Be Self-Controlled

Introduction

I invite you to please get your Bible back out again and turn back to that section of scripture that Shawn Michael just read for us from in 2 Peter chapter 1. You might want to just go ahead and go to 2 Peter chapter 1. That will be the main text that we’re going to be considering this morning in our study from God’s Word. As you turn there and get settled in, just want to say it’s so good to see you this morning. Good morning to you, my dear friends. It is a blessing to be together as God’s people to be able to worship God in the spirit and in truth. I realize that we’re living in dark times. We’re living in a dark world where awful things are happening all the time.

And it can be discouraging to us. It can make us wonder about the future and be anxious. But we are God’s people. We need to keep our heads high. We serve a great Savior, a great King. And we are serving together, and we’re in the best place we can be right now, which is in the place of worship. Worshiping God, encouraging each other, learning from the scriptures. I’m so happy that we’re here together this morning.

AC Green is a former professional basketball player. And he is remembered for three or four different things. First, he is remembered for being the Iron Man. He was the Iron Man of the NBA. In his 16 year NBA career, AC Green only missed three regular season games. He only missed three games out of 1,278. He has the record for the most consecutive games played in the regular season. He is remembered for his durability. And he’s also remembered for being a key contributor on the Los Angeles Showtime Lakers. And he’s also remembered for being a three-time NBA champion. But probably the main thing he’s remembered for the most is for being deeply religious and for maintaining his virginity until he got married at the end of his career.

That’s right, brothers and sisters. As an NBA player, AC Green maintained his virginity until the day he got married and during an ESBN interview that was conducted several years back. AC Green admitted that doing that, doing that was difficult. It was very, very difficult. It was difficult, not just because women constantly threw themselves at him because he was an NBA player, but also because his teammates knew about his virginity and they constantly made fun of him.

They constantly tried to put him in situations to compromise his beliefs and give up his purity.

Would do, he would quote Bible verses to those women and that would run them off. He will quote the Bible to them and they would run from him quick, fast in a hurry. With every woman his teammates sent his way, he would say no. He would reject them. He would make the choice to keep himself pure and fight off temptation, and he won those battles. The question is, how? How was he able to do that? How was AC Green able to maintain his sexual purity while playing in the NBA for 16 years? Well, I submit to you that the main thing that A. C. Green possessed that helped him stay true to his convictions during his NBA career was self-control. Self-control. Peter actually talks about self-control right here in these verses that Shawn Michael just read for us.

Going back to these verses that we just read in 2 Peter chapter 1, and in connection to our theme of being transformed. Remember in 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 5 through 7, we find some ingredients for spiritual transformation. We find some things that are absolutely necessary to become changed and conformed into the image of God’s son. We have learned over the past couple of months that once we have faith in Jesus Christ, we got to add to that faith virtue or moral excellence. And then we got to have knowledge. We got to have knowledge of the Word of God. And then, in addition to that, the next thing Peter mentions in this text is self-control. He says that if we want to be transformed, then we have to be self-controlled.

1. Self-Control Is Emphasized Throughout the Bible

In fact, have you ever noticed just how much self-control is mentioned and emphasized throughout the Bible? It’s all over the place. For example, consider this verse right here in the book of Proverbs. In Proverbs chapter 25 and verse 28. In Proverbs chapter 25 and verse number 28, Solomon says, like a city that is broken into and without walls is a man who has no control over his spirit. What’s Solomon talking about there? Where in order for us to really appreciate what the wise man is saying there, we need to pause for a moment or two and talk about walls. We need to talk about walls and how significant they were in the ancient world. You see, in the ancient world, walls were the primary defense of a city.

Walls would protect the citizens of a city from enemies who wanted to invade it and come against it. Walls were a big part of a city’s security, but what happens when they’re breached? What happens when they’re broken into and they fall down? What happens when a city doesn’t have walls or when a city doesn’t have walls in the ancient world? It’s vulnerable. It’s wide open, it’s unprotected. It’s not going to be very difficult to conquer the people. Walls were a big deal. In the ancient world, and Solomon’s point here is when it comes to our lives, when it comes to my life, when it comes to your life, every single day with our lives, we’re running a city. We are governing a city, and when we don’t have self-control, our lives are like a city without walls.

Our lives are not secure. They’re in a dangerous situation. They’re wide open to any and everything that the enemy who is the devil wants to throw our direction. That’s what Solomon is saying here. And we find this being practically played out throughout the Bible, right? For example, in Genesis chapter 4. Why did Cain get angry and resentful and eventually murder his own flesh and blood, his own brother Abel? And why did King David look upon Bathsheba, another man’s wife with lust, and eventually use his power and his position to have an affair with her? And why did Samson, a judge in the old testament, constantly violate his Nazarite vow and at times have uncontrolled rage and anger and could and constantly commit sexual immorality with Philistine women?

And why did even this wise man Solomon who wrote this allow heathen pagan women to lead his heart away from God and persuade him to immerse himself in idolatry? Why did these things happen? I submit to you that in all these cases, these people fail spiritually because of a lack of self-control, a lack of self-control. We find this all throughout the Bible, but not just that. Let’s also not forget just how much this is emphasized by the Apostle Paul and his teaching and preaching. For example, in Acts chapter 24 and verse 25. And Acts 24 and verse 25. Remember, Paul had the opportunity to preach to Felix. He preached to the Roman governor Felix, and the Bible says he preached to Felix about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come.

Paul talked to Felix about self-control. And then in Galatians chapter 5. In Galatians chapter 5 and in verse number 22, Paul talks about the fruits of the Spirit. And he says, the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control. And then in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 2, as Paul gives the qualifications that a man must meet in order to be an elder or a shepherd in the church, he says that one of those qualifications is a man must be temperate. The idea of being temperate there means he’s got to have self-control. The apostle Paul emphasizes this. He talks about this over and over again throughout his preaching and teaching, but not just that, think about the times in our own lives when we’ve struggled with this.

Think about the times in our own lives when we’ve lost this battle and we knew the right thing to do and we didn’t do it. Maybe we caved to a sexual sin. Maybe we allowed ourselves to become addicted to drinking or tobacco. Maybe we were greedy and we stuffed ourselves with too much food. Or we failed to control our tempers. Or we allow greed and covetousness to lead us to lying and cheating people out of money. You see, this can be a problem for us. Just like it was a problem for people we can read about in the Bible. And the question is, how do we get this? How do we acquire this? How do we obtain self-control? Well, if we’re going to obtain self-control in this process of transformation, then the first thing we got to do is we got to know what it is.

2. What Is Self-Control?

Well, what is it? What does the Bible mean when it talks about self-control? Well, self-control. Self-control involves obviously controlling yourself. It involves controlling your emotions and your passions and your desires. It involves having sound judgment and prudence. It involves not just knowing the right thing to do, but also doing the right thing. It involves having the discipline and the inner strength that helps hold you back. It restrains you. It helps you avoid just letting yourself go and just doing whatever you want to do, giving in to every desire. That’s what self-control is about. In fact, for the person who’s a Christian, for the disciple of Jesus Christ, when a disciple has self-control, you know what that means? That means God has full control. For the Christian, when they have self-control, that means God has full control, not anger, not sexual desires, not the pursuit of sex and success and money and praise from people.

3. Where Do We Need Self-Control in Our Daily Lives?

No, when people who follow Jesus have self-control, God and a desire to please Him has full control over their lives. A desire to please God gives them the discipline and the restraint and the strength from within to avoid doing what is wrong. That’s what self-control is all about, my dear friends. But the question is now is where do we need this? Where do we need self-control in our daily lives? Well, let’s start with this right here. Let’s start with our tempers. You ever get mad? You ever get mad at people? I do. I have. When I used to work in the secular world, there were days when I got mad at people on my job. There were days when I got mad at my boss or my supervisor because I didn’t like how he or she was talking to me.

There were days when I was in school, when I got mad at my teachers, and I got mad at my professors, and when I played sports, I got mad at my teammates and my coaches. There have been times I got mad at people in my family, and I got I get mad people cut me off in traffic, and I get mad people messing up my food at the restaurant, and as a commander’s fan, I get mad when people cheer for the Dallas Cowboys. And there have even been times when I’ve gotten mad at people in the church.

And I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in that kind of stuff. I’m pretty sure you felt the same way in those moments. You know what the easy thing to do is we’ve talked about in our Bible class. Let those people have it. Give them a piece of our mind. Get even with them. Shout at them. Scream at them. Try to hurt their feelings, just like they’ve tried to hurt our feelings. That’s the easy thing to do. But what did the Bible say in Ephesians chapter 4? Remember what the Bible told us in Ephesians chapter 4 and in verse number 26. In Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 26, Paul says, be angry. Not a sin to get angry. But he says, be angry and yet do not sin.

Do not let the sun go down on your anger. Do not give the devil an opportunity. There’s the answer. The Bible says that while there are times in our lives when we get angry, when we lose our tempers, that happens to us, but we still got to exercise self-control. In those moments, we got to restrain ourselves. We got to avoid allowing the devil to use our anger or our rage as a tool to lead us down a path of sin. We got to have self-control when it comes to our tempers, but not just our tempers.

You know, we live in a world right now that people have no control over their emotions. We know that. Unfortunately, we live in a world right now where when people get angry, instead of going praying about it and trying to do what’s right, what do they do? They act on it. They’ll go get a gun and shoot and kill somebody. They’ll curse somebody out. They’ll shout, they’ll scream, they’ll belittle somebody, they’ll hit somebody. People often lack self-control when it comes to their tempers, but not just that, also this, right? You know, we we have a problem with this in our culture. And so, what does the Bible have to say about that? Well, Hebrews 13 and verse 4. The Bible says that marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled.

For fornicators and adulterers, God will judge. The apostle Paul echoes that. If you go with me, please, to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. And 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. And if you look at verse number 3, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and verse 3, the apostle Paul says, For this is the will of God, your sanctification, your your holiness. That’s what God wants. That is that you abstain, you stop, you stay away from sexual immorality. Each of you know how to possess his own vessel and sanctification and honor, not in lustful passions like the Gentiles or the heathens or the pagans who do not know God. What’s Paul talking about there? He’s talking about self-control. He’s talking about controlling our sexual passions and desires and avoiding defiling our bodies with sexual immorality.

He’s talking about choosing to do what A.C. Green did. Choosing to stay pure until we’re married. Choosing not to have a baby with somebody until we are married, choosing not to have an affair with our coworker, or with an old classmate who’s trying to reconnect with us on social media, choosing not to act on that same sex attraction, choosing not to be immoral when I’m alone with my boyfriend or my girlfriend, choosing to do to not do what David did when he caved to his lust. We need self-control when it comes to our tempers and our sexual desires. And we also need it when it comes to our speech. You know, James talks about speech in James chapter 3. He talks about the tongue. He says the tongue’s got power.

The tongue’s got amazing power. He says it’s got so much power that it can defile this little bitty member can defile our whole bodies. He says it’s small, but it has the ability to burn down a forest. It has the ability to burn down people’s lives. He says it’s got to be constantly guarded, it’s got to be constantly monitored. You gotta watch your tongue at all times. It’s hard to control the tongue, and yet going back to the fruits of the Spirit, Galatians 5 22, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control. While it can be difficult to try to control the tongue. While we can allow all kinds of words to come out of our mouths, while we can use our tongues.

We can use our mouths to hurt people when they make us mad. And we can use our words to insult people and curse people and mock people and make fun of people and bully people and tear people down and tell dirty jokes while we can use our tongues to do those kinds of things. God expects us to do our best to control them. God expects us to have some sound judgment and be wise, have self-control, have self-control over our speech, and not just that. What about our eyes? Got to control those eyes too. And we’ve studied that with Jesus’ teaching, have we not? In the Sermon on the Mount? Matthew chapter 5. Remember what Jesus said? Matthew chapter 5, verse 27. Matthew 5, 27. Jesus says, You’ve heard that it was said, you should not commit adultery.

Everybody knows that’s wrong, but Jesus goes on to say in verse 28. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. It’s not enough just to not touch.

We gotta also control these things right here. We gotta control the eyes. We gotta discipline our eyes. We gotta avoid looking upon others with lust in our hearts. We gotta control what our eyes are looking at on television. We gotta control what our eyes are looking at on our on our iPhones, on our iPads, on our laptops, while we are taking a jog on the treadmill at the gym, while we’re jogging in the neighborhood, even what we’re looking at at a halftime show at a ball game. In fact, if you remember with David when it came to his path of sin and 2 Samuel chapter 11, where did it all begin? It all began with the look, the gazing, that second look, right? That second look.

That’s where the path of adultery began for David. It all began with allowing his eyes to linger on something it shouldn’t have been lingering on. Gotta control those eyes, but not just that. Let’s talk about the whole body. We gotta control what we’re putting into our bodies. And I’m going to my Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter 6 to make this point. There are many verses I could go to, but due to time, I just want to go to this one. 1 Corinthians 6, where Paul here is talking about the body, the physical body. And he says in 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 19, verse 19, or do you not know that your body, and here in the context, he’s talking about the physical body. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you’re not your own, for you have been bought with a price, therefore, glorify God in your body.

I have to glorify God in my body. This body doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to God. And so I gotta make sound and wise decisions when it comes to what I’m putting in this body. I gotta be wise about this. I gotta avoid putting things that will be harmful to my body. I gotta avoid putting things into my body that will cause me to compromise my ability to be sober-minded, things like alcohol, things like drugs. We gotta control what we’re putting in these bodies. And we also gotta have control when it comes to our money. There’s nothing wrong with having money. Nothing wrong with that at all. Nothing wrong with working hard, earn a living. Going out and enjoying your money, using your money to buy nice things.

There’s nothing wrong with that, but God still requires that we have some discipline. He requires that we have some self control even when it comes to our money. He expects us to avoid being greedy and selfish, being stingy, and only using our money for our wants and our needs and our desires and the toys that we want. He expects us to use some of the money he blessed us with to help people, to share with people, to display acts of kindness, and as we said earlier, to support his work. We’ve got to have self-control when it comes to our blessings and how we use our blessings. And let me close with this one on this point. We’ve got to have self-control even when it comes to our thoughts.

Even our thoughts. Solomon talks about this in Proverbs chapter 23, verse 7. In Proverbs 23 and verse 7, Solomon says, For as a man thinks within himself, so he is.

And in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 5, Paul says, we are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we’re taking every thought what? Captive to the obedience of Christ. You know what Paul is saying there? We got to have self-control. We got to control our thoughts. We got to monitor our thoughts, discipline our thoughts. We got to control what goes into our minds and constantly push out those things that are not in concert with God’s will.

4. First, We Need Knowledge

We need self-control in so many different aspects of our lives. And so that brings us to the final question. And that is how in the world do we get this? I know I need it. I know you need it, but how do we get it? How do we acquire and practice self-control? Well, I’m going to give you three very practical things, very practical things very quickly. How do we get self-control? What do we need to get this? The first thing we need is something we talked about already. It’s knowledge. It’s knowledge. We got to constantly acquire knowledge from the word of God. And remember, Peter mentions knowledge in 2 Peter 1 and verse 6. Remember that? Remember going back to 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 6?

Peter closely connects knowledge with self-control. He says, Knowledge, then self-control. That’s not an accident. He’s putting those two things together. That’s not an accident. In fact, listen to what the psalmist says. If you go to Psalm 119, please. In Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible, and it’s a chapter that is that is exclusively about the greatness of God’s word. And it exalts the word of God. And in Psalm 119, look at verse number 9. Listen to what the psalmist does here. And this is something especially important for young people to notice here. In Psalm 119 and verse 9, the psalmist says, How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to your word. With all my heart I have sought you.

Do not let me wander from your commandments. Your word I have treasured where in my heart. Why? For a reason. So that I won’t sin against you. What’s the psalmist telling us there? Well, he’s saying that when you have knowledge of the word of God, when you got all kinds of Bible in your brain, when you got all kinds of passions stored up in your mind, it will help you. It will help you when your walls are being breached. It will help you when you find yourself being attacked by the devil. That’s what he’s saying there. And when I read this, you know, I can’t help but think about this in a very practical way. You know, several years ago, probably 18 years ago or so, I did Weight Watchers.

Have you ever done Weight Watchers before? I’m not gonna ask you to raise your hand, but I did it 18 years ago. And if you’ve done Weight Watchers before, you know that whole system is about what? Points. You gotta know the points. This is worth this many points, that’s worth that many points. And I’m gonna tell y’all something. I studied that stuff like crazy. I studied those points since I’m a very peak picky eater. I’ve always been, always will be. I studied that Weight Watcher stuff from cover to cover, and you know what? The knowledge I acquired from that 18 years ago is still ingrained in my mind today. It still impacts my decisions today. When I’m tempted to eat one too many cookies, or when I’m tempted to eat one too many chicken nuggets, you know what I think about?

I think about them points. I think about how many points that stuff is worth. You see, knowledge of something can impact your decisions. It can do that when it comes to Weight Watchers, and it can do that when it comes to the Bible. You see, when you have knowledge of the Bible, whenever you find yourself getting mad at somebody, whenever you find yourself getting angry with somebody because they cut you off in traffic, or maybe you get mad with your spouse, you get mad with your kids, you get mad with your boss, you get mad at your coworker, whenever you find yourself about to lash out in anger, when you got knowledge of the Bible, you’re gonna stop and think about Ephesians 4 26. You’re gonna stop and think about how God says, be angry and yet do not sin.

Do not give the devil an opportunity. You’re gonna think about that verse when it’s in your brain. And whenever you find yourself tempted, then start letting your eyes wander and look at things you’re not supposed to be looking at. When you got knowledge of the Bible in your brain, you’re gonna stop and think about the Sermon on the Mount. You’re gonna stop and think about Matthew 5 and verse number 28. You’re gonna stop and think about how Jesus says that when we do that, we’re committing adultery in our hearts. And whenever you find yourself being tempted to go too far with your boyfriend or your girlfriend, when you’ve got knowledge of the Bible in your brain, you’re gonna stop and think about Hebrews 13 4. You’re gonna stop and think about how the Bible says that marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage beddings to be undefiled, but fornication adulterous God will judge.

5. We Need Some Forethought

If we want to have self-control, it starts with knowledge. We gotta have a lot of Bible in our brains, a lot of verses in our brains, but not just that. You know what else we need? We need some forethought. Gotta have knowledge, you gotta have forethought. By forethought, I mean we gotta think about the consequences of our decisions. As Jesus says in Luke chapter 14 and verse 28, we got to count the cost. We got to count the cost of our decisions. We got to stop and quickly realize how failing to restrain my speech or failing to hold in and control my temper or my anger or my sexual passions or even my eyes. I gotta think about how that’s gonna impact God. I gotta think about how that’s gonna impact Jesus.

I gotta think about how that’s gonna impact my family, how that’s gonna impact South Bumbi, how that’s gonna impact my good name, how that’s gonna impact my ability to have influence while I do the work of God. A failure to have self-control, I gotta think about how it might negatively impact me when it comes to all those relationships, and not just that, it might even cost me my freedom. It might even get me in trouble with the law, it might even cost somebody their life, it might cost me my life. It might bring some damage into my life that I can never repair. I gotta have knowledge. And I gotta have forethought. I gotta pause to think about the consequences for not having self-control in this moment.

6. Get Some Walls

And then thirdly, let me close with this. I also need to get me some walls. I gotta get some walls. And remember, Solomon said a man with self-control is like a city with walls. At the end of the day, self-control is really about having walls. It’s about having walls in your life. It’s about having walls that would fortify you and restrain you. It’s about doing what is necessary to protect your spirit and your emotions and your desire to do things that are contrary to the Bible. It’s about doing what is necessary to keep ourselves out of situations that will be tempting for us. Practically speaking, that means that for those of us who are married, and there are a lot of people who are married this morning, like me, that might require that we block some people on social media.

That might require that we cut ourselves off from some old boyfriends and girlfriends from high school and college because we know that every time we see them on social media or they send us a friend request, our heart begins to flutter and shouldn’t be doing that. I got to build up some walls there. It also might require never purchasing some streaming channels because I can’t handle that. It may require not having an internet, not having an iPhone. It may require never going to a restaurant that has a bar in it because that’s a struggle for me. Or refusing to hang out with a certain group of friends, or never getting on social media, especially on the news feed, because I know that when I do that, I easily become angry, jealous, and bitter.

Conclusion

These are practical things we can do to have self-control. And we got to have self-control. We got to understand that there are many things we can’t control in life. There are a lot of things we can’t control. We can’t control the weather. I wish we could, but we can’t. We can’t control traffic. I really wish we could on that, but we can’t. We can’t control if our airline schedule changes at the last moment, or what other people think about us or say about us or how they feel about us. There’s so many things we can’t control in life, but one thing we can control according to the Bible is we can control ourselves. We can control what we do. We can control how we act. We can control how we react in all situations.

That’s a big part of being a disciple. That’s a big part of being transformed. Being transformed involves having faith and having virtue and having knowledge and having discipline. Living a disciplined life as a follower of Jesus Christ. And so I want to close by asking you, is that described you this morning? Do you live a life for Jesus Christ? Do you right now live a life that is pleasing to Jesus? Have you begun the path of discipleship? If not, then you’re going to have an opportunity to do so in the next minute or so. As we sing this invitation song, if you want to come forward and obey the gospel, if you’re willing to confess faith in Christ, repent of your sins and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins, you can become a Christian.

You can have your sins washed away by the blood of Jesus. If you’ve done those things in the past, but you know you’re not living right. You’re not living for the Lord as you should. If you want to repent, we’ll pray with you. We’ll pray for you. We’ll do whatever we have to do to help you live a disciplined life in Jesus. If there’s anyone here subject to the invitation, this song does for you. Come to the front. Let’s stand. Let’s sing.