Back to Home Page

ABOUT US

MINISTRIES

TEACHINGS

NEWS

TEACHINGS TO VALLEY VIEW COMMUNITY CHURCH

Living Inside Out

12/16/2007 - Self-Control, Galatians 5:22-23

In his book called So, You Want to be like Christ? Chuck Swindoll opens his chapter on self-control with this story.

"One night I was sitting up late, relaxing in our family room and watching SportsCenter when the thought hit me, 'That half-gallon of ice cream is just going to get old sitting over there in the freezer, and that would be such a waste. I think I'll just have a few bites and rescue it from freezer burn.'

"So I took the half-gallon container of Rocky Road out of the freezer (no need to dirty a clean dish!) and sat down with a spoon. I ate it all. In fact, I emptied it before SportsCenter was over. But it gets worse. I micro waved the last part and drank the little bits that get caught around the seams of the container. Like I said, I hate wasting ice cream.

"Suddenly, I realized that the kids were sure to notice that the ice cream was gone. They would never have noticed a missing ten-pound roast or half a turkey, but no one in our family could get away with eating more than his or her fair share of ice cream. So I quietly sneaked out to my car, drove to the store, bought a new half-gallon of Rocky Road and carefully placed it right where the other one had been.

"I was in the clear. At least I thought, except for one tiny detail. I forgot that one of our kids had eaten a little bit out of the top of the other container. Busted! When they saw it they let me know, in no uncertain terms, that they knew exactly what I had done. The whole family got a charge out of that one."

Can any body relate to that story? Has any body here ever micro waved the seams? That's a new one for me. I've never done that before, but I might think about it next time!

Self-control. We all struggle with it don't we? We all probably wish we had more self-control when it comes to eating or drinking or talking or exercising or parenting or spending or controlling our temper or taming our sexual impulses. You name it. And we know that a lack of self-control in anyone of those areas can get us busted. We've been there. But hey we're only human, right? Well yes and no.

I find it encouraging knowing that even the great apostle Paul struggled with self-control. Here's a man who was beaten, stoned, starved, shipwrecked, imprisoned, called a devil one minute and a god the next, a man who ultimately gave his life for the kingdom of Christ yet struggled with self-control his whole life.

At least that's what he admits in Romans 7. Listen to his great confession inverses 15-25, I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do... ¹⁸I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing... ²¹So I find this law at work. Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²²For in my inner being I delight in God's law, ²³but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. ²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Wow! Paul's got issues doesn't he? That's quite a confession by a man who in many ways sets the gold standard for what it means to live inside out. If you didn't track with all that, let me give you the short version. It's this, "I'm really messed up and I need major help!"

And I'm so glad that Paul had the guts to come clean and admit that, because I feel the same way many times in my attempts to follow Christ. The things I want to do I don't do and the things I don't want to do I do. And the truth is we're all really messed up by the sinful nature that wars inside us. We all need major help. Paul's not alone. I'm not alone. You're not alone. And the good news is that we haven't been left alone in our struggle with sin. Thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

This morning we wrap up our fall series called Living Inside Out with the final virtue listed by Paul in Galatians 5:22-23. It's the virtue of self-control.

Galatians 5:22-23, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self-control.

Self-control. It's the last virtue on the list, but in many ways it's the most important one of all because without self-control we'll have a hard time staying connected to the vine which is what allows the Spirit of God to live through us. Without self-control we'll have a hard time showing the love of Jesus to others which is the mark of a Christ follower. Instead, we'll be totally self-absorbed caving in to the desires of the sinful nature that also lives inside us.

And so in a sense we've come full circle in this series. Remember in our very first teaching we talked about the conflict that goes on within each one of us. In fact, if you have a Bible turn with me to Galatians 5:16 , So I say to you, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. ¹⁷For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.

Sounds a lot like Paul's confession in Romans 7, doesn't it? And here's what a life looks like that is lived under the unbridled impulses of the sinful nature. Look at verse 19, The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Wow, that's quite a list! It reads like this week's lineup on the Jerry Springer show! But the good news is that we don't have to live like that anymore. We've been set free from bondage to that sinful nature. It need not run or ruin our lives. Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

As believers in Christ we've been rescued, saved from a messed up life that leads to our own destruction. We now have God's life pulsating inside us through the Holy Spirit and he wants us to live that life inside out. That's what we've been talking about for weeks now. And when we do we get the fruit of the Spirit. We enjoy a quality of life that reflects Christ to this world. We are empowered to continue the mission that Jesus started when he was here which is why I like what Tom Wright says about the necessity of the Spirit in his book Simply Christian.

"The Holy Spirit is given so that ordinary mortals like us can become, in a measure, what Jesus himself was: part of God's future arriving in the present; a place where heaven and earth meet; the means of God's kingdom going ahead. The Spirit is given, in fact, so that the church can share in the life and continuing work of Jesus himself, now that he has gone into God's dimension - that is, heaven … Without God's Spirit, there is nothing we can do that will count for God's kingdom. Without God's Spirit, the church simply can't be the church."

Are we only human? Of course we are. We're ordinary mortals and we're always going to struggle with the sinful nature within. But in some mysterious, supernatural way the Spirit of God also lives inside us. And one of his trademark virtues is self-control. We have the capacity through the Holy Spirit be live self-controlled, disciplined lives. In fact, that's where God wants to lead all of us. Thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

The Greek word for "self-control" that Paul uses here literally means "the strength to hold yourself back." The word isn't used a lot in the New Testament. In fact, it's only used two other times. Once in Acts 24:25 where we read the story of Paul standing before a Roman governor named Felix in a town called Caesarea.

Several days later Felix … sent for Paul and listened to him as he spoke about faith in Christ Jesus. As Paul discoursed on righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, "That's enough for now! You may leave."

Apparently, Felix didn't like the sermon on self-control! That's it, Paul, you're done! I'm sure he wasn't real excited about righteousness or coming judgment either. And a few verses later we read that that interaction cost Paul another two years in the slammer. Ouch!

The other use of the word is found in 2 Peter 1:6 where Peter writes, Make every effort to add to your faith, goodness, and to goodness, knowledge and to knowledge, self control and to self-control, perseverance.

Now what I want you to notice in this passage is that phrase make every effort. I want you to see that phrase because throughout this series we've said again and again that living inside out is not about our own efforts. It's not about biting the bullet and trying harder to be like Jesus. And I really believe that's true. It's not.

Yet there is effort involved, but the effort is not to produce these fruits ourselves. We can't do it. Remember, we're messed up and we need help. These are the fruits of the Spirit, not the fruits of our own effort. In fact, even in this passage Peter acknowledges that when he writes in verse 3, His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

The effort we make comes from a higher power. It doesn't come from ourselves. It comes from God. And it's not the effort to produce the fruits. It's not like this week I'll work on love and next week on joy and the next week on peace. No. Instead, it's the effort we make to put ourselves in places or take ourselves out of places so that God can produce these fruits in us. Just like a gardener can't make a tomato plant produce tomatoes. But the gardener can choose to take the plant out of the pot and put it in the ground and fertilize it and water it and weed it and prune it and give it every opportunity to yield a crop. And that takes effort.

You made an effort to be here this morning. You dragged yourself out of bed on a cold Sunday morning when you could have slept in. You got yourself dressed and drove over here because being with the Valley View community, worshipping, and listening to teaching is important to you and is part of what God is using to slowly transform your life. Hopefully, you're seeing these fruits being produced by the Spirit of God. "Attending church" is not an end in itself. It's the means to the end of becoming "in a measure, what Jesus himself was."

One of my favorite articles on self-control was written by a man named Henri Nouwen. He's with the Lord now. But in his article called "Moving from Solitude to Community to Ministry" he writes this.

"The word discipleship and the word discipline are the same word - that has always fascinated me. Once you have made the choice to say, 'Yes, I want to follow Jesus,' the question is, 'What disciplines will help me remain faithful to that choice?' If we want to be disciples of Jesus, we have to live a disciplined, self-controlled life.

"In the spiritual life, the word 'discipline' means 'the effort to create some space in my life in which God can act.' Discipline means to prevent everything in your life from being filled up. Discipline means that somewhere you're not occupied, and certainly preoccupied. In the spiritual life, discipline means to create that space in which something can happen that you hadn't planned on or counted on."

In the article he goes on to talk about three disciplines that put us in a place where God can work in our lives … solitude, community, and ministry. We've talked about two others this morning, one is giving and one is Scripture reading. These are all disciplines that put us in a place where God can make something happen in our lives that we hadn't planned on or counted on. And the Spirit of God is the one who makes that happen.

This week I was talking to two people from our church community who know a little something about self-control. They've both been in recovery for alcohol addiction for years and I asked them if they would write down some of their thoughts on self-control and where it comes from and how it has set them free from the bondage of an addiction that almost took their lives. And when I did they jumped at the chance to share their thoughts and I want to close by reading some their words to you.

"We could talk forever about 'self-control' and how it relates to addiction, but we'll try to keep it short and to the point. Anyone in an active addiction has no willpower whatsoever, for us it was drinking. The first drink that I take starts the phenomenon of 'craving' more. I can want to not drink all I want, but the addiction is more powerful than I am.

"Once I take that first drink, I am powerless to stop until 1) I run out of money; 2) I pass out; 3) I end up in jail. We always ended up doing exactly what it was we didn't want to do in the first place. We were 'powerless.' Once we admit that, we've taken Step One in the Twelve Step recovery process. We don't have the power to stop, so where does the power come from?

"After not drinking for a period of time, we begin to develop a faith in something that we can stay away from the addiction that has driven our lives for so long. The faith that we develop is imperative to our recovery, as it begins to teach us that left to our own devices, we will continue to fail over and over again.

"A large number of people early in recovery make AA their 'Higher Power,' because it has kept them sober. Please note that I have not yet mentioned God. It's a 'faith' in something, anything, that's greater than ourselves. Once again, left to our own devices, we'll drink, drug, gamble, eat or do whatever our addiction is. Over time, we begin to notice that we're not drinking any longer, and it's because God has begun to develop the fruit of self-control in us. This is Step Two.

"Now that we begin to believe that this 'Higher Power' can help us not drink a day at a time, we're at a turning point in our recovery process. Alcoholics, upon stopping here, will drink again. At this point, however, most alcoholics begin to feel that God is developing the fruit of self-control within us, and we want more! We make a decision to turn our will and lives over to the care of God as we understand him at that point. This is the beginning of a faith that works. The rest of the steps are a journey towards getting closer to God and 'right living.'

"In my Recovery Bible, I love how it talks about self-control. It first leads us to Galatians 5:16-17, which talks about the constant battle within us, between our way and God's way. If we're living in the Spirit, then he will produce the fruits we have been studying about. It goes on to say that self-control is not will power. It is not something we get by gritting our teeth and forcing ourselves to 'just say no.' Self-control is called a fruit. Fruit doesn't instantly pop out on a tree. As the tree grows and seasons pass, the fruit naturally develops. As we continue to follow God's guidance, taking one step at a time, our self-control will gradually grow. Our job is to stay connected to God. It is the Holy Spirit's job to produce the fruit of self-control in our life."

The email then goes on to talk about 2 Peter 1, the passage we read earlier and finally concludes by saying, "That's our short version. Let me know if you're interested in the long version. We'd be more than happy to share it with you also. Thanks for asking."

My friends, addictions are powerful and they come in all shapes and sizes. Addictions are no respecter of persons and anything in our lives, alcohol, drugs, work, exercise, sex, food, shopping, you name it can become an addiction. But I believe that there is no addiction that can't be conquered by the divine power that lives inside us if, like the apostle Paul, we admit we're powerless, put our faith in that higher power which for us is Jesus, and stay connected to the vine.

I am the vine, Jesus said. You are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. But apart from me you can do nothing.

FOR MORE INFORMATION about Valley View Community Church, feel free to contact us at info@valleyviewseek.org or call 610.631.2707.