WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.759 So, Tom, this evening, his theme was to be one of the fruit of the Spirit, and the evening 00:00:04.759 --> 00:00:11.519 worship we're going through, fruit of the Spirit from Galatians chapter 5, and his theme 00:00:11.519 --> 00:00:13.599 this evening was to be peace. 00:00:13.599 --> 00:00:19.160 So he's taken that sermon, and he'll preach that at some point in the future. 00:00:19.160 --> 00:00:25.800 I hope it's not disrespectful to the Spirit of God to take the fruit out of the order 00:00:25.800 --> 00:00:27.920 that they're given in Scripture. 00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:34.280 We're going to do that this evening, because I'm going to speak on the last element of 00:00:34.280 --> 00:00:41.600 the fruit of the Spirit that's mentioned, which is self-control. 00:00:41.600 --> 00:00:48.240 And they remember are all part of, it's not like the fruits of the Spirit. 00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:52.840 You can pick some, and we're good in that area, and we're poor in another. 00:00:52.840 --> 00:01:03.400 It's different facets of the one fruit that we should all strive to look for, and that 00:01:03.400 --> 00:01:08.000 they all gel together, and they all build on one another, and they all strengthen one 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:09.000 another. 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:12.719 So this evening, for a short time before we celebrate the Lord's Supper together, we're 00:01:12.719 --> 00:01:19.200 going to look at this theme of self-control as one of the fruit of the Spirit. 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:26.079 Should I do think that in our lives, certainly in my life, there's still the danger of blaming 00:01:26.079 --> 00:01:35.040 God when we fail, or when we feel like giving up or giving in. 00:01:35.040 --> 00:01:38.879 We blame someone, sometimes it's God, sometimes it's someone else. 00:01:38.879 --> 00:01:44.159 It's usually someone else's fault, these things that happen in our lives. 00:01:44.159 --> 00:01:50.920 And I guess Jenny spoke very beautifully into that as she worked through her understanding 00:01:50.920 --> 00:01:53.799 of God and grace as well. 00:01:53.799 --> 00:01:58.399 But we can often blame God today. 00:01:58.399 --> 00:02:01.120 You made me this way. 00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:03.599 You put me on this path. 00:02:03.599 --> 00:02:09.519 You made other people the way they are, and it's easy for us just to kind of take the 00:02:09.519 --> 00:02:11.879 attention of ourselves and blame God. 00:02:11.879 --> 00:02:15.879 And I guess it's really, what it is, it's a victim mentality. 00:02:15.879 --> 00:02:23.840 We feel that we are the ones who are being victimized by life, by others, by God. 00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:27.400 And that's been the case, hasn't it, from the very beginning. 00:02:27.400 --> 00:02:33.879 Some people laugh and deride the early account of humanity in Genesis 1 to 3, and yet it's 00:02:33.879 --> 00:02:37.359 so accurate to the way we are. 00:02:37.359 --> 00:02:41.519 Right from the very beginning, we see Adam saying, it was you. 00:02:41.520 --> 00:02:43.480 It was her. 00:02:43.480 --> 00:02:45.080 It was Satan. 00:02:45.080 --> 00:02:46.880 It was somebody else. 00:02:46.880 --> 00:02:48.760 It wasn't me. 00:02:48.760 --> 00:02:49.960 And so we blame God. 00:02:49.960 --> 00:02:57.719 And I think much of that stems from our own hearts and a misunderstanding of the nature 00:02:57.719 --> 00:03:01.120 of salvation and the new life that we have in Christ. 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:07.040 Because as believers in Christ, what we have is we are empowered people. 00:03:07.039 --> 00:03:13.719 We're empowered and we're responsible people, and God gives us His Holy Spirit, and we cooperate 00:03:13.719 --> 00:03:14.840 with Him in our lives. 00:03:14.840 --> 00:03:15.840 We are now free. 00:03:15.840 --> 00:03:17.399 That's what freedom means. 00:03:17.399 --> 00:03:23.359 It means we are free to do right, to do what God, what pleases God, what God wants us to 00:03:23.359 --> 00:03:24.359 do. 00:03:24.359 --> 00:03:25.359 Sorry. 00:03:25.359 --> 00:03:26.359 I'm falling apart. 00:03:26.359 --> 00:03:30.959 Give me the old Madonna mic any day. 00:03:30.959 --> 00:03:34.039 All these newfangled ideas that people come up. 00:03:34.039 --> 00:03:40.000 I'm going to go all the way down and that'll be even worse. 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:41.000 Sorry. 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:43.079 Andy, this was your stupid idea. 00:03:43.079 --> 00:03:47.039 Stick to my Madonna mic from now on. 00:03:47.039 --> 00:03:50.519 What was I saying about self-control? 00:03:50.519 --> 00:03:52.519 Right, self-control. 00:03:52.519 --> 00:03:54.519 Where were we? 00:03:54.519 --> 00:03:55.519 Yes. 00:03:55.519 --> 00:03:56.519 Yeah. 00:03:56.519 --> 00:04:00.560 So we are now able to do what we can choose to do what's right. 00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:01.560 Okay. 00:04:01.560 --> 00:04:04.120 We have no choice and we can choose to do what's right. 00:04:04.120 --> 00:04:10.840 But it's what we recognize a lifelong battle for us to align our motives, our heart and 00:04:10.840 --> 00:04:17.920 our mind and our wills towards the great God who loves us and whose grace is in us. 00:04:17.920 --> 00:04:19.560 And we're still sinners. 00:04:19.560 --> 00:04:25.720 So that's really, the core of the matter is recognizing His greatness and the gift He's 00:04:25.720 --> 00:04:27.079 given us in the Holy Spirit. 00:04:27.079 --> 00:04:29.000 It's tremendous gift. 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:38.360 This gift of Himself, this gift of His power, of His love, a new devotion that He gives 00:04:38.360 --> 00:04:41.040 us and the change in our heart. 00:04:41.040 --> 00:04:43.639 That's what we're speaking about when we're speaking about the fruit of the Holy Spirit. 00:04:43.639 --> 00:04:46.000 And part of that is self-control. 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:49.600 And it's probably one of the least favorite of the fruit of the Spirit. 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:53.680 It's not quite so gentle and precious as maybe some of the other ones. 00:04:53.680 --> 00:04:55.680 We're not so keen on it, but I love it. 00:04:55.680 --> 00:04:57.759 It's a great fruit. 00:04:57.759 --> 00:04:58.759 What is self-control? 00:04:58.759 --> 00:05:06.639 Biblically, it's the ability to do what pleases God in the strength of the Holy Spirit. 00:05:06.639 --> 00:05:09.240 So it's the ability to do what God wants us to do. 00:05:09.240 --> 00:05:11.839 It's expressed, how would we express it? 00:05:11.839 --> 00:05:18.360 As self-mastery in order to serve in God's strength. 00:05:18.360 --> 00:05:19.639 That's what self-control is. 00:05:19.639 --> 00:05:22.159 It's being continent. 00:05:22.159 --> 00:05:27.319 It's being in that place where we are controlling our spiritual life. 00:05:27.319 --> 00:05:33.240 We're taking our passions, our desires, our speech, our actions, and we're aligning them 00:05:33.240 --> 00:05:34.240 to God's will. 00:05:34.240 --> 00:05:40.040 It's about being made fit for purpose as Christians in God's grace and with God's 00:05:40.040 --> 00:05:43.920 strength, and it's resisting our sinful passions. 00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:48.240 So there's something very important I want to say here about self-control in terms of 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:51.680 the meaning of the word or the meaning of the phrase. 00:05:51.680 --> 00:05:55.560 It means proceeding from within oneself. 00:05:55.560 --> 00:06:00.519 So it's the control of oneself rather than by oneself. 00:06:00.519 --> 00:06:02.439 You see what I mean? 00:06:02.439 --> 00:06:08.240 It's about what comes from within ourselves to control us, rather than doing it by ourselves. 00:06:08.240 --> 00:06:12.040 So it's not an individualistic, isolationist thing. 00:06:12.040 --> 00:06:17.600 It's something we do to control our very selves in the presence and in the strength and in 00:06:17.600 --> 00:06:20.160 the cooperation with the Holy Spirit. 00:06:20.160 --> 00:06:29.320 Okay, in much simpler terms, it's with God in our heart, it's me saying no to things 00:06:29.320 --> 00:06:31.439 that are wrong. 00:06:31.439 --> 00:06:36.080 With God in my heart, it's saying no to the things that are wrong, that he sees that are 00:06:36.080 --> 00:06:37.080 wrong. 00:06:37.080 --> 00:06:41.120 So self-control is tremendously significant. 00:06:41.120 --> 00:06:43.000 The opposite of that is very obvious, isn't it? 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:44.840 It's being unrestrained. 00:06:44.840 --> 00:06:47.040 It's being out of control. 00:06:47.040 --> 00:06:50.920 It's not knowing what parameters God has given to us. 00:06:50.920 --> 00:06:55.760 It's saying yes to our bodies, to our minds and to our desires without any reference to 00:06:55.760 --> 00:07:03.120 what God wants for us, to his demands, his expectation, his parameters for us. 00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:09.720 It's to be thoughtless and careless towards God in our lives and other people, often therefore 00:07:09.720 --> 00:07:13.960 being unloving. 00:07:13.959 --> 00:07:21.759 And I think sometimes the danger we face in our Christian lives is misunderstanding grace 00:07:21.759 --> 00:07:22.759 to the point of being lazy. 00:07:22.759 --> 00:07:23.759 See what I mean? 00:07:23.759 --> 00:07:31.719 A lazy athlete, particularly as a lazy athlete, you're content to just be there at the big 00:07:31.719 --> 00:07:38.639 athletics meet, to wear the gear, to hear the crowd, to be part of it, to take your ability 00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:43.479 and gift for granted and then just to expect the glory of the winners podium at the end 00:07:43.480 --> 00:07:46.280 without any effort. 00:07:46.280 --> 00:07:51.840 And one Corinthians 9, 24, 27 speaks about that, says, don't you know that all the runners 00:07:51.840 --> 00:07:54.680 in the race run, only one receives the prize? 00:07:54.680 --> 00:08:00.280 And then most importantly, that next verse, every athlete exercises self-control in all 00:08:00.280 --> 00:08:01.280 things. 00:08:01.280 --> 00:08:04.680 They do it to receive a perishable, but we imperishable. 00:08:04.680 --> 00:08:13.480 So there's this recognition that we put into our lives effort as Christians. 00:08:13.480 --> 00:08:17.160 Grace doesn't make us lazy, in other words. 00:08:17.160 --> 00:08:22.759 We misunderstand the reality of grace if we think that it's just something we sit back 00:08:22.759 --> 00:08:24.160 and receive. 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:28.160 We love the promises, we love the wealth, the warmth, the forgiveness, the victory, the 00:08:28.160 --> 00:08:33.639 belonging, the divine friendship, the answered prayers and the future. 00:08:33.639 --> 00:08:40.519 What do we recognize the race, the battle, the journey of sanctification? 00:08:40.519 --> 00:08:48.559 It's a journey that we're on, which involves a great deal of guts before we see the glory 00:08:48.559 --> 00:08:51.080 of the promised land. 00:08:51.080 --> 00:08:59.159 So self-control is recognizing that God has a cooperative work for us to do with Him, 00:08:59.159 --> 00:09:05.600 that we are utterly and completely responsible for this in relationship with Him. 00:09:05.600 --> 00:09:11.079 Because what happens is our nature tends towards two things. 00:09:11.079 --> 00:09:12.919 Sinful nature tends towards two things. 00:09:12.919 --> 00:09:17.799 Tends towards independence and it tends towards a lack of restraint. 00:09:17.799 --> 00:09:19.799 That's what we're fighting all the time. 00:09:19.799 --> 00:09:20.860 We're fighting independence. 00:09:20.860 --> 00:09:23.519 We don't want to be governed by anyone. 00:09:23.519 --> 00:09:25.319 We want to do our own thing. 00:09:25.319 --> 00:09:27.519 That's what we want. 00:09:27.519 --> 00:09:32.319 And that can even reveal itself, I think, in a counterfeit self-control, because there's 00:09:32.319 --> 00:09:36.559 a biblical self-control and there's a worldly self-control. 00:09:36.559 --> 00:09:43.319 So we find that many people who would classify themselves as having great self-control, but 00:09:43.319 --> 00:09:48.799 it would be different from this gift of the Holy Spirit. 00:09:48.799 --> 00:09:57.159 So there's people who are fiercely independent in their lives and are tremendously self-controlled, 00:09:57.159 --> 00:09:58.159 have motivated. 00:09:58.159 --> 00:10:00.079 They want to look good. 00:10:00.079 --> 00:10:01.879 They want to last longer. 00:10:01.879 --> 00:10:04.719 They want for the sake of their bodies to be disciplined. 00:10:04.719 --> 00:10:07.679 They want great health. 00:10:07.679 --> 00:10:13.319 And these things can become idols and it can be much pride within it, much comparison with 00:10:13.319 --> 00:10:15.519 other people and ridiculing of others. 00:10:15.519 --> 00:10:16.719 Merely as a good way to live. 00:10:16.719 --> 00:10:19.000 That's not biblical self-control. 00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:21.959 And sometimes it can even creep into the church. 00:10:21.959 --> 00:10:25.799 So we think it's self-control, but it's actually self-righteousness. 00:10:25.799 --> 00:10:30.679 We're acting as Christians and we're doing lots of religious things because we think 00:10:30.679 --> 00:10:32.120 that's what God wants. 00:10:32.120 --> 00:10:36.879 It's self-controlled and it's disciplined and we can see the indiscipline and the wild 00:10:36.879 --> 00:10:38.120 living of others. 00:10:38.120 --> 00:10:44.240 But we have verses in Colossians 2, 23 that Paul highlights and picks that out. 00:10:44.240 --> 00:10:46.120 I think, have we got that verse? 00:10:46.120 --> 00:10:47.120 Yeah. 00:10:47.120 --> 00:10:52.959 People who have this appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism, 00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:58.000 severity to the body, but they are doing no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. 00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:04.200 So there is a self-control that's religious and worldly, but is not of the Holy Spirit. 00:11:04.200 --> 00:11:07.040 No heart change. 00:11:07.040 --> 00:11:08.680 It's independent. 00:11:08.680 --> 00:11:10.560 It's independent of God. 00:11:10.560 --> 00:11:16.759 And there's no dependence on God or desire to please God out of gratitude for His grace. 00:11:16.759 --> 00:11:18.920 It's counterfeit. 00:11:18.919 --> 00:11:26.639 So independence is one of our issues and so is a lack of restraint so that we respond to 00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:32.719 our passions and we give in to our passions because, well, that's just what we want. 00:11:32.719 --> 00:11:34.559 That's what we love. 00:11:34.559 --> 00:11:37.039 We love to be critical of others. 00:11:37.039 --> 00:11:38.839 We love power. 00:11:38.839 --> 00:11:40.639 We love to binge. 00:11:40.639 --> 00:11:42.679 We love drinking too much. 00:11:42.679 --> 00:11:46.480 We love overindulging in different ways. 00:11:46.480 --> 00:11:53.720 We enjoy doing what God forbids because that's within our sinful nature. 00:11:53.720 --> 00:11:57.440 We resist and complain about His parameters. 00:11:57.440 --> 00:11:59.600 They're so narrow. 00:11:59.600 --> 00:12:02.600 They're so restrictive. 00:12:02.600 --> 00:12:08.800 We reject the advice of other good meaning people and the Word of God in our lives because 00:12:08.800 --> 00:12:13.920 we have this battle against restraint. 00:12:13.920 --> 00:12:16.279 We love to do what we love to do. 00:12:16.279 --> 00:12:24.360 And sometimes we find that battle tremendously strong in our Christian lives. 00:12:24.360 --> 00:12:26.799 We do what we want. 00:12:26.799 --> 00:12:30.919 Nobody is going to tell me what to do. 00:12:30.919 --> 00:12:37.720 And so a question for us all is what constrains us? 00:12:37.720 --> 00:12:40.439 What motivates us? 00:12:40.439 --> 00:12:43.240 What stops us? 00:12:43.240 --> 00:12:46.360 Who do we respect? 00:12:46.360 --> 00:12:47.360 Who leads us in our lives? 00:12:47.360 --> 00:12:52.840 And these are questions we all just wrestle with in our understanding of grace and in 00:12:52.840 --> 00:12:58.560 our understanding of our Christian faith because our nature is towards independence and towards 00:12:58.560 --> 00:13:00.519 a lack of restraint. 00:13:00.519 --> 00:13:05.399 So briefly biblical self-control, there's different elements to it. 00:13:05.399 --> 00:13:06.399 A few. 00:13:06.399 --> 00:13:07.399 Three I've got. 00:13:07.399 --> 00:13:08.399 There's many, many more. 00:13:08.399 --> 00:13:17.519 First is, and some of this will dovetail a little bit with this morning, it's God-inspired. 00:13:17.519 --> 00:13:21.840 Biblical self-control, as with all the fruit of the Spirit, are God-inspired. 00:13:21.840 --> 00:13:29.559 So 2 Timothy 1, verse 7, for God gave us a spirit, not a fear, but a power of love and 00:13:29.559 --> 00:13:30.559 of self-control. 00:13:30.559 --> 00:13:32.639 This is part of God's gift. 00:13:32.639 --> 00:13:41.600 It's part of being Christian and self-control, interestingly, is part of that. 00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:46.360 The gift of the Spirit, the gift of life, the gift of freedom, the gift of hope, it 00:13:46.360 --> 00:13:50.399 all is this spirit of self-control. 00:13:50.399 --> 00:13:56.319 And that's always for us a vital first step in understanding the gift of the Spirit, the 00:13:56.319 --> 00:14:00.120 fruit of the Spirit as they're given to us in Galatians chapter 5. 00:14:00.120 --> 00:14:04.519 So we've come to that place, and as we've gone through Romans, I mentioned this morning, 00:14:04.519 --> 00:14:10.159 the ugliness and the desperate diagnosis that God gives of our own heart. 00:14:10.159 --> 00:14:14.240 And we've cried out to Christ for forgiveness. 00:14:14.240 --> 00:14:21.480 And that, however dimly we see that, that leads us to enjoy the beauty of holiness. 00:14:21.480 --> 00:14:23.759 It's a very old-fashioned phrase. 00:14:23.759 --> 00:14:30.759 It probably kind of uncool and unpopular today, but that is what will drive us towards living 00:14:30.759 --> 00:14:37.159 a life of spiritual self-control, where we're loving with a new heart, where we see God 00:14:37.159 --> 00:14:38.159 and others. 00:14:38.159 --> 00:14:41.279 It's worth it. 00:14:41.279 --> 00:14:42.279 He's worth it. 00:14:42.279 --> 00:14:44.279 It's the beauty of holiness. 00:14:44.279 --> 00:14:47.000 It's the beauty of what He's done for us. 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:54.639 It's the beauty of what we can become, that we recognize in Jesus Himself the great embodiment 00:14:54.639 --> 00:14:58.360 of self-control, and we long to look like Him. 00:14:58.360 --> 00:15:05.600 And for the first time, maybe we begin to realize that the good life is about this, there's 00:15:05.600 --> 00:15:08.840 discipline involved in the good life. 00:15:08.840 --> 00:15:17.560 In the fullness of life, there's this great recognition of a transformed heart, that we 00:15:17.560 --> 00:15:19.680 walk away from the blame culture. 00:15:19.680 --> 00:15:25.200 If only it was different, if only I had this, if only God had given me that, if only my 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:31.320 circumstances, if only others understood, and we have the freedom of being able to change 00:15:31.320 --> 00:15:35.160 despite our circumstances, however good or bad they may be. 00:15:35.159 --> 00:15:40.839 And we recognize the power to be new people as we cooperate with the Holy Spirit in this 00:15:40.839 --> 00:15:47.480 act of self-discipline and of self-control. 00:15:47.480 --> 00:15:53.360 And the first battle we face in this God-inspired change, and this is probably the most important 00:15:53.360 --> 00:16:00.199 thing I'll say, the first battle we face is with our own thoughts and with our own, even 00:16:00.199 --> 00:16:02.279 more so, imagination. 00:16:02.279 --> 00:16:12.000 For some reason, that struck me really powerfully this week, that God is to be sovereign over 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:16.199 our imagination and over our thoughts. 00:16:16.199 --> 00:16:21.240 That's an amazing consideration, because that's where nobody else is. 00:16:21.240 --> 00:16:26.959 And that's so often the seed of where we rebel and where we are lustful or where we move 00:16:26.959 --> 00:16:29.079 away from our relationship with God. 00:16:29.080 --> 00:16:36.000 I was really moved by the verse in 2 Corinthians 10, 5, we destroy arguments in every lofty 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:42.360 opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ. 00:16:42.360 --> 00:16:44.800 That's a remarkable verse. 00:16:44.800 --> 00:16:50.000 We take our thoughts captive, Christ at the very core of our being and our thoughts that 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:58.000 we take allow, we are so self-controlled that our thoughts are captive to Him. 00:16:58.000 --> 00:17:03.720 And that is the beginning, that's the source of where our whole transformation will be. 00:17:03.720 --> 00:17:06.680 It's God-inspired from the inside out. 00:17:06.680 --> 00:17:13.519 And you think, as I need to think, and be challenged and driven to repentance by our 00:17:13.519 --> 00:17:23.599 thought life, by our imagination, the things that we wish we could do, the things that 00:17:23.599 --> 00:17:28.679 we think we can get away with doing in our minds that nobody will see as long as we're 00:17:28.679 --> 00:17:30.879 okay outwardly. 00:17:30.879 --> 00:17:36.839 Self-control begins this place where we take our thoughts and they are captive to Christ. 00:17:36.839 --> 00:17:40.079 So it's God-inspired and it's a trained grace. 00:17:40.079 --> 00:17:42.759 That's the second thing I'd like to see. 00:17:42.759 --> 00:17:49.759 Philippians 4, 11, Paul speaks about his own circumstances and he says, you know, not that 00:17:49.759 --> 00:17:54.799 I'm speaking of being in need for I've learned in whatever circumstance, situation I am to 00:17:54.799 --> 00:17:55.960 be content. 00:17:55.960 --> 00:18:04.319 And that word learned is hugely significant as it reflects the work of grace in our lives. 00:18:04.319 --> 00:18:07.879 It's something that needs to be worked at. 00:18:07.879 --> 00:18:11.559 It's this learned discipline and self-controls at the core of that. 00:18:11.559 --> 00:18:17.079 It's the behind the scenes athletic training that we don't see on the television, isn't 00:18:17.079 --> 00:18:18.079 it? 00:18:18.079 --> 00:18:22.199 The digging before the diamonds are unearthed. 00:18:22.199 --> 00:18:27.559 It's recognizing that salvation is absolutely free but we're not freeloaders, it's not cheap. 00:18:27.559 --> 00:18:31.960 So you see Usain Bolt and you see the fastest man in the universe and the gift of speed 00:18:31.960 --> 00:18:34.159 that he was given at birth. 00:18:34.159 --> 00:18:38.759 But what you don't see unless you maybe watch that program about him, the sweated blood and 00:18:38.759 --> 00:18:46.319 tears and training to get the prizes, the great work, the great effort, the great self-control, 00:18:46.319 --> 00:18:52.200 the great energy, it's what I would call, and this is not a right phrase, don't tell 00:18:52.200 --> 00:18:56.000 us to anyone because they'll think you heard it in a free church. 00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:58.559 It's the slog of grace. 00:18:58.559 --> 00:19:01.240 There is a slog to grace, it's a good slog. 00:19:01.240 --> 00:19:02.439 It's a great slog. 00:19:02.439 --> 00:19:09.119 But it's the daily discipline of being in relationship with the living God and it's the fruit of 00:19:09.119 --> 00:19:11.839 the spirit that gives us the self-control. 00:19:11.839 --> 00:19:17.039 It's the evidence that we have the spirit that we have this daily reliance on God in 00:19:17.039 --> 00:19:21.480 prayer so that we know how to live. 00:19:21.480 --> 00:19:27.159 You see a lot, I'm going back to the athletics or the sporting concept that it could be in 00:19:27.159 --> 00:19:32.839 the business world, I'm sure as well, but people have got raw talent but it's not guided 00:19:32.839 --> 00:19:38.039 and you can tell the difference between an athlete that's coached well and one that isn't 00:19:38.039 --> 00:19:42.399 and so often you'll say, oh, this team or this individual needs good coaching, some 00:19:42.399 --> 00:19:48.920 expert to take them and to teach them how to express themselves and use their gifts 00:19:48.920 --> 00:19:49.920 to the full. 00:19:49.920 --> 00:19:53.559 That's no different for the Christian life. 00:19:53.559 --> 00:19:59.000 We need to be, we've got the greatest coach of all in God and in His Word and it teaches 00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:11.680 us how to channel our lives and be freest and live life to the full and we ask to learn 00:20:11.680 --> 00:20:17.960 to know what He wants us to do, what He doesn't want us to do. 00:20:17.960 --> 00:20:25.319 We ask Him to help us to get rid of our blindness and our wrongful passion and our selfishness 00:20:25.319 --> 00:20:32.720 so that we can overcome this attitude of, well, I don't feel very much like serving 00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:34.039 Jesus today. 00:20:34.039 --> 00:20:40.599 I don't sense the spirit in my life so I'll just kind of carry on without Him. 00:20:40.599 --> 00:20:46.039 I need to feel more of Him before I will serve Him but we move beyond that. 00:20:46.039 --> 00:20:54.000 We serve Him even when we feel rubbish or distant or far away or doubting and we seek 00:20:54.000 --> 00:21:01.279 to be enveloped by His grace and His love until that we hope and pray and know changes 00:21:01.279 --> 00:21:04.799 in our lives. 00:21:04.799 --> 00:21:07.640 Because even our feelings need sanctified, don't they? 00:21:07.640 --> 00:21:10.599 We often put our feelings into a different category. 00:21:10.599 --> 00:21:12.480 They're just me. 00:21:12.480 --> 00:21:14.880 This is the real core me, what I feel like. 00:21:14.880 --> 00:21:21.880 But our feelings, just as much as our imagination and our mind and our thinking and our actions, 00:21:21.880 --> 00:21:23.799 they need sanctified. 00:21:23.799 --> 00:21:28.240 Everything about us needs sanctified, needs the Holy Spirit and needs the self-control 00:21:28.240 --> 00:21:34.319 of the Spirit and that takes time and energy and commitment. 00:21:34.319 --> 00:21:38.240 Are we blaming God for failing us? 00:21:38.240 --> 00:21:44.639 Are we blaming God for thinking that our spiritual lives are far from Him? 00:21:44.639 --> 00:21:48.039 The question is, are we being trained? 00:21:48.039 --> 00:21:49.039 Are we learning? 00:21:49.039 --> 00:21:52.919 Are we working in cooperation with Him? 00:21:52.920 --> 00:21:59.279 In fellowship with Him, in friendship with Him, with an open ear and sometimes a closed 00:21:59.279 --> 00:22:04.519 mouth as we learn the training and the learning of grace. 00:22:04.519 --> 00:22:07.440 So it's God-inspired biblical self-control. 00:22:07.440 --> 00:22:14.480 It's a trained grace and the last thing I want to say is that it involves self-denial, 00:22:14.480 --> 00:22:16.279 which is kind of self-evident. 00:22:16.279 --> 00:22:23.240 Titus 2 and verse 12 again talks about this training, that we're training us to renounce 00:22:23.240 --> 00:22:28.960 ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled upright, godly lives in this 00:22:28.960 --> 00:22:29.960 present age. 00:22:29.960 --> 00:22:39.079 And this whole concept and the whole idea of self-denial coming into our lives, putting 00:22:39.079 --> 00:22:46.160 God first is very core, the very essence of our Christian lives and loving others with 00:22:46.160 --> 00:22:52.160 a sacrificial love and saying no to our own selfish desires. 00:22:52.160 --> 00:22:57.600 That's probably the biggest battle we face is that each day I will and you will have 00:22:57.600 --> 00:23:00.960 crossroads every day. 00:23:00.960 --> 00:23:07.680 Very often, every moment of every day, we will have a crossroads and we will either say yes 00:23:07.680 --> 00:23:10.400 or we will say no. 00:23:10.400 --> 00:23:17.600 And that's where the battle is and primarily can I say that will be in your imagination 00:23:17.600 --> 00:23:18.800 and in your thoughts. 00:23:18.800 --> 00:23:24.160 The crossroads that you come to in your thoughts and in your imagination are often the ones 00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:28.640 before our outward active lives. 00:23:28.640 --> 00:23:34.320 What a great battle there is there, what a need for God's help, for God's Holy Spirit 00:23:34.320 --> 00:23:39.160 because it's a heart change and it's that self-forgetfulness we've spoken about quite 00:23:39.160 --> 00:23:40.160 a lot. 00:23:40.160 --> 00:23:43.600 It's the willingness to be wronged. 00:23:43.600 --> 00:23:46.920 It's the willingness to put aside our own agenda. 00:23:46.920 --> 00:23:55.519 It's the willingness not to seek the world to be aligned to me or God to be aligned 00:23:55.519 --> 00:24:03.519 to me or other Christians to be aligned to me, but it's recognizing and knowing that 00:24:03.519 --> 00:24:08.480 our task is primarily to be realigned to the living God. 00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:12.720 And that's the most releasing and the most freeing fruit. 00:24:12.720 --> 00:24:22.079 In many ways, it kind of, it is the foundation for all the others in many ways and yet they're 00:24:22.079 --> 00:24:24.599 all dependent on one another. 00:24:24.599 --> 00:24:25.599 One another. 00:24:25.599 --> 00:24:32.319 And so it's good for us to focus on Him and His amazing love and how patient and how generous 00:24:32.319 --> 00:24:40.759 He is and His promises and the future that we have in Him and to work at the unrestrained 00:24:40.759 --> 00:24:49.240 passions that we so often allow to control our lives and to rather be channeling our 00:24:49.240 --> 00:24:52.240 passions towards serving Him. 00:24:52.240 --> 00:24:59.559 Self-control is a beautiful fruit of the Spirit and we cooperate with the living God 00:24:59.559 --> 00:25:07.000 in order to experience and know that transformation of life and heart. 00:25:07.000 --> 00:25:13.079 And I hope this evening as we celebrate the Lord's Supper together, we'll think and have 00:25:13.079 --> 00:25:19.879 a few moments of quiet just to meditate on His Word and on His goodness and on the fruit 00:25:19.879 --> 00:25:25.599 and how that applies to us in our day-to-day living. 00:25:25.599 --> 00:25:32.599 Amen.