Pastor Julie Shannon
Self control – what is it? Lets first focus on understanding the opposite of self control; being out of control. Our world around us in many ways appears to be out of control, everywhere people are financially out of control; even our banks are in panic mode at present. Physically out of control, emotionally out of control and morally out of control. These things are easy to pin point, excessive borrowing and debt, abuse of both our own and others bodies, emotional outbursts and dysfunction, and a slow disintegration of the morals our governments and us once held to be normal and right.
Paul in his second letter to Timothy speaks of terrible times in the last days: “People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, and conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” These are very strong words!
All of these attributes stem from an underlying selfishness that seeks to glorify self rather than God, that seeks to attain at any cost; self gratification, self importance; and self sufficiency. This attitude comes from the very centre of Satan himself, it is the root of evil and resides in many a human being because of the fall. Adam and Eve took it upon themselves to know better than God, they sought to gratify self, resulting in an attitude of “wanting to do it their own way”- self sufficiency.
The Greek word for “without self control” as in the passage in second Timothy is akrates, meaning; powerless, morally impotent, unrestrained and incontinent. People who have grown up in dysfunctional relationships; those who have suffered various forms of abuse or those who have had bad modelling can grow up with feelings of being out of control; a feeling of being vulnerable, unsafe and extremely powerless often results. Sadly when this happens we can decide to take things into our own hands; children and adults can learn very quickly to withdraw internally or become very aggressive to try to take some form of control back. We can form addictive or compulsive behaviours to help quell the feelings of being out of control; anything to take our own control over our lives. A woman who has suffered sexual abuse may subconsciously do everything to make herself unattractive to men, or take control another way by manipulating men to her own whims. These are examples of humans trying to do things in the place of God, It is inbuilt sin in us to seek to preserve our selves, it is a difficult and often terrifying task to give God the reigns of our life. In doing this though we are controlling our self, gratification, self importance and self sufficiency through the power and authority of the Holy Spirit.
As I was writing up this sermon yesterday I had on four occasions with four different people opportunities to have self control. One I felt extremely hurt and misunderstood, the other I was angry, another time I could have made someone look bad… and me look wonderful, and yet another time where I could have screamed out of frustration because my agenda was completely thrown out the window. While I still struggled through some of these emotions I am proud to say I was reasonably self controlled, I was able to rationally think through my feelings and only say and do what was needed. This doesn’t always happen, I put my foot in my mouth sometimes but God showed me that it can be done in him. The key yesterday for me I believe was the fact I had been focusing on this sermon and I was in a Holy Spirit frame of mind. I had been worshipping the Lord and trusting Him with my day, no matter what happened.
It’s fitting that the last aspect of fruit Paul lists as reflected in a mature Christian is self control, for without a deep relationship with the Lord; and an attitude of submission to the Holy Spirit our attempts at self control can only be self IN control. When we insert the IN between self and control the Holy Spirit is kicked OUT, and messages from God and people become distorted because our filter is one of self IN control, no matter what. Unfortunately this then gives the demonic rights to come and help us to take control. Spirits of control, witchcraft, manipulation, religion, jezebel and the like love this type of soil in a person. And just like a virus infiltrating a computer, these demons will cause the individuals rational and reasoning processes to deteriorate. The longer a person operates in a controlling and manipulating way without repenting of this behavior, the stronger the demonic influence is.
This all sounds very depressing, and many of us are probably wondering if there’s any hope? I can tell you there is hope; our hope is the Lord Jesus Christ. He died so we could have life, a life of freedom from sin and bondages. Not only have we been given freedom from death with a promise of eternal life; seated with Christ in heaven. But our freedom begins from the moment we receive Him as our Lord and Saviour. The apostle Paul earlier in his letter to the Galatians writes “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”(Gal 2:20)
In Titus 2:6 the apostle Paul encourages his spiritual son to teach older men to “be temperate, worthy of respect, self controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.” He instructs Him to teach women to be self controlled and pure and to encourage the young men to be self controlled. “
The word for self control in the Greek is sophroneo it implies: to be in the right state of mind, to be self controlled, clear minded, and to have sober judgement.
Aristotle : “I count braver him who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is over self.”
And
Confucius: “He who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior”
Check yourself out, see how many times in one day you use the words I or me or mine, compared to his, hers or the Lords.
Ask yourself, “are my thoughts and actions, glorifying God, and am I edifying others?
Paula mentioned the Faithfulness of God to us; He is very faithful in answering us, do you want to hear his answers though? It may mean his agenda is different to yours, it may mean you have to give up your desires for the benefit of another. One thing it will mean is that when God is in control and you are controlling self – (having self control)… your self wont get in the way any more.
Throughout the New Testament we hear the term taking off our old self, and putting on our new self, (Rom 6, Eph 4 and Col 3). If we don’t determine to kill off self and allow the Holy Spirit to control us, none of the other aspects of the Fruit of the spirit will be seen properly. We will sour the fruit with selfish motives and controlling actions. We will seek to glorify ourselves and fill our own desires above Gods desires for us. Put pure and simply we are in rebellion against God when we refuse to kill off self and the desires and control that comes with it. The sad thing is as long as we are in this rebellion; we cannot experience the full blessing of God.
In some translations the word flesh is used, in this context it is meaning all that is sinful in human nature. So how do we crucify the flesh or self? Our first step is to admit that our selfish desires need to be killed off, and to determine that we will have nothing more to do with them. Then after seeking forgiveness for our rebellion we need to put ourselves so completely under the control and love of Jesus Christ, who died and was raised from the dead. When we die to ourselves we are raised from the place of death and destruction; from the thoughts, inner desires and wrong motives that interfere with our relationship with God and others. Self control is when you are so filled with and led by the Holy Spirit that your actions or reactions in any situation glorify God and build up others. It takes each of us individually to take the In out and let the Holy Spirit rule.
After Paul lists the traits that reveal the fruit of moving in the Holy Spirit in Galatians chapter five, he reminds us also that those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. He encourages the Christians in Galatia and also us as we read these anointed words to keep in step with the Spirit.
To walk in the spirit with the fruit of the spirit is to live ones whole life in accordance with the mind of Christ. Take out the IN, kill off your self… when you do, you will at last be free.
