Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

One of the things that made Lincoln so great was his marvelous self-control.

The nation was coming apart at the seams with a civil war that had everybody's emotions operating at extremes.

To add to the tension, some army contractors were ripping off the government.

This made Lincoln very angry.

Seward, his Secretary of State wrote a scathing letter to a thieving contractor, and showed it to Lincoln.

"Not half strong enough" said Lincoln.

Seward was delighted.

He wrote another letter that scorched the paper.

"There" said the president, "that serves him right!" "Very well, Mr. President, I'll mail it at once", said Seward.

"Oh no", said Lincoln, "don't mail it, throw it into the waste basket."

Lincoln knew he could not afford to alienate any more people if he was going to win the war.

So he controlled his desire to blast those taking advantage of the situation for personal gain.

If Lincoln would have sent all the nasty letters he wrote, he probably would have lost the war.

His self-control is, in great measure, the cause of why we are a free nation.

It is not enough that Lincoln was a good man, for had he not been a self-controlled man, all his goodness could have been in vain.

This last fruit of the Spirit is not at the end, as a sign that it is the least important of the nine.

It is, in fact, essential to keep all the others from being perverted.

Every virtue can become a negative thing if it is not controlled.

Even love needs the balance that comes with self-control.

Christians are to love members of the opposite sex in Christ.

This caring, loving spirit, however, can cross the line and lead to love, not just in the spirit, but in the flesh.

The number of Christians who have crossed that line by lack of self-control are legion.

It is the fruit of self-control that tells a believer when they are getting out of balance, and letting the flesh be their guide rather than the Spirit of God.

If love can go bad because of lack of self-control, then so can all the other fruits.

Joy out of control can lead to extremes of wildness that are pagan.

Peace and patience can be so extreme that it leads to lethargy and indifference to a hurting world.

Kindness can lead one to be so sugary sweet that people gag on it, and avoid it as being superficial.

You find this once in awhile in a waiter or waitress, who you know is going overboard in sweet talk, hoping for a greater tip.

The point is, everything good can become bad if it goes to excess.

The Mississippi River is one of the best assets of our nation, but when it overflows we have the worst floods in the nation, and it is a curse.

It is a good thing out of control, and a good thing out of control is a bad thing.

That is why self-control is the key to keeping all of these fruits of the Spirit from going bad.

They never rot and go bad as long as they are linked to self-control.

The movie Jurassic Park is based on this theme.

It was an awesome world of great wonder until the control system was lost-then it became a nightmare.

The Christian life can be a world of wondrous beauty, but then it can turn ugly if self-control is lost.

History is filled with examples of the beautiful Bride of Christ becoming an ugly hag because she lost self-control.

There have been periods of history when the fruit of the Spirit dried up, and the church looked more like the bride of Frankinstein.

Great have been the numbers who have fallen because of lack of control of their sex drive.

But many more have become ugly by the loss of control of their tongue.

James 3:6 says, "the tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body.

It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell."

All of us carry a portion of hell fire around in our mouth, and if we lose control of it we can be as destructive as a fire-breathing dragon spewing out flames of gossip and slander that turn reputations to ashes in seconds.

We need to realize there are enemies ever banging at the gates of our lives, but they have little power unless we throw them the key by loss of self-control.

This last fruit is no mere caboose that can be taken off the train with no ill effects.

This final fruit is vital to keeping the whole train on the tracks.

It keeps all the other fruits fresh and appealing to both God and man.

Self-control is the inner strength that determines what external stimuli will be allowed to move you to action.

The reason Christians are motivated by external stimuli to do things out of God's will is because they lack this fruit of the Spirit.

We all know the story of David and Bathsheba.

David allowed the sight of her bathing to invade his inner life and take over the control of his actions.

His plan that evening was not to disobey the will of God, but he lost control, and let his future be planned by other forces.

In this tragic story of lack of self-control is another man who illustrates perfect self-control.

It was Uriah the Hittite, the husband of Bathsheba.

David brought him home from the battle front to sleep with his wife, so he would think the child was his own.

But Uriah was one in ten thousand, and he refused to sleep with his wife when other soldiers were out risking their lives.

David even got him drunk, but he would not change.

He was so self-disciplined David could not manipulate him by any external stimuli.

David had him murdered to get him out of the way.

Uriah was a man of such self-control he could not even be tempted by legitimate enticement to pleasure if he thought it was more noble to refrain.

Here was a soldier who was superior to his king in self-discipline.

The king let the enemy in, and he betrayed his God, his people and himself.

Here was a soldier who would be faithful to his commitments even if it meant self-denial of legitimate pleasure.

He, not David, is our example when it comes to self-control.

All Christians fight some battles in this area of self-control.

John Timmerman in his book, The Way Of Christian Living, tells of his pathetic battle with smoking.

It is a battle thousands fight, and they lose, because they lost self-control.

Like many others, he quit over and over again, but soon he would lose control and be back at it.

He writes,

"And believe me, I have tried every technique.

I have a medical journal

with full-color pictures of diseased organs!

I have a drawer crammed

with motivational literature, stop-smoking pills, nicotine chewing gum,

and other things.

It's laughable; it's sad.

Is it beyond my control?

I'll keep fighting until I find out.

I would like to tell a happy story here of how I was able to give it all up and praise the Lord.

But I can't tell that story.

Yet.

The sad fact of fallen nature is that self-control is a ceaseless battle, and we are not always victors.

Perhaps we can't defeat the problem entirely, but we can fight to control it.

This one thing is certain: if I had not started, I wouldn't have this trouble stopping."

That last sentence is the key.

If he had not lost self-control in the beginning he would not be fighting so hard to regain control of his life and habits.

The purpose of self-control is prevention.

If we prevent the enemy from getting a foothold in our life, we are free and in control of our actions.

It is easier to keep a bad habit from starting that to stop it once it gains control of your life.

It is the job of self-control to keep enemies out of your life.

Let this fruit get weak, and you are fair game for the enemy of your soul.

Self-control is what keeps the mind ever alert for the infiltration of enemy forces.

A self-controlled person is one who does a lot of self-examination.

They do not just drift and respond to whatever comes along.

They listen to their body, and if they feel a strong attraction to another person, who is not their mate, they do not add fuel to the fire and quench the Spirit, but, rather, they add the fire of the Spirit and quench the flame of lust.

They fight fire with fire.

They are honest about their lust and are determined to control it within the bounds of God's will.

Those who lose control and disobey God, often do so because they are not honest about their potential for sin and folly.

The Christian who says I know I can fall is the one most likely to avoid a fall.