sharing good news of great joy to all people.
Elation Church. There was a Facebook post that
I posted a couple weeks ago, and it was about
a saying. It was a very concise saying that I
had come up with for my boys, specifically my
oldest, Riley, who happens to not be here today.
He's playing baseball, conveniently. And Riley's
14, but about five, six years ago, we lived in
Colorado. And Riley had grown up when he was
a younger child dealing with a lot of sensory
challenges that he faced in his life. And this
started, I mean, when he was like two, three
years old, especially when he was four, five,
and six to the point where my wife, and you can
clarify all these details with her. She'll probably
tell you I told it wrong and, you know, lambast
me later and that's okay. But she, to the point
where she didn't know if she was a good mother.
because she was fighting with all of the stuff
that was going on with him not knowing how to
interact with people and exploding and blowing
up and having all of these emotional really breakdowns
because he didn't know how to regulate his system.
And so we spent years going through occupational
therapy and going through once, twice a week,
which really has brought him into the young man
that he is today. And God has done a huge work
through all of that. But it started with everybody's
favorite subject in school How many of you guys
love math who loves math your favorite favorite
subject in the whole wide world? So when Riley
was about seven years old he started math and
so seven would have put him in what second grade
I guess something like that and Riley would sit
at the dinner table for an hour to two hours
to get like five problems done. I mean, it was
like he hated it. And I would be sitting there
with him and we'd go through it and we'd be like,
okay, so, you know, seven plus four is, and he'd
just sit there and didn't want to do it. And
so finally, I started telling him, I said, all
right, well, because he would start to say, I'm
not good at this. I can't do it. I'm not good
at this. I can't do it. Repeat like over and
over, you know, the self -fulfilling prophecy.
How many of you guys ever told yourself something
that, you know what, I can't do this. And sure
enough, You can't, you don't do it because you
have literally talked yourself out of capability
and capacity. And so I started telling him, I
want you to repeat after me. I am good at math.
And the amount of hatred that I got from my son
for this, no, I am not doing it. Burying his
face in a pillow, like, you know, like hiding
under the table. You know, there might be some
exaggeration here, but that's what it felt like
to me. So he'd be sitting there and, For about
a year or so, we'd go through this. I'm good
at math. I'm good at math. I'm good at math.
Repeat it. We'd do it 10, 20, 30, 40 times. And
we got through it. And as he grew through that,
you know, as he was getting older, we began to
see these explosions of emotion when he didn't
know what to do with his body. He didn't know
what to do. So he would go, he'd run up into
his room and throw himself on his bed. And sometimes
to the point where, like, I had to physically
restrain him from, like, going. going off in
wild, throwing tantrums, things like that. And
one day, and I don't remember exactly where it
happened, but we were in his room upstairs. It
was probably about six years ago. He was nine
years old, maybe eight, nine years old. And I
was holding him in his room and he was trying
to throw a tantrum and throw a fit and so on.
And it just, it dawned on me one day. I said,
Riley, do you understand that you are the only
one that has control over what you do? And that
you are the only one that controls how you act,
how you respond, and how you think. And so I
was just instantly came on and I said, Riley,
I want you to say this after me. I want you to
say, I control my body. I control my mind. I
control my actions. And that covers all three
parts of our lives, everything that we do. Because
it's what we do, it's what we say, and it's how
we act. And so... Over the last five years, any
time that my boys have begun to act out, be upset,
get frustrated, they'll go into their room and
they'll throw themselves on the bed and they'll
be angry and they'll be upset. And I will come
in and I will remind them, say it after me, I
control my body, I control my mind, I control
my actions. And I think that over time it has
begun to show. them that they actually have the
capacity to create change and make change in
their lives and lately what i've been telling
them is you know where you are in your life right
now is a result of every single choice that you
have made up until this exact moment and the
only way you are going to get a different result
after this is by making a different choice or
a series of different choices that come from
control and that is only through controlling
your body controlling your mind, and then controlling
your actions. Because when you start with your
mind, I control my mind, which then means I control
my body, which then means that each action that
I take after that is a direct result of controlling
my mind. And so as they've grown up, as Ethan
and Riley have both grown up, and Addison will
get it soon, she's not old enough to understand
this yet, but continuing to remind them on a
daily basis. I control my actions. I control
my body. I control my mind. And it's something
that they have taken to heart. They don't always
like it. They don't always like the fact that
I remind them of this. Ethan was over there hiding
his face a minute ago because he doesn't like
that I remind him of these things. But, you know,
we create resiliency in our own lives through...
taking direct control of our bodies and who we
are. And we may not like the situation we're
in. This has nothing to do with the situation
we find ourselves in other than knowing that
every decision I made up until that moment landed
me in that exact spot where I am right there.
The only way to progress past that is by making
a different choice, controlling your body, controlling
your mind, controlling your actions. And I could
go on for another hour, but Dean probably has
more to say. So he's got to preach. But that's
where it came from. That's where my boys, that's
where I continually work to train them every
day. I mean, you see my shirt today, 1 % better
every day. This comes from a book called Atomic
Habits. If you've never read it, I highly recommend
it. But if you make tiny incremental changes
each day, everyone thinks the movies show you
that it has to be some big revelation, revelatory.
Idea change something that suddenly will make
your life different and then that'll be amazing
and it's like you won the lottery But in reality
the way that our lives change when we control
our body our mind and our actions the little
changes the little Things that you do each day
creating consistency and discipline self -control
Will get you to where you want to go regardless
of your age your status or what you've done in
your life previously All right give Jordan a
hand Now, we can look at this in a couple of
ways. We can look at this as self -help. Everybody
say self -help. Or we can look at it as a spiritual
principle. Try to put both words together. You
know the Bible speaks about self -control. It
tells us how important self -control is. Now,
other than just like a one -off message, I've...
I've never even heard someone preach about self
-control unless they were going through the fruit
of the Spirit, like I've done before, and you
preach every Sunday about a different fruit of
the Spirit. That's all I've ever heard from a
pulpit or from the Bible on self -control. It's
all that's ever come to me, but I want to give
some text to you. Now, we read this text a lot,
right? 2 Peter 1, 3 through 8. Says this, by
his divine power, God has given us everything
we need for living a godly life. Somebody say
thank you. Here's the deal. God's already given
you everything you need for living a godly life.
We have received all of this by coming to know
him. It's part of the relationship. We've received
all of this by coming to know him, the one who
called us to himself by means of his marvelous
glory and excellence. And because of his glory
and excellence, he has given us great and precious
promises. Thousands of promises in God's word.
That God has made to you and to me. Now, until
we find out what those promises are, we're not
going to be able to receive them. Because all
of the promises of God are received by faith.
Listen, they're grace gifts. We don't earn them
or deserve them. So they're available. But the
only way we ever receive anything from God is
by faith. We got to hear it. We got to wholeheartedly
believe it. I'm going to throw this out there.
We got to put our words in agreement with it.
Like Jordan was sharing, I'm terrible at math.
I hate math. I can't do math. Well, guess what?
You're not going to be able to do math. Now,
we did a whole series on words in November and
December. I'm not going to do that again. But
the Bible says the power of life and death is
in your tongue. The Bible says some of the problems
that you face are a result of the words that
you have built. If you need those verses, I'll
find them and give them to you after we get done
if you don't believe me. But God has given us
great and precious promises. These are the promises
that enable you to share his divine nature and
escape the world's corruption caused by human
desires. How many of you need some escape every
once in a while? God's promises. Is that what
it says? Is that what the Bible says? Hello?
It's what the Bible says. Sometimes we have to
make a choice to believe what the Bible says.
instead of what sometimes our old religious mindset
says. All right. I'm preaching good. You're not
amening as good. In view of all this, in view
of God's glory and excellence and his promises,
in view of all this, Make every effort to respond
to God's promises. Supplement your faith with
a generous provision of moral excellence. And
moral excellence with knowledge. I mean, I could
preach on every single one of these, but we're
getting to this next one. And knowledge with
self -control. Everybody say self -control. So
in light of God's glory and his marvelous things
that he's doing and all the promises that he's
given us, we need to add to our faith some self
-control. With patient endurance and patient
endurance with godliness and godliness with brotherly
affection and brotherly affection with love for
everyone. Listen. The more you grow like this,
and we're focusing in on one of many, but everybody
say self -control. So the more you grow in self
-control, listen, the more productive and useful
you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ. So how many of you see that it's going
to take some self -control for us to be useful
in the kingdom of God? Because without some self
-control, you might know a lot, but you won't
be respected a lot. Come on, somebody. Don't
shout me down while I'm preaching. Good. Supplement
your faith with a generous portion of self -control
to be more productive and useful in the kingdom
of God. Now, what's that word self -control mean?
Here's the Greek word. I always butcher it even
though I put it up phonetically how to say it.
Enkrateia. Enkrateia. Is that close? It's a compound
word. It's two Greek words put together. In the
sphere of. Enkratos, which is dominion mastery.
So that word is properly translated self -control.
Self -control is dominion within. It means we're
going to control as you do word studies. I mean,
look it up on Interlinear. Look that verse up.
Look this word up. You can Google it, and you
can look in, what is it, the Bible Hub is what
we look at. There's word studies and all that
kind of stuff. Look up this word, and a lot of
what I'm about to tell you came from that word
study. You can look it up. But we have self -control
over our thoughts. We have self -control over
our feelings. We have self -control over our
actions. We can add some more things, but this
was in that word study that I got. So, I'm going
to say this again later, but we can't control
everything. Some of us would like to control
other people and control all the circumstances.
But really, all we control, all we can control
is our sphere, us, right? We can control ourselves.
How many of you would agree with me, you might
could have a little bit more self -control than
you have in some areas of your life? Wow, we're
going up. There's like eight people raised their
hand there. Here's some more. 1 Corinthians 9,
24. Don't you realize that in a race, everyone
runs? But only one person gets the prize. So
run to win. Look at the person beside you and
say, run to win. If you're running, you need
to run to win. And then in verse 25, it says,
all athletes are disciplined. Well, guess what?
Same word. Everybody say, same word. Same word.
All athletes exercise self -control. Everybody
say self -control. In their training. They do
it to win, to win a prize. And earthly prizes,
you know, I've won some trophies and I have no
idea where they are. I've got a football trophy.
I've got a medal for doing a 5K. I've got a letter
jacket with three different, I've lettered in
three different sports. I have no idea where
that letter jacket is. I thought about it the
other day. Where's that thing at? I mean, I put
in a lot of discipline and self -control to letter
and, let's see, football, tennis, and track.
I put in a lot. Don't even know where it is.
I think my football trophy broke. So it's in
a landfill somewhere, most likely. They do it
to win a prize. All this self -control, do it
to win a prize that will fade away. How many
trophies are in landfills? Has anybody ever watched
American Pickers? I mean, after your life is
over, the trophies stay in here. Even if you
still have it, it'll stay in here. Somebody will
buy it for $5. But that's not what our self -control
is about. Our self -control, we do it for an
eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every
step. I'm not just shadow boxing. I discipline
my body like an athlete, training it to do what
it should. It's talking about spiritual things.
It's talking about self -control and spiritual
things. It's giving us... this athlete as a earthly
picture, but God is telling us something spiritual.
We need self -control. Self -control is essential.
If you want to live with purpose and if you want
to live in victory, self -control is essential.
I need amen or something on that. Because that's
just putting the verses in direct talk with what
we're, right? They were talking about winning
and a prize. And here's the one that I've heard
sermons on before, Galatians 5 .22. But the Holy
Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives.
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness. gentleness, and there's one more,
self -control. Everybody say self -control. So
how many of you think self -control might be
a little more important than you thought it was
before today? When you look at these verses,
this is a spiritual thing, not just an earthly
thing, even though it works. But guess what?
It can work a lot better. Because the fruit of
the Spirit, fruit of the Holy Spirit is self
-control. Self -control. Now what does that tell
us? Those first two things it's saying to add
to your faith, self -control. If you want to
live in victory and live with purpose, you're
going to have to have some self -control. But
what does this verse tell us? It tells us we're
not alone. See, as far as self -help and motivation
goes, we're just on our own, right? But for spiritual
self -control, we've got a helper. Who needs
a helper? Who has looked at your life and said,
boy, I need more self -control? Well, the Holy
Spirit can help you. It isn't that he just can.
He wants to. He wants to help you with this self
-control over spiritual things and over your
life. I mean, Gannon and I went to eat and I
just kept on eating. And I was miserable. I just
kept eating. And I'm like, why did I eat so much?
See, I want to blame my mama. Because my mama
said, you have to clean your plate. So I'm good
at cleaning my plate. But if you go to Florida
Homecoming Kitchen down at Disney Springs and
you order a plate, it might be enough to feed
a family of four. But that's the plate in front
of me. There wasn't a drop left on it. Because
that's the way I was trained. Clean your plate.
We don't throw away food in our house because
there's starving children in Africa. And we're
not going to be throwing away any food. Hello?
But as I was miserably trying to breathe going
to bed on Thursday night or Friday night, Thursday
night, I'm laying there. I'll tell you what,
I'm going to... And see, it's not just going
to happen. Look at me. If we ask the Holy Spirit
to help us, it's not going to happen. See, it's
not going to happen if we just say, you know,
Holy Spirit, here it is on Sunday morning. I
need you to help me not to eat, not to clean
my plate. If it's more than I need to eat, or
if it's something that I don't need to eat. And
then yesterday, you know, Robert said, do you
want sweet tea today? And I'm like, see, I've
had a lot of self -control. But I gave in yesterday.
And I didn't just drink one glass of sweet tea.
I drank like three or four glasses of sweet tea.
And I think he makes it like my mama. I think
he puts two full cups of sugar in one gallon
of sweet tea. How many of you know that's probably
not good for you? See, I need some self -control,
but I can't just say today, all right, Holy Spirit,
I want you to help me make... Better decisions
when I'm sitting at the restaurant, you know,
help me make better decisions. I can't just ask
him to do it today and then not even acknowledge
him when I go to the restaurant. It's not a one
and done prayer. Hello? I can't say, I have no
self -control, so I need you to control me. Take
self -control. But the good news is, not just
a one -time prayer asking Him to help you, but,
and that's just one thing. I don't mean to get
on you about eating because I'm the worst. That's
a bad confession, isn't it? I'm the best. I make
the best choices. But God will help us in every
area. These are some things from the word study.
When I read it, I was just like, wow. I've got
to write that down and say it. I've got to copy
and paste that. Here's the kind of self -control
that God wants us to have because he wants to
empower us. So it's self -control proceeding
out from within oneself. It's self -control being
displayed in me. but not by oneself. It's not
that I have to have enough mental fortitude and
willpower to control myself because I have a
helper to control my thoughts, my words, my actions.
I've got a helper. True mastery from within can
really only be accomplished by the power of the
Lord. For it to be the level that it needs to
be, we've got to have some power and some strength
from God. Here's another one. Self -control is
not just about abstaining from excess, but involves
a positive mastery and direction of one's energies
and desires towards godly purposes. Because we
can look at self -control and it can all be negative
because I overate and I drank too much sweet
tea. And that's kind of negative, right? But
it works in a positive way too. Self -control
does. Not just not doing the wrong thing, but
doing the right thing. That's good preaching
right there. Anyway, listen, like I said, we
can't control. everything or everyone around
us, but we can control ourselves. Now let me
help you. You're going to have thoughts that
pop in your mind that are negative, tearing down.
Those thoughts are going to pop into your mind.
Every single one of us have those thoughts. So
don't sit here and think, well, Dean said I've
got to... have self -control over my thoughts,
so I should never have a bad thought. And if
I have a bad thought, then I'm defeated. That's
not what I'm saying. When I'm saying you can
have self -control over your thoughts, I'm saying
that you have self -control. You can have self
-control over what you dwell on, over what you
continue to think on. Hello? Because when we
have a thought of fear, I mean, it just applies
to everything, though. I hate to just do one
thing. But when we have this negative thought
that comes into our minds, we've got to take
that thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
We don't have to dwell on it. When that what
if thought comes, how many of you have some what
if thoughts every once in a while? You know,
you're driving here and you see a wreck and you're
like, all of a sudden, what if you have it? What
if you get rear -ended on I -4? Does anybody
have some what -if thoughts? You never have what
-if thoughts? What if? And then we wind up, you
know, being overcome and overwhelmed with worry
and fear over something that has never even happened.
Hello? When that what if thought comes, you go,
hey, nope, taking that one captive, that's just
going to lead me to worry, and it's going to
lead me to fear, and that's not what I'm going
to think about. I'm going to think about how
good God is. I'm going to think about how much
God loves me. I'm going to think about the people
that do love me. I'm going to set my mind on
things that my mind needs to be set on. Things
that are of good report and lovely and pure.
Those things that God tells us to set our minds
on. So we can't control everything or everyone
around us, but we can control what we set our
mind on. We can control to stop feelings from
running away. We can control that. And we're
really going to control that by controlling our
thoughts. Because our thoughts are what? Our
thoughts are the engine for our feelings. We
can control our actions. We can control our reactions.
How many of you would say, I might need some
self -control on my reactions? Because I don't
always react. Sometimes I react. A little too
much. Here's what we need to know. Self -control
is a vital part of the spirit -filled life. Self
-control spiritually will take us to where our
actions and our thoughts can be aligned with
God's will and God's word. I've got to bust some
song theology. How many of you know we get a
lot of theology from songs? How many of you know
that some people hold to the theology of a song
more than they hold to the Word of God? I've
had people come up and try to correct me something
that I read out of the Bible because it didn't
agree with some song that they thought that was
good theology. Now, you might have never done
that. But I've had people try to correct the
Bible with a song. That's so funny. We sing about
giving God control. I'm not picking on the artists
right now, but there's a big song on the radio.
I give you control. Whoa. I give you control.
And I know you've heard the classic. Jesus, take
the wheel. Take it from my hands. And we think
because the song's on Christian radio, it's got
to be good theology. I actually do that. When
I hear a song on the radio and I'm like, that's
terrible theology, I just hit the button and
cut the radio off. Until another song comes on.
Because I don't want to feed all that in my spirit.
And you might be saying, well, what's wrong with
giving God control? Who has a Tesla? There's
a thing in a Tesla. It don't work? You might
have a contradicting. statement over here because
my friend drove all the way from Philadelphia
and didn't even touch the steering wheel, I think.
Tesla autopilot. Here's what it's called, advanced
driver assistance system. And they have a full
self -driving mode, but you got to be supervised.
So here's your video. Watch the dude's hands
on his legs. Can you see it? Is it coming up
on me? See, his hands are on his legs, and the
car's just navigating. He told the car where
he wanted it to go. It's changing lanes. It's
turning left. His hands are on his legs, waiting
on traffic, turning left in front of traffic.
Look, it's construction. Tight gaps in the neighborhood.
Curvy roads. Wow. I think they sped up the video.
I don't think it's going that fast. Merges in
traffic. Forks in the road. Hey, chose to go
left and stuff. Roundabouts. Stop signs. Hands
on his legs the whole time. Car pulled out and
did a U -turn right in front of him. It braked
itself. Didn't run over that kid running in front
of him. Then it's going to park right back where
he left. Hands stayed on his legs the whole time.
Now, look to the person beside you and say, God's
not a Tesla. Here's the deal. Even before Tesla
was invented, even before this automatic driving
fool thing, even before all that, I've got to
be honest with you. I've prayed. Multiple times.
Wanting God to take control. Because, here's
why. Because I didn't have the self -control
to take care of it myself. And I wanted God to
do it. Here's the deal. God doesn't ever say
that He's going to take the wheel or be in control,
meticulous control of your life, of your thoughts,
of your decisions. Find it in the Bible and let
me know, because I've been looking. It doesn't
say that, but we want God. You know why? Because
we don't want any responsibility. We don't want
to do the hard things. We want God to take control.
We want God to control us. We want to give up
control with Him. See, it sounds very spiritual
in those songs, but as far as I can find, it's
not biblical. I mean, we just read those verses,
right? Now, two weeks ago, I preached on Jesus
being Lord, and we looked at Hebrew and Greek
words. How many words was it? Three or four different
words that are translated Lord in your Bible.
And we talked about, you know, Jesus is going
to be Lord over whatever we allow him to be Lord
over. Now, some people get mad and they say,
well, Jesus is Lord whether you allow him to
be Lord or not. Well, he is Lord, but he's not
your Lord until you allow him to be your Lord.
What does Lord mean? Lord doesn't mean that he's
in meticulous control of my life. I can make
a bad decision to do something bad even before
I leave this room. He's not going to control
me and stop me from doing that. But for him to
be Lord means that he is our respected authority.
And those words were that he's our ruler, he's
our owner, he's our master. It doesn't mean that
he's our controller. Now, you might say, but
I thought, yeah, I've read this verse in a sermon
before. Some English versions use the word control
to communicate the idea of being in or being
submitted to. But just because the English version
has control in the word doesn't necessarily mean
the same word that we looked at. self -mastery,
self -control in the sphere that we have control
of, which is ourselves. So, I'm going to give
you an instance. Romans 8, 9. But you are not
controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled
by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living
in you. That's not the same word, controlled.
Right? New King James is a better translation
here, looking at the Greek words. But you're
not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed
the Spirit of God dwells in you. So when we're
born again, we're in the Spirit, we're in Christ.
But that doesn't mean that we're controlled.
Are you with me? Some of you are looking at me
a little funny. Jesus doesn't take the will.
Here's what God does. He empowers you to take
the will while He guides you. See? We got to
live spirit -led lives. He's going to tell us
when to turn. He's going to tell us when to hit
the brakes. He's going to tell us when to hit
the gas. And I'm not just talking about cars.
I'm talking about life. He wants to guide us.
But we have to take the wheel. And he's going
to empower us to have that self -control. God
wants to take you somewhere. That he's not going
to control you. I'm going to say that again.
God wants to take you somewhere. He wants to
take you somewhere. But he's not going to control
you. We have to submit. And that's part of self
-control too. Submitting our will, our desires,
our... Our wants, submitting to the Lord, submitting
to the Holy Spirit, being led by the Spirit.
So many times we just go through life all in
our head with no spirit connection. So many times
we only think spiritual when we come to church
on Sunday morning, and then everything else is
just me. I mean, I lived a lot of years like
that. I'm submitted on Sunday, but everything
else is just me. And I'll go visit God again
next week. I don't know if I've hammered this
enough, but here it is. I'm hammering it again.
We pray and desire for God to control us. That
He tells us that He will empower us to control
ourselves. He empowers, He guides, He directs,
but we control. That's why self -control is so
important. Here's just a few areas. God desires
to renew your mind. Hello? That's a good thing,
right? We need our minds renewed. God desires
to renew your mind through His Word, but not
to control your mind. God desires to inspire
your words. But He's not going to control your
words. How many of you heard yourself say something
this week and you say, well, God definitely won't
control the net. Especially driving in this traffic
around here. You might need to say, bless your
heart a whole lot more when you're driving in
traffic. Bless your heart. God desires to direct
your actions, not control them. Here we go. This
is the wrap. From the scripture that we looked
at, this is the wrap. This very short version
of this will be before our stories and our applications
in the coming weeks. I think we have at least,
what, at least four more messages. Might be more
than that. God instructs us to supplement our
faith with a generous provision of self -control
so that we can be more productive and useful.
God tells us that self -control is essential
for us to live with purpose and live in victory.
God desires to empower us to have self -control.
So our actions, thoughts, and desires. can align
with his will. Self -control is important. How
many of you want to live a victorious life? Right?
It's going to take some self -control. And you
know that. See, this is common sense knowledge,
what we're talking about. When we really look
at our lives, we know that so much of it comes
down to self -control. Maybe you didn't realize
that you had to help her. To help you with that
self -control. God wants to be a part of that.
We have to submit to him. Let's pray together.
God, thank you for today. Thank you for your
goodness. Thank you for your word. God, I pray
that your word would be planted into good soil
in our hearts. So that it will spring up and
grow and produce a harvest of self -control.
in our lives. Thank you for working in us. Thank
you for working through us. In Jesus' name, amen.
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