Empowered Living: Cultivating Self-Control Through the Spirit
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
### Quotes for Outreach
1. "If you're struggling with appetites, fill in the blank, whatever that happens to be, consider the practice of fasting. Is that the only reason people can fast? No. But that's a powerful way to begin to say, wait a minute, am I in control of my appetites or are they in control of me? And so maybe you take a day or a half a day and you say, I'm going to say no to the appetites that have been running my life because I think there's a better way to live." [51:15]
2. "Freedom, we're told this message, freedom is the ability to do whatever you want. I want to suggest that freedom is actually the ability to do what you were designed to do. Let me say that again. Rather than understanding freedom as the ability to do whatever you want, freedom is actually the ability to do what you were designed to do, to be effective and productive as an image bearer, right? We only flourish when we're living out our purpose and our design." [45:15]
3. "Think about it like this. Maybe you've seen people who exercise great control. Consider, for example, a professional athlete who's in the middle of a game, and the situation develops, and they react and respond in ways that are really remarkable. But you understand that didn't happen by accident. That happened by years and years of regular, consistent, often challenging practice." [48:38]
4. "Will the decision I'm about to do, the emotion that I'm about to wrestle with, will this actually help me? Be effective and productive as an image bearer of the master creator. That question can reshape and reform how we approach those challenging situations, whether it's what we're going to do with our body or our mouth or our minds or whatever." [45:15]
5. "So, Peter, the apostle Peter, writes this in 2 Peter 1 5-9. He says, for this reason, and the reason he's talking about it is actually saying like, hey, God has given you all the power that you need to live the kind of life you were created for. And then he follows it up with this. For this reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness and to goodness knowledge and to knowledge self-control. There it is again, self-control. Perseverance, perseverance, godliness, to godliness, mutual affection, to mutual affection, love." [42:02]
### Quotes for Members
1. "Make the Holy Spirit your partner. Begin each day by just opening your heart and your mind and perhaps even your hands and say, Spirit of God, I need your power. I need your power and your wisdom today. Would you help me live the kind of flourishing life? Would you help grow the fruit of your work in my life, including self-control?" [53:58]
2. "Today, in many churches around the world, they're celebrating Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost is literally a term that means 50 days after Jesus' resurrection, right? So here we are, seven weeks after Easter, after Resurrection Sunday, when we recognize that was the day in the history of the church when the Spirit of God came and began to work in and through the followers of Jesus. It started in the upper room, and it has not stopped in this day." [55:03]
3. "The passage that we've been examining in Galatians 5, talking about fruit of the Spirit, in itself says self-control is something that is going to be influenced by outside of us, by the Spirit of God. So think about this. Maybe you know someone who has tremendous self-control and restraint and mastery over their impulses and their behavior and their emotions. Maybe you know somebody like that. Here's the deal. That didn't happen. They didn't happen by themselves." [37:36]
4. "Growing the fruit of self-control begins with getting the self out of self-control and acknowledging there's more going on than just you or just me. Beyond that, I want to talk about the why. Because it's possible to think about self-control as this great ultimate virtue, almost like the ancient Stoics would say, like the goal of life is mastery of self and my emotions and actions and all this stuff. And we could laser focus on being the master of controlling ourselves. But I think there's a better way even in that." [38:58]
5. "If you think it's all just about you, yourself, exercising more restraint, you're missing part of the picture. As with almost every other arena of life, you are subjected to outside forces. Forces that are often contrary to what you desire for yourself. In other words, if you think your lack of self-control is just a matter of needing more willpower, you've been fooled. It's a myth, right? There's some truth to it, but it's not the whole truth." [34:17]
Ask a question about this sermon
1. "If you're struggling with appetites, fill in the blank, whatever that happens to be, consider the practice of fasting. Is that the only reason people can fast? No. But that's a powerful way to begin to say, wait a minute, am I in control of my appetites or are they in control of me? And so maybe you take a day or a half a day and you say, I'm going to say no to the appetites that have been running my life because I think there's a better way to live." [51:15]
2. "Freedom, we're told this message, freedom is the ability to do whatever you want. I want to suggest that freedom is actually the ability to do what you were designed to do. Let me say that again. Rather than understanding freedom as the ability to do whatever you want, freedom is actually the ability to do what you were designed to do, to be effective and productive as an image bearer, right? We only flourish when we're living out our purpose and our design." [45:15]
3. "Think about it like this. Maybe you've seen people who exercise great control. Consider, for example, a professional athlete who's in the middle of a game, and the situation develops, and they react and respond in ways that are really remarkable. But you understand that didn't happen by accident. That happened by years and years of regular, consistent, often challenging practice." [48:38]
4. "Will the decision I'm about to do, the emotion that I'm about to wrestle with, will this actually help me? Be effective and productive as an image bearer of the master creator. That question can reshape and reform how we approach those challenging situations, whether it's what we're going to do with our body or our mouth or our minds or whatever." [45:15]
5. "So, Peter, the apostle Peter, writes this in 2 Peter 1 5-9. He says, for this reason, and the reason he's talking about it is actually saying like, hey, God has given you all the power that you need to live the kind of life you were created for. And then he follows it up with this. For this reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness and to goodness knowledge and to knowledge self-control. There it is again, self-control. Perseverance, perseverance, godliness, to godliness, mutual affection, to mutual affection, love." [42:02]
### Quotes for Members
1. "Make the Holy Spirit your partner. Begin each day by just opening your heart and your mind and perhaps even your hands and say, Spirit of God, I need your power. I need your power and your wisdom today. Would you help me live the kind of flourishing life? Would you help grow the fruit of your work in my life, including self-control?" [53:58]
2. "Today, in many churches around the world, they're celebrating Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost is literally a term that means 50 days after Jesus' resurrection, right? So here we are, seven weeks after Easter, after Resurrection Sunday, when we recognize that was the day in the history of the church when the Spirit of God came and began to work in and through the followers of Jesus. It started in the upper room, and it has not stopped in this day." [55:03]
3. "The passage that we've been examining in Galatians 5, talking about fruit of the Spirit, in itself says self-control is something that is going to be influenced by outside of us, by the Spirit of God. So think about this. Maybe you know someone who has tremendous self-control and restraint and mastery over their impulses and their behavior and their emotions. Maybe you know somebody like that. Here's the deal. That didn't happen. They didn't happen by themselves." [37:36]
4. "Growing the fruit of self-control begins with getting the self out of self-control and acknowledging there's more going on than just you or just me. Beyond that, I want to talk about the why. Because it's possible to think about self-control as this great ultimate virtue, almost like the ancient Stoics would say, like the goal of life is mastery of self and my emotions and actions and all this stuff. And we could laser focus on being the master of controlling ourselves. But I think there's a better way even in that." [38:58]
5. "If you think it's all just about you, yourself, exercising more restraint, you're missing part of the picture. As with almost every other arena of life, you are subjected to outside forces. Forces that are often contrary to what you desire for yourself. In other words, if you think your lack of self-control is just a matter of needing more willpower, you've been fooled. It's a myth, right? There's some truth to it, but it's not the whole truth." [34:17]
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