Empowered Self-Control: Living by the Spirit

1. "And so every nut, every bolt that went into this tree, every light that goes on it, every decoration, every voice, it all matters. Nobody has a small part in this ministry. It's all for the glory of God and for the good of others. And so be in prayer for this year's living Christmas tree. And as Chris stated earlier, find a place to serve. There are a lot of folks, thousands of people, are going to come to Oak Grove in those two weeks, thousands of people from the community. I've given out tickets to a lot of people, and I seek out people who don't know Jesus, and I get them tickets because I want them to hear the songs, the proclamation of the gospel, and then I want them to hear the spoken word, God's word, as it goes out to them." [00:35:50] (46 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "Now, every one of us has a beast inside of us called self, all of us. It is the biggest enemy that we have preventing us from achieving God's purpose in our lives. And we have got to put ourself to death. And I'll explain what that means, because some of you may be saying, what are you saying, Jim? I'm saying that, as Jesus said, we have to crucify ourselves, because we live in a society that is completely out of control." [00:38:05] (31 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "And the credit card debt alone that we have in this country is greater than the gross national product of many small nations. Bless you. We're a nation that is physically, physically out of control. Every day in America, we eat 75 acres of pizza. We don't think about pizza and acreage. But in this country, we do. 815 billion calories are consumed in America a day. That is an average of 3,600 calories per person, which is almost double the recommended 2,000 calories a day." [00:39:33] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "Self -control is when you are so filled and led by the Holy Spirit that the way you act or react in any situation brings glory to God and edifies other people. That's our goal. We want to glorify God in what we do. We want to edify others. Somebody once said, God mightily uses Christians who stay cool in a hot place, sweet in a sour place, and little in a big place." [01:09:24] (26 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "The philosopher Aristotle called self -control the hardest victory, and I believe that to be true. There's nothing new under the sun, and Aristotle had it right a long time ago. Because if you control self, you win. But if self controls you, you are going to lose. So we see three lessons from the Scripture today. First, we must deny ourselves." [00:45:03] (25 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "You are never going to be free of yourself, but you must be free from yourself if you are going to walk in the Spirit. And there's a danger, as I said, a beast that lurks inside of every one of us called self. There is no middle ground. Either you control self, or self will control you. And when we look at what Jesus said in verse 23 there, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." [00:45:27] (27 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "Every day you have to wake up with a determination that you are going to yield to the power of the Holy Spirit in your life and let Jesus lead you. Let the Spirit of God lead you. This is something we have to do every day. And you say, my goodness, this sounds grueling. It's not. It's not. All you have to do is get out of the way. Take yourself out of the equation. That doesn't mean you stop being you. It means that you stop trying to make yourself holy. You yield to the Holy Spirit and let him make you holier, make you more righteous. In other words, more like King Jesus. See, the world says, deify yourself. Jesus says, deny yourself." [00:46:09] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "And listen, what's the result of a society saturated with self that is completely out of control? Well, it throws us back to what the apostle, Paul, said in Galatians chapter 5 on verse 19, when he gives us that horrible list of the works of the Spirit. Now, the works of the Spirit of flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissension, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these, I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do not such things, will not inherit the kingdom of God." [00:47:34] (43 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "Self -control is the opposite of the works of the flesh self -control was on the fruit of the spirit it's the one fruit that doesn't have a matching quality of god think about that god doesn't need to exercise self -control you over anything God doesn't have any evil desires that tempt him and so he's not tempted by evil in any way see self -control is something that we need not something that God needs to exercise and so you ask the question why is it on the list of the fruit of the spirit surely because it's one of the things that the Holy Spirit does in us that empowers and enables us to control our sinful desires God wants us to be well balanced Jesus was the most balanced man who ever lived he spoke the truth but he did it in love Jesus was never hateful now the Pharisees might disagree but it's because they were bringing dishonor to his father and he had righteous anger but with everyone else Jesus was balanced he had self -control in every instance particularly on the cross when he says father forgive them for they know not what they do what great self -control what a great example of self -control when he could have called down a legion of angels to take him off of that cross thank God he didn't see our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit so we ask the resident Holy Spirit that lives within us to control us so that we can control ourselves amen so see when we come to Jesus again we have to have the Holy Spirit in our life and we receive that Holy Spirit, you can control yourself." [00:52:24] (103 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "I don't care how angry you get politically. I don't care how angry you get going down the highway. If you're a child of God, you possess the fruit of the spirit of self -control. You see, it takes discipline to make that extra phone call. It takes extra discipline to do that extra rep when you're lifting weights. Do you know that that water that's at 211 degrees is just hot water? But at 212 degrees, it starts to boil. It starts to make steam. And with that steam, you can run a locomotive engine. And the only difference is one degree." [00:54:29] (38 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)