Home

Site Directory

Staff

Youth

What to Expect on Sunday

_______

Alpha

Announcements

Calendar

CENTUS Counseling Center

Christian Education - Adults

Christian Education - Children

Contact

Fellowship

History

Libraries

Links

Tour of our Church

Our Church Photo Album

Map

Membership

Ministries

Missions

Music

Sermons Online

Stephen Ministry

We have come to the ninth and final fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22, 23; the fruit of self-control. Hopefully you’ve found this series helpful and have gained a new perspective on the kind of spirit God wants us to have and, an important and, how we are to develop that spirit. We’ll review all of that in a moment. But first, the Scripture passage which by now should be very familiar to you. Galatians 5:22 and 23: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law."

All right, I want everybody to take a deep breath (inhale), then exhale, and now count with me slowly to 10. 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10. One more time—deep breath in…now out…and count to 10…1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10. Congratulations! You’ve just mastered the best exercise the world has to offer for self-control. Breathe deeply. And count to 10. That’s it. The best the world has to offer—breathe deeply and count to 10. Before responding to someone who makes you angry, perhaps your spouse or another family member—breathe deeply and count to 10. Before disciplining your children who just totally ignored your rule about tossing a ball in the house and broke your favorite lamp—breathe deeply and count to 10. Before responding to your boss who just denied you your request for a raise—breathe deeply and count to 10. Before pulling into McDonalds for lunch and ordering the double quarter pounder with cheese meal…and go ahead and Biggie size it while you’re at it, or before reaching at the supermarket for that ½ gallon Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream, breathe deeply and count to…well, maybe 110 for that! We all could use a bit more self-control couldn’t we? And congratulations if you’re able to put into practice the world’s way of mastering self-control. Breathe deeply and count to 10. Slowly.

Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing…breathing deeply and counting to 10. Oftentimes, it’s good for things to slow down a bit when we’re about to lose control. But, more often than not, that’s not enough. We just respond. We burst out with a flurry of words we’re going to regret later. We spring into action in some way that isn’t helpful to the situation. We fail to think through the future consequences to our actions. Or, there just isn’t enough time in a particular situation to think through the consequences of our action. We just act in whatever way comes naturally. Breathing deeply and counting to 10 is not even on our radar screens. And we say or do something out of control…and the results are disastrous. But, if you can, breathe deeply and count to 10. If you can.

Or, you can work towards the kind of self-control Almighty God wants you to have. A self-control that doesn’t have to be conjured up in the heat of the moment, but rather a self-control that becomes a part of your nature. A self-control that grows as a fruit of the Spirit at work in you.

Let’s take a brief look at God’s idea of self-control.

To begin with, it probably doesn’t surprise you that a lesson on self-control would make its way into Proverbs, the book of axioms for life. A person could read one verse a week from Proverbs and reflect on it throughout the week, giving consideration to its application for their life. In fact, that would be one way to cultivate the fruit of God’s Spirit in your life—regular reflection on a proverb for life. Self control is mentioned in Proverbs 25:28, "Like a city whose walls are broken down is the person who lacks self-control." Defenseless, vulnerable to attack is a person without self-control.

We do not have in Scripture Jesus using the literal word "self-control." That, of course, does not mean Jesus wasn’t interested in our developing self-control. His teachings are filled with implications of self-control. Lessons on letting our light shine before others, not becoming slave to our passions or to money, serving others and not ourselves require the Spirit’s fruit of self-control if we have any hope of succeeding. Jesus didn’t use the word "self-control," but his teaching is filled with the need for it in order to live the kind of life Jesus wants us to lead.

It is the apostles Peter and Paul who most frequently use the word "self-control" in their writings. Several times in his first letter Peter calls for his readers to exhibit self-control, including a familiar verse that reflects the teaching of the proverb we looked at earlier. "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith" (1 Peter 5:8, 9a). Without self-control, we are vulnerable to the temptations of the Evil One and the forces of evil in our lives. Lack self-control in your life and you will find yourself taking actions that lead to disastrous results for you and others around you. We must be "self-controlled and alert."

It’s much the same for Paul. Along with listing self-control as one of the fruit of the Spirit, Paul also calls believers to be alert and self-controlled. In First Thessalonians, Paul encourages the believers at Thessalonica to not be like others around them who are asleep and unaware of the forces of darkness and evil that oppress them. Rather, Paul writes, the believers should "not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled…since we belong to the day," that is, the daylight of faith in Christ and not the darkness of those who are far from Christ, "since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet," (1 Thess. 5:6, 8). Again, the image is one of defense against forces that seek to oppress us—self-control helping us put on the defensive armor of the breastplate of faith and the helmet of salvation, images Paul repeats in his classic lesson on the armor of God in Ephesians 5. There the armor of God is designed to help us "extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one" (Ephesians 5:16). Our best weapon of defense against the forces of evil in our lives is self-control. Lacking self-control we are like a city whose walls are broken down leaving an opening for the enemy to attack us. Without self-control we are vulnerable to the prowling and roaring lion attacks of the Evil One who is looking for those he might devour. Lacking self-control, we are asleep and in darkness, exposed without the armor of God and defenseless to the attacks of evil in our lives.

Self-control is essential to our lives and witness as followers of Jesus Christ. So, how do we get it? Besides catching ourselves before responding and willing ourselves to breathe deeply and count to 10, how do we gain self-control? The answer is found in a repeated theme throughout this series on the fruit of the Spirit. We grow the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, not through our efforts to will such emotions as love, joy, and peace in our lives, or to will such acts as kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and, yes, self-control in our lives. We grow the fruit of the Spirit in our lives when we seek it from its source, God Himself. The soil and fertilizer and water that grow the fruit of the Spirit is not our attempts at living them out, but rather the disciplines of faith that draw us into the presence of God. Prayer. Regular study of God’s Word. Quiet reflection on what we’ve read and experienced in our time in God’s presence. If we are to make a concerted effort at anything, in order to be filled with the fruit of the Spirit, it’s not in trying to will ourselves to the emotions and actions of the fruit of the Spirit. Rather, our efforts should be directed at spending quiet time with God in prayer, Bible study and silent reflection. That is how to grow the fruit of the Spirit in your life.

Don’t just take my word for it. Listen to these words of the apostle Peter in his second letter—and note how much it reflects the language of the fruit of the Spirit. "[Jesus’] divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness…" Note right away that it is not our power, but Jesus’ divine power "…has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires." It’s not the strengthening of whatever good we can conjure up in our human nature that helps us "escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desire." It’s our participation in the divine nature of Jesus Christ through his "very great and precious promises." And where do we find those promises? In Scripture. And in prayer and reflection on what we read in Scripture. Peter continues, "For this very reason," that is to escape corruption, "make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:3-8). That’s the key to living a life of faith. That’s the key to living a life of more love, more joy, more peace, more kindness and goodness, more faithfulness and gentleness, more self-control. Not through our power, but through His. Not through building up the best of our human nature the best we can, but through participating in the divine nature of Jesus Christ. Our human nature must decrease so that the divine nature of Jesus might increase in us. "Make every effort" Peter says. But not in trying to will ourselves to a better nature. Rather, "make every effort" to spend time in the presence of Jesus Christ so that the fruit of His Spirit might grow in our lives.

Silent reflection is a part of that discipline of spending time in the presence of Christ, so let’s take a moment of silent reflection and prayer right now.