The Fruit of the Spirit: Self-Control

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

The Fruit of the Spirit: Self-Control

I. Introduction

A. So many today want to be the natural athlete, the guy who has the glory of winning without putting in the hours of training.  There is no such great athlete.

B. Katie Ledecky – Social Sacrifices for Swimming As a teenager, Katie Ledecky became an Olympic champion, but it came at a cost. While her peers went to parties and slept in on weekends, she was up at 4:00 a.m. for practice—sometimes swimming 8 miles before school. She once said she could count on one hand the number of sleepovers she went to in high school. It’s a picture of giving up short-term fun for long-term achievement.

C. Michael Phelps – Relentless Training Before becoming the most decorated Olympian in history with 23 gold medals, Michael Phelps trained six days a week, every week, for years. His coach said Phelps swam 365 days a year, because he believed missing one day meant it took two days to get back on track. This meant no late nights, strict diet, and sacrificing much of his social life during his teens and twenties. His example shows that sustained excellence requires the willingness to say “no” to many good things.

D. David Goggins – Mental Discipline Beyond Limits Though not a pro in a single sport, Goggins (Navy SEAL & ultra-endurance athlete) is known for running 100+ miles in one race, pushing through broken bones and injuries. He credits his success to mental discipline—controlling the mind to push the body further than it wants to go. Lesson: Victory often comes from mastering the mind, not just the muscles.

II. Self-Control begins with purpose (24)

A. Running analogy –

1. All the runners run – some better than others, but only one will be the winner

2. Don’t take the illustration too far – He is not saying that there will only be one Christian believer who rises to the top

3. His analogy is for all of us to run like that one person.  We are to be serious about the race we are running in life as believers

B. In the end, the prize is that we ran the race well.  We ran the race to win.  We ran in a way that honors Jesus Christ

C. So, run that you may obtain it! - As believers this should be our top priority

D. Application       

1. Do you have your eye on the prize?

2. In races today you get a medal at the end just for running it.  Honestly, you pay for that medal with you registration fee

3. For Paul the prize wasn’t just getting to go to heaven someday.  That was for the novice. The novice just wants to cross the finish line so that he can show all his friends and tell them he is a runner

4. But, for the champions, that medal means nothing. They have a much greater prize in mind. They want to win the race

5. All of us can have that attitude towards our salvation – that we want to cross the finish line having given everything

6. It is how Christ finished for us – Hebrews 12:1-2

III. Self-control demands precision (25-26)

A. Every athlete – literally “Everyone who strives” – He is talking about the ones who are serious.  In this analogy it is the serious athlete who is preparing to compete and win

B. Exercises self-control – This is the same word for self-control in the fruit of the Spirit

C. They must exercise self-control in all things

1. An athlete must monitor everything in their life if they want to be the best: sleep, food intake, not just calories, but macros, training time, social outings, making time for game videos.  Their lives are consumed by being the best at their craft

2. Paul is doing the same thing – His entire life is centered around being holy, faithful, and a gospel soul-winner and church planter. When faced with persecution he doesn’t withdraw but goes forward and disciplines himself to endure. He is in the word regularly. He is looking for every opportunity to share Christ

D. Motivation

1. Why do they do it? – To receive a perishable crown – The laurel wreath made of plants and flowers.  It would last a day or two.  Even the glory they obtain lasts but a while

2. We do it for an imperishable – We have been saved eternally.  We have been given new life in Christ. We have been given a righteousness that is not our own.  We have been given the Holy Spirit. These things are forever and perfect

3. If they will work so hard and consider every aspect of their lives, why should we?

E. With this in mind Paul describes the precision of his training

1. He doesn’t run aimlessly – a good runner determines his course. He knows how many miles he must run each day. He knows the days that need to be sprints and the days that need to be hills. In the same way we must work daily exercising self-control to become more like Christ

2. I do not box as one beating the air

a. New metaphor - boxing

b. The boxer doesn’t just box the air. He works on a bag and then a speed bag.  He works on his stance and his footwork. He is exercising self-control over his training so that when he gets in the ring he is ready for whatever comes his way

F. Application

1. Our daily training of faith should be a precise exercise doing the things that will grow us in the right direction

a. We must be precise in our handling of God’s Word – Dedicating our time to studying, knowing, and applying it

b. We must know our culture and minister to it

c. We must know the needs around us and meet them

d. We must be seeking opportunities to share our faith

IV. Self-Control is mastered through preparation

A. I discipline my body – ὑποπιὰζω - To blacken an eye. Literally - to beat the body into submission, thus, to discipline. It is talking about beating the body, strike in the face, blacken the eye.

B. And keep it under control – Doing what he wants it to do – glorify God through His life.  This is how Romans 12:1-2comes about

C. Lest I myself, after preaching to others should be disqualified –

1. Paul doesn’t want his preaching to be in vain.  If he preaches it, he wants to live it

2. He is not concerned with losing his salvation

3. The idea of disqualification is continuing with the sporting illustration – No one wants to work hard and then find out they are disqualified because they didn’t follow the rules.  Paul’s concern is that he fully lives out his faith and witness

4. He will do this through constant preparation and training

D. Application

1. So are you training?  Are you seeking daily to live out your faith

2. It is not enough to simply say you are a believer.  The true believer is living out their faith

3. What would it look like if we were precise in our training, exercising self-control over everything in our lives

a. Self-control is the power behind all other fruit of the Spirit – We would exercise all of them regularly

b. We would seek to be spiritually fed by the right means – The Word of God and prayer

c. We would seek regular community with other believers for encouragement

d. We would take opportunities to share our faith

e. We would give faithfully – exercising trust in God’s provision

f. We would worship passionately

g. We would seek opportunities to do good works that glorify God

h. We would seek to help those in need

i. We would watch what comes out of our mouths knowing it reveals what is in our hearts

j. We would guard our hearts from sin

V. Conclusion

A. William Carey – Left his job as a cobbler in 1793 to go to India. He went decades with no furlough.  He was disciplined in study, translation, and preaching. He translated the Bible into multiple Indian languages, often waking before dawn to work and refusing to waste a single hour. His self-control kept him steady despite years of sickness, personal loss, and criticism.

No Freedom without Discipline

Freedom and discipline have come to be regarded as mutually exclusive, when in fact freedom is not at all the opposite, but the final reward, of discipline. It is to be bought with a high price, not merely claimed. ... The [professional] skater and [race] horse are free to perform as they do only because they have been subjected to countless hours of grueling work, rigidly prescribed, faithfully carried out. Men are free to soar into space because they have willingly confined themselves in a tiny capsule designed and produced by highly trained scientists and craftsmen, have meticulously followed instructions and submitted themselves to rules which others defined.

Source: Elisabeth Elliot in All That Was Ever Ours. Christianity Today, Vol. 32, no. 16.

God Sent You to Finish the Race

By 7 p.m. on October 20, 1968, at the Mexico City Olympics Stadium, it was beginning to darken. It had cooled down as well.

The last of the Olympic marathon runners were being assisted away to first-aid stations. Over an hour earlier, Mamo Waldi of Ethiopia had charged across the finish line, winning the 26-mile, 385-yard race looking as strong and as vigorous as when he'd started.

As the last few thousand spectators began preparing to leave, they heard police sirens and whistles through the gate entering the stadium.

The attention turned to that gate. A sole figure, wearing the colors of Tanzania, came limping into the stadium. His name was John Steven Akhwari. He was the last man to finish the marathon in 1968. His leg was bandaged, bloody. He had taken a bad fall early in the race. Now, it was all he could do to limp his way around the track. The crowd stood and applauded as he completed that last lap.

When he finally crossed the finish line, one man dared ask the question all were wondering. "You are badly injured. Why didn't you quit? Why didn't you give up?"

Akhwari, with quiet dignity said, "My country did not send me seven thousand miles to start this race. My country sent me to finish."

So it is with God. God didn't just send you to start this race. He didn't just send you to begin a noble task or a noble relationship. God sent you both to start and to finish.

Source: Craig Brian Larson, "Strong to the Finish," Preaching Today, Tape No. 155.

Heb 12:1–2

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Ro 12:1–2

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.