Walking in the Spirit: Part 8 Self-Control

Anybody. What do you think? Erica? What don't be in a rush? That's one way to be in self-control discipline. For some on the bus. It's sitting down. They have a trouble trouble with that.

Any other examples of self-control that you can think of?

Control your temper. We all have brushes with that one. Don't lie. You know, when it comes to talking about the fruit of the spirit is, we've been working through the fruit of the spirit, you know. we all have that time where

we have self control issues where, you know, we

try to fight against our humanness, right? We all have different passions, different strengths, different weaknesses. And you know, when it talks about this, it's talking about restraining some of those different passions talking about restraining, those Desires that we have sometimes. Cuz you know, we can have strong desires for really good things. But we can also have bad things in our life that we have equal desire for.

You know, we're not talking about things like, you know, if you have a real passion for God's word or a hunger to learn more, those aren't the things were talking about restraining, when were talking about restraining things were talking about restraining, the things that get in the way of our relationship with God. Those are what it's talking about here. When it talks about self-control is recognizing those things that stand between us and our, holy God, and block that relationship from being what it needs to be. And we all know that we have a fallen human nature. So we know that the only way that we can really hope to stand strong against some of these things is by the power of the holy spirit in our lives. That's what we're going to talk about today.

She knows I was studying this as I was looking at it, you know, in a lot of these fruit of the spirit leave talked about how Christ has been our perfect example of those things and it's no different here because in his Incarnation Christ, was the epitome of self-control. I mean, think about it. He is the same as God, right? He has all the power, all the knowledge over everything in the universe. But to not use it.

I mean, yeah, we saw glimpses of it when he would heal people and do things but think of how many other instances He could have used that. But he didn't. He allowed certain things to happen in certain things, do not happen because he knew it was a part of God's plan. So he did that or another example that came to mind. Was he not think about when he was tempted by Satan? You know, you could have all this. If you'll just be out of me. I'll give you this. If you just bow out of me. He didn't do it. It wasn't hard for him to resist that. So he was never tempted and he never did anything. That wasn't consistent with God's will. For him and why he had come to Earth as Believers in Christ. That is what we are striving for to be able to live our lives in perfect alignment with God's Will. And that is something that's only possible when we're walking with the Holy Spirit.

The main scripture, I want to look at for today is in 1st Corinthians, chapter 9, verses 24 through 27 if you want to follow along with me on the screen up there.

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run? But only one receives the prize. Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the game's exercises, self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way as not without aim ibox, in such a way as not beating the air, but I discipline my body and make it my slave. So that after I have preached to others. I myself will not be disqualified.

You know, our sinfulness resents and resists any sort of restrictions, doesn't it? you know, we've talked about, you know, used to be that the American dream was he know to get a job, buy a house, you know, have the 2.5 children and, you know, All those things. Anymore, it seems that the American dream has become the I can do whatever I want to do regardless of how it impacts anybody else. So regardless of anyone else is right, my rights, Trump your ride so I can do whatever.

You know why we even take it so far that we do some of those things in the name of spiritual Freedom, that we think we should have.

You know, it's one thing to acknowledge that principle of living in love, but it's another thing to really follow it and to live it out the way that God intended it. You know, Paul talks about it here and says that he followed it because he wanted to make sure that he finished his race Victorious. He wanted to not just finish his race. Well, he wanted to make sure he finished it Victorious. And you know, in this scripture, Paul's tying into something that people are very familiar with in society. Their, you know, the Greeks were famous for their athletic contest. You know, if you read it, it says there were two main ones that they had and one of them we still have the Olympic Games. And we still see that happen. But, you know, back in the day. They had some pretty strict requirements for that for you to be able to compete in any of these games. You had to have proof of 10 months of rigorous training, which I don't know what your proof was for that, but you had to have proof of that. And then, when it was seen that, you met those criteria, then the athletes who were going to participate had to, basically kind of go into this camp for a month, prior to the games where they would have to participate in these strict daily workouts to show that they were in the physical shape that they needed to be to participate in these games. And that's what they would do. They would spend all their time training for these things.

And yes, they usually lived a life where some benefactor was supporting them, but it wasn't like the athletes of the day who are multi-millionaires and those things. You usually they were doing this at Great personal cost to themself.

The one of the biggest events in one of the biggest attractions of the games was the race.

And you know, Paul uses this figure to illustrate the Christian Life. It says those who run in a race all run, the only one receives the prize. You know, no one would train that hard and devote, you know, practically all day everyday to training for a race. If they weren't intending to Win It. I don't think anyone usually starts out in that sort of thing, you know, wanting to get S planning to get S planning to lose.

Yeah, out of the large number of Runners who ran every time one person would win?

You're a great difference between those races in the Christian race. Is that every Christian who will pay the price of careful training can win?

And we do not compete against each other, like we would in a sporting event like that, but we compete against the obstacles. You'll be competing against the Practical, the physical, and the spiritual that would hinder us from reaching our goal from winning our race. Those are what we're competing against.

Ian a sense, every Christian runs his own race so that enables each and everyone of us to be a winner. Each and every one of us can win that prize of Salvation, if we run our race and give her life to Christ. But an even bigger reward that can be there is that when we run that race the right way. When we live our life, like God intended it, we can become a part of winning more. Souls to Christ. Which is really the intention God has for all of us. That's why Paul is counseling Believers to run in such a way that not only might you win. Set aside all those things that could hinder you from fully receiving the gospel and they could hinder others from fully hearing the gospel.

Cuz what he's trying to tell the Corinthian Church is that they were saying they were passionate for God. With the way that they live in were living their lives at that time was saying something different to the society around them. So the problem was he know they could say they were doing all these things, but they were severely limiting their Witness. By the way that they were living there, daily life. Does he know they refused to give up some of the rights and the freedoms? They really enjoyed even though those things were contrary to what they were trying to Proclaim as a Christian.

And they wondered why? You know, even though they did all these great things they won few. To Salvation in Jesus Christ, but it was because they were living something different. And you know, In this passage Paul's essentially asking if the Olympic athletes can exercise such great discipline and self-control in all their things in order to run a race, well and be victorious. Why can't we as Christians? If they can devote so much of their time and energy to training so that they can win. Why can't we work that hard to do the same thing?

And, you know, it's kind of funny to me the prize that they often. When they ran those races and won, it was a little evergreen wreath, that you know, they could wear on their head and all that. me, if you think about that evergreen wreath, I mean What would that cost? You know, I mean, how insignificant is that? But yet, it wasn't what the value of that wreath actually was it was what it symbolized. Even if you were going off the dollar amount of what that wreath was worth. I don't think these people would have put all that time and training into it. It was what that wreath symbolized. Is it often meant that after that point, you know, it's almost like those people who won those events were, you know, immortalized by the people, they were set up on this pedestal. They almost live the life of my hero after that. Simply because they outran, everyone else.

But that's what they were running for. They weren't running for that actual little Pine wreath. They were running for The Prestige of it, for everything else that came along with it for the lifestyle, but it would afford them if they want.

And you know, is Paul's talking about this and

giving this example to people, you know. if you think about it, even if they won that race, even if they were given all these things. As a reward. It didn't last forever.

Yeah, they would be popular and think about Olympic athletes. Now. He know they might win something at the games. But we hear much about them for years later at the next one.

Even the next year, after the Olympics. Do you hear a whole lot about a lot of those athletes know? We don't We move on other things happened. So, you know, he was trying to use this as an example to point out to people how even though, we might try to immortalize those people as our heroes for what they've accomplished in those games. It was all still temporary. And as Christians, we should realize what we're trying to run our race for is something that is much more permanent. That is something that can truly be eternal.

Cuz you know as Christians we are running our race for some little Pine wreath. we're running our race so that we can live our life as God intended it and the truth is from that moment that we've all given our life to Christ. We have immortality from that point already. So we don't have to continue to worry about that. We have it from that point forward. We run then to receive a crown of righteousness. In the Lord, is the only one who can be the judge of who is worthy after running that race. And you know, it says we will receive our reward on that day and 2nd Timothy that day when we stand face-to-face with our Lord. 1st Peter 1:4 says that, you know, we run to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away. Reserved in heaven for you. Now, that's a prize worth worth running for, isn't it? That's a prize worth making some sacrifices. That's a prize that is worth spending some time training for

But, you know, just as we said, you know, for those athletes who spent all that time and energy training. It required some self-control.

Especially some of our wrestlers know this. Well, if you're going to make weight, you have to show a little self-control, you know, only three trips to the buffet, right? Trevor instead of four. You have to show self-control as an athlete in order to make your body, do whatever you want it to do in that next upcoming athletic season. You can't just indulge everything you want to? Now for the lineman, it might be a little different than some of the others. They can indulge a little bit more than some of us, but You know, you still have to stick to a strict regimen.

You know, it's a Christian if we're going to be successful and not just living our Christian life, but in witnessing to others, it's the same. What? We have to realize that there are things and desires that we want that or good. There's things that are not so good in our life. None of it's going to happen without a certain measure of self-control and discipline. Your every good thing. We accomplished weather in learning business, artistic skill, marriage, Spiritual Living, witness sports, or whatever is accomplished through discipline and self-control. That's an important thing for us to remember, it's important thing for us to teach the Next Generation generation.

You know, and I think about is, I was thinking about this and I was thinking about athletes. I wasn't even thinking about the success of our own a football team that I remembered when we lived in Eastern Kentucky, little small High School similar to the size of our high school here. Shelby Valley High School. We had a kid Elijah. Just as his mom was secretary at the elementary school. The kids went to but he ended up winning Mr. Basketball for the state of, Kentucky. And that's pretty exceptional for a guy who's a 58, white guy.

But he won that and not because he always scored the most points, he won mr. Basketball that year because he set the record in a cyst and in Steel. And it was really kind of a neat thing cuz the way Kentucky does their State basketball tournament as they have four classes, and then they went and they won the like single a championship for basketball, but then they have a Tournament of Champions and they come back and you know, the champions from all four levels play each other and they actually ended up winning that too. so, Very highly acclaimed. And you know, a lot of people thought, oh, because of that. I got to get my kid in AAA you like Elijah was every year cuz you know, But you know, I always thought about that and I thought, no, I know the reason that that kid won mr. Basketball. Cuz there wasn't one single morning that I wouldn't drive by the holler that he lived in. That he wasn't running up and down that mountain with a weighted flak jacket on and ankle weights and weights in his hands every day. No matter what the weather was, no matter anything. He would always run all the way down the mountain and all the way back up to his house. Go to school that day before I went to bed every night. Guess what? He did. He ran down that mountain and back up. It, it didn't matter if he had practice, didn't matter. If he had a game that day. He still went home and did that. Not like, man, that takes dedication, that takes some self-discipline. And as I read this, and thought about these athletes, I thought that's why that kid won mr. Basketball. Because he was so self-disciplined and what he did, that's what got him there.

And you knows, you look at that and this we look at it, you know, for those of us who have less self-control and we can't even get ourselves to, you know, get on a treadmill once a day. That's kind of a rebuke to us of how, you know, you could do a little bit more. but, you know, we should also feel that way sometimes in our Christian walk of We could probably be a little more self-disciplined in it. We could probably show a little more self-control, you know, we could probably spend a little more time reading our Bibles. We could probably spend a little more time in prayer. If we really want to achieve the things that we say, we want to achieve as a believer in Christ.

You know, Elijah had purpose in his running, he ran up and down that mountain because he wanted to be the best basketball player. He could be when Paul's talking here, Paul had purpose in his running. Paul wanted to be the best Christian, he could be, he wanted to be the best witness for Jesus Christ that he could be. That's why I'm verses 19 to 22 there. You know, he states that goal four times. His goal was to win as many people to Jesus Christ as possible. By whatever means he had to be to do it.

He wasn't setting limitations on that. He was pushing himself to be whatever he could be, and do whatever he could do to win more people to Christ. And then it kind of changes up the metaphor on us from running the boxing. Talking about that, you know, he's not just beating the air. He's fighting in such a way as to win. But he Compares it saying that, you know, we are fighting a real fight and we need to realize that. That's why another books. You know, he challenges us to fight the good fight.

No polls telling us. I'm not just doing this to work up a sweat.

I'm telling you that as a Christian. I realize that I am engaged in a real battle each and every day and it takes self-control and self-discipline for me to be able to win that battle. You know, Paul understood that a substantial part of the battle was against his own sinful nature. And that's something we have to understand. Yeah, so often we like to blame a lot of the battle we have in our life on external circumstances, which sometimes it is its things beyond our control. A lot of the things that were fighting. Are because of our own sinful nature and we need to recognize that and put the effort into it. That's why Paul says I Buffett my body and make it my slave. You know, if you look at that word, buff, it, or the word that was a translated that, you know, what it means. It means to give yourself a black eye.

So Paul is essentially saying that if I have to I will beat myself enough to give myself a black eye.

So that I can know that I am ready to do what God has called me to do. That's how far he was willing to go. When Paul put his body into subjection, or Into Slavery, to his mission of winning souls for Christ.

How many of us are that dedicated? Now, how many of us are willing to put on that flak jacket and run every morning?

you know, most people including many Christians are Instead of making our lives in our body is a slave to that mission of winning people to Christ. We are a slave to our bodies. Where is slave to only what our bodies want from us? What brings them? Joy and pleasure? And we basically let our bodies. Tell our minds what we need to do. Instead of us having that self-discipline in that self-control, you know, our bodies decide when we eat and what to eat and how much to eat and went to sleep. And when to get up and you could go on and on with different things. We don't allow the mission. To be what drives this. We allow just our human nature to be what drives us. That's so much of what we've fallen into.

But, you know, Paul's just reminding us that if we want to compete at a high level, you can't do that. And that's what he uses to this example of an athlete to draw out of us. You know, we have to realize that were in a real battle with the things of this world. And if we want to be able to compete with the things of this world, at a high level and actually have a chance at winning at impacting, those things. We have to show this level of self-control, we have to make ourselves.

Basically, we have to let it all be about the mission in what God wants. Not just what we want. Not just what our bodies want. You know, Paul trained rigorously because he didn't want his lack of training to disqualify. Him from being able to win, others to Christ.

You know, Paul didn't wanted to be. It was all on him. Cuz he know he's using another metaphor from the games there because if at any point during that month, when the athletes are going through this rigorous training, if they can't complete it, then they were disqualified. They were sent home. They were kicked out of the games. They didn't even get a chance. Because they couldn't meet the standards. Soap, all saying the same thing for his own life here. He doesn't want it to be that he can't be a witness for Jesus and he can't win people to Christ because he doesn't meet the standards anymore.

So that's why he works so hard to train his mind and his body and just all of his life cuz he wants to be able to do whatever he can to win other people.

And you know, that's what we need to be thinking about. You know, that we have to be willing to pay that price, whatever it is. The train ourselves to be ready. Cuz we see it every day in the world around us, that the world is always competing for every aspect of our attention and our lives. And if we want to, that's the easy way to go.

But if we truly want to live a life, that honors God it takes a lot of hard work.

Cuz, you know, even good things can get to a point where they begin to interfere. With our ability to pursue what God wants for us. And we have to make that the priority.

And just because our society says certain things are good and right and okay and legal. Doesn't mean they're the best things for us. And we have to be using God and God's word as our standard for how we're going to live our life. The Christian race is ran victoriously by those who are prepared to be used by God Whenever Wherever and however, God chooses to use them. We've got to be ready. We don't know when the next opportunity will come that will get a chance to be a witness to God for somebody. You never know. Sometimes those opportunities are the most unexpected. It makes me think about Wednesday night, you know, we had a kid who is being a little disruptive here at Wednesday night. So, Bryce. Tried to take him up there. then he was just distracting everybody saying hey everybody raise their hands if they want to see me do this, you know, and to finally Bryce, send him down to my office and he came and sat in my office with me and The neat thing was, we had a good theological conversation. Never would have thought it, but we did. And that's just one of those unexpected things right there. But we have to be ready to have those conversations with people to be able to talk about those things.

And I think God gives all of us, a lot of those opportunities every week. But we aren't prepared for him. So, we have to find that self-control that self-discipline within us to be able to train and to be ready.

Please bear with me in prayer.

Heavenly father, I pray for all of us. That is free. Go through our next week. Lord, that you open our eyes to those opportunities Lord, that you are giving us to be a witness for you. But Lord, I help peel also help us to see those things in our lives. That are hindering us from running our race as well as we should be able to.

Lord those things in our life that don't necessarily glorify you. Or Lord those things that simply distract us. From you Lord help us to see those things. Not help us to put those things aside help us to put them behind us as we focus solely. On you and on the mission of living our life for you to win others. To that Eternal reward of living in heaven with you. We pray the song, your most. Holy name. Amen. Nautica.

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