The Ninth Fruit

You know, the Bible compares us to many things, and it's always interesting when you look in the Bible to see the analogies that God makes that gives us the spiritual lessons. Because we learn a lot about ourselves and what God has planned for us by the things that he will say about us as people or the spiritual aspects of our lives. And we learn so much from the physical things around us about what God is working with in us.

One of the things that he compares you and me to are trees. You know, we sing a song often, and if you want to, you can look at page one of your hymnal, but in Psalm 1 it says, He shall be a tree that grows, planted by the riverside, which in season yields its fruit, green its leaves abide. Now, we sing that song, and I remember as I was growing up, we sang that song, I think, every Sabbath.

I mean, that was a song of beautiful tune, beautiful words. So you know that song, and God looks at you and me as trees, and when you look at that verse, there's a lot of things in that verse that God talks about this tree, these trees that grow by the riverside that we have to look at ourselves in. It's planted by the riverside, and we know trees themselves. They're kind of, when we look at trees, we just have this kind of good feeling. Trees are, trees just not our landscape, but they're strong, they're sturdy, they're dependable, they're reliable, they give shade.

They're useful in so many areas. We can't even imagine what life would be like if God never created a tree. If there was no wood and there was none of the products that come from trees, we would be living a quite different life than we do today. And trees are everywhere. They cleanse the air and the oxygen that we breathe, and they are just very useful things.

And God says, my people, you, you're like trees that are out there. Now this tree is an evergreen tree. Greenest leaves abide. It just always is green. It doesn't have any time, a dormant time, no downtime, no sleeping time, as Mr. Collins would say, like some of the trees in the north, you see, they lose their leaves, and they just kind of exist through the winter.

This tree is evergreen. It's evergreen, ever vibrant, always there. Always something to behold, always something to look at. And it bears fruit. And it bears fruit. Because, you know, trees are beautiful to look at. Some provide shade, some provide good lumber, but trees that provide fruit, too. God says, that's the tree. That's the trees that are planted by the riverside. Let's go back to Psalm 92 and see another place that it talks about trees, where it compares us to trees.

Psalm 92 and verse 12. It says, the righteous. Psalm 92 verse 12, the righteous. Those are the people that are living God's way, that are choosing to live God's way, that make God's way happen by using His Holy Spirit and plant into their lives the principles that God has taught us. The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree. Now, here in Florida, we love palm trees, right? They're beautiful. I mean, I am amazed when we have strong winds how the palm tree can bend and bend and bend, that it never breaks. It looks like it should break like a toothpick, but it's so strong it doesn't do that.

It can resist all that. The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree. Grow like a cedar in Lebanon. And the cedars of Lebanon were like some of the most beautiful trees on earth. They're bastions of strength and beauty.

Things that people would look up to, things that people relished in their lives. If you had something of cedar in Lebanon, you had something that was tremendous. Those who are planted in the house of the Eternal shall flourish in the courts of our God. Those trees planted in the house of God. You know, you and I are in the house of God.

Today, we are in the house of God. God is here with us in this congregation today. And it's a shame for those who aren't with us today that they would neglect an opportunity to be in the house of God because it's in the house of God that the trees flourish. The trees grow. The trees become what God wanted them to be and have the properties and the unique traits that the trees God has. Because you read about these trees, look at everything they are. They're strong. They're dependable. They're reliable.

They bear fruit. They're evergreen. They're as strong as the palm. They're as beautiful as the cedars in Lebanon. And when we're in the house of God, when He plants us where He wants us to be, and we grow there, we flourish. Verse 14, they shall bear fruit in old age. Look at some of the trees that are around us.

And you know, as we've lived in Florida, I've seen some of the orange trees when they grit to be 15 and 20 years old. I notice that they kind of die out and there's not as much fruit on them and whatever. But God says, my trees, they're going to bear fruit even in old age. They will never stop producing fruit. In fact, the older they get, the more fruit they will produce. The more fruit that will be pleasing in people's eyes.

They won't grow old and they won't stop. They shall still bear fruit in old age. They shall be fresh and flourishing. To declare that the eternal is upright. He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in Him. They do it to glorify God. Those trees sing God's glory. When people look at those trees and they wonder at the majesty of them and the production of them and the strength of them, God gets the glory. Because the trees that we grow on our own are nothing like the trees that God is growing in you and me. And the people that He plants in His house. Something that we can look at and something that we can look at the analogy and understand some of what God is doing with us.

I was looking at my notes here. I'm not going to turn to Isaiah 61 verse 3. You can mark that down as well. It talks about trees of righteousness, the planting of God. And God planted us here.

We learn a lot about trees. I'll do some simple science here for you this morning. Where we live in Orlando now, there's an orange tree in the backyard. I've seen the orange trees and watched them as we've been down here. But to see the progress of it through the years has been satisfying to me to go outside and see the process of science and nature. And the process that you can take of what God is doing with us as well. If we look at the production of fruit, there's a flower that comes on the tree. And just a few months ago, if you have fruit trees in your yard, you smelled the blossoms. The orange blossoms is what I'll talk about. And you know that's a fruit in the making. But in order for the fruit to come from that flower, it has to be pollinated. There has to be something put in it in order for it to begin to flower. And then through the course of the rest of the time that it flowers and matures, it has to be fertilized. If it's not fertilized, not just by artificial fertilizer, but by whatever God puts in it. And as I've watched the rain this week, I've seen, I've watched how those trees have greened up. And the little oranges that have formed from the blossoms on there are bigger than they were two weeks ago when we were here. And they'll continue to grow. They'll continue to mature until November and December when they're ripe to pick. And they'll be beautiful. And they'll taste sweet. And they'll be wonderful. And we'll look at that tree and we'll think, look at the process that God brought them through. That each year it goes through this. We picked the fruit, it flowers, it's pollinated, it's fertilized. It matures, we eat, and we're pleased with the tree and what God has provided in it. And it's the same process that He does with us because when He plants trees, when He plants us as trees, He's looking to us to be all those things we talked about, but He wants us to become, He wants us to bear fruit.

And when we look at our lives and we're those trees and God pollinates us, what does He pollinate us with?

His Holy Spirit. He puts His Holy Spirit in it because without His Holy Spirit we can never be the trees that we write about in Psalm 1 and Psalm 92 or in Isaiah 61. And we have to have it fertilized because if all we do is receive the Holy Spirit and then we never fertilize it, those fat fruits are never going to mature. It's going to be quite a disappointment as life goes on.

How do we fertilize it? Well, we stay close to God. We pray. We develop a relationship with Him. We fertilize it every time we have a... we communicate with Him. We fertilize it as we study the Bible and know the Word of God. We fertilize it as we come to church and obey what He says. And we're here where He wants us to be, not just part of the time, but all the time. We're here when we fertilize it when we meditate. We fertilize it as we make choices to do what God says.

When we deny self and begin to choose God, even though the easier and narrow natural thing for us to do, as we all know, is to choose what we want to do. Jesus Christ went through the same process that we did. He didn't come here to live His will. He came here to live God's will, and God called us for a tremendous future, as Mr. Collins said. But we have to make choices. We have to choose to follow Him and deny self. And every time we do, we're fertilizing. Fertilizing that growth, becoming more what God wants us to be. And as we go through, you know, the summertime and we look at the apple trees and the orange trees and the grapefruit trees and the peach trees and all those trees that are out there that bear fruit, we can anticipate that time when we'll be picking it.

God anticipates the fruit that He bears in us. He bears in us as well. Let's go back to John 15.

John 15. Here in Christ's last conversation with the disciples, as He was preparing them for what they would be doing the rest of their lives after He died, was resurrected, and that they would go out and do the things that He had called them to do, much like He has in mind for us what we do with our lives. In verse 2, He says of chapter 15 of John 15, He says, every branch in me that doesn't bear fruit, He takes away. I don't want an unfruitful tree. That tree is supposed to bear fruit. It's supposed to be growing. I want to go out and look at that orange tree. I want to see those little oranges. And two weeks later, I want to see that they're a little grower, that they're a little larger. And in September, I want to see they're beginning to turn color. I want to see that it's producing what's going on is working here. Every branch in me that doesn't bear fruit, He takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, He prunes that it may bear more fruit.

There will be some pain along the way because as He sees a tree producing fruit, He'll want it to produce more, and it can produce more. Drop down to verse 5. He says, I'm the vine, you're the branches. He who abides in me and I in Him. If you live your life in me, if you do what I say, how many times is Christ saying this discourse, if you love me, keep my commandments. Do my will, follow what I tell you. If you abide in me and I in Him, or He who abides in me and I in Him, bears much fruit. For without me, you can do nothing. We can't bear the fruit that God is looking for without Him, His Holy Spirit, in us. If anyone doesn't abide in me, He's cast out as a branch and is withered, and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

What a shame that is! The tree had so much potential if they had just done what God had told them to do. If they had just gone through the process that they agreed to, that they said they would do. In verse 8, He says, by this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit.

So, if you do this, you will be my disciples.

Well, those trees that God talks about are unique. Let's go back to Galatians 5.

Because many trees, most trees, produce one fruit. And if you go out to some nurseries, you can see where man has grafted some things together, and there's some tropical trees that'll, or citrus trees that'll produce grapefruits and oranges and tangerines, I understand.

But in Galatians 5 verse 22, we learn that the tree that God has planted in you and me, that He's planted us, it produces nine fruits, at least.

Galatians 5 verse 22, the fruit of the Spirit, what God has planted, the trees that He is looking to, the trees that He is growing, it produces the fruit of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Ah, it's a very satisfying tree. Against such, there is no law. When people see that tree and what it's produced, everyone is in awe. Everyone would like to have those traits as part of them, those fruits that are hanging off of their tree for everyone to see. So God's tree, it's strong, it's dependable, it's reliable. It goes through the process in its life, and it bears much fruit, and it bears nine different fruits, all of us. God didn't say to you, you're only going to bear two fruits, or you three or me five. All nine is what He's looking at in our trees. And those trees can produce all nine, and should produce all nine, if we are doing what God wants us to do.

Now, we've talked about some of these fruits of the Spirit before, and I'm not going to go through all of them. We've talked about love, which is the word agape, the Greek word gape there. Joy comes from knowing God and living His way, even in times of trouble and stress. There's still joy. The peace that surpasses all understanding, the patience, the kindness, the goodness, the faithfulness, the gentleness, the self-control, all those fruits don't come naturally. There may be some semblance of them in life, but these fruits are only produced by the Holy Spirit.

They're maybe similar to some human traits, but they're different, and the people who bear those fruits recognize those differences as those fruits develop in them, and they see the difference between what I used to be and what I used to think was love, but now I know more what love is. I used to think I knew what joy was, now I understand what true joy is. I used to think I was at peace, but now I know what it means to have perfect peace of mind and to be settled, the things that come from the Holy Spirit. Today, I want to look here on the eve, I guess, if you want to say, at Pentecost, at the ninth fruit of the tree there. The ninth fruit of the tree.

Self-control. Self-control. There isn't anyone in the world. No one in the world, I don't think, that would say self-control is a bad thing. People will make excuses for it because self-control is a difficult thing. You know, Romans 8, 7 says that we're natural enemies of God. The carnal mind is enmity against God. Can't be subject to his law, neither indeed can be. Just can't happen without God's Spirit. We may think we are, but you know, the people of the world who think they're being subject to God's law, they're really not subject to God's law. Otherwise, they'd all be with us here on the Sabbath day instead of where they are or where they will be tomorrow. They'd all be with us here on Pentecost tomorrow. They're not doing God's law, they're doing what they want to do and kind of fooling themselves, which some people of God can do as well. They can fool themselves into thinking that they're doing God's will. But they really looked at it clearly. And as we're here in the day with the Day of Pentecost facing us with God's Spirit coming into the church on that day, as Christ gave his Spirit to that church that day, they learned we better be doing God's will. We better be doing what he said. We better not be asleep at the switch. We may not be patting ourselves on the back and thinking it's okay. God's okay. He doesn't care. Oh, he cares.

He cares because he's laid out for us a plan. And much of that plan requires some self-control on our part, but not the self-control. Without the self-control that comes from the Holy Spirit, we're simply not going to be able to do what God wants us to. We won't become the trees that he wants us to. Let me give you a definition of self-control here from this the dictionary. I think you all know what it is. It says, the ability to regulate one's emotions, thoughts, and behavior, especially in the face of temptations and impulses.

It could be a difficult thing to do. You know, we all get faced with things that we want to do. We think, oh, I shouldn't do that, but I will anyway. Anything could be a behavior, right? I shouldn't have that second banana split today, but we might do it anyway. Shouldn't let that thought be in my mind, but we may just linger on that computer just a little bit longer because it's just so hard to turn it off or to get out of that website or whatever. The ninth fruit here is listed last, but it's certainly not the least important. It is crucial. It's crucial if we're going to develop the other fruits of the Spirit or let God develop the other fruits of the Spirit in us. If we can't deny self, if we can't say no to ourselves, if we can't choose what's right and can begin to control our emotions, our thoughts and behaviors, then we're missing the point. We're missing the boat. It takes self-control in order to develop the fruits of the Spirit and to be what God wants us to be. Now, I'm going to give you—let's turn over to Acts 24. No, no, let's not do that yet. Let's look at the word self-control right there in Genesis 5.22. Let me give you from the Strong's Concordance what self-control means. It comes from the Greek numbers are 1466, 67, and 68. Only five times in the New Testament is self-control used, and sometimes we confuse it with something else. We'll talk about that in a minute. But here's what Strong's says, that self-control in this verse and the four other places that we'll look at today, what it means. It literally means continents. We've heard of continents in the terms of some other things, but it literally means holding back. That's where continents comes from. A holding back, an ability to hold back thoughts, actions, and behaviors. It's the virtue of one who masters his desires and passions, especially his sensual appetites. That's what self-control is. It's a mastery of it. It's overcoming, as the Bible says, we must overcome if we're going to be in his kingdom. It's being able to master self. We can't do that. Romans 8, 7 tells us, we can't do that. It's impossible for us to do that without God's Holy Spirit. Without his Holy Spirit, we're hopeless. It takes his Holy Spirit, and one of the fruits of that is self-control.

It's a master self. It's a master self. Now, I mentioned this there in five places. Let's look and see what the Bible has to say. Here in Acts 24, verse 25, we find the first place in the New Testament that the Greek 16, 1466, 67, and 68 is used. And here we find Paul talking to the governor of Rome. Felix is there. And Felix is curious about what does this man believe? And Paul talks to him about the kingdom of God and what his beliefs are. Verse 24 of Acts 24, it says this, it says, After some days when Felix came with his wife, Drusilla, who was Jewish, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. Tell me about who Jesus Christ is. Tell me about what he stood for. Now, as he reasoned about righteousness, I'll tell you what he was about. He was about living the correct way. He was living about the way that was written in the Bible. As he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, notice Felix's reaction. He was afraid.

And answered, I can't do that. I can't live that way. Self-control. I have to do that. As he heard Paul talk, he was concerned. I can't do that. I don't want to do that, is maybe what he was thinking. He was afraid. It's a strange reaction for someone to have. I'm afraid I can't do that at the end of the conversation. He goes, go away. When I have a convenient time, I'll call for you.

Something about self-control that just didn't set right with him.

I can't do that. I don't know that, or he didn't even understand what Paul was talking about.

Over in Titus 1. Titus 1. Titus has some instruction to younger men and older men, younger women, older women, employees, employers. But in chapter 1 of Titus, it talks about the qualifications of an elder. Titus 1, verse 6. It says, Listen, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, and self-controlled.

There's that mastery again. Greek 1467. A mastery over self. You can see that fruit in him. He's growing. That fruit becomes more evident year by year. It's beginning to show. And you see God working with him and that fruit developing in him. Now, we'll get to the other three here in a minute. But self-control is sometimes confused with the Holy Spirit itself. You know, in 2 Timothy 1.7, some translations use the word self-control, and there, 2 Timothy 1.7 says, God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. And some translations now will say self-control. But sound mind is not the same as self-control. Self-control is part of a sound mind.

But what God gives us is a sound mind. The spirit of a sound mind, when you look up in the Greek, what sound mind is translated from is from Greek 43, 64, 5, and 6, I believe. If I can find that, I might, about 49, 93, 94, and 95. And there's a calling, it says, to a sound mind. God has called us to become of a sound mind. And as we learn, and as he transforms our mind, as he renews our mind, we think differently, we act differently. Self-control is part of it because we have to exercise some self-control. But sound mind comes from doing all the will of God and thinking like he thinks, reacting like he reacts, responding that over time we become more and more like Jesus Christ, that we have his mind in us. So self-control is part of a sound mind. But sound mind isn't only just about. That isn't only just about self-control. Well, let's go back into the Old Testament and look at a couple verses here on self-control. In Proverbs, the companion Hebrew words that are translated as self-control. Proverbs 25 and verse 28.

Proverbs 25 and verse 28. Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is talking about self-control. Whoever has no self-control, whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down without walls. When a city is broken down without walls, what happens?

Enemies enter in. Enemies take over. Friends don't come in and take over, but enemies do.

You know, Romans 6, 16, Paul says, whoever you yield yourself to obey, that's whose slaves you are, either to sin or to righteousness. When our walls are broken down, when there's no self-control and we let thoughts in, when we let issues in, when we do the things and let us give ourselves permission to go against God's clear commands. Walls are being broken down.

Walls are being broken down. And while walls are being broken down, enemies walk in.

And it's much harder to get an enemy back out of those walls than to keep him out to begin with and to keep him at bay. Self-control, remember, is mastery over self, especially in the face of temptations and passions. Mastery over our own selves and the things that we would naturally do. Another place you find this is back in Proverbs 16. Proverbs 16 and verse 32.

He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty. Now, if we just pause right there, isn't that true? He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty. Takes a lot to control our anger sometimes, doesn't it? You know, I was watching the news and probably many of you saw this little clip of an attorney in New York City that just lost his cool in a deli this past week, heard something he didn't like and just went off against the employees that were there and anyone who had talked to him, he was just angry. And of course, these days, everyone's got a cell phone, and so they taped it all and it's gone viral and it was there on the news and I thought about the guy and I thought, buddy, you blew it. You blew it. You might have thought it, but you should have contained, should have contained your word because you know what? You, you, well, his life is going to be different from here on out. The next day they talked about his office, told them just, just stay home. Stay home for a while. He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty. And we've all been there, right? Anger gets us all sometimes and we can just kind of let out and say things that we don't really mean, but we're just looking to lash out at something. He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he who rules his spirit, he who has mastery over it, he who has the self-control, he's mightier than he who takes a city. God takes safe self-control very seriously. He looks at it as something that we must have and if you look at the fruits of the spirit, we see we're never going to develop agape if we don't have self-control. We're never going to experience the joy that God wants us to have if we don't have some self-control. We're never going to experience the peace. We're never going to experience what the patience, the goodness, the meekness, the faithfulness, the gentleness, unless we have self-control because it takes us making choices along the way. God will give us the ability to do it. He gives us the power. It's there. He pollinates us with it.

But if we never use it, if we never fertilize it, it's just laying their dormant. It's one of those things that if only, if only this had happened, if only they had done this, if only those things had happened. Sad situation. Sad situation, much like Mr. Collins was talking about with the people knocking, who will think back then, if I had just fertilized, if I had just allowed that to develop in me, now it's too late. I gave myself too many excuses. I gave myself too many ways out. I gave myself too many passes and thought God just didn't mind. As long as I knew he was true, as long as I knew he was God, as long as I knew his plan, that was good enough. It's not good enough. God's not looking for people who just know he's looking for people who actually will bear fruit and become the trees that he's pleased with, that he's pleased with. So we see here, he who rules his spirit is mightier than he who takes the city. It takes strength. It takes power. It takes the Spirit of God. Let's go back to Genesis 4 because God tells us right to the beginning of mankind's history on earth that we got to have the self-control. Genesis 4 and the first family, we have the two young men, Cain and Abel. They're of different spirits. You can tell as you read through Genesis 4.

Cain is a tiller of the ground. Abel, a keeper of the animals, they bring their offerings. One God accepts and the other God doesn't accept. He looks at the heart and he sees what went into that offering and he's not at all pleased. And so Cain becomes very angry. I want to be accepted like Abel was accepted, even though he didn't have the same heart that Abel did, even though he didn't put the same preparation and thought into it, even though he came with a different attitude of his offering. I want you to praise me just like you did and accept Abel. And he gets so mad that he does the unthinkable. He let his anger get ahold of him and he kills Abel over God's response to his offering. And notice what God tells him when he's talking to him in verse 7.

And if you don't do well, sin lies at the door and his desire is for you. But notice what he says.

But you should rule over it. You should rule over it. You should have self-control. You need the strength to say, no, that thought's in my mind, but I will not do it. I will not let that come into fruition. You need to develop that. It's the same thing God would tell us when we come into his truth. You have to develop that. You have to not let sin rule over you. You can't keep giving into it over and over and over. You know what's right. You know what's wrong. You have to start having mastery over what comes into your mind and not letting you make the decisions, but you follow what God says. Very simple what God says. Not so simple to put it into practice.

Not so simple at all to put it into practice. But he tells us the way to eternal life.

He tells us how to get there. He gives us the power that we can't get any other way except through his Holy Spirit, but we have to do something with it. And that's the self-control that he told Cain about here. It takes a lifetime. A lifetime of training. A lifetime of training. A lifetime of fertilizing. A lifetime of developing and building up those walls of self-control. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 9. 1 Corinthians 9.

Find another place where Greek 1466 is. The actual word self-control, that means mastery over self, our impulses, our passions. 1 Corinthians 9 verse 26. Paul writes, 1 Corinthians 9.26. Therefore I run this. Now let's begin in verse 25.

Everyone who competes for the prize, he's talking about those who run a race and how they are doing it. They go through all this training in order to win a physical prize. Everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Well, that's where the word is right there. It's translated temperate here. Sometimes it's temperate. Sometimes it's self-control. It's Greek 1466. It means self-controlled. Anyone who competes for the prize is self-controlled in all things. He has mastery over his body. He has mastery over his behavior. He has mastery over his thoughts.

You know, we had the Olympics just not too long ago, and you watch those athletes and you see what they discipline, how they discipline themselves, how they make themselves do things, and the things that they are able to do is just absolutely astounding what they're able to do. It's hard to even imagine, at least for me, to imagine myself, my body, ever doing what those athletes are able to do. And I have to think how many hours, how much discipline, how many things did they give up to dedicate themselves to that, to even think that their body could do the things that they do and some of the things that the races they run and the things that they do.

Everyone who competes for the prize is self-controlled in all things, not just a few.

They got control over their thoughts. They got control over their behaviors. They got control over what they eat, what they drink, when they exercise, when they don't, when they work out, when they don't. They're saying no to things. They're not spending 85 times a day on the phone, like Mr. Collins said. Those 85 times, they're doing something else. They're dedicated to the clause that they have committed their life to. It's something that we should look at. And, you know, when you see them do that, you appreciate the time and effort they put into it.

Paul says they do it for a physical prize, something that's there. They win a gold medal. They win a silver medal. They win a bronze medal. Great. It's a nice accomplishment. But he says, how much has God called you and me to be? What he has called us to do. And should we be temperate in all things? They do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus, not with uncertainty. Thus I fight, not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. Now, there's one of the words, times where self-control is, and we can ask ourselves, how disciplined are we? How dedicated are we to the race that God has called us to run? How dedicated are we to growing the tree and growing the fruit that God wants us to grow? What master do we have over ourselves? Are we watching our diet physically and spiritually? Are we watching our exercise physically and spiritually? Do we have a plan? Are we following God's plan to eternal life? Are we doing it his way? Or are we doing it his way or our way? You know, all those athletes, they have coaches who tell them, this is what you need to do. Follow what I need to do. Follow what I tell you to do. And you know what? Do it, and they do it. We are the greatest coach ever in the history of the world. And he says, do it this way, do it that way, and I'll give you things you can't even imagine.

Are we committed to him? Are we committed the way those people are to their coaches?

Are we more committed to part of the way? Because you know, not everyone who starts off to be an Olympic athlete becomes one. Somewhere along the line, things get a little tough, and they want to go out and do some other things and not dedicate all the time that they have to do that. They don't want to dedicate their entire life to it. They realize it's tough. There's a lot we have to give up in order to become an Olympic athlete. And there's a lot that God asks us to give up.

Our desires, being part of the world, doing the things that we want to do, do we have the vision? Does it motivate us like that bronze, gold, or silver medal motivates them?

Are we committed all for the rest of our lives? For the rest of our lives until the time we die to do those things? All those things that God asks us to do?

When He gives us His Holy Spirit, He has high hopes. He calls us children. He sees us as children.

And He wants us to have eternal life. Are we committed to following Him? To being a tree that glorifies Him?

We certainly don't, any of us, I hope, want to be a tree that disappoints Him.

But there's only one way to glorify Him and to make Him pleased with us.

Let's look just at a couple things here that we can self-control.

There's many things, and as you think about yourself and as I think about myself, I know the things I need to be better at than having mastery over. And there's things you know.

And all of us have different things in our lives that we fall prey to much easier than others. And, you know, we can be judgmental sometimes and say, I don't know, yeah, you have a problem with that, because that doesn't bother me at all. But for others, they have no problems with the things that would bother me or that I would fall prey to. We all have our own things that we have to overcome. None of us are at the point where we have perfect self-control and mastery over ourselves.

Well, let's look at anger for a moment. Let's look at anger. Cain was an angry person, and God looked at him and said, Cain, you know what? If you do well, you'll be accepted. But you need to rule over that anger. And all of us, you know, some would have more anger than others. All of us have fallen prey to anger at some time in our lives. We get mad about things. We say things. We may do things that we regret later. Even things that we might even send off in an email, right? Sometimes you get angry about someone at work and send off a new meal, and the next day you think, I wish I hadn't done that. I wish I had sat on that anger a little bit. I've been there too many times. Rarely do I send an email off anymore that has anything to say without sitting on it for 24 hours, if it's that type of email. Because it's tough. It's tough to realize what you've done and pay the price later. So Ephesians 4.

Let's look at Ephesians 4, verse 23. Here in Ephesians 4, it's talking about how God sets up His house, the things that He has done, and the church that He has put us in that He expects us to grow in, to be fertilized in, to glorify Him and being with each other in. In verse 23, He tells us here in this chapter that our standard is Jesus Christ to become like Him. That's what we're aiming for. That's what we've been called for, that our tree that He's growing in us would look like the tree that Jesus Christ was and is, or was when He was a human. Verse 23 says, Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

There it is. You've got to have a whole change of mind, a whole change of heart. Same thing it says in Romans 12, verse 2. And it goes in that, You put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, put away lying, and let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor. We've all lied. We'll talk about lying in a little bit or the speech that we have. Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. And then He says in verse 26, Be angry and don't sin. Boom! Two right off the bat. Watch what you say. Don't lie. Take care of your words. And be angry and don't sin. Don't let the sun go down on your wrath. Resolve it, and don't give place to the devil. Don't let him have an entry into your door. Don't let him break down that wall a little bit. Don't sit on anger because anger can turn into bitterness and resentment and all those other things it tells us, especially in Hebrews 12, verse 15. Get rid of it. Forgive. Get over it. Realize we all make mistakes. Keep our eyes on the goal. And don't let that stop us and hinder us or poison us in any way. So we can talk about lying. We can talk about lying. I talked about the the man that was angry on the website or on the not the website, YouTube, that went viral.

God says, just don't do it. Just don't do it. And when we get angry, our tongues are involved. Ephesians 4, we're right there, talks about lying. Verse 9, verse 29, he comes back to our mouths again. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth. But what is good for necessary edification that may impart grace to the hearers? Watch the words you say. The words we say are important. We talked about how God says, for every idle word, you're going to be held accountable.

It's a tough standard that's a tough standard to have to live up to. We go back down again in verse 31. He says, let all bitterness, all wrath, all anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Get rid of the anger. Get rid of the bitterness. Get rid of the offended attitudes. Get rid of that, and watch what you are saying. Watch what you are saying.

Now let's go back to Proverbs 29, verse 11 here, and look at a few verses in Proverbs about our words and the words that we would say. Proverbs 29.

Proverbs 29, verse 11.

A fool. A fool vents all his feelings. We've all done that at some time in our life, right? We just let it out. We just tell everything that we've ever thought, and just let people have it.

Maybe our spouse, maybe our children, maybe our boss, maybe on YouTube. Who knows these days? Who's taping what? A fool vents all his feelings, but a wise man holds them back. He stops. I'm not going to say that. I'm going to have some mastery over myself, and even though everything in me is wanting to let him or her have it, I'm going to hold it back. I'm not going to do it.

Proverbs 21, verse 23. 21, verse 23. Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles.

I can't help thinking about that guy on that YouTube, and I think that if he was reading these verses today, he wishes that he had probably exercised a little self-control. And sometime in our lives, I'm sure we wish that we would have just exercised a little self-control in the things that we said. And yet we still mess up from time to time. Proverbs 10, verse 19. In the multitude of words, sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise.

Nothing wrong with talking, but if we get ourselves carried away and we just talk and talk and talk, and all of a sudden the walls are broken down and we're saying things that later we think, oh man, what did I say that for? Why did I go down that road?

In the multitude of words, sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise.

And let's go for a minute just over to James. While we're on the subject, James, of course, has a whole at least half chapter. Well, most of all, of chapter three has to do with the tongue and how difficult it is to master that. If we can ever get to the point where we are Greek 1466-ing our tongue, boy, we've gone a long way toward what God wants us to do.

Let's pick it up in verse two. James 3, verse 2. Let me just read through the words here. I think they don't really need a whole lot of explanation as we read through it. And as we think about the things we say and maybe the things we say at work, the type of things we say on the job, the things we might say at school, the things we might even talk about on Sabbath. I understand Mr. Wentz read Psalm or Isaiah 58 about the words we speak on the Sabbath a few weeks ago.

James 3, 2. We all stumble in many things. If anyone doesn't stumble in word, he's a perfect man. And none of us are there yet, able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in Horace's mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look at the ships! Although they're so large and are driven by fierce winds, they're turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so, the tongue is a little member, and it boasts great things.

See how great a forest a little fire kindles. We say an awfully lot with the words we say.

Sometimes we show where our imperfections are and just blast them for the whole world to see by the words we say. And I hope, you know, we go home at night, some of the things I say during the day, I think I lay awake at night, and I think, could a phrase that differently? Should have shut my mouth then? Sometimes I should have spoken up then, because there's a part to that, too, speaking when it should be. But learning, learning what our words can do and what they say about us, most importantly to God. Because Christ said, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so said among our members that it defiles the whole body. It sets on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire by hell.

By who? Satan! He loves our tongues. He loves what he can put into our minds. He loves what comes out of them. He loves to cause problems. He loves to set us up. And all too often we might fall prey to it, but if we develop, Greek 14, 66, 67, and 68, we'll come to the point where the words we speak will be edifying. They will glorify God. Every kind of beast and bird of reptile and reacher of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no man can tame the tongue. It's an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing.

My brethren, these things ought not to be so. It says don't do it. Watch over the tongue. One thing we can exercise or practice having some self-control over. Let's go back to James 1 and verse 26 right here at the beginning of his epistle. James talks about it as to the tongue.

He says if anyone, James 1, 26, if anyone among you thinks he's religious and doesn't pridal his tongue, he deceives his own heart. This one's religion, he says, is useless. Useless.

So something we can look at as we think about ourselves. Do we have control over the things we say? Over in 2 Corinthians 10, we find it's more than just the things we say. 2 Corinthians 10, verse 5, we find another place that we are to exercise some self-control.

2 Corinthians 10, verse 5.

Paul says, cast down, well, let's begin in verse 4 where the sentence begins, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, those things that are just kind of implanted in us that takes a lifetime to overcome. Maybe a belief, maybe an attitude, maybe whatever, but God says you got to pull them down. You got to pull them down. Casting down arguments in every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

Every word, every thought, that's tough. That's tough. But it's a goal. And every time a thought comes into your mind that you know is not of God, you build a little self-control when you ask God, let me get rid of this thought. Put it out of my mind. I refuse to go down that path. I won't do what my mind is telling me to do. I won't go where it's telling me to go. Christ talks about this very thing on the Sermon on the Mount. He says, you know, he expands the meeting of the commandments. It's not enough just to not physically kill your brother. I don't even want you to hate him. I don't even want you to harbor thoughts of ill toward him. I want you to control your thoughts. I want them to be pure. I want agape to grow. He says it's not enough that you just don't physically commit the act of adultery. I don't even want you thinking about that. I don't even want you looking and thinking about a woman to lost after her. I want your thoughts to be pure. I want them to come into captivity. And so in 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 7, we find Greek 1466 and 1 Corinthians 7 and verse 9. Commonly referred to as the marriage chapter where Paul is talking about marriage, various aspects of it. He says in verse 9, well, again, let's pick it up in verse 8 where the sentence begins, but I say to the unmarried and to the widows, it is good for them if they remain even as I am. Paul is unmarried, but if they cannot exercise self-control, if they can't control that, if it's so difficult that they can't get those thoughts of sex out of their mind, let them marry. Because Paul says you got to have mastery over it. And if that isn't one thing to do, marry. That's so as how difficult he says it is for some people. For him, he was able to do it.

Others aren't. God makes a provision for that.

But regardless, he says, do it God's way. There's no excuses because God says this is the way it is and you do it my way. Not it was too hard or too difficult. Back one chapter in chapter 6.

Sometimes when we are exercising self-control in things, we simply have to run from it.

We just have to run from it. Like that young man in Proverbs 6 who was walking down and was enticed by the young lady. And she kept telling him, come on in, come on in, my tapestry is lovely, my husband won't be home until tomorrow. Boom, boom, boom. He should have just walked away. He should have had the control to say, no, I'm not going down that road. But he kept there and he kept on it until she lured him in. And it cost him his life, is what that Proverb says. And so sometimes when we have thoughts, we have to simply discipline ourselves and think about the self-control God gives us and say, I'm not going there. I'm going to run from it. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 18. Paul says, flee. Flee sexual immorality. Don't stick around.

Whether it's in person or whether it's on the internet, flee it. Turn it off. Get off of the site that you're on. Don't linger because you will fail. Put it out of your life. Turn it off. Ask God for the self-control. Every time that thought comes into your mind, say, I'm not going down that road. I will look to God. I will turn to him and look for the strength that he can give Flee sexual immorality. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 14. As he's talking about temptations and talking about idols in ancient Israel, it was Sabbath breaking and idolatry that were the two main things that God sent them into captivity for. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 14. He says, therefore, my beloved, flee. Flee from idolatry. If something is more important to you than God, get away from it. If there are other religions that are causing you problems and doubts, get away from it. Keep your eyes in the Word of God. Keep your eyes in the Bible.

Run to develop self-control to get away from it. Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 2, 22, flee youthful lusts. Get away from them. Say, no, develop that. Look to God. Only he gives you that strength to do it, and he'll give it to you. And we develop that self-control when we look to God and we turn to him in those times and ask him, help me. Get this thought out of my mind. I don't want to go down this road. I don't want to let this happen anymore. He'll do it. And every time we ask him, he fertilizes it. He fertilizes it. Let me give you also John 10 verse 5 and 1 Timothy 6, 11 as things we flee from. But you know, not everything that we have to say no to is totally wrong. There's a verse back here in Proverbs 25 that speaks to all of us here today. Proverbs 25 and verse 16. You know, there's things like idolatry, there's things like adultery, there's things like hate, there's things like whatever it is that we would just say, no, I never want to go down that road. No. My mind wants to go there. The answer is no, I won't do it.

But there's other things we have to pay a little more attention to. Proverbs 25 verse 16.

It says, have you found honey? Now, honey is a good thing, right? It's one of those perfect, well, nature would call it the perfect foods of God doesn't spoil. Have you found honey?

Eat only as much as you need, lest you be filled with it and vomit.

Honey is good, but if I eat too much of it, it's going to make me sick.

Verse 17, he follows the same. Seldom set your foot in your neighbor's house.

Good to visit your neighbor. But if you go there too much, he's going to become weary of you and hate you. At some point, we have to say, enough is enough. I've had enough.

And, you know, we can draw many things in this world and this life we live that are good when they're used for good, but if we have too much of them, they become evil. And they become, and they make us sick. Mr. Collins, I didn't know he was going to mention and mention some of those.

The Internet is a good thing. I'm thankful for the Internet. It saves me enormous amounts of times and the things that I can find on the Internet about the Bible and understanding Greek words and Hebrew words and background of the Bible is an enormous help in understanding the Bible. But too much Internet is a bad thing. It can take us away from every other thing that we should do. Cell phones are a great thing. I love having my little cell phone that I can kind of pull out of my pocket and have everything I need at my disposal. But if I spend all my time on that cell phone, it's bad. It's going to cause problems. TV is a great thing.

It can be entertaining and there's times when you just want to sit down and enjoy a good show. But if you watch TV too much, it's a bad thing. It's not healthy for you.

There's other things we could be doing.

You know, I look around the world today. I hadn't heard the statistic that was talked about 85 times on the phone. I sure hope I don't look at my phone 85 times a day. I almost throw it away after hearing that. But you know, I look around the world today and I see phones everywhere.

I go to the airport. Everyone's on their phone. No one's looking at each other. They're all looking at their phone. I come to church and I see people looking at phones. And I know they're looking at Bibles on it and everything like that. I know people spend way too much time on the internet. I probably spend way too much time on the internet. You know, one of the areas that we can begin to practice a little self-control, a little Greek 14 city 66 in at home, is how much we use that stuff. You know, it would be nice to have a day. And I've heard some psychologists say this. It would be good to have a cell phone-free day or an internet-free day.

Maybe at home we want to kind of look at some of the things we do and begin to practice a little self-control and mastery over it and say, you know what? I just I don't need to spend four or five hours on the internet today. I'll go there and I'll look what I need to look at. I'll look at my emails and then you know the rest of the time I'm going to do is something else. I'll call someone on the phone. I'll read the Bible. I'll prepare this. I'll do whatever I need to do, but I'm not going to spend all that time on the internet. I'm going to watch just the show, this show, but I'm not going to spend the next two or three hours flipping the channels and seeing what's on.

For my children, they don't need to have a phone every minute of every day. And maybe on a Sabbath sometime we just tell them, you're not having a cell phone today. You don't need to talk to anyone outside the world. You don't need to look at your messages. You don't need to text anyone. You can talk to people in church. You can develop relationships with each other. You can focus on that rather than having the time to look at your phone and wonder what's going on out in the world, which God says, leave it behind on the Sabbath. We can begin developing some of those self-control items in our lives as parents and as people just by saying, I'm not going to do that. God, help me to do it and use it the correct way. Help me to do the things that you want me to do. And you know, I think that's going to be a difficult thing. I think the Spirit is willing and a lot of you are thinking, you know what, we'll do that. And I think it's exactly what Jesus Christ said, the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. And you know what, the flesh is weak, you will cave. But not if you turn to God, not if you involve Him, not if you say, God, I want to do what you want, give me the self-control. And every time the thought comes into your mind, you implore Him, let me do your will. Help me to develop this fruit, this fruit that is so important in the life that you've called me to, this fruit that you want to see me bear.

You know, all too often we turn somewhere else. We turn to ourselves and whatever, we turn to whatever it is. We need to learn to start turning to God more about everything that goes on in our lives. Not thinking we'll do this first and that first, we'll do God first, we'll ask Him first.

Okay, let's go over to 1 Peter 1. I've been on my soapbox long enough. I'll leave that to you.

Hey, it wouldn't bother me at all if I didn't see a whole lot of cell phones tomorrow, but I saw a lot of Bibles instead of cell phones that were people returning to tomorrow. And every once in a while, we kind of look at what we're doing and realize we don't have to let the world in.

We don't have to let the world into everything that we do. We can be in just in God's presence and each other's presence and get to know each other and get to appreciate each other and not have sometimes the crutches that we might have. I want to read here 1 Peter. 1 Peter, I'm sorry, 2 Peter. 2 Peter 1. The fifth place that we find Greek 14 66 67 or 68 we find here in 2 Peter 1. And I want you to notice the order in which he talks about our development as Christians. He says in verse 5, in verse 4, you see he's talking to Christians, and he says, So for this very reason, giving all diligence, because we have to be diligent to what God has to do. We have to put our energy into it. We have to be zealous. Giving all diligence, add to your faith. Faith is right there. One of the primary things. We've got to have faith in God. Add to your faith virtue. Add to your virtue knowledge. Get to know the Bible. Read it. Study it. Make it part of your mind and thinking. Add to your knowledge self-control. Add to it Greek 14 66 67 and 68. Add to that knowledge that when you see it, you say, I'm going to do it. God has given me the spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind. When I repent, when I'm baptized, when hands are laid on me, He will give me the power to do what He says. I have to engage Him. I have to ask Him. I have the purpose to do it and set my mind to do it, and He will develop that. Their self-control is right at the beginning. Not the ninth fruit of the tree, but right there at the beginning.

Add to knowledge self-control. Add to self-control perseverance. Redure to the end, to perseverance godliness, the way you think, the way you act, the way you become, and look more and more like Jesus Christ. Add to godliness brotherly kindness. That's the fruit of the spirit. And to brotherly kindness agape, which is the first fruit on the tree in Galatians 5, 22. But Paul says, you know what, self-control, that ninth fruit needs to be there. We need to work at it.

We need to think about it. We need to be conscious of it. We need to ask God for it.

Now, when we find that temptation or that behavior or that tendency developing that we know we should root out of our lives, we go to Him because He's given us the ability. He's given us the power. It's not in us by ourselves and no one else can do it for you, but God can.

And our choices, we can. So, tomorrow we will observe the day of Pentecost. We will talk about the Holy Spirit of God coming to people in His Church, the same Holy Spirit that He's given you and me. We may talk a little bit about some of the fruits, or we may not. But let us be about growing the trees that God has called us to be and going about bearing the fruit that He wants to see from all of us.