of life in the next step in front of you. But the new self has surrendered behavior that starts each day saying, God, what do you have for me today? God, in this relationship, how are you calling me to engage?

God, I'm going to be honest with you. This person's really frustrating me, and I don't want to talk to them. And when I see them at church, I'd kind of like to just turn around and act like I don't see them.

What should I do about it? And God says, you should go talk to them because they're my child too. And this is surrendered behavior.

This is surrendered living that leads to redemption and fullness in community and being an example to the world of something other than what they'll see out of those who don't follow Jesus. How do we do that? By the power of his spirit and by surrendering our behavior to him.

not trying to manage it within ourselves. The next area is our resources. Our resources. And the old self takes on life thinking of how we can resource our kingdom, how we can resource everything I want, build my legacy, make sure that I got all my funds set in place for some fiscal legacy and that I have everything I need to make sure that my neighbors know that I'm flexing on them and they know who's in charge on this block, right?

Whose kingdom are you resourcing? It's kind of like in the Bible when the kings would invite people in, like, look at all my stuff. It's like, let's be honest, we can live that way too.

Like, look at my toy, look at this, look at that. When the old self is talking about resources, we are talking about resourcing. or providing for our kingdom, building our kingdom.

But the new self, the new self resources God's kingdom. Now, does that mean you need to go live in a tent on the side of the road and take a vow of poverty? Absolutely not. Because God uses homes to facilitate community.

God uses cars to transport people to encounter him at different, like, he uses all these things. But is your purpose for obtaining them for your self-kingdom or for his kingdom? And I believe God really wants to challenge our society. That if we're going to say Jesus is king, then our resources are to source his kingdom, not our own. And they should run through the filter of his mission, his purpose, and his calling, not of our desires.

Our wants, right? Like there's a little bit of a difference there. So are we going to live the old self or new self when it comes to our resources? God gives us the means and ability to earn money.

He gifts us the time we have. Every day is a gift. And our most precious resources of time and money are God-given. So we don't despise him. Like we're not like, oh, I don't want any money.

No, that's silly. Like God bless me so I can be a blessing. Right? That's resourcing the kingdom.

God, would you multiply my time so I can care for more people? Would you multiply my time so I can disciple my kids better? Would you multiply my time? Would you help me prioritize my time so I can love my wife in a more meaningful way? That is the desires of the heart of someone who's building the kingdom, that they would use their time and their money to resource God's kingdom, make disciples, and see his kingdom flourish in this world that so desperately needs it.

So what kingdom will our time and our money contribute to building? Self. or savior? That's the question. Now, the other thing that out of this biblical self-control, God wants to help us master is our emotions.

Emotions. See, the old self is emotion ruled, and the new self is emotion informed. Now, people often fall in one of two camps when it comes to emotions.

Like, emotions govern and dictate everything. Well, I'm feeling this way, so it's real. It's my truth.

I'm going to this. It's not healthy. Spoiler alert. Or, emotions are weak. You shouldn't listen to your emotions.

Come on, facts. Not emotions. Like, that's dumb too.

Okay? Emotions are God-given and not to be despised. And they're not in charge.

We are not in the kingdom of emotion. We are in the kingdom of God. But they're helpful. Like, we can be honest. Emotions are helpful.

They're like... dashboard lights that go off and like, hey, you should check your oil. Hey, things are overheating. Something needs attention.

Something in your life needs addressed. And I want to let you know now before you blow a gasket. Emotions should inform our lives, not dictate or govern our lives. Please do not hear a pastor telling you, don't worry about your emotions.

No, absolutely. They're God-given. He made you that way with a personality to have emotion. Listen to them. Let them inform you, but don't let them run your life.

Run them through the filter of God's purpose and God's truth. truth. One of the best intersections that happens every day in my life is when my emotions meet the truth of God.

When my emotions have to intersect with God's word. And it's at that moment every day when I'm like, I'm feeling this and I really think this needs to change what I'm about to do. It's like, okay, what does God's word say about that?

I'll say, don't be anxious in anything, but with prayer and petition, give it to them. Oh, okay. His word gets to take precedence over my emotions.

Now, if I'm feeling disconnected from my wife, and I'm like, gosh, I just feel like I don't have any time for you, and I'm kind of being a baby about it, then you can tell I'm a dude because I just make little of emotions even without trying to. So maybe I should redact that one. But if I'm being selfish about something that I want and I'm not getting, maybe I should be like, you know what?

Maybe that's an early warning sign that my wife is not going to be able to do it. wife needs to feel loved in a way that she receives, not that I have time to give her. Maybe it should be about her and what she needs, not about what scraps I have to give because I'm trying to pour myself out.

for everybody else. We absolutely need to listen to our emotions. We need to see those dashboard lights and we need to live a life that is informed by them, not dictated by them. Please don't ignore them.

Don't ignore them. That leads to blown gasket, all kinds of catastrophic things, but they don't get to be in charge. They don't get to be in charge.

So self-control in a biblical sense over our emotions is, God, thank you for highlighting that for me. now I need to have a conversation. Not stuff it down and have some catastrophic failure and now you're getting a lawyer involved instead of having an honest conversation. Praise God for emotions. And praise God that our emotions are not our God.

The final thing, and this one is, well, our tongue, our words. Need I say more? This one is... So toxic and so challenging, especially in faith communities that I didn't have time to give you verses for everything, but this one's got a couple. So Proverbs 10.19 says, Sin is not ended by multiplying words or by more words, but the prudent hold their tongues.

1 Peter 3.10 says, For whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. You see, the old self exercises careless speech. We're careless with our words. We're flippant. We just let whatever comes to mind out of our mouth, and we weaponize our words, and we're careless with our words.

But the new self has captive speech. It's kind of like the Bible says, take every thought captive. But it also, we see in these verses, it's like, nah, keep your lips from deceitful speech.

The Bible has a lot to say about gossip and using your words to build one another up. It's not about, I'm going to get my zinger in so I can put you in your place and establish some sort of dominance over you. It's about, I want to have captive speech. I want to withhold so that my words are more potent than just careless.

I want my words to build up. I want them to be calculated. I want them to represent Jesus. When we see the way in which Jesus lived, he was calculated. He asked questions.

He combated offense and lies. with truth. He did not combat them insult for insult.

He used truth and calculation in the way in which he engaged the world. And if we're called to live in the way of Jesus, then we need to try by the power of his spirit to replicate that. We must be careful with our words. We cannot engage in gossip, deceitful speech. We can't be putting people down.

Our words are to be used to build up. One of the things that drives me crazy the most is if I'm in like a prayer meeting or I'm praying with someone and if you've been in the church for more than a week, you've experienced gossip prayer. You guys ever experienced that?

Where it's like, Lord, I just pray that you'll convict The of her gossip and that you'll just help her not keep spending her money on all this silly stuff. And Lord, will you just be with her and convict her? It's like, stop gossiping in prayer. Like, that's just gross. But like, that's a real thing.

We're like, well, it's a prayer. It's righteous. No. Let's go, stop. Like pray truth and declare truth and love over people.

Build them up. But if the church doesn't exercise our words and how we use our tongues in a way that is other than the world, then how will people see that there's a better way? There are so many things that wanna tear us down in the world. Can we please use our speech to build up?

Please, let us be evidence. of a different kind of kingdom from the way in which words come out of our mouths. Now, I don't stand here saying, hey, and my book's coming out next week because I got this figured out.

No, I have to repent and ask the Lord to renew my mind in this area every day. The point is not the perfection. The point is that the direction of our heart is heading towards Jesus in this manner and that we don't settle for carelessness because it's too hard to be calculated. Amen?

This is what self-control looks like when it comes to our words. And it's a mastery, but not just by oneself. It's from within oneself, but empowered by more than just that.

So what does it look like to operate in victory in these areas? And worship team, you can come back up. How do we operate in victory right now?

Not just like, yeah, when Jesus comes back, everything's going to be fixed. It's all going to be good. Like, we know that. We just preached through Revelation.

But when you leave... This room today, and you go out into the world, how can this change your life? What does it look like for a community of gospel-saturated worshipers to live in this way?

That should be a question we ask every week, by the way. What does it look like for a community, that's us, of gospel-saturated, hopefully us, believers, to go and be the scattered church and live in a manner that represents or re-presents this into our city? And the first thing is, at the root of this Greek word, it determines that for the believer, self-control is in essence spirit control.

It puts them right there next to each other. This root is also referring to spirit control. It can only be accomplished by the power of the Lord in you.

So if you're here today and you feel empty, your answer isn't pull yourself up by your bootstraps. It's Jesus, please fill me. Holy Spirit, would you fill me afresh?

Would you breathe on me so I can live in the way that you've called me to live? It's not, Lord, give me strength. It's, Lord, give me your strength.

That's the essence of this word. And as we go from here, we have no chance of seeing victory in these areas if we're trying to do it in our own might, our own power, our own understanding. It's gotta be informed and empowered by the presence of God in us.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom. And I believe that God wants to bring freedom to each of us today from the ways in which we've yielded to the ways of the world and sacrificed His ways in the new self and living fully out of that. The new self should have a constant awareness of God's presence in us, of what God, his heart is in any given situation, and especially of our need to ask him when we don't have answers. been that place where you're like, I don't know what to do.

Well, this seems logical. Like, no, no, no, no, no. You're missing the point. I don't know what to do. God, would you share with me your heart for this moment?

I don't know what to say to this person. Holy Spirit, would you give me words that represent you in this moment instead of the turbulence and angst that I'm feeling inside my own soul? Would you help give me words to build up?

Would you help me use my resources for your kingdom instead of mine? Would you help me be informed by my emotions, not dictated by them? Casey's threads of encouragement throughout worship were in a essence like, God is approachable. You can come to him. You can ask him for things.

He's not some king that sits so far away that you don't have access to him. He's also a father who says, come to me. He calls you child. How many of you sit on the roof and tell your child to shout at you from the ground level?

No. You say, come closer. You want them close enough that they can whisper and you can hear them.

God is approachable. He wants to hear these things. It honors him when you say, God, what should I do about this? That's not like some abdicating of responsibility.

It's simply surrendering to his ways instead of yours. We want to live a surrendered life. We need to remember our old self is about doing something for status with God, but we as a community of believers should live in a way that says, I am doing this from my status of being saved, being a child of God, being accepted, being chosen by him, and that his spirit lives within me to empower me to live out this way.

You see, if we pull the power of God out of this equation, then I've just given you a six-chapter self-help book. But if we put God right smack dab in the middle of it, what we give you is a king to surrender to that will inform your ways and breathe life into your circumstances, your journeys, and your behaviors. This isn't about your strength, it's about his strength being perfected in you.

your weakness. Praise God for that. Praise God for that. So as we close, I just want to give you the opportunity to respond in a meaningful way. In some weeks that looks like, yes, Jesus, I want to give my life to you.

you some weeks it's like yes I need to repent and some weeks it's just like yes Jesus I need your spirit to fill me so I can live the way you've called me to live and I believe this week is one of the latter so I'm gonna ask you all just bow your heads in the spirit of prayer with me And what I'm going to do is I'm going to pray that every person that would raise their hand, God would fill them afresh right now. Not just like a, well, I guess he might fill me, but like, God, I know you're going to fill me. As I raise my hand and I say yes in a posture of receiving.

and trusting you in faith, you will fill me. You will empower me to live this way. If that's you right now, just raise your hand.

Nobody's looking. We all need it. Don't be ashamed of your weakness because that's where God showcases his strength. So Father, I thank you. thank you for each hand raised in this room.

Father, I thank you that you don't say, hey, go do better by yourself, but that you say, let me live in you and give you the power to live the way I've called you to live. Father, I pray that you would fill each person afresh with your spirit right now, that they would experience you in a new tangible way. And that they would anticipate the ways in which you inform their lives and lead them moving forward out of this place. So Spirit, come.

Fill my brothers and sisters. Transform their hearts. Renew their minds.

And give them the power to live this way you've called us to live. We thank you. And we receive this in faith. In Jesus'mighty name.

Everybody said, Amen. Let's go ahead and stand as we close in worship.

Transcript for:Supplements - Self-Control

Transcript for:
Supplements - Self-Control