Sharing good news of great joy to all people.
Elation Church. This is week number three. Everybody
say week number three. Week number three in our
series on self -control. Self -control. I hope
this becomes a popular series and not a dreaded
series. Self -control gives us the idea that
we have some responsibility. And it's a very
biblical thing, right? 2 Peter 1, verses 3 through
8. We read these verses a lot. By His divine
power, God has given us everything we need for
living a godly life. Look at the person beside
you and say, He's already given it to you. It's
up to you to take it up and apply it, but He's
already given it. We have received all of this.
By coming to know him. So we receive everything
we need when we come in Christ, when we come
into Christ, when we're born again, when we become
a Christian. We receive everything. We've been
given everything we need. We 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's given us great and precious
promises. I want to personalize it again. He
has given you great and precious promises. In
his word, 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? And we find out that the corruption is
caused by human desires. That's what messed everything
up. God's a good God. God brings good things
into your life. The corruption comes from human
desires. that are not godly desires. It began
in the garden. Now, since we realize all this,
since we see all of this, that he's already given
us everything we need, and he gives us great
and precious promises, in view of all this, make
every effort. It's going to take some effort
on your part. Make every effort to respond to
God's promises. Supplement your faith. Faith
is how we're going to take hold of his promises.
But he's telling us to add some things to our
faith. Our trust, our belief, our surrender to
what he says. We need to add some things in order
to be able to take hold of those promises. Supplement
your faith with a generous provision of moral
excellence. Sloppy lives are not going to bring
the blessing and goodness of God manifest into
our lives. I figured I'd get an amen there, but
anyway. Supplement your faith with a generous
provision of moral excellence and moral excellence
with knowledge and knowledge with self -control.
Everybody say self -control. So we need some
self -control. Self -control with patient endurance.
We need some patience too. Some patience to endure.
While we're waiting to see the promise fulfilled,
we're holding on. It's going to take some patient
endurance with godliness. And godliness with
brotherly affection. Look to the people on your
left and your right and say, I guess that means
I got to love you. And get this, in brotherly
affection with love for everybody, for everyone.
We not only love our family of faith, we're instructed
to love everybody. The Bible says they'll know
that we're Christ followers by our love. And
then he says, the more you grow like this, the
more productive and useful you will be. In your
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who wants
to be productive? Who wants to be useful? About
half of us. So supplement your faith with a generous
provision of self -control. To be more productive
and useful in the kingdom of God. Word self -control.
It's a compound Greek word. N means in the sphere
of. Kratos means dominion mastery. So it's dominion
within. It's self -control. Controlling our actions,
controlling our thoughts, controlling our feelings.
We have self -control. We're supposed to have
self -control. 1 Corinthians 9, 24. Don't you
realize that in a race, everyone runs? But only
one person gets a prize? No participation trophies.
So run to win. Look to the person beside you
and say, run to win. If you're going to run,
run to win. If you're going to run in this life,
if you're going to run this spiritual race, this
marathon, not a sprint, Run to win. All athletes
are disciplined. Look to the person beside you
and say, same word. Same word. Even though it's
translated discipline in this text, it's the
same word. All athletes exercise self -control
in their training. So in our spiritual race,
Our spiritual marathon, we need to exercise self
-control if we're going to win. They do it in
just, you know, in sports and all that. They
do it to win a prize that will fade away. But
we do it for an eternal prize. So I, Paul says,
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. Everybody say
self -control. So in this text, we find out that
self -control is essential to living with purpose
and to living in victory. Look to the person
beside you and say, it's going to take some self
-control. Y 'all looking way too serious. I mean,
I know this is a serious topic, but you can smile.
And if you smile, I won't think that you're getting
under big -time conviction because you don't
have any self -control. All right. Galatians
5 .22. The Holy Spirit produces this kind of
fruit in your life. Love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness. faithfulness, gentleness,
and self -control. Self -control. Know what this
means? You're not alone. Because when you're
in Christ, the Holy Spirit takes up residence
only inside of you. Your body is the temple of
the Holy Spirit. And when we acknowledge Him,
like we looked at last week, when we acknowledge
Him in our moments of decision, When we acknowledge
him, he will empower us. He will help us. He's
our helper. He will empower us to exercise self
-control. But we have to acknowledge him. We
have to acknowledge him. The fruit of the Holy
Spirit is self -control. I like the word studies
that we looked up. Self -control is proceeding
out from within oneself, but not by oneself.
Come on, somebody. Self -control is proceeding
out from within oneself, but not by oneself.
Not if you're in Christ. It's not just by yourself.
Now, if you're not in Christ, you're just on
your own. But when you're in Christ, it don't
have to be by yourself because you have a helper.
True mastery from within. can only be accomplished
by the power of the Lord. Self -control is not
just about abstaining from excess. Most of the
time, when we think of self -control, we're like,
well, I need to watch those lines in my life
and not cross over a line. But it's more than
just abstaining from excess. It involves a positive
mastery and direction of one's energies and desires.
Towards godly purposes. Allow that to sink in.
Here's the deal. We can't control everything
around us. How many of you have tried to control
everything around you a few times? Have you realized
you can't control everything around you? Has
anybody tried to control some people around you
before? Yeah. You figured out that you can't
control everybody around you either. Right? Here's
the news from the word. You can control yourself.
You can control yourself. I know some of you
in your mind right now, you're saying, I just
can't control. I can't control it. Yes, you can.
Acknowledge God. Allow his spirit to empower
your self -control. You have a helper. Today
we're going to talk about self -control of our
thoughts. Self -control of our thoughts. So,
how many of you are glad you came? How many of
you are thinking, man, I shouldn't have come
today? Because every single one of us, this is
not just an individual thing. See, here's the
lie of the enemy is that you are the only one
who experiences these kind of things going on
in your mind. And then you get defeated. Every
single person in this room has times when their
thoughts are out of control. Let's fess up. Let's
be real. We all come to those places where our
thoughts would just go out of control. Our mind
is racing in a hundred different directions.
Has anybody ever experienced any of that? This
is what God says. This is what the Holy Spirit
wants to say to you today from the Word of God.
Set your mind. There's an understood you. I think
that works in English. I'm not an English teacher.
How many of you know there's an understood you
in front of this sentence, right? You set your
mind. The Holy Spirit will help you set your
mind, but God's not just going to set your mind
without your involvement. Empowered by the Holy
Spirit, have the power to set your mind on things
above. Not on things on the earth. This is powerful.
Set your mind. This is what that phrase means
from the Greek, to exercise your mind. What does
that mean? Use it. Put your mind to work for
you. Exercise your mind to properly, everybody
say properly, properly regulate and moderate
your thoughts from within. Your thoughts need
a moderator. Have you ever been to a business
meeting where there was a moderator, somebody
trying to keep everything happening correctly
within the meeting? Sometimes we don't like it,
but, you know, when Robert's rules of order take
over, sometimes people don't like that. Right?
Because we need a moderator. Your mind needs
a moderator. Set your mind. Properly regulate
and moderate your thoughts from within. intentionally
direct your thoughts. If you do not intentionally
direct your thoughts, your imagination is going
to run wild. If you leave it to where you're
not the moderator over what's going on between
your two ears, it's going to be a mess. I mean,
When I was growing up, I mean, my dad was a Baptist
pastor, and we had a business meeting every month.
And we had some knock -down, drag -out business
meetings. I mean, I know churches where they
had to call the police and the EMS after a business
meeting in Seneca, South Carolina. This church
made the front page of the Greenville News. Now,
I was never in one quite like that, where they
had to haul people to the emergency room and
to jail. But I would sit in the room and my dad
was the moderator. See, he didn't have a vote.
He was just the moderator. But everybody would
just get mad. You know? Looking at every penny
of the budget every month and somebody would
say, well, I can't believe we bought the toilet
paper this month from Bilo because Walmart had
it on sale. And we're wasting God's money. And
people get mad and fight over a mess like that.
We had a section, we had a huge graveyard beside
the church. Way more people than had ever been
in the church was in the graveyard. And it was
in four sections. One section was just grass.
Just grass. No one buried there. I'll never forget
one business meeting because the children were,
which included me, we were playing in the big
grass field. I ruffled up somebody. That was
the whole business meeting. It was a church fight
over those kids. desecrating holy ground, calling
the unused part of the cemetery holy ground,
and those kids should not be playing on that
holy ground. Fight. Ridiculous. Ridiculous. They'd
rather us play in the tar and gravel parking
lot with cars going around. I got a whipping
every Sunday night. You know why? Because, no,
I didn't get to play in the grass anymore. I
had to play on the tar and gravel. If you've
ever played on tar and gravel, it's not solid
like asphalt. That gravel just slides out from
under you all the time. Well, it's hard to play
freeze tag on tar and gravel. So, I mean, me
and my family, we didn't have much. But every
Sunday night, After church, dad would say, come
here, Dean, let me see your knees. And if my
knees were bleeding and my pants were ripped,
I mean, my mom had to patch the knees of my pants
every week. I'd rip holes in them, my knee would
be bleeding, and then I'd get a whipping on top
of that. It's like I'm already bleeding, just
put alcohol on it or something, right? Yeah,
and I did Jeffrey the same way. If he is bleeding
because he did something stupid and unthoughtful,
I put alcohol on it. If he was bleeding from
an accident, he got peroxide. I'm teaching him
self -control is what I'm teaching. Back to self
-control. Back to the business meeting. My dad,
it didn't matter what side. People would be fighting
each other. And because my dad was moderating,
everybody wound up mad at my dad who didn't even
have a vote. All he was doing was moderating.
Didn't make any sense. It's just keeping order.
Your thoughts must have a moderator. If you're
going to have self -control for your thoughts,
you have to intentionally direct your thoughts.
You've got to... Properly regulate and moderate
your thoughts. You have to do it. God's not going
to do it for you. Set your mind on things above.
Everybody say things above. And studying those
Greek words, it means to encompass. Things above
encompasses truths and realities anchored in
the person and work of Christ. So you need to
set your mind on what God has done and provided
and promised surrounding what you're dealing
with at the moment. Listen, if you can just get
a hold of this by 25%, it's going to make a difference
in your life this week. I mean, we all need to
be working towards 100%, but if you can just
get 25 % of this implemented and applied in your
life, you're going to have a lot better week.
Things above includes God's character. It includes
everything that surrounds Jesus' finished work
on the cross. We read about that, and that's
part of his great and precious promises that
are made available by what he did on the cross
for you and for me. Things above includes the
righteousness that's imputed to us, put on our
account. Things above is including in the eternal
hope and resurrection that is ours in Christ.
Look to the person beside you and tell them to
listen faster. 2 Corinthians 10, 4. The weapons
of our warfare and the battle that's taking place
is between your ears. That's the biggest battle
that's taking place. The weapons of our warfare,
the weapons of your warfare are not carnal, but
they sure are mighty. Mighty in God for the pulling
down of strongholds. So many times we have a
mental stronghold about a situation or about
something from our past or, you know. And our
minds, when they race, they run to that negative
stronghold that's in our mind. The weapons of
your warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God
for pulling down those strongholds, for casting
down arguments. This is part of moderating your
thoughts and regulating your thoughts. It's not
talking about you arguing with somebody else.
It's talking about the arguments that are going
on in your mind. Casting down arguments. And
everything, every high thing, every high thought
that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.
I might have to preach this same sermon next
week. Listen. Bringing... Every once in a while,
a thought or two. Is that what it says? I saw
you shaking your head. Nobody else was shaking
their head. They were just like, okay, if that's
what you say, that's what's right. No. Bringing
every thought as the moderator, as the regulator,
bringing every thought into captivity to the
obedience of Christ. So when we moderate our
thoughts and this thought pops in our head, we
got to moderate it and say, well, is this something
I'm going to think about and dwell on? Or is
this something, is this some kind of high thought
that's trying to raise itself above what the
word of God says, what God says about me, what
God says about this situation, what God has promised?
Is this thought trying to be higher than what
God has said? We moderate. And if it's trying
to exalt itself above, if that thought that comes
into your mind is trying to place itself above
what God said, just smack it down. Throw it in
a trash can. Somebody hold out your hand and
say, I'm going to smack it down. Just smack it
down. Hallelujah. Here's the deal. We can't control
the thoughts that pop into our minds. Some of
us, when that thought comes, we think we're already
defeated because the thought actually came into
our mind. So we surrender. Well, since that thought
came in, I know where it's going to take me,
so I'm just going to... Write it down. We can't
control the thoughts that pop into our minds,
but we can moderate, we can control, we can regulate
what we think about, what we continue to dwell
on, what we meditate on. You have control over
that. Now, our enemy doesn't want you to think
that you have control of that. Oh, you can't
control it. Because of your past, because of
your trauma, because of your experience, you
can't control it. Well, that sounds like a thought
that's trying to set itself above what God said
when God told you to set your mind to moderate
your thoughts. Would God tell you to do it if
you can't do it? Would he tell you to do it if
he's not going to empower you to do it? In Christ,
you have a helper. I mean, I can see people who
are not in Christ really struggling in this area,
but we have a helper. Hallelujah. We need to
acknowledge him. Here's your four example. Numbers
13. We've talked about this story before. How
many of you know when you look at a story from
the Word of God, there's multiple facets? Multiple
facets. Just like in self -control, we're looking
at all these different facets of self -control,
but it's all self -control. Numbers 13, 1. The
Lord now said to Moses, Send out men to explore
the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the
Israelites. Send one leader from each of the
12 ancestral tribes. So Moses did as the Lord
commanded him. Verse 17. Moses gave the men these
instructions as he sent them out to explore the
land. See what the land is like. Find out whether
the people living there are strong or weak, few
or many. See what kind of land they live in.
Is it good or bad? Do their towns have walls
or are they unprotected like open camps? Is the
soil fertile or poor? Are there many trees? Do
your best to bring back samples of the crops
you see. Verse 27. So they went into the land.
They spied out the land. There were 12 spies.
This was their report to Moses. We entered the
land you sent us to explore. And indeed, it is
indeed a bountiful country. A land flowing with
milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it
produces. Took two grown men with a pole between
their shoulders to hold one bunch of grapes.
I've never been in the publics where I couldn't
pick up a whole bunch with my hand. Took two
men with a pole. I want you to consider something.
All 12 spies, everybody say all 12. All 12 spies
were given the same instructions. They went to
the same place. They saw the same things. Everybody
say same. They all experienced the same thing
as they went in to spot the land. They saw that
the land was good. The soil was fertile. It was
a bountiful and fruitful land. They all saw the
same thing. Just like us. I mean, there may be
some differences in what we see. Listen. There
may be some differences in what we see. But I
believe there are a whole lot more similarities
than there are differences. Here's the deal.
We process what we see and experience. How do
we process it? With our thoughts. Are you with
me? Come on, somebody. Stay with me. They all
had the same instructions. They all saw the same
thing, but they processed what they saw differently.
They processed their experiences differently.
Here's a question. Will we? Or will you exercise
self -control to take your thoughts captive by
comparing what we see to what God has said? Or
will you let your imaginations run wild? See,
10 people let their imaginations run wild. They
didn't compare what they saw with what God had
promised. But two, compared what they saw and
what they experienced with what God promised.
Do you get it? Self -control of our thoughts
is vital. To walking by faith and not by sight.
You will never walk by faith without having self
-control of your thoughts. When you don't have
self -control of your thoughts, you will always
walk by sight and not by faith. Here's something
else to consider. All 12 spies, everybody say
all 12. All 12 knew that God had brought them
there with a promise to give them this land.
All 12 of them. That's why they had journeyed
so long because God had made them a promise.
And that promise was worth the journey. I'm telling
you, God's promise for you is worth the journey
to get there. Let's go to verse 28. But the people
living there are powerful, and their towns are
large and fortified. We even saw giants there,
the descendants of Anak. The Amalekites live
near the Negev, and the Hittites, Jebusites,
and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites
live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea
and along the Jordan Valley. Uncontrolled thoughts.
Thoughts that are not moderated with the truth
of God or the promises of God. Uncontrolled thoughts
will always focus on problems, obstacles, and
challenges. That's just where they go. Because
that's what those guys did. In verse 30, but
Caleb tried to quiet them. He said, hush up,
y 'all. If he was in the south, that's what he
had said. Hush up, y 'all. Shh. Caleb tried to
quiet the people as they stood before Moses.
This is what a moderated self -control thought
life looks like. Let's go at once to take the
land, he said. We can certainly conquer it. How
could he speak like that? That's the way faith
speaks. He had a promise. He had a promise. Here's
the deal. You have a promise. Be like Caleb.
Moderate your thoughts. Have some self -control.
Smack it down if it don't line up to what God
said. Smack it down if it don't line up to the
promise. Don't dwell on the challenge. Self -controlled
thoughts focus on God's promises. Amen. Verse
31. But the other men who had explored the land
with him disagreed. We can't go up against them.
They are stronger than we are. So they spread
this bad report about the land among the Israelites.
At least 1 .4 million people, maybe as many as
four or six million. So they spread the bad report.
Here's what they began to tell everybody. This
land we traveled through and explored would devour
anyone who goes to live there. Listen, their
first report, listen, their first report was,
you know, we saw some giants. But now, after
their mind has been set on not being controlled
and not being moderated, now it's like all the
people we saw were huge. Now everybody's a giant.
At first it was just a few giants. Now everybody's
a giant. Because when you dwell on it, It just
keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger and
bigger. We even saw giants there, the descendants
of Anak. Next to them, now our feelings are going
to take over because of what we've set our mind
on. Now, you know, we're so out of control now
that our feelings are just going. Next to them,
we felt. Like grasshoppers. Not only now do we
feel like grasshoppers, we've got a feeling that
they felt that we look like grasshoppers too.
Yeah, that's what I want you to think about.
I want you to think about a thought that has
popped into your mind that you should have looked
at it or moderated it. To know that it's not
true and it's not part of God's truth and what
God says about you and what God has provided
for you. How many of you have seen those thoughts
when you choose to meditate on that and let that
stir and go out of control? How many of you have
seen it as personal experience that it just keeps
getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger?
To the point that you think there's no way out.
Uncontrolled thoughts and imaginations lead to
fear and defeat. If you have a thought that leads
you to fear, you should know automatically that
that is not from God. Because God does not give
you a spirit of fear, but of power and love and
a sound mind. Self -controlled thoughts and imaginations.
When they're moderated, when your thoughts are
moderated and self -controlled, what are they
going to lead you to? They're going to lead you
to faith. They're going to lead you to victory.
God help us to apply. What you set your mind
on ultimately establishes your emotions, your
feelings, your attitudes, your words, and your
actions. Set your mind on things above, not on
things on the earth. Exercise your mind. Properly
regulate and moderate your thoughts from within
with the help of God the Holy Spirit. Intentionally
direct your thoughts. It's not the challenge
from your preacher, that's the challenge from
God. It's not even a challenge from God. It's
really a command from God. You set your mind.
How are you going to know the promises and what
God says? How are you going to know that? Well,
it's all in the Bible. Don't... It's so... easy
to find things now so much easier than it used
to be I mean you can I know Google can mess up
a lot of things but Google can help you find
what God says about something pretty quick and
then check it up we found some AI that didn't
match it gave us a Bible verse and that wasn't
even a Bible verse and we had to find it somewhere
else so don't trust it all the time but you can
use it as a search instead of Having to read
your whole Bible and memorize it. You have help.
You have the Holy Spirit, most of all. How many
of you think we have some things to think about
this week? You know, some of this stuff can be
pretty intense. Some of this information from
God's Word can cause people to bow up on the
inside. If you feel like you're bowing up on
the inside, it's coming from a stronghold of
a belief pattern that is not in agreement with
God's Word. But the Holy Spirit will help you.
The Holy Spirit will help you. He will empower
you. You just have to trust God. You have to
have faith in God. The problems that we face,
the biggest answer is have faith in God. Trust
God. Trust what he said. Trust what he's done.
Think back on the times in your life where God
has brought you through and brought you out.
And stand. Stand. Unwavering. Stand. This online
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