[0:00] Turn to Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5.
[0:17] ! Galatians chapter 5, the last time for these two verses. Galatians chapter 5, verse 22 and 23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
[0:39] Temperance. Against such there is no law. This is week number nine on these two verses. Because if you count, there's nine of these fruit. Nine of these parts of the fruit of the Spirit.
[0:53] Notice it's fruit singular. So today we're going to talk about temperance. Temperance. Self-control. Ah. If there's anything we need, it's people with self-control.
[1:07] You know, a lot of the problems in life are related to the fact of a lack of self-control.
[1:18] People who don't have temperance. You know, we use that word, you know, love, joy, peace, we understand all those things. But then we come to that word temperance. Like, what's that?
[1:29] If you're old, you think back to the temperance movement. Nobody here is that old. But you need to have heard of it and know what it was.
[1:42] And they tried to make it so that no alcohol could be sold anywhere in the United States. That was the temperance. Have control so that we don't do those things and get lost in those things. But real self-control, if we're really going to understand self-control the way it should be, it's going to be when we place ourselves under the Spirit's control.
[2:03] Remember back in verse 15, it says, no, 16. 16 says, This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
[2:18] He says, walk in the Spirit. He says, here's the fruit of the Spirit. Remember before that, he gave us the fruit of the works of unrighteousness.
[2:30] He gave us the works of the flesh. And he gives us all these different things. That's bad, that's bad, that's bad, that's bad, that's bad. But then he says, here's the fruit of the Spirit.
[2:44] Here's what the Spirit can do in your life. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, all of those different things. He says, look, you need to be under the Spirit's control.
[2:57] Ephesians 5.18. You know well, probably. Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.
[3:08] He says, look, if you're going to be controlled by anything, be controlled by the Spirit of God. Let Him come into your life. Let Him do His work in your life.
[3:22] You know, there's a whole lot of people feel like their lives are out of control. They're overwhelmed by the pressures and the circumstances. That they face right now. And you think about it.
[3:34] Just watch the news one night. Watch all the things going on inside our country at the moment. And you're like, wow. Then you hear the news the other night between Israel and Iran.
[3:48] Oh. Are you looking up? Thinking maybe He's coming now? I don't know. I don't know when He's coming.
[3:59] We don't, but we need to be ready. So you watch all these different things. And it can make you kind of overwhelmed with the things that are going on. And when we get overwhelmed by the things that are going on, we tend to take our eyes off of God.
[4:15] Take our eyes off of Him. Proverbs 25, 28. He that hath no rule over His own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls.
[4:27] You think back. Joshua and the children of Israel. They marched around Jericho seven days. And seven times on the seventh day.
[4:38] And what happened? You all know the song? Balls came tumbling down. Why did the walls come tumbling down?
[4:48] So God could make it easier for them to get in. So they could go in and take over the city. They could go in and destroy that city. They had resisted them. What if the walls don't come down?
[5:01] You know what? God even has a way then. I think of Belshazzar. King of Babylon. The time when the handwriting appeared on the wall.
[5:14] They had walls around Babylon. Some places 18 feet thick. Big enough so they could ride a chariot around the walls.
[5:25] Think about that. God said no problem. Belshazzar decides to have a feast. Remember? A drunken party basically. And they had all this stuff going on.
[5:37] And he calls for them to bring the golden vessels from the treasury that they had taken from God's temple in Jerusalem. And they're using those to have their party and drink their drinks and do everything.
[5:49] God said okay that's enough. God said no problem. And the Jews and the Persians that cut off the water supply came in under the wall through the riverbeds. God is in control.
[6:02] We need to trust him instead of trusting in ourselves. And part of self-control is realizing that I can't do it all on my own. See?
[6:13] We need to be wise. We need to seek God's fullness in our life. We need to seek the fullness of the Holy Spirit in our life. Then we can have the temperance.
[6:25] The self-control that we need to have when we allow this Holy Spirit to do his work in our life. So I'm going to look at three things today. Now let's have a word of prayer before we start. Heavenly Father, I pray this morning that you would help us to realize that the Holy Spirit is the most important thing we can have in our lives.
[6:45] If we are a Christian, we believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for us, that he was buried, that he rose again the third day, that he has the power to forgive sin. He has the power to take us to heaven.
[6:57] Then we need to rely on his Spirit to take care of us, to meet our needs, to help us in every situation of life.
[7:07] Lord, may we trust Jesus Christ and his Spirit to lead us in everything that we do. Lord, pray that this morning you would help us to see Christ high and lifted up.
[7:23] That we would see him as the one who needs to be in charge of our life. And we need to have the self-control to put ourselves to the background and put Jesus first.
[7:38] Lord, help us this morning to understand what it means to follow Jesus in everything. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. First of all, temperance explained.
[7:49] Temperance explained. There are two facets to temperance. Self-control. First, discretion. Discretion. What do I mean by that? What is discretion? Well, one of the definitions we're going to use is knowing when to do the right thing at the right time.
[8:06] Discretion is knowing when to do the right thing at the right time. It's a quality that helps us to have a quality that people admire.
[8:18] Integrity. Crucial moments of life when we have to make choices and decisions about things. To have integrity. To live according to what the word of God says.
[8:30] And to live my life according to what God wants me to do. What God has put down for us. We need to follow him in everything. Proverbs chapter 3, verses 21 through 23.
[8:42] It says this. My son, let not them depart from thine eyes. Keep sound wisdom and discretion. Keep sound wisdom.
[8:54] Wisdom. What is wisdom? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It says that in Proverbs 2, doesn't it? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Have a fear of the Lord and then have discretion.
[9:07] Have integrity to live your life according to that fear of the Lord. I'm going to live the way God wants me to live. When I say fear, in this case, I'm talking about, yes, we should have a fear of God and who he is.
[9:20] But we should have a respect for who he is. Not a lot of respect in our world today. He says, have respect for the wisdom that God has.
[9:31] Verse 22. So shall they be life unto thy soul and grace to thy neck. Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely and thy foot shall not stumble.
[9:41] He says, you keep your mind on God and his wisdom. You live according to that wisdom where you have discretion. He says, then you will have safety and you will not stumble.
[9:55] Are we ready to live our lives that way? I mean, there's so many things that are happening. So many decisions. So many things that keep coming into our life. And the devil says, what about this?
[10:06] What about that? And he'll tempt us with different things. And I have the discretion, the wisdom that the spirit of God says, no, that's not the direction you want to go. You want to stay here.
[10:18] Show some self-control and stay on the path that I have given to you. Titus chapter 2, verses 1 and 2. But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine.
[10:28] Where do we learn sound doctrine? Word of God. That's what it is. Teachings. Sound teachings. The sound teachings come from the Word of God. That the aged men, those of us who are older, those of us who have been saved for a while, he says, may be sober, grave, temperate, self-controlled.
[10:49] Sound in faith, in charity, in patience. Are we showing self-control that we're staying with the faith? We're not allowing ourselves to go off and do things according to the flesh.
[11:04] But I want to stay sober and grave. I want to have discretion to do the things God wants me to do. Second thing, discipline. Discipline.
[11:16] And whenever I think discipline, I usually think successful athletes. Successful athletes who know how to practice when no one else does. They just put in the time and put in the time and put in the time.
[11:30] I have mentioned many times in the past Usain Bolt. Four years of preparing for the Olympics for a nine-second race. Talk about discipline.
[11:42] Four years for a nine-second race. Yet he was the best in the world. I think of Larry Bird. He knows Larry Bird and what he'd do because we're from New England, so we know that name.
[11:57] But he used to show up two hours before practice. Before their practice started, he'd be out practicing two hours before. And after practice was over, he'd stay for an extra hour afterwards. He was constantly trying to improve who he was.
[12:10] The discipline it took to do that. There's a story about him when he was a child or a teenager. He used to take a basketball to bed with him. He'd wake up.
[12:23] He'd lay in bed and he'd be flipping the basketball, giving that feel for it in his hands. Just so that's second nature to him. I used to love, a long time ago, I used to play tennis.
[12:39] And I used to love to watch tennis. There used to be a professional tennis match in North Conway, New Hampshire. I went there, I don't know, two, three, four times. Got to see people like Jimmy Connors, Yvonne Lindell, those type of people.
[12:52] I don't even know who's playing today, other than Djokovic. He's the only one, a name I recognized the other day. But those guys that used to play back then. And one day I'm there and they're doing a warm-up. Yvonne Lindell and somebody, I don't even remember who the other guy was.
[13:06] But they're doing a warm-up. And they're hitting back and forth, you know, trying to get ready before their match to start. So they're warming up. And the guy on the other side, he had a good one come at him.
[13:16] And he just, whap! But it was high. And Lindell's just looking at it. And all of a sudden his racket goes. And you look and the ball is sitting on his racket.
[13:31] And that ball was probably traveling 80, 90 miles an hour. It's an extension of his hand. You know, we can reach out and catch things. We do that all the time.
[13:42] He did it with the racket. See, they give of their time to make sure they are disciplined. And to do what they're supposed to do. Paul talks about that in 1 Corinthians 9.
[13:54] 1 Corinthians 9, beginning at verse 25 through 27. It says, Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate. Self-controlled in all things.
[14:06] Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown. But we an incorruptible. He says, look. They're trying to gain a little laurel wreath on their head. It says they were the best. He says, we're going for crowns of gold.
[14:20] We're going for incorruptible. Verse 26, he says, I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest by any means that when I have preached unto others, I myself should be a castaway.
[14:43] He says, I keep myself under. I exercise self-control. I exercise the Holy Spirit working in me control to not let myself be taken down by lust, not be taken down by other things that Satan might tempt me with.
[14:58] I keep my body under to follow God no matter what. He says, I'm not out there running uncertainly. Whenever I think of that, running uncertainly, I think of, again, I know I'm old, Jerry Lewis.
[15:18] You remember Jerry Lewis and the things he used to do? And he'd run around. I think of that. Paul says, I'm not doing that. My daughter right now, it's Father's Day, she's thinking, I wish my father hadn't done that.
[15:36] He's just the one that beateth the air. He says, that's not doing anything. That's not accomplishing anything. Matter of fact, the verse before that, 1 Corinthians 9, 24, it says this, Now, know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize, so run that ye may obtain.
[16:01] He says, keep your focus. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Keep yourself disciplined to follow whatever he wants, to do what he wants, to follow his path. He says, keep your eyes there.
[16:14] There's no participation trophies coming. He says, run with everything you have for the Lord Jesus Christ.
[16:26] Today's Father's Day. So, being fathers, some fathers here, let me say that you may be fathers, who knows, in the near future. It takes discipline to raise children effectively and consistently.
[16:45] It takes discipline to raise children. You have to be consistent with them. You have to be on all the time. You can't be hypocritical. You can't be changing your mind every other time.
[16:57] You have to be consistent to show them the direction to go. Ephesians 6, 4, And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord.
[17:09] He says, look, you fathers, don't provoke your children to wrath. You know the easiest way to provoke your children to wrath? Be hypocritical. Be hypocritical with them.
[17:23] Be consistent. Say, no, this is what we have said. This is what we're going to do. I try to...
[17:35] Angela... Angela's hating Father's Day. We talked to her about things. It was, Angela, this is what is supposed to happen.
[17:47] This is what you're supposed to do. This is... Okay? She didn't get a second warning. Next time, there was discipline involved.
[18:01] I've told you before, but it was a long time ago. Probably most of you weren't here then. We had a time when we were at a restaurant. And... Bonnie was working, so it was Angela and I and my parents.
[18:13] And... Angela was doing stuff. And... the waitress came, got our order and stuff. I'd kind of warned Angela already. Don't do that. Don't warn.
[18:26] Well, the waitress took our order and stuff, and away she went. And... Angela's like, the order's in. I don't know what her little mind was thinking, but... the order's in, so...
[18:37] hey, I'm good to go. She started doing the stuff again. I picked her up, and I said, sorry, but tell the waitress to cancel our order. We're leaving.
[18:49] And we left. And I think from that time on, Angela learned when Dad says something, he means it. she wanted to have the supper there.
[19:02] She wanted to have the meal. I said, no, we're not going to, because you did not listen to what I said. I'm done with those Angela stories now. Okay? Think of it this way.
[19:14] Here's an illustration for you. A lot of people today, you will hear people say, well, when it comes to religion, I think you should just leave kids alone, let them make their own decision.
[19:25] You know, give them time and let them do it on their own, right? You hear that. Well, there was a Cambridge professor by the name of Coleridge. He was talking with a man once, who man did not believe in giving little children any religious instruction whatsoever.
[19:40] Nope. He said, you just leave them alone, let their minds develop, and when they get older, where they can understand things and make decisions for themselves, they will make the decision of what they want to do.
[19:51] Coleridge didn't say anything. He just kept talking with a man for a while, and then he asked the man, he said, would you like to see my gardens? The man said, no, yeah, that'd be nice.
[20:03] So they walk out into the gardens. There is no garden. There's a whole lot of weeds, but no real garden. And the man's just, this isn't a garden.
[20:14] This is just a bunch of weeds. Coleridge says, yes, well, it is a garden, but he said, I just wanted to leave them to their own, not infringe on their liberty. I wanted them to make up their mind, once they came through the soil, what they wanted to be.
[20:30] No. I've told you before, my father-in-law used to hate it when we said Angela had a sin nature. But they are born with a sin nature. And you have to kind of corral that sin nature.
[20:44] The apostle Paul said to Timothy, he says the same thing applies to a church. In 2 Timothy 4, verse 1, he says, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, which shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and doctrine.
[21:10] For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. they're going to go after their own lust.
[21:21] We're born with a sinful nature. We're going to go after what that nature tells us to do. And he says, no, no, no, no, don't do that. Don't allow that. Preach the word. Be instant, in season, out of season.
[21:33] Don't be hypocritical. Live according to the word of God consistently in everything that you do. Use that word to reprove, rebuke, exhort.
[21:46] He says, but do it with longsuffering and doctrine. Don't lose your temper. Don't go off the handle. Do it with self-control, temperance.
[22:02] So, temperance, self-control. Temperance experience. Temperance experience. First of all, a disciplined physical life.
[22:16] Don't look up here. Just listen to what I have to say. My downfall. Anybody know what my downfall is? Mandu.
[22:28] Thank you, cats. Anyway, discipline, physical life. In verse 27 there, 1 Corinthians 9, he said, I keep under my body, bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself might be a castaway.
[22:46] He says, I discipline myself. Self-control. I discipline myself to follow God's word and to live by it and stay by it.
[22:59] Lest I go preaching to all these people and tell them all these different things and then I mess up. Then, I allow myself to go contrary to God's word and I myself become a castaway.
[23:12] First of all, the flesh fights the spirit. The flesh that we have is always fighting against the spirit. Look in Galatians 5 there. Again, back at verse 16 and 17.
[23:24] It says, This I say then, walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. If I'm walking in the spirit of God, doing what God wants me to do, listening to what he has to say, he says, I'm not going to fulfill the lust of the flesh.
[23:42] He says, But these two are constantly battling so you have to make a choice. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, verse 17, and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary the one to the other so that he cannot do the things that he would.
[23:57] He says, The flesh is just constantly battling you. So if you're not paying attention, if you're not bringing yourself under control to live according to what the spirit says, you're not going to do well.
[24:07] He says, You need to make sure you're temperate, walking in the spirit, not fulfilling the lust of the flesh. The flesh is defeated through Calvary.
[24:21] When Jesus Christ went to Calvary, we were able to defeat the flesh. Romans 6, 11 through 16, I think it is. I did not put it all up there.
[24:33] I will read it, but I've got the reference up there so you can write it down if you want to go check it. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
[24:47] He says, reckon yourself. That means I have to make a decision. I have to make a decision on taking false self-control. I am dead to sin.
[24:57] I am not going to follow the devil. I am not going to yield to his temptations. I am not going to do these things. Now, you can't do that all on your own. It's the spirit of God working in you. Left to myself, I'm not going to be able to do that.
[25:11] But I'm alive unto God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 12, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that ye should obey it in the lust thereof.
[25:23] Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
[25:36] For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace?
[25:48] God forbid. Stop there for a second. How much teaching in Christianity do you hear now? I'm under grace. I'm under grace. I'm under grace. Which means I can do whatever I want.
[26:01] How many times do you hear that? No. That is not what it means. I am under grace so that I can follow the Lord Jesus Christ and his spirit.
[26:12] Not so I can do whatever I want but so I can follow him. Verse 16 says, Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey whether sin unto death or obedience unto righteousness.
[26:31] What am I going to do? Am I going to follow the sin and the temptations and the lust that I have or am I going to follow Jesus Christ? Self-discipline.
[26:41] Self-control. What am I going to do? My flesh is telling me this. God's spirit is telling me this. Which one am I going to choose? Second thing here, a disciplined thought life.
[26:53] You ever notice most of what we do starts in our thought life. Most of what we do starts with a thought. Nobody ever just walks along and says, You know what?
[27:07] Jared left his wallet sitting there. And I just walked by and I just pick it up. No, there was a thought that took place first. Ooh, Jared left his wallet sitting there. Hmm. I wonder how much money he's got in there.
[27:19] Hmm. Anything I could use in there. Hmm. You know, starts up here. He says, You need to have a disciplined thought life. First, Second Corinthians. Second Corinthians chapter 10, verse 5.
[27:32] Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
[27:45] He says, Casting down imaginations. The word imaginations there in the Greek has the idea behind it. Thought or fantasies against the truth of Christ or the revealed will of God.
[27:58] He says, Casting down everything that comes in that goes against what God's will is. Cast out everything that takes you against what the Holy Spirit is telling you to do. Cast it out. Get rid of it.
[28:11] He says, Bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Again, that takes temperance. That takes self-control on our part. I'm not going to do what I think is bad.
[28:22] You know how often people, Well, I know God's word says this, but I think how many times does that happen?
[28:37] I know God wants me to do this and I go, God's word says this and I do it, but I think he says, No, don't go there. Bring those thoughts under control to be what God wants you to do.
[28:53] Third thing, quickly, temperance exemplified. Temperance exemplified. How do I show it to people?
[29:04] How do I get it into my life and show it to other people? First of all, admit your weakness. Admit your weakness. I can't do it on my own. As much self-control as I may have, I can't do it all on my own.
[29:17] I have to have the spirit of God working in me. James chapter 1 verses 14 through 16. But every man is tempted. Anybody here who's never been tempted?
[29:30] Okay. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. He says, We've all been tempted. We've all wanted the things that we want.
[29:43] We all want it done our way. I want this. I want that. I want the other thing. He says, You're all tempted and drawn away by our lust. Problem.
[29:54] Verse 15. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. When that lust and that desire takes over, and I really, really want my way.
[30:08] I want that thing. I want that person. I want, he says, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bring it forth death.
[30:20] Do not err, my brethren. He says, don't err, don't fall for it, don't allow it, admit that you have a weakness. Our flesh is a weakness to us.
[30:33] He says, admit it. We don't like to admit that we're fallible, do we? He says, second of all, forget your past.
[30:46] Forget your past. Philippians chapter 3, verses 13 and 14 say this, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before, I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
[31:06] Forgetting those things which are behind. when I was visiting Mike in the jail, Bonnie visits ladies in the jail, one of the things we always come back to, okay, why are you in jail?
[31:23] Just that and the other thing. A lot of times it has to do with alcohol problems and things like that. Okay, so you're going to get out of jail. You want to come back to jail? No. Okay.
[31:34] When you get out of jail, what's your plan? What's your plan when you get out of jail? And they stop and they think for a minute and say, well, I probably shouldn't go back around the old friends I used to have.
[31:53] I probably shouldn't go back to the old places I used to go. Good plan. And you're in the beginning of a good plan. Forgetting those things which are behind. He says, reach forth to those things which are before.
[32:08] reaching to those things which are before the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Look for what God has for you. Keep moving his direction.
[32:19] You're here with a Bible study. You're here going through scripture. Keep moving forward. Even when you get out of here, keep reading the scriptures.
[32:30] Find the church to go to. The area you're from, go to church. Find a good gospel preaching Bible believing church and go there. And one of the things they need to learn, they need to learn this.
[32:44] Third thing, believe God can bring change. A lot of people don't believe that. Well, it's always going to be the same. It's always going to be like this. I'm going to go through the same things.
[32:54] I'm just in this cycle. God can change that. God can do something. Your beliefs control your behavior. do you believe that you have a weakness?
[33:07] Do you believe that you can forget your past? Because God can change it. God can change your life. God can change who you are.
[33:19] Romans chapter 12 verse 2, I mentioned in Sunday school this morning. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
[33:30] He says, renew your mind. God can change me. God can change my mind. God can do anything. And I want to follow his perfect will for me and for my life.
[33:46] Philippians 4, 13, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. Oh, you don't know my circumstances. You don't know what I'm in. You don't know the things that I've been dealing with.
[33:58] You don't know all things. through Christ which strengthens me. Can be changed. I can be strengthened to do all things that God wants me to do.
[34:13] See, get out of that mindset. Self-control led by the Spirit of God. Fourth thing, be accountable. Be accountable.
[34:24] Find people you can be accountable to. Number one is God. Dr. Bob Jones Sr. used to say, you and God make a majority. Sometimes it's only God you've got.
[34:35] That's fine. That's all you need. But if you can have another person that you can get accountable with. Ecclesiastes chapter 4, verse 12. And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him, and a threefold cord is not easily broken.
[34:51] You get a couple of you agreeing, praying together, and doing things. Praying together, that means I bring God into the circumstance. You know I have a threefold cord. He says, that's not easily broken.
[35:04] That person can help you. God can help you. You rely on them. Again, going back to what I said about making a different path. Avoid temptation. Avoid temptation.
[35:16] Our flesh always wants to go the way of least resistance. What's the easiest way for me to do this? Trying to avoid being around those people. Trying to avoid the temptations I have.
[35:27] Trying to avoid the temptations I have. Trying to avoid the temptations I have. No. Benjamin Franklin. Well, I'm skipping one. Let me do the other one first. When you flee temptation, be sure you don't leave a forwarding address.
[35:44] The next one up there. Ian. Yep. Nope. Okay, I guess I didn't put it up. All right, go back. Nope. All right. When you avoid temptation, don't leave a forwarding address.
[36:00] Don't let Satan come follow you. Put up the walls. Have the discipline to say no. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 26 and 27. Be angry and sin not.
[36:10] Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil. He says, don't let the devil have a place in your life. Don't let him come and mess your life up.
[36:23] Put up the spirit of God against him. Benjamin Franklin, it's not up there. Benjamin Franklin, I like this one. Benjamin Franklin said, it is easier to suppress the first degree, let's try that again.
[36:39] It is easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow. the first desire than to satisfy all that follow.
[36:54] Temptations come to you. A lust has come to you. Something has come in and you're having a real battle with it. He says, look, put up the wall, have the self-control, have the temperance, say, I am not going to do that.
[37:11] I'm going to follow the spirit of God. I'm going to let his spirit rule and reign in my life. I'm going to do what he wants. Because it's a whole lot easier doing it that time. Because if you submit to it, it's a whole lot easier to submit to it the second time and the third time and the fourth time.
[37:29] You don't have the resistance you have the first time. That resistance goes down. He says, be careful. Avoid the places and friends that draw us into temptation.
[37:40] 1 Corinthians 15, 33. Be not deceived. evil communications corrupt good manners. So if we talk wrong and it corrupts our manners, well, the word communications there has the idea behind it of companionships, relationships.
[37:57] So put it this way, bad company corrupts good character. Be careful who you hang out with. Be careful who you spend your time with. Find Christians who are walking with God.
[38:09] And then quickly, depend on God's power. Depend on God's power. Again, Galatians 5, 16, 17. Walk in the spirit.
[38:20] He shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. Try walking in the spirit.
[38:33] Not just trying, but trusting. Trusting God to do what his word says. Philippians 2, 13. For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do his good pleasure.
[38:44] He says, God's working in you. God is moving in you. God is giving you what you need. He says, God is working both to will. Oh, I wish I was following God. I wish I was doing what God wanted.
[38:55] I wish I wouldn't get involved in all this stuff. He says, he also gives you to do. He gives you the power to do his good pleasure.
[39:08] The secret of self-control is Christ's control. Let him have his way in your life.
[39:20] By walking in the spirit's control, what he wants us to do, then we can experience temperance. We can exemplify temperance. What it takes is for us to surrender ourselves to God and what he wants.
[39:33] the best self-control I can have is to say, God, here I am to you. I am yours.
[39:44] You take over. You do what you want. I am giving it all to you. Now, I often talk about that when I'm talking to unsaved people. Unsaved people, we talk to them about being saved and about giving their life to Christ and you need to surrender to Christ.
[40:00] Christians, how about you? Last week, remember, I did just as I am and applied it to Christians? How about if we do I surrender all and apply it to Christians?
[40:12] There's a whole lot of Christians who are living their life, but they're living like I said earlier, I got God's grace. I can do whatever I want to do. No. Surrender to God and what he wants.
[40:25] Live your life according to his dictates, according to his word. What does he want? Surrender your life to that. I'm losing you. So let's take your hymn book and turn to page 390.
[40:38] 390.