And let's pray together as we turn to God's word. We're grateful God that you're a faithful shepherd to your people and that you supply all of our needs and we're reminded in the Psalm that we just sang that when you are a shepherd we lack nothing. So we're grateful God that you lead us Lord's Day by Lord's Day in the green pastures of your word. We pray God that you will teach us again tonight as we dive into the fruit of the Spirit one more time about what a spirit captivated, spirit-driven, spirit-filled life looks like. And we pray for much grace, Father, to bear this fruit to your glory. And we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. Let's turn in our Bibles tonight to the book of Galatians, Galatians 5, verse 23. And then we will turn back to 1 Corinthians 9 and 1 Corinthians 10. So if you open your Bibles with me tonight as we read God's word together, Derek already mentioned that Dave was feeling a little under the weather but you might be asking the question, well, Tom why aren't you preaching on kindness that Dave was going to preach on? And so we had to do a little juggling and shuffling and what we decided to do is this that Kevin was going to be preaching on self-control on August 16th and Kevin said, why don't you preach on self-control this Sunday? And then we'll let Dave come back to kindness on August 16 because Dave had put some work into the sermon and will allow him to use his studies to deliver that sermon in a few weeks. So we're a little out of order tonight but we trust that God will still bless our study of the fruit of the Spirit. This is chapter 5 and let's just read through the fruit together verses 22 through 24 and then we'll turn back to 1 Corinthians 9. Here God's word but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Such things there is no law and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. And turning over to 1 Corinthians 9, 1 Corinthians 9, we're going to be reading from that chapter verses 24 to 27, at the very end of the chapter, verses 24 to 27, 1 Corinthians 9. And Paul says, do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one receives the prize. So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air but I discipline my body and keep it under control, less after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. And then over to chapter 10, the next chapter verses 11 to 13, 1 Corinthians 10, 11 to 13. Now these things happen to them as an example, Paul writing here about Israel's history but they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability but with a temptation he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. With your people of God self-control as we read through the list tonight is the last in the fruit of the spirit but I think we would all agree tonight that it is certainly not least, not the least important fruit of the spirit. Self-control might be last in the list because it's sort of a melting pot for the rest of the fruit or another way of saying it, it is hard to practice self-control if you do not practice love or joy or peace or patience or kindness to put it positively, the more fruit of love and joy or gentleness or whatever the other fruit are, the more of those kind of fruit that we bear than the more fruit of self-control will also be born in our life. Someone else suggested this that maybe self-control is last in line because it's last in our lives. In other words, it is one of the most difficult fruits to bear and it's easy to think about various areas in our life where that is exactly the case where our lives are out of control. It might be our thought life. So anxieties that run away with our minds, worries or fears that this or that's going to happen in our life and our mind is sort of like on a mental merry-go-round. We say we want to stop those thoughts, we want to put them to an end, we want to bring them to a halt but over and over and over and over and over and over again our minds just keep thinking about the same kind of worries, the same kind of fears, the same kind of anxieties. Our thought life is out of control or maybe it's our emotions. There might be an all-consuming passion that we have for sports. I wonder if any of you ever asked yourself this question, the same question that I asked myself, why is it that a loss by my college football team on Saturday ruins the next two days of my life? A few times I had to stop and say to myself, what craziness, let me just college football, but that's how much I love it. Maybe it's a bit out of control. And then there's, of course, the actions that we perform that seem out of control at times. I can't seem to control my spending or live within my means. I can't control my tongue, James, after all, says, who can tame the tongue? I can't do it. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison, it seems out of control. People are gone just as with the other fruit of the spirit, the answer for growth with this fruit is the gospel. This of all the fruit, we might say, well, isn't this just a matter of controlling our self? I mean, it's self-control after all, isn't what I'm to do just to learn how to control myself. And we want to say tonight, well, maybe that's part of it, but we need the Holy Spirit to help us grow in this fruit, and we need the gospel to help us grow in this fruit. It is not just a matter of saying no. If we were that simple, a lot more of us would find our lives to be under control. But it's also learning to say yes to the truths of the gospel and the cross. So two things we're going to think about tonight when it comes to self-control. First of all, the particulars, maybe we could say the pieces or the parts, another way of saying it is what is self-control, and then secondly, how do we go about practicing it? What are some things we can do to practice self-control better? First of all, what is it? Let me give you a few things tonight. First of all, self-control is not so much a matter of control as it is a matter of order. Let me say that again. Self-control is not so much a matter of control as it is a matter of order. Paul brings us to our minds here in 1 Corinthians 9. This passage we read about running the race or about boxing and beating our bodies. Paul uses the images of games, athletes, stadiums, and the like to describe the Christian life. And he uses it here with the Corinthian church because they would have been so familiar with this. After all, they lived where the Olympic games were held. And so part of their common cultural life was to see the games, to observe the games, to participate in the games. And Paul says, all those who are athletes, all those who participate in the games, they go into strict training. Look what he says, verses 24 and 25, 1 Corinthians 9, do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize, so run that you may obtain it, every athlete exercises self-control in all things. Notice the absolutes, every athlete who is training exercises self-control, and he or she does it in all things. It's not some of the athletes, it's not self-control in a few things. Athletic training is discipline across the board. It is not Saturday only where the athlete kind of takes a bunch of days off during the week and says, we all get around to it on my day off and I hope I can win the race. It doesn't train that way. It's not training with a spare time, you have in the day after you've done everything else. Just go to work, eat, do everything else. I have to do during the day and if I find a little time at the end of the day, that's when I'm going to train, it's not like that. The life of an athlete is regimented toward the games and everything in life is brought into its proper place. So an athlete gets the right amount of food, gets the right amount of rest, right amount of exercise, repetitions, sleep patterns, the amount of sleep that an athlete gets, all of these things tries to put into the proper place. David Murray in his book Reset has a whole chapter, I believe, on sleep and says, world class athletes, nine hours of sleep, getting just the right amount of sleep so they can perform the best that they're able. And people look at this is what self-control is all about. One author said it like this, self-control is the ability to avoid excesses and to stay within reasonable bounds. It is about keeping things in our life in the right order. You see, it's over desires that run away and rule our lives and self-control biblically is about not letting things get to that over desire mode. Self-control is about wanting the most important things the most. The less important things, less the least important things, least, exercise is good but too much or too little is a problem. Food is good, too much or too little is trouble. It's ordering things into the right categories and self-control is the ability to see and choose the most important things in life over the urgent. It's not so much a matter of control as it is a matter of order. Second self-control is not so much a matter of the will as it is an issue of the heart. And this, of course, goes against our common thinking. We so often assume that self-control is all about willpower, about controlling yourself. You just have to put your mind to something. Just buckle down, just choose the right behaviors and then you will find self-control. Maybe you saw it just a couple of weeks ago that Tiger Woods was asked the question about his son who has gotten into golf. This asks this question, do you think that your son is going to surpass you as a golfer? Tiger Woods responded and said, well, it depends how badly he wants it. Now that's not true if golfing is just a matter of self-discipline. But it is more true if it is also becoming a good golfer as a matter of desire. And people have got the same thing as true when it comes to self-control. Self-control is not just a matter of disciplining yourself. It is a matter of discipline, but it is also an even more a matter of the desires of our heart. Paul puts it this way, every athlete exercises self-control in all things and they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. Why does an athlete order his life in the way that he or she does? Getting the right amount of sleep, getting the right amount of exercise, doing just the appropriate amount of repetitions. And Paul says they do it to get a wreath or a crown. In his day, of course, it wasn't some kind of a golden crown. It was a wreath made of plants woven together. That would be placed upon the winner's head. Everything else is subordinate to that desire. The desire to binge on chocolate, subordinate to the wreath to the crown, the desire to cheat on reps, subordinate to the wreath to the crown. Self-control, you see, is a matter of having our hearts gripped by the highest passions. Not just by raw will, but by the deepest affections, by a greater love. It's not a matter of just setting our minds to things. See, if I just set my mind to it, I can bring my life into order, but in many respects, it's a matter of having our hearts stolen so that our hearts are set on the right things. It's a great passage that teaches us this principle back in Genesis 29. The story of Jacob working in Laban's house to get a wife. He's in love with Rachel, and you know how the story goes. He works for seven years. He thinks he's going to get Rachel, and he ends up getting Leah. And so Laban says, you're going to have to work another seven years for Rachel. Genesis 29.20 says this about Jacob. It says, he serves seven years for Rachel, but they seem to him but a few days because of the love he had for her. Seven years, 14 years, working, working, working, working, working for her, the seven years seemed like a week because he loved her so much. His heart was set on her, and so laboring for Laban seemed small. That's what happens when our heart is captivated by the right thing, and when our heart is captivated by Christ, by his gospel, then what God calls us to do with our life seems small, and that brings us to the last thing about this matter of self-control and what it is that there's only one ultimate passion that can give us the right sense of order in life. Again, Paul's words in verse 25, we are aiming for an imperishable crown. Others translations put it like this, we're aiming for a crown that lasts forever. We're not aiming for a wreath, we're aiming for a crown that Jesus is going to give us. You get asked on, I, what is that crown? Is it an individual heavenly reward that we're expecting Jesus to grant to each of us? Well, it could be, but that's not really the context here. The crown is something different. Paul and the verses before we read here in chapter 9, verses 19 and following, talks about his ministry, and he says, though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant of all that I might win more of them. To the Jews, Paul says it became a Jew. To the weak, I became weak. And this is Paul not describing some sort of unprincipled life just trying to fit in whoever it is that he's ministering to. This point is simply this, I have become all things to all people in order to save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel that I might share in its blessings. And then he goes into those words, do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but one wins the prize. Paul's driving desire is that others would know Christ. Paul's driving passion is that they would know the joy of the gospel that he knew and that they wouldn't know Christ as he knew him. And you see, it was on the basis of that desire that he ordered his life. That he put the things in place that he put in. What's most important, what's less important, what's least important, all with this driving goal that others would know the Lord and the gospel would flourish. It's passion to see people one for Christ. And then he was careful not to preach the gospel and live in such a way that he would disqualify himself or render his gospel preaching in gospel way of life out of bounds or out of order. His life in other words was ordered by a superior love for Jesus. And that is what drove him. You might have heard the fictional story that's told about a man who gave the king a carrot and another man who gave the king a horse. So once upon a time there was a gardener who grew an enormous carrot. He took it to the king and he said, my Lord, this is the greatest carrot I have ever grown or ever will grown. And I want to present it to you as a token of my love and respect for you. The king was touched, he discerned the man's heart. And so as the gardener turned to go, the king said to him, wait, you are clearly a good steward of the earth. I own a plot of land right next to yours. I want to give it to you freely as a gift so that you can garden all of it. And the gardener was amazed. He was delighted. He went home rejoicing. And then there was a nobleman in the king's court who heard everything that was going on. And he said, my, if that's what you get for a carrot, what if I gave the king something better? So the next day the nobleman came before the king. He was leading a handsome black stallion. He bowed low. He said, my Lord, I breed horses. And this is the greatest horse I have ever bred or ever will breed. And I want to present it to you as a token of my love and respect for you. But the king discerned his heart. And he said, thank you. And he took the horse and simply dismissed him. And the nobleman was perplexed. And the king said to him, let me explain. He said that gardener was giving me the carrot. But you were giving yourself the horse. The gardener was giving me the carrot, but you were giving yourself the horse. In other words, the gardener was acting out of love for the king and what he could give. And the nobleman was acting out of a desire for getting something from the king. One's life was ordered in the right perspective, with the right desire, with the right love on top, and the other had a disordered life. Now people, God, how do we go about practicing it? If that's what self control is about, then how do we go about practicing self control? Well, let me give you one general rule and then four specific things. The general rule is this that the path to self control, as I think we've already been touching upon, is worship. It is not about simply reigning yourself in. It is not about simply trying to control the parts of your life that you think are out of control. The key is to have the right passions and to put the most important thing into the first place in our life. And of course, that is the Lord Jesus Christ. John Piper puts it simply like this. He says, what we hunger for most in life, we worship. We need to have the right order, the right kind of hunger. And self control is about being free from a worship disorder, the worship of the wrong things, and it's about recentering our life upon Christ. Do you hunger for him the most? That is where we begin. Now four practical things, all of these from chapter 10 and Israel's history and Israel's life. First of all, if the fruit of self control is going to be born in our life, we need the Bible. We need the scriptures. Chapter 10, as I mentioned, is a reference to Israel's history in verse 11 and chapter 10 goes like this. Now, these things happen to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction. What happened to Israel has been captured, it's been written down, it's found in God's Word, and that people of God is what we need. We need God's written Word, we need His special revelation. It is the Word of God which helps us center on Christ, which helps us to order the things in our life and get them in the right order. How does the Word help us to center upon Christ will help us center upon Christ because Jesus is the center of the Word? From Genesis to Revelation, as one author put it, every page Jesus is found, Jesus on every page of the scriptures. And what do we see of Christ in the Bible? Well, we see a Savior who was totally enduring, a Savior who never wavered, a Savior who kept things in order. You see this in what Jesus says as he's making his way to the cross. He said, I did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give my life as a ransom for many. If Jesus Christ came to be served, he would not have gone to the cross, but he kept things in order, in the right perspective, setting his life on serving rather than being served. Or he puts it like this, I did not come to do my own will, but to do the will of my Heavenly Father. You see the order of his life, as the gospel writers put it, as Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem. This is where I'm going towards Calvary, towards the cross, and everything else in his life submissive to the mission of giving his life as a ransom for many. And so when he was tempted, he himself used Scripture over and over again. When he was in Gethsemane, he talked about how he could call in angels to help. Jesus says, but then how would the Scriptures be fulfilled? The drinking of the cup of God's wrath, a fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy, even on the cross itself, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me, taken from Psalm 22? The Scripture was the food of Christ. And you see what the Bible does for us? The Bible keeps Christ beautiful to us. I think I mentioned this last Sunday when I was preaching that in my interview of new members, I only had one interview, what are the elders and I were interviewing a woman that's going to be joining our church. And she talked to us about her time with the Lord in the Word, and she said this to us, she says, I meet Jesus when I open the Scriptures. Then meet truth as a concept or just doctrine in the Scriptures. Yes, all of it is there, but she said, I meet Jesus. It's the person of Christ. And you see when you meet the person of Christ in the Word of God, it's God's Word that helps us to keep things in the right order and to practice self-control. Second, practical. So we need balanced expectations. So verse 11 says, we, all now writing the Corinthians, we are those on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. Judaism thought that when the Messiah came the old age with sin and death would end and the new age with life would come. So one age would pass away and the new age would come. And Paul writes here and he says the fulfillment of the ages has come. But people of God, we have to remind ourselves where we live, that we live in the last days we do not live on the last day. The last day is coming. It's when Jesus comes and the biblical writers describe the age in which we're living it is not the last day but the last days. We are in that transitional time where the old is still there but the new is being brought in. As we said this morning, we are in that place of the already the kingdom has come but not yet the kingdom is still coming. So Jesus has come and sin has been defeated. The spirit has been given but we are still awaiting the second coming of Christ. And all the old isn't gone. That's obvious, isn't it? It's been obvious from our study of the fruit of the spirit as we engaged in thinking about the spiritual war that is a reality. We think about fighting the works of the flesh. And so you see as Christians, we ought to be neither pessimistic nor overly optimistic. Obedience is a long road. Change often takes time. And yet we do have the person and the power of the Holy Spirit. And so we ought to expect increasing godliness and holiness as we submit to the word, as we submit to the spirit. And yet we also realize that that war goes on in our life. Paul has been saying that to us as a need. The fruit of the spirit. The kind of fruit that we ought to expect to be born in our life. Love, joy, peace, patience, right on down to self control. But I say walk by the spirit and he will not gratify the desires of the flesh. If we live by the spirit, let us also keep in step with the spirit. So balanced expectations. Third community. We need the community of believers to help us practice self control. Verse 13. Verse Corinthians 10. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. The temptations to sin that we face are not unique to us. Can I go about living life thinking, well, this is a real war for me. And I'm the only one who knows about it. Paul says, no, that's not true. Wherever the temptation is to disorder your life, there are others who can relate. And there's others that we need to help walk alongside of us. We need one another. One of the things that's been impressive to me about Christ covenant my short time with you. That there is a real effort to mentor others in this church. And it's not always so formal. I just hear people talking about it. That I meet with this person and we pray together and we're growing in grace together or this person meets with me. And they're helping me to grow in the Christian life. And all of us ought to think in those kind of categories we ought to think about who are others who have gone before me that I'm learning from. And are there others who are coming behind me that I can pour into? And who are those people in your life? But you see, those are the exact kind of people that can help us in this practice of self-control. As we learn about their victories, as we learn about their struggles, as we learn about their temptations, they walk alongside of us to say, here, let me help you. Let me walk with you. Let me pray with you. Let me bring the scriptures to bear in your life and let me tell you what I have been through in my own life. Jerry Bridges says, as we are tempted to judge others for their lack of self-control in areas where we have no problems, let us remember our own areas of struggle and be charitable in our opinions. We need one another, we need community. And finally, we have to remember that God is faithful. And so, verse 13, God is faithful. And you will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, you will provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. This is amazing with every temptation that comes our way. The Bible says there is an escape route. God is faithful to provide it. And we need to look for it and take it. A way of escape that you may be able to endure endurance reminds us of Jesus, isn't it? And it takes us back to that image of racing. Jesus ran a race as well. Hebrews 12, context of that reminds us of that. It reminds us that for the joy set before him, he endured the cross, despising its shame as we said before as he faced the cross. Jesus was perfectly ordered. You see it in the struggle of Gethsemane, may the cup be taken from me, but not as I will, but as you will, Father. He faced Calvary for the joy set before him. What is his joy? I think the answer is this, we are his joy. It's the joy of seeing as people redeemed that kept Christ's face toward the cross, despising its shame. Tim Keller says this way, he says, we are Jesus, Rachel, thinking back to Genesis 29. We are his Rachel, working seven years, but it seemed like only a few days because of his love, the Christ enduring the cross, maybe seems small in one sense because of his love for us. And remembering that will help us grow in self-control. For how could we let ourselves go when Jesus loves us so much? How could we indulge ourselves when he gave up so much to save us? And as our love for him grows greater, the more we'll find the right ordering of things in our lives. It brings us back to the beginning what I said at the very start, that it is the gospel that helps us to have our lives in the right order. Reminded of this in this great hymn that we often sing, when I survey the wondrous cross, see if you can fill in the blanks. The very end, love, so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my love, so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all, let's pray. Father in heaven, we pray that you'll help us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and to grow in this area of self-control. We do think about how so often we feel out of control in our thought life, in our emotions, in our actions. And we do pray that by your grace and through your word and with the help of others, with balanced expectations, with reliance upon your faithfulness. God, we might grow in this fruit, and so, Lord, to show that we love you, because you have first loved us, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.