Summer Slump – Sermon #9 | Self Control

Live with Self-Control | Proverbs 25:28

Philippians 2:13 “it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

Self-control means control over self.

Sin is “filling a legitimate need by an illegitimate means.”

Galatians 5:1a“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.”

Romans 6:6“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.”

Self-control can stop sin before it stops you.

Romans 7:15 “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”

Romans 7:22-23 “For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but 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.”

Romans 7:24 “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?”

Romans 7:25 “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
We need self-control because there is a conflict between the redeemed spirit of the disciple of Jesus and the not-yet-unredeemed body of the disciple.

Proverbs 25:28 “Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control.”

Three Categories of Temptation:

1. Relentless enticements
2. Impulsive emotions 
3. Obsessive behaviors

1 Corinthians 6:12 “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything.” 

2 Primary Ways Self-Control Helps the Christ Follower

1. Self-control helps us not to do what we shouldn’t do.

1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

2. Self-control helps us do the good we should do.

1 John 2:6 “Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.”

James 4:17 “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.”

5 Tips to Prepare to live with Self-Control from the Holy Spirit

1. Spend time with God
2. Plan your Response for when you are Tempted

Defuse Your Anger

1. Immediately pray a targeted prayer, like “Help me LORD.”
2. Then take several deep breaths.
3. Then repeat James 1:19-20 “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.”
4. If possible, walk away.

Benjamin Franklin “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”

3. Keep a Journal

4. Avoid Temptation

5. Count the Cost of the Sin John 10:10 “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”