Inland Empire: Riverside
Be Self-Controlled - Audio
We on. No. We on. You guys are all on there. Get it. Now we're rolling, right? Yes. Okay. I see. I got this technology thing down. I just figured it out. Let's get working at it. Guys, still asleep this morning, huh? No. You guys are in the mood for saying no this morning. Everyone doing okay? Yes. I figured I'd get a yes out of you eventually. So life is good? Yes. There's a lot of people didn't say anything on that one, huh? The Lord is good though. I got a few more on that one, amen? Some of you aren't even sure about that, right? Going through some things and we begin to question stuff. We probably shouldn't question, but we do nonetheless. But it is great to be here this morning. It's great to be together with the Church of Christ, amen? There's nothing like being in the bride of Christ, amen? There's nothing like being Christians who have been forgiving of their sin, amen? Who serve a resurrected Lord, amen? So I'm trying to get a little excitement in this morning. It's down. It's kind of, ah, the parents even had you guys stand up and hug each other. You still don't have it going. Wake up. Wake up, old sleeper, right? Wake up, everybody. No mistleeping there. Whatever it takes. Amen. You know, during the early days of aviation, there was a stunt pilot, and you know, the planes in the early days, of course, were open airplanes. So you'd sit, you know, in your seat, and there was no room if you're in no cabin kind of thing. Well, this stuntman took to giving rides to make money, and so he was doing that for a while, and then he got into an argument with an old farmer because the farmer wanted to go for a ride, but he also wanted to take his wife with him, and he wanted to, you know, do that for the price of one. So they kept arguing finally the pilot said fine. You know, you can both go up, but under with one caveat. If you make one peak while we're up there, make one sound, then when we get down, you owe me double the money. So the other gentleman's agreement shook hands, and up they went, and the pilot went up, and he was, you know, busted moves. He had never, never done before. He was going all over the place with all kinds of things, and finally he landed a plane after being exhausted. And the old farmer was getting off the plane, and he's like, wow, I did moves up there that even scared me, and yet you remained silent. You really are a fearless man. And the farmer said, well, I really appreciate that. You almost had me at one point, though. Really, what was that? It was right about the time when my wife fell out. So obviously, this farmer exhibited incredible self-control to try and save a little money, right? But in all seriousness, how many of you know, how many of you would agree, how many of you would say that this country suffers from a problem of self-control? Right, go ahead. That's right, you can clap for that. Not because you're glad it does, but because you're amen, you're like, well, that's true. How many college kids think there's college kids up on campus that totally struggle with self-control? How about you high schoolers? Anybody at your school struggle with self-control? Oh, you know the teachers? Yeah, amen. Right, how many of you think that our prisons are full of people who struggle with self-control? Right? How many households are erect and damaged and devastated? How many divorces we found out last week at the marriage retreat that in Southern California, as much as 78% of marriages in Southern California and in divorce? Are you kidding me? 78%. That's basically everyone, right? Two out of ten survive. If you didn't know, you know, here's stats like that, you know, yeah, we've got a problem with self-control, don't we? There's a problem in this world, in this country, with self-control. We see evidence of it in all kinds of areas in spending. You know, the country has a spending problem, right? I mean, right from the top, you know, it's like spend spend spend spend spend and it comes right down into our homes. Right, Christmas is coming up, right? And as parents, we all know the only real way to show our kids how much we love them is by the amount of stuff we get them. Oh, we all chuckle and go, "Oh, we're beyond that." But I guarantee you, if your kids don't get enough and they're disappointed, then we haven't taught them that material things aren't what prove love. And we can get mad at them for being selfish, but we haven't taught them. Because if our kids don't get enough and therefore they wonder, "Am I loved? Is this what kind of games?" and they start comparing, you know, "How much did she get?" or "He get?" or, you know, "What did you spend on Mom?" Because I mean, you know, right, we know we have a problem. And so we're going to have to be careful, right, with Christmas coming up here. But we see it in all kinds of areas, like I said, we see it in spending. We see it in greed and materialism. We see it in lack of self-control with the anger and the rudeness, drug abuse, illicit sex, divorce, murder, and on and on and on, self-control is a huge issue. And you know the reality is self-control is an issue in our own church, right? In church, we've got to understand that, yeah, there are problems. There are certain people that struggle with certain things more than other people. But the issue is not, "Well, I have a disease, you see." No, the disease is sin. And we all have it. You know, we don't believe that, "Well, hey, if you're an alcoholic or a drug addict or something, that's not your fault because it's a disease and you couldn't do anything about it." We don't believe that in the church. We believe, yeah, there's a disease that took you over and you may be more predisposed to that kind of a thing than somebody else, but the reality is it's sin. Because there's no one in here who wouldn't be an alcoholic for the most part unless they decided not to be. And so you go, "Well, you don't know what it's like, you know, and it's not the issue." We have a problem, and I'm not picking on people who are addicts, it's just indicative. They're sex addicts, they're spending addicts, they're all kinds. But it's a lack of self-control and a lack of self-control, guys, is sin. Not some kind of generic disease that a psychologist wants to tell you about, it's really not your fault. Right? 'Cause it's not your fault if you're not married and you got pregnant, it's not your fault. It's not your fault that, you know, you abused your child, it's not your, you see what I'm saying, it goes on and on and on. And we have to talk about it as a church because we've got to get a deeper conviction about having self-control as disciples of Jesus, amen? It's improper, it's indecent for us not to have self-control. And it's almost as bad if not worse when we don't have conviction about not having self-control. So tell my lesson today is, coming up, there it is, be self-controlled. See those cookies? I'm not focused on being self-controlled, I can empty that jar. I mean, not as fast as Steve, but I could still empty it. But you know there's an issue with self-control. I want us to read a text on the Bible, look over in Genesis chapter 4, towards the beginning there. Genesis 4. It's even talking to one of the brothers the other day, like a self-control issue we have at churches, you know, people with their cell phones checking scores. You know, and somehow we think it's okay. I had my phone on a program called Score Mobile, I think it was on a Tuesday night, and it was, you know, on that, and this is the truth, you know, I read it before I got to church, and then my, you know, the screen goes black, well, then I'm sitting there by Savannah, and I push the button and score Mobles on, she's dad. Don't worry, I told her to be quiet in my own business. I don't want you to think, you know, she rules the roof. No, but she was making sure, right? And I also was talking to a brother who said he's literally seen a brother in the church playing video poker on his phone during church. Well, no, I've got the Bible in there too, so I can kind of, you know, I can see both. Are you kidding me? We had a problem with self-control, right? People think I'm making this stuff up, and there's proof, right? Are these people any worse than anybody else? No, it's just issues. We've all got issues. We've got to talk about this. Genesis 4. Everyone there? Adam lay with his wife, even she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, "With the help of the Lord, I brought forth a man." Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil, some of the fruits of the soil, as an offer to the Lord. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering, he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. It's like, you know, you sort of picture this scene of a kid who's in trouble for something they did, and they act pouty and mad, like somehow you're doing something wrong by disciplining for it, right? You know, right? You've all seen that face, right? It's the face you see when you're discipling somebody, okay. But then the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?" If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you don't do what is right, sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you, but you must master it. Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, "Where's your brother Abel?" I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper? The Lord said, "What have you done?" Listen. Listen. Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse, and driven from the ground, which opens mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You'll be a restless wanderer on the earth, Cain said, "Lord, my punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land that I will be hidden from your presence. I will be a restless wanderer on this earth, on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me." But the Lord said to him not so. Then when he kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over. Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. So Cain went out from the Lord's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Let's pray. Almighty God, we bow before you this morning in love with you in such desperate need of your help, of your Holy Spirit to indwell us, to fill us up, to empower us. God, we know that if we're really gut level honest, if we know that we're standing before you and speaking to you, God, we know that we all have areas that we struggle with self control. Yet we know that we all have areas that we have got to change in. And Father, I pray you'll help a lot of fire under us, a lot of conviction under us that will make us want to be different today. Even today, God, I know that, you know, sermons will come and go, but our relationship with you is every day. And God, I pray that we make decisions today that will allow us to be closer to you, will allow us to be better Christians, better disciples to your son, better followers of you, better lovers of you, God, and therefore just better people all the way around. And we really need your help to do it. We pray that you'll be with us this morning. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. And so we realize we have a self control issue, right? All right, well, let's look and try to figure out why we lack self control. Why do we lack self control? What makes that the case? Because how many of us would say, I just, you know, I made a decision. I'm just going to, you know, have no self control at all. I'm just going to do whatever. Any of you? So really, we may have made a decision like that at the moment, you know, here or there, but that's not who we want to be, is it? But some of us who might feel like that's who we are. We're out of control, but why do we have such a lack of self control? Number one, because we're selfish. Why do we lack self control? Because we're selfish. You know, we noticed that Cain did what? He brought a mediocre sacrifice to God. The Bible says that he brought some of the fruits, not even some of the first fruits. He just brought, you know, some fruits there. Some people might say, well, the problem was, was that, you know, Abel brought a stake. And Cain only brought the Lord, you know, a zucchini. So the Lord wasn't, you know, fired up. No, the issue was the first fruits. The issue was bringing the best. I'll read to you, Hebrews 11-4. By faith, Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith, he was commended as a righteous man when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith, he still speaks even though he's dead. See, the whole issue here involved which sacrifices were offered. You know, God didn't approve of Cain's sacrifice and Cain got angry. It's not fair. It's not right. I brought you something too. But Abel brought the first fruits, brought the very best that he had. He wasn't going to give God leftovers. He wasn't going to give, you know, keep, you know, half the best for him. Half the, he's going to give God his very best. And God saw that. You know, we're warned in verses 6 and 7 of our, of our text in Genesis there that sin is what? Crouching at the door. And it desires to have you, but you must master it. I don't even know what 1 Peter 5 and verse 8. How does that read? I'll read it too. You'll recognize it. Be self-controlled and alert. Be what? Self-controlled and alert. Why? Because your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Sin is crouching at your door, wanting to pounce on you. The Satan is roaming around like a lion wanting to devour you. And we know this stuff, but how seriously do we take it? Are we on guard? Do we guard our mouths? Do we guard our hearts? Do we guard our minds in Christ Jesus? Are we self-controlled? Are we alert? Or are we just kind of going through the motions? And when we get around Christians, we kind of, we get on guard. And not because we're trying to put on a show, but because we know, hey, these people don't play here and I can't, I've got to be on my toes here because I don't want to mess up. Sin is crouching at your door. And guys, that's what we have to understand. He wants to destroy us. Satan wants to destroy us. He wants to lead us down a road of pornography. He wants to lead us down a road of divorce. He wants to lead us down a road of addiction. He wants to destroy us. If we don't take advantage of God and the Holy Spirit, the Word that God gives us and one another, God gave us each other, guys, so that we can deal with this. You can't do it on your own. How many of you have just found in your life that if you grit your teeth hard enough and you cleanse your fist hard enough, you can do anything. And you won't give in, it doesn't work, does it? I mean, maybe momentarily, sometimes you can get out of it and sometimes that's all you can do is you're just holding on by your fingernails and you make it through, but we have the help that God provides for us. But one of the reasons we struggle with self-control is because we're selfish. Why else? Because we give in our impulses. We act and react on impulse. You know, Cain resented his younger brother who sacrificed God approved. God commanded him to master his emotions and learn to control himself, but in a moment of rage, he killed his brother, took his life. Proverbs 29 and verse 11, let me read that to you, a full, gives full vent to his anger. The wise man keeps himself under control. Never give full vent to your anger, you know, we can all struggle with it. Some of us are more prone to it than others, but giving full vent just whatever you feel like saying you're going to say, because, by gosh, you've had enough. I've had, you know, brothers tell me, you know what? Yeah, I finally, I finally fought back with her. I'm tired of taking, I'm tired of being the whipping boy, I'm tired of, I'm not taking, I'm fighting back. And, you know, as a man or as a woman, you know, if you know which side of that equation you're on, sometimes it's the other way around, but you understand that emotion, and yet it's totally wrong. It's totally unacceptable to God. God hears that and says, what? Did you just hear what you said? But I've had people say that to me and feel like, you know, I'm writing this. I'm not saying I'm going to go crazy, but I am saying I'm not taking anymore. That's not the kind of people that God calls us to be, even though it might feel better, but we give in to our impulses. You know, when David's sitting with Bathsheba, he acted on impulse of lust. When Peter died Jesus, he acted on an impulse of fear. Are you one of them? No, no. Always the impulse of you. You have to be careful. We have to pray about that. Why else? Well, because we're rebellious. Why else do we struggle with self-control? Because we're rebellious. You know, you think that when Cain saw his dead brother, he would have been broken hard and said, my God, what have I done? And yet, that's not what he says at all, is it? I mean, God says, hey, we're able. I don't know. Not my week to watch him. You're supposed to be the, you know, the big guy. I'm not his dad. Why are you asking? I mean, just a terrible, terrible attitude. Basically saying, what gives you a right to question me? And guys, we got to realize, you know, what's the rebellion that says, I'm going to do what I want. Rebellion says, you know, rebellion is the kind of thing that if you've been hurt in the past by something, you might say, never again. That's rebellion. But you know, on the inside, you feel like, no, I'm protecting my family. I'm protecting myself. I'm standing up for, I'll never put up, you know, yeah, there are certain amen. Never again to sin for sure. But the attitude of the heart, the rebelliousness, it leads to a lack of self-control. That does not lead to self-control, selfishness, acting on your impulses. Being rebellious does not lead to self-control. The other reason, because our defenses, sometimes we have a lack of self-control, why our defenses have been weakened. Let me read to you Proverbs 25 and verse 28. Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control. Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control. You know, of course, you know, in ancient cities, you've seen movies, you've seen pictures of, you know, biblical times, if you will. And you know that all the cities were walls, right? These huge walls, that was their only protection against attack, their only protection against thieves. And if those walls ever came down, if those walls were ever breached, they couldn't protect themselves. When the Bible says that when we lack self-control, this proverb teaches us that when we do, our defenses are weakened. And you know, you think about, okay, well, how exactly is that true? Well, you know, when you give in to sin, isn't it so much harder next time to not give in and so much easier to give in? I mean, the more you say yes, the easier it is to say yes to sin. And the more you say yes to sin, the harder it is to say no to sin. And there's a myriad of reasons for that. Sometimes it's just because now you're addicted and sometimes it's just because you feel so guilty. You feel like, well, why even bother? Why try? I'm obviously a mess. I can't do this. You know, I'm hopeless. And so you give in to it and I've seen it time and time again with brothers and sisters, but I think especially with brothers. You know, so what do we do? How do we develop self-control? It's such an important thing. How do we develop self-control? And I know, you know, in some ways, when we hear lessons like this, it's just so practical that, you know, it's not necessarily an exciting topic to think about. But it's something that, you know, it's going to help our Christianity. Someone's going to help you to be a better husband, a better wife, a better son, a better daughter, a better suit. You know, self-control, guys, it's such an important, godly characteristic. And how do we do it? Well, first, how are we going to figure it out? You know, someone that said self-control is the ability to break a chocolate bar in four pieces with your bare hands and then just eat one of the four pieces. I know the sisters appreciate that. It's going to be a certain time. It's super self-control. The dictionary tells us that self-control is the control of one's own emotions, desires, and actions. And the fact of the matter, you know, self-control is really kind of an oxymoron, isn't it? You know, words that it's kind of like jumbo shrimp or peaceful war, you know? Self-control really is kind of an oxymoron in that sense. You know, biblically, self-control means what being under control, but not being under your self-control, but being under God's control. You have your self under God's control. That's self-control. Your self is controlled by God, right? Amen? That's what that means. How do we get there? Number one, you know, you have to admit that you have a problem. And, you know, it's the same with any program that gets you out of any kind of addiction. You've got to admit it first. You have to admit that you have this issue, that you have this problem. You know, look over in James chapter one. You know this verse well. James chapter one. Come on, Doug, be funny. And the people who don't like are like, "No, this is great. This is better." Keep it going. Mike must have talked to him. James chapter one. Let's start reading in verse 12 here. "Blessed, or blessed is the man who perseveres under trial because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when by his own evil desire. By his own evil desire, he's dragged away in time. When I stand after desires conceived, his birth to sin. And sin when it is full grown, his birth to death. See, the Bible makes it clear. Jesus' little brother, James, makes it clear that when I sin, it's on me. I have to admit that the problem is mine. You know, it doesn't say, you know, the devil made me do it, right? My lack of self-control comes from my dysfunctional parents. My lack of self-control comes from my dysfunctional background. The way I was raised, or the way I was abused, or the way, you know, all those things certainly they factor in. But you'll never be able to stand before the Lord and go, "Lord, you couldn't expect me not to give into that sin." Of course, Lord, I was going to be an alcoholic. Or of course, Lord, I was going to beat my children. Or of course, because look what happened to me. I mean, I didn't even do it near as bad as my folks did it to me. Right? And this is a sensitive thing because we're in such a psychological age. And somehow we almost think, "Well, you know, it does a little ignorance." You know, if he really understood psychology, if he really did some more studying, I think, "See, this is why I really think these get." See, I understand that it factors in. And you might say, "Well, you know, you don't understand, right, Doug, you were born with a silver spoon." Right? Well, I'm white. Right? You say, "Well, there's that." So, I mean, you know. But, you know, there are plenty of people that have a much harsher story than mine, but, you know, I've told you before, I can still remember as a child. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. And then all of a sudden, I hear, "Please open up!" And I just gone to bed, and I hear, you know, running around in the little apartment that, you know, I lived in, I hear toilets flushing. Next day, I know the door flies open. Never see my dad again. So my dad's taken away. My mom, you know, has a habit that her and my dad were supporting at that time, so she would always, I told you this, she would always leave us places. You know, we would go in and, you know, we'd start playing. My sister and I, and then we'd look up. You know, my mom would be gone. She might come back later that day. She might come back. The next day, she might be gone three days, and there we'd be. So we got to a point, and anytime I went anywhere with my mom, we'd follow wherever she went. She went in the bathroom. My sister and I would sit outside the bathroom door and play jacks. You kids, you don't have anything more to do. You know what they are? But... And, you know, I would dominate you still today. But we, that's what we would do. So my mom, we got to the point where she'd have to, you know, go to the restroom, shut the door really quickly, so we couldn't get in, and then crawl out the window. Finally, you know, all kinds of different things happened during that time. Molestation and all kinds of stuff like that to my sister and I, different things there. Eventually, my grandparents were already raising one of her sons, my older brother. And so they had us one time for too many days. They took us through the orphanage. They dropped us off in the orphanage. In those days, they didn't have the programs they have now. So once they said, you know, hey, their mom's a drug addict, we don't know what to do with them. We were in the Juliet Fowler orphanage. It was a church price orphanage. And my mom was never going to get us back then. Once you, you know, again, the kids were, his mom's a drug addict, his dad's in prison. You know, their dad's in prison. That was it. She was done. Later on in life, I found that she came to the orphanage several times screaming, you know, "Dog and care and dog and care and hoping somehow we come running out." And she could take us back. And see, I understand, I never hated my mom for that because I understood she was controlled by something else. It was her fault. I never hated her for that. You know, and got adopted, eventually got adopted. And, you know, my sister never really recovered from all those things. She died at a very young age of cirrhosis and hepatitis C. But we were able to convert her on her deathbed. So, yeah, amen. But I say all that. And, you know, some of you might go in, "Man, I wish I had it that good." Right? It's like the Monty Python thing. When I was a boy, all we lived in was a box in the middle of the road. And the other guy says, "You had a box!" (Laughter) But what's the issue, right? We all have a story. Life's not easy. We don't know, you know, everybody's story. We don't know how hard or easy people have had it, but we've all had our struggles. And the point is, it's our problem. Sin is our problem. Sin is my fault. It's not what happened to me. Right? I didn't go out and do the drugs and drink it in the immorality that I did before I became a Christian because I was just, you know, so abused. I mean, maybe I learned patterns, maybe it certainly affected me. It's not like it has no effect, certainly. But when I became a Christian, you know, guys made sure, "Hey, you have to understand. Yeah, that's a tough story and appreciate you hanging in there kind of thing." But you're a Christian now, and none of that matters. So you have to admit you have a problem. You have to take ownership of that problem. Secondly, as I've just talked about, you've got to forget your past. Something so hard for us as Christians, we say, "Well, that's just not possible." Yes, it is. What does Paul say? You know, forgetting what is behind you. I haven't taken a hold of all this, but one thing I do, I forget what's behind, straining towards what is ahead. Straining towards that for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. See, you live in the Christian life about being victorious, and you go, "Oh, well, you haven't been to my house. You should see my husband. You should see my wife." And we get that. There's real struggles. Life is real. It's not some pep rally in here. But the point is you go, "Well, we've tried trying to catch anything. They keep trying. Make Jesus the Lord of your life." I've told you this before. I've got when Mary comes before, and they said, "We keep having the same problems. Please don't ask us about our quiet times. We just need help in our marriage." We know we need to study our Bibles. We know we need to pray, and we're trying to work on that. But give us a nugget. Give us something that will save our marriage. Because, right, people, we get so twisted in the way we think. It sounds crazy to some of us, especially the young people. Why? I can't. May I be an awesome husband. I don't even know what's wrong with these guys. How come some of these old guys aren't more zealous? I mean, look at me. I'm young, and I'm zealous. Right? We'll talk to them about it in humility and in love. Let's get everybody fired up. That's not bad. People, little kids, say, "Well, when my kids are teenagers, they'll never do that." Every kid with teenagers said, "When my kids were teenagers, they won't do that, and then they had teenagers." You've got to forget what's behind, guys. You've got to let your failures go. You've got to let your hurts go. You've got to let them go. You know, Don Burles I think is the name of the guy who did the marriage retreat. And he's and I talked about some similar things. We did the marriage retreat for the turning point ministry last week, the same time ours was going on. But Don on Sunday talks a lot about forgiveness and all the studies that have been done about how much damage it does to your health when you're bitter. High blood pressure, heart disease, heart... I mean, it's amazing. Studies have shown that, you know, men live longer if they're in a happy marriage. Studies have shown that, you know, if you forgive people, you're healthier. Isn't that incredible? They go, "Well, we knew that." Right? God already told us one of the worst things for your heart is bitterness. It's going to mess your heart up. But when we hear a study from psychologists or scientists, we go, "Wow, maybe I should forgive." I could live longer. Right? Science says it will make me happier. I'm going to try it. And that just a little bit, but how many of us we won't forgive? And usually the biggest thing is sitting right next to us. Our spouse, our brother, our sister, we just, we hold on. Because somehow we find comfort in the pain and we go, "I haven't been, you know, justified yet. I haven't been vindicated yet." We have to let it go. We have to. The Bible also teaches us that we can't live by our feelings. Yes, we don't want to live a life void of emotion. But we cannot let our emotions rule us, right? Sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you, but you must master it. We cannot live by our emotions. We've got to learn even in many ways to ignore them. The Bible says that the grace of God teaches us to say no to ungodliness. And you know, when we don't learn to say no, it's because we're not grateful. The grace of God's not having the impact on our lives that God intends for it to have. And you know why it's not? Not because God's not doing something he should be doing. You hear that? The grace is not having the impact on your life, not because God's not doing what he's supposed to be doing, right? I don't even have to say the next part, do I? You know I'm going through anyway, it's because you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing. See, again, it's about taking responsibility. Nobody, there's not some bad guy out there. There's not some, you know, the reason is out there beyond me. No, it's right here. It's in our hearts. Sin desires to have us. It's crouching at the door, but we've got to fight it. We've got to avoid temptation. You know, if anybody struggles with, you know, the pornography or whatever, you need to practically just get rid of your computer. You can't get some software on there that there's no way for you to get through whatever. You need to get rid of it. And that's how serious we need to be. Jesus says if your eye caught, cut it, plug it out. If your hand cut it off. And some of us, the sin we're most addicted to is thinking about stuff we shouldn't think about. Oh, I just keep thinking if I only had a different husband. I keep thinking if my parents would have just done this. I keep thinking if my, if my kids would only, I keep thinking if my family leader could understand. I keep thinking if, in those thoughts, we just keep them going, keep them going, keep them going. You know what, they crush us. They weigh us now, but we don't want to hear that because that's no, that's, then the problem's me. Doug, see, that's what you don't get, the problem is he. See, that's what you don't get, you know. The problem is her, Doug. See, you're saying what you're supposed to say and what's right to say, Doug, but you don't know what I go through. Right? That's how we feel. Yeah, but you don't know what my home life was like. Yeah, but you don't know what, you know, this teacher was like. It starts at a very early age. How come we got a D on that paper, all my teacher? Yeah. I got a D because my teacher gave us a test, you know. I don't even, what's that all about? You can't just, you know. And finally, guys, if we're going to overcome this, we're going to self-control. It's as simple as we have got to depend on Jesus. So I say live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of a simple nature. That's Galatians 5, 16. So I say live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sin nature. See, sequence of the verses doesn't say that if you have the Spirit of God in your life, you won't have any more flesh to desires. Because even as Christians, as born again, as baptized disciples, we're going to have temptations and struggles. And you've got to understand, either way, if you're visiting with us, you've got to get out of the mentality of, well, once I get some things straight, then I'm really going to go for this Bible thing. You know, I've got some things in my life that are really out of touch and really messed up. And once I get those wired and nailed down, I've got to figure out this relationship. I've got to figure out this job where I've got to get this character issue that I have. I know what's wrong. And once I do, I'm going to really know God says, come like you are, and I'll help you deal with all those things. And see, as Christians, we've got to understand, no matter where we're at, we've got to keep trying. Right, what's our other option? What alternative do we have? God's not going to abandon us. Sean and I were talking a couple of days ago, and it's like, we know that if we feel where is God, it's not because he moved. He's right where you left him. Right? I mean, Church, we've got to grow up. We've got to learn to rely on God. We've got to learn that life's not always going to be easy, but it will. If we have enough faith, that man who does this stuff without him, he shouldn't think you'll get anything. So whatever we do, we need to do it with faith. And Jesus said with his power and his help, we can have self-control. You know, the secret to self-control is Christ's control, amen? When you spend your life to Jesus, Jesus will transform you and change you. But here's the thing, you can't just surrender your life to him, and now you're done. You've got to keep surrendering. How often are we supposed to carry that cross? How often are we supposed to deny ourselves? Yeah, but I mean, you know, come on. Every day? Every day? Every day? I don't know where I lost you guys, but let's go. Next with me. Surrender our life to Jesus, and God will transform us. And that's what this whole year's been about. It's trying to be transformed. Mike, I think, asked us four or five weeks ago, have we been transformed? Are we any different? You know, I could ask you a simple question, like, last week at the marriage retreat. Have you been different in your marriage this week? And I'm not saying that you may not even have a big fight, you know, but you remember. Oh, wait a minute, wait a minute. We got some tools here to change the way. Or do you just keep doing the same things over and over? Because that's just what's easier and more natural for you. And then you get discouraged. You see what I'm saying? It's like the students, you know, it's the same thing for us. We got to do something different if we want things to change. But Jesus died on the cross so that we can have his spirit living in us. That's really the good news. We're going to take communion in just a second. And whenever those things are, guys, you have to figure, okay, what is it? And maybe even write it down. What area am I liking self-control? Is it alcohol? Is it lust? Is it being tempted to have an affair? Is it not studying it for school? Is it cheating? Is it whatever it is? I want you to write it down and then I want you to talk to somebody about it. When? In a few days? No, today. And just say, hey, let's at least get a time where we can talk about this. Because if you don't, what difference does it make? Right, you come over the marriage retreat. You had to, you know, your same old week this week. Why bother? Let's see. I would say, yes, you bother because there's a chance you'll change. And that's what you have to do. You have to keep hoping and keep praying and keep believing that God will do it. But you have to commit to it. And so I want you to write those things down and do something different because of what we talked about today. Even if you're doing awesome, do something different to get better. And as we take communion this morning, give that stuff to the Lord. Jesus, thank you for dying for me. Thank you for removing all my sin. Thank you for giving me the Holy Spirit to indwell me so that I can live this life that you call me to live. And thank you for the blood. Thank you for the blood that cleanses over all the sin. And as you take the bread, thank Jesus for sacrificing himself. And as you drink the cup, thank Jesus for washing away your sin. And as you drink the cup, feel the forgiveness flowing through your body. That's what it's meant to remind us of. Let's pray. Father, in heaven, we thank You for this opportunity to take communion this morning. We know, God, that You love us so much. And Father, we desperately want to please You. We desperately want to be great disciples. And God, as we think about what You did for us on the cross, I pray, God, that we'll always and forever be moved by that. That God, it'll always matter to us and blow us away even that You forgave us. And that You continue to forgive us. And that every day, even now, God, as we take communion, we can start all over. That really, we can be totally different starting right now, even if we weren't different before we got here. Even if we weren't different halfway through the sermon, God, we can be different now because that's who You are. That's the promise You made to us. We love You with all of our heart. We thank You for the sacrifice You made on the cross. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]
Sunday lesson by Doug Wens