Get Connected
Click here to fill out the Get Connected Card
Message Notes
THE PROBLEM:
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! —Romans 7:15-25
THE SOLUTION:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. —Galatians 5:22–23
THE DEFINITION:
• Self-control is exactly what it sounds like: Control Over The Self.
• Self-control means having power over your body’s desires and passions.
• It is the ability to make the choices that God says are best!
• Not just the ability to control our will, but to submit our will to God’s will.
• Self-control is learning how to respond and not react.
• It is like a Holy Spirit “pause”.
A lack of self-control will destroy your life:
A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls. —Proverbs 25:28
The Holy Spirit gives us the ABILITY and POWER to exercise self-control.
HOW TO EXPERIENCE SELF-CONTROL:
• Begin With GOD.
• Look At JESUS.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. —Hebrews 4:15
Understand that BOTH Self-control and Temptation have to do with our DESIRES.
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. —James 1:13-15
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. —Galatians 5:16-18
We have to set our MIND on the SPIRIT.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. —Romans 8:5-7
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age. —Titus 2:11-12
And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. —Galatians 5.24-25
Saying NO to SELF begins with Saying YES to GOD.