Self-Control: Controlling Your Words

Sharing good news of great joy to all people.

Elation Church. Week number five. Everybody say

week number five. Go ahead and say it. Week number

five in our series on self -control. Self -control.

Have you learned anything from the series on

self -control? You know, I didn't realize how

important self -control was. to every area of

my spiritual life. I mean, I knew it was important.

Before this study, though, I didn't realize how

important it was. It's very important. Self -control

is very important if you want to live a spiritual

life, a godly life. Self -control is going to

play a vital part. 2 Peter 1, verses 3 through

2 Peter 1:3–8

8. By his divine power, God has given us everything

we need for living a godly life. Do you know

that? It doesn't say by his divine power, God

will give us everything we need, does it? Hello?

Y 'all gonna have to wake up. I won't throw water

on you if you fall asleep. I'm just kidding.

It doesn't say God will. Since God has already

given us everything we need for living a godly

life. Somebody say, it's already mine. Everything

you need for living a godly life, it's already

yours. We have received all of this, how? By

coming to know him in salvation. By coming to

know him, the one who called us to himself by

means of his marvelous glory and excellence.

And because of his glory and excellence, he has

given us great and precious promises. Look at

the person beside you and say, I have some promises

from God. Come on, move your lips. Don't just

say it in your head, say it with your mouth.

I have some promises from God. You do. Now, here's

the deal. It's going to be up to you whether

those promises are applied to your life or not.

He has given us great and precious promises.

These promises that he's given us, these are

the promises that enable you to share his divine

nature and escape the world's corruption caused

by human. Who needs some escape every once in

a while? Right? I think we all do. But God's

promises enable us to share his divine nature

and escape the world's corruption caused by human

desires. That's why it's messed up the world

is human desires. It all started back in the

garden, right? That's when sin entered. It's

human desires. Not godly desires, but human desires

messed it all up. In view of all this, in view

of what? He's given us everything we need to

live a godly life. He's given us great and precious

promises, right? So in light of all that, in

view of all that, make every effort to respond.

To God's promises. Everybody say, I have to respond.

It's up to you whether you respond to God's promises

or not. Respond to God's promises. Here's how

you need to respond. Supplement your faith. Well,

it's by faith that we're going to take hold of

any and all of God's promises, right? So he expects

us to already know this by the time we get to

here. It's going to take faith. You're going

to have to hear it. You're going to have to believe

it. You're going to have to act on it. You're

going to have to put your words in agreement

with it. That's faith. But supplement your faith

with a generous provision of moral excellence.

supplement your faith with a generous provision

of moral excellence and moral excellence with

knowledge. You know what that means? We're going

to have to spend some time in the Word. Right?

We can't live sloppy lives, and we've got to

spend some time in the Word. We've got to add

that to our faith. And knowledge, here it is,

with self -control. Everybody say self -control.

Y 'all need to smile. You need to have self -control

to smile so that I can preach better today because

you're smiling. Knowledge with self -control

and self -control with patient endurance. How

many of you know if you're going to live by faith,

you're going to have to have some patient endurance?

And patient endurance with godliness. And godliness

with brotherly affection. And brotherly affection

with love for everyone. Not just within the family

of God. But we're called to even love the people

who are hard to love. Has anybody ever... ran

into somebody that was hard to love before. I

don't know if I have enough hands to hold up.

I mean, I don't have enough fingers to hold up

to tell you about the people that I've ran into

that might be just a little bit hard to love.

We have to add love to our faith because faith

works. Through love. If we miss the love element,

then our faith is not going to work. Let's keep

going. Verse 8. The more you grow like this,

the more productive and useful you will be in

your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who

wants to be productive? Who wants to be useful?

I do. Well, supplement your faith with a generous

provision of all those things, and we're focusing

in on self -control to be more productive and

useful. Now, self -control, that's a Greek word.

New Testament was written in Greek. Enkrateia.

Enkrateia. I think that's close. It's a compound

word. In means in the sphere of and kratos means

dominion or mastery. So this word self -control

means dominion within or self -control. It means

that we have self -control over what is in us.

Self -control over our thoughts. We talked a

week about that. Self -control over our feelings.

Self -control over our actions. Self -control.

1 Corinthians 9 .24 says this, Don't you realize

that in a race everyone runs, but only one person

gets the prize? So run to win. The Holy Spirit

through Paul often talked about our Christian

life being like a race. It's not a sprint. It's

a marathon. It's a marathon. Look to the person

beside you and say, run to win. If you're not

talking to the person beside you, say, I'm running

to win. So run to win. Listen, all athletes are

disciplined. Guess what? It doesn't say self

-control here. But it's the exact same Greek

word. All athletes are disciplined. They exercise

self -control. Everybody say self -control. Self

-control in their training. They do it to win

a prize that will fade away. But we do it for

an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every

step. I'm just letting it sit there a minute.

Everybody say, I run with purpose. See, we're

not just running. We're running with purpose

in our spiritual life. I run with purpose in

every step. I'm not just shadowboxing. This isn't

practice. I'm not just shadowboxing. I discipline

my body. like an athlete, training it to do what

it should do. Everybody say self -control. Self

-control is essential. In that verse, we see

that self -control is essential to living with

purpose and living in victory. Is there anybody

in the room who's more than a conqueror? Through

Christ who strengthens them. Somebody say, I

am. Self -control is essential. And Galatians

5 .22 says this, but the Holy Spirit, God the

Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our

lives. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,

goodness. faithfulness, gentleness, and self

-control. This is good news. It's good news.

It's good news because the fruit of the Spirit

is all those things that I said, but it's also

self -control. That's good news because that

lets us know that we have a helper. We're not

on our own. People who are not in Christ, they're

just on their own. Trying to apply self -control

the best they can. But we have a helper. And

if we will acknowledge him, he will empower us

to have self -control. But we have to acknowledge

him. Y 'all quit smiling on me. Gotta keep smiling.

Self -control is, these are some word studies

that we found working on the introduction. Self

-control means it's proceeding out from within

oneself, but it's not by oneself when it's self

-control according to the word of God. Self -control

is true mastery from within, and it can only

be accomplished by the power of the Lord. He's

living in us. He will empower us. Self -control

is not just about abstaining from something or

abstaining from excess. Sometimes we look at

self -control that way. Well, if I have self

-control, I won't do this and I won't do that

and I won't say this and I won't say that and

I won't have this attitude. Hello? Sometimes

it's just about the negative. But self -control

is for the positive too. It's not just abstaining,

but it involves a positive mastery and direction

of one's energies and desires towards godly purposes.

Everybody say focus. And we talked about this

every week. And we need to know this. We can't

control everything around us. We can't. We can't

control everyone around us. How many of you have

tried to control everything around you before

and you figured out you can't do that? Have you

tried to control everybody around you? Am I the

only one? Figured out you can't do that. Here's

the deal. Only you can control you. You can have

self -control God wants you to have self -control

he empowers you to have self -control Today we're

going to talk about controlling our words Controlling

our words How many of you know it takes a lot

of self -control to control what comes out of

your mouth James says this, James 3, 7, people

can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles,

fish, but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless

and evil and full of deadly poison. Has anybody

ever said something before and you said, yeah,

that was pretty evil what came out of my mouth.

That was like poison. I mean, you know. And you

wish. See, sometimes after we get those words

out there, we wish that we would have never got

them out there, but we can't pull them back in.

Because what has been said has been said. And

I just want to remind you. Everything that you

see in creation was created by words. Right?

It's created by words. It's held together by

God's word. Now, James said, you can't do it.

No one can tame the tongue. But what Jesus said

was, humanly speaking, it's impossible. But with

God, everything is possible. With God. Somebody

say with God. With God. And we just looked at

that. We're with God. If we're in Christ, we're

with God. We have a helper who's going to help

us. The way to have self -control over your words

is to acknowledge the Holy Spirit and partner

with Him. If we acknowledge God more than we

acknowledge God, I'm not talking about just at

church, because we all come to church and we

all acknowledge God while we're at church, right?

I mean, that's why we're here. We're acknowledging

God. But what about after church is over? What

about on Monday morning? What about on Saturday

night? Are we acknowledging God? And if we were

acknowledging Him like He wants us to, because

we're supposed to live our lives walking in the

Spirit. We're supposed to be led by the Spirit.

We need to be acknowledging Him. And if we acknowledged

him, we would have more power in our lives. I

really wanted that amen right then. So I guess

I'll just have to amen myself. James 3, let's

continue reading. We can make a large horse go

wherever we want by means of a small bit in his

mouth. And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn

wherever the pilot chooses to go. Even though

the winds are strong. In the same way, everybody

say just like that. In the same way, because

James was not just talking about ships and horses.

He was talking about tongues. In the same way,

the tongue is a small thing. So just like A rudder

steers a ship and a bit in a horse's mouth steers

the horse. Your words determine the direction

and destination of your life. Does anybody remember

hearing anything like this in like November and

December? Has anybody mastered it since then?

Still work on it just a little bit? Right? The

rudder on the ship determines the direction of

the ship. The bit in the horse's mouth, it's

like a steering wheel for the horse. I'm going

to bring up an old illustration, a six -month

-old illustration, because some of you were not

here when I said it. If you want to go to New

York, You cannot drive south and get there. Somebody

go, wow. That's wisdom. Right? If you want to

go to New York, you're not going to get there.

You'll never get there if you drive south. Never.

If you drive south, depending on the roads that

you hit, you'll wind up in Key West. It's about

as far south as you can get. Unless you're over

above Texas and you can get, you know, maybe

you can pick up a road and wind up in the bottom

of South America. But you'll never get to New

York. You're like, so? Listen, if your words

steer your life, You'll never reach where God

wants you to be and where God's best. You'll

never reach God's best if your words are in the

opposite direction of what God has said. You

got to get your words in agreement with his words

to wind up with the life that you want to live.

Because you'll never get there. without steering

in that direction. And how do you steer? Somebody

help me. How do you steer your life? How do you

determine which direction you're going in? Thank

you. It's going to happen through your words.

There are things that you should say, and there

are things that you shouldn't say. Right? The

tongue, Proverbs 18, 21, the tongue can bring

death or life. Those who love to talk will reap

the consequences. As a response to that verse,

you can say, oh, no, or you can say, hallelujah.

Isn't that what it says? Your tongue can bring

life or death. Those who love to talk will reap

the consequences. So if my tongue is in agreement

with God, if my words are in agreement with God,

God is life, right? And if my tongue is in agreement

with him, my tongue is going to bring me life,

the life of God. If my tongue is always speaking

death and my tongue is always negative, you know

what? It's going to bring me death. The more

we talk, the more we're going to reap. 1 Peter

3 .10 Does anyone want to enjoy life? Four of

us. If you want to enjoy life and see many happy

days, keep your tongue From speaking evil. So

your words have a lot to do with whether you

enjoy your life and whether you have happy days.

If you wake up dreading to go to work and dreading,

just everything's just, oh, it's just terrible.

People I work with are terrible. My boss is terrible.

The hours are terrible. The work is terrible.

Guess what? You're not going to have happy days.

didn't write this. I didn't write it. Seems like

to me if you want to enjoy your life and have

happy days is up to self -control over your words.

This is the day the Lord has made. I'm going

to rejoice. And be glad in it. Instead of bread

and Monday. Come on. Somebody say oh me or amen

or something. Proverbs 21 verse 23. Watch your

Proverbs 21:23

tongue and keep your mouth shut and you will

stay out of trouble. I mean, do we want to rip

this verse out of the Bible? Do we want to rip

this page out? Or do we want to look at it and

say, okay, God, you're talking to me. I'm going

to respond to your promise. I'm going to respond

to your word in a positive way. Because that

verse is telling me that most of the trouble

that I face began with my words. Hebrews 10,

23. Let us hold tightly without wavering to the

hope we affirm. That phrase, hope we affirm,

is homologia. And here's what it means. It means

confession. It means profession. It means what's

coming out of your mouth. Hold tightly without

wavering to your words that are set with the

hope of God's promise. We can word it that way.

For God can be trusted to keep his promise. So

our words need to be in agreement with him. And

that's part of taking hold of his promise. Hold

tight to the right kind of words. That's what

this is telling us. Hold tightly. Don't waver.

Don't speak in accordance with the promise of

God and then say about how terrible it is. And

then, oh, wait a minute, wait a minute. Don't

go back and forth all the time. Everybody say

this. This will change my life. It will. Going

to look at a story. Familiar story, probably,

to most of the people. Joshua 6, starting with

verse 1. Now Jericho was securely shut up because

of the children of Israel. None went out, none

came in. How many of you are familiar with the

story of God's people coming out of slavery in

Egypt and they went to the promised land? Well,

all the adults except two that came out of Egypt

never made it to the promised land. They died

in the wilderness. It was only their kids and

the younger ones that actually made it to the

promised land. And I'm going to go ahead and

tell you the main reason they didn't make it

was because of their words. They were always

complaining. God was doing miracles and they

were complaining. And then we looked at it in

this series about controlling our thoughts. God

had given them a promise, and when they got there,

they sent in spies, and all 12 spies saw the

same thing with their eyes. But 10 of them came

back with defeated thoughts and defeated words.

Two of them came. With thoughts and words that

held tightly to the promise of God. Those are

the only two that made it into the promised land.

The two, that their thoughts and their words,

they had self -control over their thoughts and

their words. They were the only two that made

it to the land flowing with milk and honey. The

only two. The other ten, along with most of the

adults, Hey Moses, why did you bring us out here

so that we could just die in the wilderness?

We're just going to die in the wilderness. We

might as well go back to Egypt and be slaves.

At least we've got onions with our food in Egypt.

I'd rather be a slave with onions than to be

free. But their words, over and over and over

and over and over again, they said, well, why'd

you bring us out here just to die in the wilderness?

Power of life and death is in your words. They

got what they said. Caleb and Joshua, Got what

they said. Because they said, you know what?

God promised us this land. Yeah, there's some

giants. Yeah, there's going to be some battles.

But God's on our side. We've seen what God can

do. Hello? Can anybody in the room say, I've

seen what God can do. I look back over some situations

in my life that it looked like I was, it was

hopeless and helpless. But I've seen what God

can do. Now, Joshua is leading them into the

promised land. And the first city that they face

is Jericho. It's a walled city. Now, it's not

just a little cement block or stone wall around

Jericho. They actually had chariot races on top

of the wall around Jericho and people had houses.

It was like apartments in the wall. That's where

Rahab lived, in the wall. And they would have

chariots around the outside of the city. It was

a huge fortified city. Now Jericho was shut up

because of the children of Israel. We find out

from Rahab they've been shaking in their boots

for 40 years because they heard what God had

done to the Egyptian army at the Red Sea. And

they're like, oh no. God's on their side. They

have victory against every nation and people

that they face. They had victory over and over

and over again. And now they're here. So Joshua

was securely shut up because the children of

Israel, none went out, none came in. Here's the

deal. Jericho stood between God's people and

God's promise. I want to ask you a question.

What's standing today between you And God's promise

that you've seen in the word. God's promise for

you personally. God's promise for your family.

God's promise. What is standing between you and

God's promise? It was Jericho for God's people.

Big, huge, fortified, walled city. It's on lockdown.

We could call it a fortress or a stronghold.

It's a fortified place. It's held safely. Everybody

say strongholds. Here's the deal. Strongholds

can be good or bad. Most of the time when we

talk about strongholds, we talk about bad strongholds.

But did you know that there could be some good

strongholds? Good stronghold is a position that

has been built up in your mind and in your heart

that stands for God and God's promises and God's

word. And you're just confident. Just like I've

shared the story before. I'll never be at another

place in my life. Now, I have been in places.

I have been in this place before, but I will

never be at the point in my life. where I say,

God, where are you? Why did you leave me here?

I'll never do that again. Because of my experience

and encounter with God, I know because of his

promise and because of that experience that I

had with, I know that he will never leave me

or forsake me. He's not going to turn his back

on me. He's always here. I mean, that's his name.

We talked about the names of God. One of God's

names is I am here. Yahweh Shammah. I am here.

So that's a positive stronghold in my life. So

you can have some fortresses and some strongholds

of faith in your life. As a matter of fact, every

single one of us need to develop some faith strongholds

in our lives. No matter what we see, no matter

what we think, no matter what we feel, we stand

in agreement with God. Strongholds could be good

or bad. Strongholds can be on the outside like

Jericho or they can be on the inside. Every single

one of us, I believe, deal with this. I haven't

arrived in every area of my life. I'm still in

the process. Yeah, I'm the preacher, and I'm

still in the process just like you. Okay? There

may be some things that I am victorious in. There

may be some different things that you're victorious

in, but we're all in the process. Strongholds

can be on the outside or the inside. Here's some

bad ones that we all have to deal with. You're

not alone. Bad thought patterns. Negative emotions.

Bitterness. Sometimes rage. Fear. Worry. That

even builds to anxiety. Those are strongholds

that we all deal with on the inside. I want you

to smile. And I want you to say, I can have victory.

Victory is mine in Christ. I can be victorious.

The Lord said to Joshua, see, I have given Jericho

into your hand. You see a big walled city. You

see soldiers all the way around the top of it,

holding their spears and their shields. And God

says, hey, Joshua, look, I've given it to you.

I've given it into your hand. It's king, the

mighty men of valor. I've given it to you. Joshua

could have said, but God, I don't see it. I see

soldiers. I see strongholds. I see fortification.

I don't see it being mine. See, I have given

Jericho into your hand. That Hebrew word in the

Old Testament, see. means to advise yourself.

Don't just say, look with your eyes. See, when

we read the word see, we say, oh, God just wants

him to look at it. Just look at the walls of

Jericho. That's not what God said. God said,

hey, Joshua, advise yourself. I've given you,

Jericho. You need to advise yourself that I have

given it to you. Thank you for getting excited.

There's some things in your life that God is

saying, hey, advise yourself. I've given you

this promise. Go ahead and advise yourself that

it's yours. Just go ahead and get happy about

it. Hey, Joshua, advise yourself that I've given

Jericho into your hand, their kings, all their

army. I've given them into your hands. You need

to start saying that. Talk to yourself. Hey,

I've given it to you. God's given it to me, and

I'm going to get happy about it. I'm going to

joyfully look on it. That's the definition of

the word. God is saying, go ahead and get happy

about it because I've given it to you. many of

us look at a promise in the word of God and we

say, well, I wish I could have that. I'm miserable.

I don't see how, I can't even see a life without

fear. I can't see a life without worry. I can't

see a life without anxiety. I can't see a life

of victory. And God is saying, advise yourself

and go ahead and get happy about it. Because

I'm faithful and I made you a promise. And if

you'll take hold of my promise, hey, you might

need some patient endurance. Remember we talked

about patient endurance. You might need some

patient endurance, but go ahead and get happy

about it. Advise yourself. Speak positively about

it. Look joyfully on the promise. Before you

have the promise. Verse 3. You shall march around

the city. All you men of war. You shall go all

around the city at once. Or once. This you shall

do for six days. And seven priests shall bear

seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark.

But the seventh day, you shall march around the

city seven times. And then we had some instructions.

That was God telling Joshua what to do and how

to lead the people. And then when Joshua is telling

the people, he says this, you shall not shout.

or make any noise with your voice, nor shall

a word proceed out of your mouth. Six days. Over

a million people. Hello? How many of you think

a million people could walk around a city, and

never say a word. No noises, no shouts, no words.

Would that be difficult for you to do? That's

what God told them. That's what He told them.

Why do you think He told them that? Just use

your, Glorified imagination. Does anybody have

a glorified imagination? Use your glorified imagination.

Why did God tell them to be quiet, not say a

word? Because they're walking around Jericho,

they see the soldiers. How many of you think

it would be easy to say, why are we walking around

it? It's kind of stupid. You know, just walking.

I mean, they're looking at us like we're crazy.

We're just marching around the city. Six days?

Why would we walk around? Why are we doing this

for six days? This don't make any sense. This

isn't going to accomplish anything. Walking around?

And then on the seventh day, they said, okay,

guys, we're going to walk around it seven times

today, not just one. Don't say a word. Walking

around. I want to tell you something. Maybe you're...

You're not at the point to speak the promises

of God before you see them. But that doesn't

mean that you can quit speaking death. You got

to quit speaking death. You got to quit complaining.

You got to quit dreading. You got to quit. Just

talking words of worry and lack and anger and

fear. Because all you're doing is you're fortifying

the negative stronghold in your life. Take self

-control to keep your mouth shut sometimes. Thank

you for laughing. Three people laughed. How many

of you would say, I just don't have a filter.

I just don't have a filter. And just whatever

pops in your brain comes out your mouth. Here's

the deal. That's simply just a lack of self -control.

I'm not trying to be mean. I'm trying to help

you. Now, you can get mad or you can get glad.

Glad that somebody wants to help you. It's time

for us to get to the point where we don't say,

oh, I just don't have a filter. No, what you

don't have is self -control. That's what you

don't have. You have a helper. Here's the deal.

You need self -control to keep from fortifying

your negative inner strongholds with your words.

You need self -control. I see people writing,

so I'm leaving it up here. I saw you go. Last

time because I switched it too fast. You didn't

get to write it. I didn't talk about it. It's

all good. It's all good. I'll show it to you

after you're done if you miss them. We need self

-control. Self -control to keep from fortifying

our negative inner strongholds with our words.

If we want to enjoy our life. And have some happy

days. Still people writing. Got to go. I'll show

it to you after we're done. Here's why. Because

most of us, when we... face a challenging situation

in our lives, we start going, this is crazy.

Look at this problem that's right here in front

of me. Just take a look. If we talk to somebody

else, we say, look at this problem. Look at my

problem. Let me tell you about my problem. This

is crazy. I can't handle it. I can't do it. I

just can't. I'll never be able to do this. You

fill in the blank. You fill in the dot, dot,

dot. This is impossible. Has anybody said these

phrases before? Has anybody said any of them

this past week? Anybody say any of these before

you even came to church today? Yeah. Filter.

That's what they did. Six times around Jericho

on the seventh day, they're marching the seventh

time, and then here's what happened. The seventh

day you shall march around the city seven times

and the priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall

come to pass when they make a long blast with

the ram's horn. What's going to come to pass?

When you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the

people, you've been quiet now for seven days.

All the people shall shout with a great shout.

Here's the deal. They had to shout when nothing

looked different than it had for seven days.

Same city. same fortress, same walls, same guards,

army on the top. Same thing. They're seeing the

same thing that they've seen the whole time.

They hadn't been able to say anything. Now they're

going to shout. Nothing has changed. Here's the

deal. It's so easy. Everybody say so easy. It's

so easy to shout and praise God after the promise

is fulfilled. So easy. Oh, God's a good God.

Let me tell you about what God did. Oh, I was

in this shape, and then now look and see what

God did. We can get happy, and we want to testify,

and we're like, yeah. But when we're staring

at the stronghold, We want to say, I'll never

make it. Look to the person beside you and say,

he's preaching good, whether you're getting it

or not. He's preaching pretty good. He's preaching

pretty good. Shout with a great shout. After

you shout, then the wall of the city will fall

down flat and the people shall go up, every man

straight before him. They were instructed to

shout before anything happened. Now get this,

that word shout is ruah in Hebrew. It's the same

word that is used to shout praise and thanksgiving

to God. That's a way that we praise God is by

shouting. It's a shout of war. It's a shout of

victory. It's a shout of joy. Same word. It's

not a different word for praise. Sometimes in

your English Bible, it'll just say the word praise,

but it's actually this same word. It was just

translated in our English Bible as praise instead

of shout, sometimes when you read it. Like in

Psalm 47 .1. Clap your hands, all you peoples.

Shout to God with a voice of triumph. For the

Lord Most High is awesome. He's the great king

over all the earth. Same word. Same word. Shout

to God with a voice of triumph. It takes self

-control to shout and rejoice when you don't

feel like shouting and rejoicing. I'm going to

say it again. It takes self -control to shout

and rejoice when you don't feel like it. You

just say, listen here. Go stand in front of a

mirror and grab yourself by the ear and say,

listen here. We have a promise from God. And

we're going to shout and rejoice even while we're

staring at the... That might be hard for me sometimes.

Even though we're staring at the problem, we're

going to shout and rejoice because we have a

promise. Take self -control to shout and rejoice

as if you already have victory before you have

victory. And that's what God said his people

had to do in Jericho. And the Old Testament is

written for you. It's not just a history book.

It's written for us to see how we can interact

with God and how we can know him, how we can

take hold of his promise, the promised land.

I mean, it's like we learn things. how spiritual

things work. We learn things. I'm about done.

I want to ask you a question. Does anybody in

the room have a promise from God based on His

Word, not just some imagination in your mind,

but you have a promise from God based on His

Word and you're patiently Waiting to see it fulfilled.

Is anybody? If not, you need to go get one. Everybody

in the room should be holding on to a promise

from God that he has made. You haven't seen it

manifest in your life yet, but you're holding

on to it. Here's the deal. How would you celebrate?

How would you rejoice? How would you shout? How

would you praise God? If that promise was fulfilled

in your life right now. How would you respond?

Would anybody get happy? Would anybody start

praising God? Would anybody get excited? Might

even jump up and down a little bit and shout

a little bit. Would anybody get happy? This is

only one of many patterns, but... We see this

pattern at Jericho. Get this, maybe, maybe, if

you would celebrate and rejoice and shout and

praise God as if it's already happened in your

life, maybe that's what's holding it back. I'm

just saying. There's more than one pattern. But

this is definitely one of them. Could this be

what's holding you back? Look at me. How are

you going to respond to God's Word? Every week,

We receive God's word. Here's the question. How

will we respond to it? Because if we don't respond

to it, listen, if you don't respond to God's

word, it's not going to make a difference in

your life. But if you will respond to God's word,

it'll make a difference in your life. So many

times God is waiting on our response and our

response never comes. Because we're just like,

well, I was a good person. I went to church this

week. I'll go back next week and I'll get me

something else. To not respond to. Wow. I responded

to God's word last week and I can't wait to get

back next week to dig in and get a word from

God and respond again. Instead of. How do you

want your life to be? You want your life like

this? Or do you want your life like this? It

has everything to do with your response. Here

we go. Let's wrap it up. I think this is it for

self -control. We could keep preaching on self

-control, but some of you are already like, hmm,

not self -control again. My toes are still hurting

from last week. supplement your faith with a

generous provision of self -control to be productive

and useful. Self -control is essential for you

to live with purpose and live in victory. Listen,

we have a helper. If you acknowledge him, the

Holy Spirit will empower you to have self -control.

Over every area of your life, he will empower

you to have self -control. If you will acknowledge

him, when you come up to that point where you're

seeing the stronghold or the fortress or you're

seeing the problem, if you'll acknowledge the

Holy Spirit and listen to him, he'll empower

you to have self -control. So that your actions,

your thoughts, your words, your desires will

align with him. He'll help you. He'll help you.

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