Sharing good news of great joy to all people.
Elation Church. Week number five. Everybody say
week number five. Go ahead and say it. Week number
five in our series on self -control. Self -control.
Have you learned anything from the series on
self -control? You know, I didn't realize how
important self -control was. to every area of
my spiritual life. I mean, I knew it was important.
Before this study, though, I didn't realize how
important it was. It's very important. Self -control
is very important if you want to live a spiritual
life, a godly life. Self -control is going to
play a vital part. 2 Peter 1, verses 3 through
8. By his divine power, God has given us everything
we need for living a godly life. Do you know
that? It doesn't say by his divine power, God
will give us everything we need, does it? Hello?
Y 'all gonna have to wake up. I won't throw water
on you if you fall asleep. I'm just kidding.
It doesn't say God will. Since God has already
given us everything we need for living a godly
life. Somebody say, it's already mine. Everything
you need for living a godly life, it's already
yours. We have received all of this, how? By
coming to know him in salvation. 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. Look at
the person beside you and say, I have some promises
from God. Come on, move your lips. Don't just
say it in your head, say it with your mouth.
I have some promises from God. You do. Now, here's
the deal. It's going to be up to you whether
those promises are applied to your life or not.
He has given us great and precious promises.
These promises that he's given us, these are
the promises that enable you to share his divine
nature and escape the world's corruption caused
by human. Who needs some escape every once in
a while? Right? I think we all do. But God's
promises enable us to share his divine nature
and escape the world's corruption caused by human
desires. That's why it's messed up the world
is human desires. It all started back in the
garden, right? That's when sin entered. It's
human desires. Not godly desires, but human desires
messed it all up. In view of all this, in view
of what? He's given us everything we need to
live a godly life. He's given us great and precious
promises, right? So in light of all that, in
view of all that, make every effort to respond.
To God's promises. Everybody say, I have to respond.
It's up to you whether you respond to God's promises
or not. Respond to God's promises. Here's how
you need to respond. Supplement your faith. Well,
it's by faith that we're going to take hold of
any and all of God's promises, right? So he expects
us to already know this by the time we get to
here. It's going to take faith. You're going
to have to hear it. You're going to have to believe
it. You're going to have to act on it. You're
going to have to put your words in agreement
with it. That's faith. But supplement your faith
with a generous provision of moral excellence.
supplement your faith with a generous provision
of moral excellence and moral excellence with
knowledge. You know what that means? We're going
to have to spend some time in the Word. Right?
We can't live sloppy lives, and we've got to
spend some time in the Word. We've got to add
that to our faith. And knowledge, here it is,
with self -control. Everybody say self -control.
Y 'all need to smile. You need to have self -control
to smile so that I can preach better today because
you're smiling. Knowledge with self -control
and self -control with patient endurance. How
many of you know if you're going to live by faith,
you're going to have to have some patient endurance?
And patient endurance with godliness. And godliness
with brotherly affection. And brotherly affection
with love for everyone. Not just within the family
of God. But we're called to even love the people
who are hard to love. Has anybody ever... ran
into somebody that was hard to love before. I
don't know if I have enough hands to hold up.
I mean, I don't have enough fingers to hold up
to tell you about the people that I've ran into
that might be just a little bit hard to love.
We have to add love to our faith because faith
works. Through love. If we miss the love element,
then our faith is not going to work. Let's keep
going. Verse 8. 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?
I do. Well, supplement your faith with a generous
provision of all those things, and we're focusing
in on self -control to be more productive and
useful. Now, self -control, that's a Greek word.
New Testament was written in Greek. Enkrateia.
Enkrateia. I think that's close. It's a compound
word. In means in the sphere of and kratos means
dominion or mastery. So this word self -control
means dominion within or self -control. It means
that we have self -control over what is in us.
Self -control over our thoughts. We talked a
week about that. Self -control over our feelings.
Self -control over our actions. Self -control.
1 Corinthians 9 .24 says this, Don't you realize
that in a race everyone runs, but only one person
gets the prize? So run to win. The Holy Spirit
through Paul often talked about our Christian
life being like a race. It's not a sprint. It's
a marathon. It's a marathon. Look to the person
beside you and say, run to win. If you're not
talking to the person beside you, say, I'm running
to win. So run to win. Listen, all athletes are
disciplined. Guess what? It doesn't say self
-control here. But it's the exact same Greek
word. All athletes are disciplined. They exercise
self -control. Everybody say self -control. Self
-control in their training. They do it to win
a prize that will fade away. But we do it for
an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every
step. I'm just letting it sit there a minute.
Everybody say, I run with purpose. See, we're
not just running. We're running with purpose
in our spiritual life. I run with purpose in
every step. I'm not just shadowboxing. This isn't
practice. I'm not just shadowboxing. I discipline
my body. like an athlete, training it to do what
it should do. Everybody say self -control. Self
-control is essential. In that verse, we see
that self -control is essential to living with
purpose and living in victory. Is there anybody
in the room who's more than a conqueror? Through
Christ who strengthens them. Somebody say, I
am. Self -control is essential. And Galatians
5 .22 says this, but the Holy Spirit, God the
Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our
lives. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness. faithfulness, gentleness, and self
-control. This is good news. It's good news.
It's good news because the fruit of the Spirit
is all those things that I said, but it's also
self -control. That's good news because that
lets us know that we have a helper. We're not
on our own. People who are not in Christ, they're
just on their own. Trying to apply self -control
the best they can. But we have a helper. And
if we will acknowledge him, he will empower us
to have self -control. But we have to acknowledge
him. Y 'all quit smiling on me. Gotta keep smiling.
Self -control is, these are some word studies
that we found working on the introduction. Self
-control means it's proceeding out from within
oneself, but it's not by oneself when it's self
-control according to the word of God. Self -control
is true mastery from within, and it can only
be accomplished by the power of the Lord. He's
living in us. He will empower us. Self -control
is not just about abstaining from something or
abstaining from excess. Sometimes we look at
self -control that way. Well, if I have self
-control, I won't do this and I won't do that
and I won't say this and I won't say that and
I won't have this attitude. Hello? Sometimes
it's just about the negative. But self -control
is for the positive too. It's not just abstaining,
but it involves a positive mastery and direction
of one's energies and desires towards godly purposes.
Everybody say focus. And we talked about this
every week. And we need to know this. We can't
control everything around us. We can't. We can't
control everyone around us. How many of you have
tried to control everything around you before
and you figured out you can't do that? Have you
tried to control everybody around you? Am I the
only one? Figured out you can't do that. Here's
the deal. Only you can control you. You can have
self -control God wants you to have self -control
he empowers you to have self -control Today we're
going to talk about controlling our words Controlling
our words How many of you know it takes a lot
of self -control to control what comes out of
your mouth James says this, James 3, 7, people
can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles,
fish, but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless
and evil and full of deadly poison. Has anybody
ever said something before and you said, yeah,
that was pretty evil what came out of my mouth.
That was like poison. I mean, you know. And you
wish. See, sometimes after we get those words
out there, we wish that we would have never got
them out there, but we can't pull them back in.
Because what has been said has been said. And
I just want to remind you. Everything that you
see in creation was created by words. Right?
It's created by words. It's held together by
God's word. Now, James said, you can't do it.
No one can tame the tongue. But what Jesus said
was, humanly speaking, it's impossible. But with
God, everything is possible. With God. Somebody
say with God. With God. And we just looked at
that. We're with God. If we're in Christ, we're
with God. We have a helper who's going to help
us. The way to have self -control over your words
is to acknowledge the Holy Spirit and partner
with Him. If we acknowledge God more than we
acknowledge God, I'm not talking about just at
church, because we all come to church and we
all acknowledge God while we're at church, right?
I mean, that's why we're here. We're acknowledging
God. But what about after church is over? What
about on Monday morning? What about on Saturday
night? Are we acknowledging God? And if we were
acknowledging Him like He wants us to, because
we're supposed to live our lives walking in the
Spirit. We're supposed to be led by the Spirit.
We need to be acknowledging Him. And if we acknowledged
him, we would have more power in our lives. I
really wanted that amen right then. So I guess
I'll just have to amen myself. James 3, let's
continue reading. We can make a large horse go
wherever we want by means of a small bit in his
mouth. And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn
wherever the pilot chooses to go. Even though
the winds are strong. In the same way, everybody
say just like that. In the same way, because
James was not just talking about ships and horses.
He was talking about tongues. In the same way,
the tongue is a small thing. So just like A rudder
steers a ship and a bit in a horse's mouth steers
the horse. Your words determine the direction
and destination of your life. Does anybody remember
hearing anything like this in like November and
December? Has anybody mastered it since then?
Still work on it just a little bit? Right? The
rudder on the ship determines the direction of
the ship. The bit in the horse's mouth, it's
like a steering wheel for the horse. I'm going
to bring up an old illustration, a six -month
-old illustration, because some of you were not
here when I said it. If you want to go to New
York, You cannot drive south and get there. Somebody
go, wow. That's wisdom. Right? If you want to
go to New York, you're not going to get there.
You'll never get there if you drive south. Never.
If you drive south, depending on the roads that
you hit, you'll wind up in Key West. It's about
as far south as you can get. Unless you're over
above Texas and you can get, you know, maybe
you can pick up a road and wind up in the bottom
of South America. But you'll never get to New
York. You're like, so? Listen, if your words
steer your life, You'll never reach where God
wants you to be and where God's best. You'll
never reach God's best if your words are in the
opposite direction of what God has said. You
got to get your words in agreement with his words
to wind up with the life that you want to live.
Because you'll never get there. without steering
in that direction. And how do you steer? Somebody
help me. How do you steer your life? How do you
determine which direction you're going in? Thank
you. It's going to happen through your words.
There are things that you should say, and there
are things that you shouldn't say. Right? The
tongue, Proverbs 18, 21, the tongue can bring
death or life. Those who love to talk will reap
the consequences. As a response to that verse,
you can say, oh, no, or you can say, hallelujah.
Isn't that what it says? Your tongue can bring
life or death. Those who love to talk will reap
the consequences. So if my tongue is in agreement
with God, if my words are in agreement with God,
God is life, right? And if my tongue is in agreement
with him, my tongue is going to bring me life,
the life of God. If my tongue is always speaking
death and my tongue is always negative, you know
what? It's going to bring me death. The more
we talk, the more we're going to reap. 1 Peter
3 .10 Does anyone want to enjoy life? Four of
us. If you want to enjoy life and see many happy
days, keep your tongue From speaking evil. So
your words have a lot to do with whether you
enjoy your life and whether you have happy days.
If you wake up dreading to go to work and dreading,
just everything's just, oh, it's just terrible.
People I work with are terrible. My boss is terrible.
The hours are terrible. The work is terrible.
Guess what? You're not going to have happy days.
didn't write this. I didn't write it. Seems like
to me if you want to enjoy your life and have
happy days is up to self -control over your words.
This is the day the Lord has made. I'm going
to rejoice. And be glad in it. Instead of bread
and Monday. Come on. Somebody say oh me or amen
or something. Proverbs 21 verse 23. Watch your
tongue and keep your mouth shut and you will
stay out of trouble. I mean, do we want to rip
this verse out of the Bible? Do we want to rip
this page out? Or do we want to look at it and
say, okay, God, you're talking to me. I'm going
to respond to your promise. I'm going to respond
to your word in a positive way. Because that
verse is telling me that most of the trouble
that I face began with my words. Hebrews 10,
23. Let us hold tightly without wavering to the
hope we affirm. That phrase, hope we affirm,
is homologia. And here's what it means. It means
confession. It means profession. It means what's
coming out of your mouth. Hold tightly without
wavering to your words that are set with the
hope of God's promise. We can word it that way.
For God can be trusted to keep his promise. So
our words need to be in agreement with him. And
that's part of taking hold of his promise. Hold
tight to the right kind of words. That's what
this is telling us. Hold tightly. Don't waver.
Don't speak in accordance with the promise of
God and then say about how terrible it is. And
then, oh, wait a minute, wait a minute. Don't
go back and forth all the time. Everybody say
this. This will change my life. It will. Going
to look at a story. Familiar story, probably,
to most of the people. Joshua 6, starting with
verse 1. Now Jericho was securely shut up because
of the children of Israel. None went out, none
came in. How many of you are familiar with the
story of God's people coming out of slavery in
Egypt and they went to the promised land? Well,
all the adults except two that came out of Egypt
never made it to the promised land. They died
in the wilderness. It was only their kids and
the younger ones that actually made it to the
promised land. And I'm going to go ahead and
tell you the main reason they didn't make it
was because of their words. They were always
complaining. God was doing miracles and they
were complaining. And then we looked at it in
this series about controlling our thoughts. God
had given them a promise, and when they got there,
they sent in spies, and all 12 spies saw the
same thing with their eyes. But 10 of them came
back with defeated thoughts and defeated words.
Two of them came. With thoughts and words that
held tightly to the promise of God. Those are
the only two that made it into the promised land.
The two, that their thoughts and their words,
they had self -control over their thoughts and
their words. They were the only two that made
it to the land flowing with milk and honey. The
only two. The other ten, along with most of the
adults, Hey Moses, why did you bring us out here
so that we could just die in the wilderness?
We're just going to die in the wilderness. We
might as well go back to Egypt and be slaves.
At least we've got onions with our food in Egypt.
I'd rather be a slave with onions than to be
free. But their words, over and over and over
and over and over again, they said, well, why'd
you bring us out here just to die in the wilderness?
Power of life and death is in your words. They
got what they said. Caleb and Joshua, Got what
they said. Because they said, you know what?
God promised us this land. Yeah, there's some
giants. Yeah, there's going to be some battles.
But God's on our side. We've seen what God can
do. Hello? Can anybody in the room say, I've
seen what God can do. I look back over some situations
in my life that it looked like I was, it was
hopeless and helpless. But I've seen what God
can do. Now, Joshua is leading them into the
promised land. And the first city that they face
is Jericho. It's a walled city. Now, it's not
just a little cement block or stone wall around
Jericho. They actually had chariot races on top
of the wall around Jericho and people had houses.
It was like apartments in the wall. That's where
Rahab lived, in the wall. And they would have
chariots around the outside of the city. It was
a huge fortified city. Now Jericho was shut up
because of the children of Israel. We find out
from Rahab they've been shaking in their boots
for 40 years because they heard what God had
done to the Egyptian army at the Red Sea. And
they're like, oh no. God's on their side. They
have victory against every nation and people
that they face. They had victory over and over
and over again. And now they're here. So Joshua
was securely shut up because the children of
Israel, none went out, none came in. Here's the
deal. Jericho stood between God's people and
God's promise. I want to ask you a question.
What's standing today between you And God's promise
that you've seen in the word. God's promise for
you personally. God's promise for your family.
God's promise. What is standing between you and
God's promise? It was Jericho for God's people.
Big, huge, fortified, walled city. It's on lockdown.
We could call it a fortress or a stronghold.
It's a fortified place. It's held safely. Everybody
say strongholds. Here's the deal. Strongholds
can be good or bad. Most of the time when we
talk about strongholds, we talk about bad strongholds.
But did you know that there could be some good
strongholds? Good stronghold is a position that
has been built up in your mind and in your heart
that stands for God and God's promises and God's
word. And you're just confident. Just like I've
shared the story before. I'll never be at another
place in my life. Now, I have been in places.
I have been in this place before, but I will
never be at the point in my life. where I say,
God, where are you? Why did you leave me here?
I'll never do that again. Because of my experience
and encounter with God, I know because of his
promise and because of that experience that I
had with, I know that he will never leave me
or forsake me. He's not going to turn his back
on me. He's always here. I mean, that's his name.
We talked about the names of God. One of God's
names is I am here. Yahweh Shammah. I am here.
So that's a positive stronghold in my life. So
you can have some fortresses and some strongholds
of faith in your life. As a matter of fact, every
single one of us need to develop some faith strongholds
in our lives. No matter what we see, no matter
what we think, no matter what we feel, we stand
in agreement with God. Strongholds could be good
or bad. Strongholds can be on the outside like
Jericho or they can be on the inside. Every single
one of us, I believe, deal with this. I haven't
arrived in every area of my life. I'm still in
the process. Yeah, I'm the preacher, and I'm
still in the process just like you. Okay? There
may be some things that I am victorious in. There
may be some different things that you're victorious
in, but we're all in the process. Strongholds
can be on the outside or the inside. Here's some
bad ones that we all have to deal with. You're
not alone. Bad thought patterns. Negative emotions.
Bitterness. Sometimes rage. Fear. Worry. That
even builds to anxiety. Those are strongholds
that we all deal with on the inside. I want you
to smile. And I want you to say, I can have victory.
Victory is mine in Christ. I can be victorious.
The Lord said to Joshua, see, I have given Jericho
into your hand. You see a big walled city. You
see soldiers all the way around the top of it,
holding their spears and their shields. And God
says, hey, Joshua, look, I've given it to you.
I've given it into your hand. It's king, the
mighty men of valor. I've given it to you. Joshua
could have said, but God, I don't see it. I see
soldiers. I see strongholds. I see fortification.
I don't see it being mine. See, I have given
Jericho into your hand. That Hebrew word in the
Old Testament, see. means to advise yourself.
Don't just say, look with your eyes. See, when
we read the word see, we say, oh, God just wants
him to look at it. Just look at the walls of
Jericho. That's not what God said. God said,
hey, Joshua, advise yourself. I've given you,
Jericho. You need to advise yourself that I have
given it to you. Thank you for getting excited.
There's some things in your life that God is
saying, hey, advise yourself. I've given you
this promise. Go ahead and advise yourself that
it's yours. Just go ahead and get happy about
it. Hey, Joshua, advise yourself that I've given
Jericho into your hand, their kings, all their
army. I've given them into your hands. You need
to start saying that. Talk to yourself. Hey,
I've given it to you. God's given it to me, and
I'm going to get happy about it. I'm going to
joyfully look on it. That's the definition of
the word. God is saying, go ahead and get happy
about it because I've given it to you. many of
us look at a promise in the word of God and we
say, well, I wish I could have that. I'm miserable.
I don't see how, I can't even see a life without
fear. I can't see a life without worry. I can't
see a life without anxiety. I can't see a life
of victory. And God is saying, advise yourself
and go ahead and get happy about it. Because
I'm faithful and I made you a promise. And if
you'll take hold of my promise, hey, you might
need some patient endurance. Remember we talked
about patient endurance. You might need some
patient endurance, but go ahead and get happy
about it. Advise yourself. Speak positively about
it. Look joyfully on the promise. Before you
have the promise. Verse 3. You shall march around
the city. All you men of war. You shall go all
around the city at once. Or once. This you shall
do for six days. And seven priests shall bear
seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark.
But the seventh day, you shall march around the
city seven times. And then we had some instructions.
That was God telling Joshua what to do and how
to lead the people. And then when Joshua is telling
the people, he says this, you shall not shout.
or make any noise with your voice, nor shall
a word proceed out of your mouth. Six days. Over
a million people. Hello? How many of you think
a million people could walk around a city, and
never say a word. No noises, no shouts, no words.
Would that be difficult for you to do? That's
what God told them. That's what He told them.
Why do you think He told them that? Just use
your, Glorified imagination. Does anybody have
a glorified imagination? Use your glorified imagination.
Why did God tell them to be quiet, not say a
word? Because they're walking around Jericho,
they see the soldiers. How many of you think
it would be easy to say, why are we walking around
it? It's kind of stupid. You know, just walking.
I mean, they're looking at us like we're crazy.
We're just marching around the city. Six days?
Why would we walk around? Why are we doing this
for six days? This don't make any sense. This
isn't going to accomplish anything. Walking around?
And then on the seventh day, they said, okay,
guys, we're going to walk around it seven times
today, not just one. Don't say a word. Walking
around. I want to tell you something. Maybe you're...
You're not at the point to speak the promises
of God before you see them. But that doesn't
mean that you can quit speaking death. You got
to quit speaking death. You got to quit complaining.
You got to quit dreading. You got to quit. Just
talking words of worry and lack and anger and
fear. Because all you're doing is you're fortifying
the negative stronghold in your life. Take self
-control to keep your mouth shut sometimes. Thank
you for laughing. Three people laughed. How many
of you would say, I just don't have a filter.
I just don't have a filter. And just whatever
pops in your brain comes out your mouth. Here's
the deal. That's simply just a lack of self -control.
I'm not trying to be mean. I'm trying to help
you. Now, you can get mad or you can get glad.
Glad that somebody wants to help you. It's time
for us to get to the point where we don't say,
oh, I just don't have a filter. No, what you
don't have is self -control. That's what you
don't have. You have a helper. Here's the deal.
You need self -control to keep from fortifying
your negative inner strongholds with your words.
You need self -control. I see people writing,
so I'm leaving it up here. I saw you go. Last
time because I switched it too fast. You didn't
get to write it. I didn't talk about it. It's
all good. It's all good. I'll show it to you
after you're done if you miss them. We need self
-control. Self -control to keep from fortifying
our negative inner strongholds with our words.
If we want to enjoy our life. And have some happy
days. Still people writing. Got to go. I'll show
it to you after we're done. Here's why. Because
most of us, when we... face a challenging situation
in our lives, we start going, this is crazy.
Look at this problem that's right here in front
of me. Just take a look. If we talk to somebody
else, we say, look at this problem. Look at my
problem. Let me tell you about my problem. This
is crazy. I can't handle it. I can't do it. I
just can't. I'll never be able to do this. You
fill in the blank. You fill in the dot, dot,
dot. This is impossible. Has anybody said these
phrases before? Has anybody said any of them
this past week? Anybody say any of these before
you even came to church today? Yeah. Filter.
That's what they did. Six times around Jericho
on the seventh day, they're marching the seventh
time, and then here's what happened. The seventh
day you shall march around the city seven times
and the priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall
come to pass when they make a long blast with
the ram's horn. What's going to come to pass?
When you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the
people, you've been quiet now for seven days.
All the people shall shout with a great shout.
Here's the deal. They had to shout when nothing
looked different than it had for seven days.
Same city. same fortress, same walls, same guards,
army on the top. Same thing. They're seeing the
same thing that they've seen the whole time.
They hadn't been able to say anything. Now they're
going to shout. Nothing has changed. Here's the
deal. It's so easy. Everybody say so easy. It's
so easy to shout and praise God after the promise
is fulfilled. So easy. Oh, God's a good God.
Let me tell you about what God did. Oh, I was
in this shape, and then now look and see what
God did. We can get happy, and we want to testify,
and we're like, yeah. But when we're staring
at the stronghold, We want to say, I'll never
make it. Look to the person beside you and say,
he's preaching good, whether you're getting it
or not. He's preaching pretty good. He's preaching
pretty good. Shout with a great shout. After
you shout, then the wall of the city will fall
down flat and the people shall go up, every man
straight before him. They were instructed to
shout before anything happened. Now get this,
that word shout is ruah in Hebrew. It's the same
word that is used to shout praise and thanksgiving
to God. That's a way that we praise God is by
shouting. It's a shout of war. It's a shout of
victory. It's a shout of joy. Same word. It's
not a different word for praise. Sometimes in
your English Bible, it'll just say the word praise,
but it's actually this same word. It was just
translated in our English Bible as praise instead
of shout, sometimes when you read it. Like in
Psalm 47 .1. Clap your hands, all you peoples.
Shout to God with a voice of triumph. For the
Lord Most High is awesome. He's the great king
over all the earth. Same word. Same word. Shout
to God with a voice of triumph. It takes self
-control to shout and rejoice when you don't
feel like shouting and rejoicing. I'm going to
say it again. It takes self -control to shout
and rejoice when you don't feel like it. You
just say, listen here. Go stand in front of a
mirror and grab yourself by the ear and say,
listen here. We have a promise from God. And
we're going to shout and rejoice even while we're
staring at the... That might be hard for me sometimes.
Even though we're staring at the problem, we're
going to shout and rejoice because we have a
promise. Take self -control to shout and rejoice
as if you already have victory before you have
victory. And that's what God said his people
had to do in Jericho. And the Old Testament is
written for you. It's not just a history book.
It's written for us to see how we can interact
with God and how we can know him, how we can
take hold of his promise, the promised land.
I mean, it's like we learn things. how spiritual
things work. We learn things. I'm about done.
I want to ask you a question. Does anybody in
the room have a promise from God based on His
Word, not just some imagination in your mind,
but you have a promise from God based on His
Word and you're patiently Waiting to see it fulfilled.
Is anybody? If not, you need to go get one. Everybody
in the room should be holding on to a promise
from God that he has made. You haven't seen it
manifest in your life yet, but you're holding
on to it. Here's the deal. How would you celebrate?
How would you rejoice? How would you shout? How
would you praise God? If that promise was fulfilled
in your life right now. How would you respond?
Would anybody get happy? Would anybody start
praising God? Would anybody get excited? Might
even jump up and down a little bit and shout
a little bit. Would anybody get happy? This is
only one of many patterns, but... We see this
pattern at Jericho. Get this, maybe, maybe, if
you would celebrate and rejoice and shout and
praise God as if it's already happened in your
life, maybe that's what's holding it back. I'm
just saying. There's more than one pattern. But
this is definitely one of them. Could this be
what's holding you back? Look at me. How are
you going to respond to God's Word? Every week,
We receive God's word. Here's the question. How
will we respond to it? Because if we don't respond
to it, listen, if you don't respond to God's
word, it's not going to make a difference in
your life. But if you will respond to God's word,
it'll make a difference in your life. So many
times God is waiting on our response and our
response never comes. Because we're just like,
well, I was a good person. I went to church this
week. I'll go back next week and I'll get me
something else. To not respond to. Wow. I responded
to God's word last week and I can't wait to get
back next week to dig in and get a word from
God and respond again. Instead of. How do you
want your life to be? You want your life like
this? Or do you want your life like this? It
has everything to do with your response. Here
we go. Let's wrap it up. I think this is it for
self -control. We could keep preaching on self
-control, but some of you are already like, hmm,
not self -control again. My toes are still hurting
from last week. supplement your faith with a
generous provision of self -control to be productive
and useful. Self -control is essential for you
to live with purpose and live in victory. Listen,
we have a helper. If you acknowledge him, the
Holy Spirit will empower you to have self -control.
Over every area of your life, he will empower
you to have self -control. If you will acknowledge
him, when you come up to that point where you're
seeing the stronghold or the fortress or you're
seeing the problem, if you'll acknowledge the
Holy Spirit and listen to him, he'll empower
you to have self -control. So that your actions,
your thoughts, your words, your desires will
align with him. He'll help you. He'll help you.
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