Self-Control: Controlling Your Thoughts

Sharing good news of great joy to all people.

Elation Church. This is week number three. Everybody

say week number three. Week number three in our

series on self -control. Self -control. I hope

this becomes a popular series and not a dreaded

series. Self -control gives us the idea that

we have some responsibility. And it's a very

biblical thing, right? 2 Peter 1, verses 3 through

2 Peter 1:3–8

8. We read these verses a lot. By His divine

power, God has given us everything we need for

living a godly life. Look at the person beside

you and say, He's already given it to you. It's

up to you to take it up and apply it, but He's

already given it. We have received all of this.

By coming to know him. So we receive everything

we need when we come in Christ, when we come

into Christ, when we're born again, when we become

a Christian. We receive everything. We've been

given everything we need. We received all of

this 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's given us great and precious

promises. I want to personalize it again. He

has given you great and precious promises. In

his word, these are the promises that enable

you to share. his divine nature, and escape the

world's corruption caused by human desires. How

many of you need some escape every once in a

while? And we find out that the corruption is

caused by human desires. That's what messed everything

up. God's a good God. God brings good things

into your life. The corruption comes from human

desires. that are not godly desires. It began

in the garden. Now, since we realize all this,

since we see all of this, that he's already given

us everything we need, and he gives us great

and precious promises, in view of all this, make

every effort. It's going to take some effort

on your part. Make every effort to respond to

God's promises. Supplement your faith. Faith

is how we're going to take hold of his promises.

But he's telling us to add some things to our

faith. Our trust, our belief, our surrender to

what he says. We need to add some things in order

to be able to take hold of those promises. Supplement

your faith with a generous provision of moral

excellence. Sloppy lives are not going to bring

the blessing and goodness of God manifest into

our lives. I figured I'd get an amen there, but

anyway. Supplement your faith with a generous

provision of moral excellence and moral excellence

with knowledge and knowledge with self -control.

Everybody say self -control. So we need some

self -control. Self -control with patient endurance.

We need some patience too. Some patience to endure.

While we're waiting to see the promise fulfilled,

we're holding on. It's going to take some patient

endurance with godliness. And godliness with

brotherly affection. Look to the people on your

left and your right and say, I guess that means

I got to love you. And get this, in brotherly

affection with love for everybody, for everyone.

We not only love our family of faith, we're instructed

to love everybody. The Bible says they'll know

that we're Christ followers by our love. And

then he says, 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? About

half of us. So supplement your faith with a generous

provision of self -control. To be more productive

and useful in the kingdom of God. Word self -control.

It's a compound Greek word. N means in the sphere

of. Kratos means dominion mastery. So it's dominion

within. It's self -control. Controlling our actions,

controlling our thoughts, controlling our feelings.

We have self -control. We're supposed to have

self -control. 1 Corinthians 9, 24. Don't you

realize that in a race, everyone runs? But only

one person gets a prize? No participation trophies.

So run to win. Look to the person beside you

and say, run to win. If you're going to run,

run to win. If you're going to run in this life,

if you're going to run this spiritual race, this

marathon, not a sprint, Run to win. All athletes

are disciplined. Look to the person beside you

and say, same word. Same word. Even though it's

translated discipline in this text, it's the

same word. All athletes exercise self -control

in their training. So in our spiritual race,

Our spiritual marathon, we need to exercise self

-control if we're going to win. They do it in

just, you know, in sports and all that. They

do it to win a prize that will fade away. But

we do it for an eternal prize. So I, Paul says,

I run with purpose in every step. I'm not just

shadow boxing. I discipline my body like an athlete,

training it to do what it should. Everybody say

self -control. So in this text, we find out that

self -control is essential to living with purpose

and to living in victory. Look to the person

beside you and say, it's going to take some self

-control. Y 'all looking way too serious. I mean,

I know this is a serious topic, but you can smile.

And if you smile, I won't think that you're getting

under big -time conviction because you don't

have any self -control. All right. Galatians

5 .22. The Holy Spirit produces this kind of

fruit in your life. Love, joy, peace, patience,

kindness, goodness. faithfulness, gentleness,

and self -control. Self -control. Know what this

means? You're not alone. Because when you're

in Christ, the Holy Spirit takes up residence

only inside of you. Your body is the temple of

the Holy Spirit. And when we acknowledge Him,

like we looked at last week, when we acknowledge

Him in our moments of decision, When we acknowledge

him, he will empower us. He will help us. He's

our helper. He will empower us to exercise self

-control. But we have to acknowledge him. We

have to acknowledge him. The fruit of the Holy

Spirit is self -control. I like the word studies

that we looked up. Self -control is proceeding

out from within oneself, but not by oneself.

Come on, somebody. Self -control is proceeding

out from within oneself, but not by oneself.

Not if you're in Christ. It's not just by yourself.

Now, if you're not in Christ, you're just on

your own. But when you're in Christ, it don't

have to be by yourself because you have a helper.

True mastery from within. can only be accomplished

by the power of the Lord. Self -control is not

just about abstaining from excess. Most of the

time, when we think of self -control, we're like,

well, I need to watch those lines in my life

and not cross over a line. But it's more than

just abstaining from excess. It involves a positive

mastery and direction of one's energies and desires.

Towards godly purposes. Allow that to sink in.

Here's the deal. We can't control everything

around us. How many of you have tried to control

everything around you a few times? Have you realized

you can't control everything around you? Has

anybody tried to control some people around you

before? Yeah. You figured out that you can't

control everybody around you either. Right? Here's

the news from the word. You can control yourself.

You can control yourself. I know some of you

in your mind right now, you're saying, I just

can't control. I can't control it. Yes, you can.

Acknowledge God. Allow his spirit to empower

your self -control. You have a helper. Today

we're going to talk about self -control of our

thoughts. Self -control of our thoughts. So,

how many of you are glad you came? How many of

you are thinking, man, I shouldn't have come

today? Because every single one of us, this is

not just an individual thing. See, here's the

lie of the enemy is that you are the only one

who experiences these kind of things going on

in your mind. And then you get defeated. Every

single person in this room has times when their

thoughts are out of control. Let's fess up. Let's

be real. We all come to those places where our

thoughts would just go out of control. Our mind

is racing in a hundred different directions.

Has anybody ever experienced any of that? This

is what God says. This is what the Holy Spirit

wants to say to you today from the Word of God.

Set your mind. There's an understood you. I think

that works in English. I'm not an English teacher.

How many of you know there's an understood you

in front of this sentence, right? You set your

mind. The Holy Spirit will help you set your

mind, but God's not just going to set your mind

without your involvement. Empowered by the Holy

Spirit, have the power to set your mind on things

above. Not on things on the earth. This is powerful.

Set your mind. This is what that phrase means

from the Greek, to exercise your mind. What does

that mean? Use it. Put your mind to work for

you. Exercise your mind to properly, everybody

say properly, properly regulate and moderate

your thoughts from within. Your thoughts need

a moderator. Have you ever been to a business

meeting where there was a moderator, somebody

trying to keep everything happening correctly

within the meeting? Sometimes we don't like it,

but, you know, when Robert's rules of order take

over, sometimes people don't like that. Right?

Because we need a moderator. Your mind needs

a moderator. Set your mind. Properly regulate

and moderate your thoughts from within. intentionally

direct your thoughts. If you do not intentionally

direct your thoughts, your imagination is going

to run wild. If you leave it to where you're

not the moderator over what's going on between

your two ears, it's going to be a mess. I mean,

When I was growing up, I mean, my dad was a Baptist

pastor, and we had a business meeting every month.

And we had some knock -down, drag -out business

meetings. I mean, I know churches where they

had to call the police and the EMS after a business

meeting in Seneca, South Carolina. This church

made the front page of the Greenville News. Now,

I was never in one quite like that, where they

had to haul people to the emergency room and

to jail. But I would sit in the room and my dad

was the moderator. See, he didn't have a vote.

He was just the moderator. But everybody would

just get mad. You know? Looking at every penny

of the budget every month and somebody would

say, well, I can't believe we bought the toilet

paper this month from Bilo because Walmart had

it on sale. And we're wasting God's money. And

people get mad and fight over a mess like that.

We had a section, we had a huge graveyard beside

the church. Way more people than had ever been

in the church was in the graveyard. And it was

in four sections. One section was just grass.

Just grass. No one buried there. I'll never forget

one business meeting because the children were,

which included me, we were playing in the big

grass field. I ruffled up somebody. That was

the whole business meeting. It was a church fight

over those kids. desecrating holy ground, calling

the unused part of the cemetery holy ground,

and those kids should not be playing on that

holy ground. Fight. Ridiculous. Ridiculous. They'd

rather us play in the tar and gravel parking

lot with cars going around. I got a whipping

every Sunday night. You know why? Because, no,

I didn't get to play in the grass anymore. I

had to play on the tar and gravel. If you've

ever played on tar and gravel, it's not solid

like asphalt. That gravel just slides out from

under you all the time. Well, it's hard to play

freeze tag on tar and gravel. So, I mean, me

and my family, we didn't have much. But every

Sunday night, After church, dad would say, come

here, Dean, let me see your knees. And if my

knees were bleeding and my pants were ripped,

I mean, my mom had to patch the knees of my pants

every week. I'd rip holes in them, my knee would

be bleeding, and then I'd get a whipping on top

of that. It's like I'm already bleeding, just

put alcohol on it or something, right? Yeah,

and I did Jeffrey the same way. If he is bleeding

because he did something stupid and unthoughtful,

I put alcohol on it. If he was bleeding from

an accident, he got peroxide. I'm teaching him

self -control is what I'm teaching. Back to self

-control. Back to the business meeting. My dad,

it didn't matter what side. People would be fighting

each other. And because my dad was moderating,

everybody wound up mad at my dad who didn't even

have a vote. All he was doing was moderating.

Didn't make any sense. It's just keeping order.

Your thoughts must have a moderator. If you're

going to have self -control for your thoughts,

you have to intentionally direct your thoughts.

You've got to... Properly regulate and moderate

your thoughts. You have to do it. God's not going

to do it for you. Set your mind on things above.

Everybody say things above. And studying those

Greek words, it means to encompass. Things above

encompasses truths and realities anchored in

the person and work of Christ. So you need to

set your mind on what God has done and provided

and promised surrounding what you're dealing

with at the moment. Listen, if you can just get

a hold of this by 25%, it's going to make a difference

in your life this week. I mean, we all need to

be working towards 100%, but if you can just

get 25 % of this implemented and applied in your

life, you're going to have a lot better week.

Things above includes God's character. It includes

everything that surrounds Jesus' finished work

on the cross. We read about that, and that's

part of his great and precious promises that

are made available by what he did on the cross

for you and for me. Things above includes the

righteousness that's imputed to us, put on our

account. Things above is including in the eternal

hope and resurrection that is ours in Christ.

Look to the person beside you and tell them to

listen faster. 2 Corinthians 10, 4. The weapons

of our warfare and the battle that's taking place

is between your ears. That's the biggest battle

that's taking place. The weapons of our warfare,

the weapons of your warfare are not carnal, but

they sure are mighty. Mighty in God for the pulling

down of strongholds. So many times we have a

mental stronghold about a situation or about

something from our past or, you know. And our

minds, when they race, they run to that negative

stronghold that's in our mind. The weapons of

your warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God

for pulling down those strongholds, for casting

down arguments. This is part of moderating your

thoughts and regulating your thoughts. It's not

talking about you arguing with somebody else.

It's talking about the arguments that are going

on in your mind. Casting down arguments. And

everything, every high thing, every high thought

that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.

I might have to preach this same sermon next

week. Listen. Bringing... Every once in a while,

a thought or two. Is that what it says? I saw

you shaking your head. Nobody else was shaking

their head. They were just like, okay, if that's

what you say, that's what's right. No. Bringing

every thought as the moderator, as the regulator,

bringing every thought into captivity to the

obedience of Christ. So when we moderate our

thoughts and this thought pops in our head, we

got to moderate it and say, well, is this something

I'm going to think about and dwell on? Or is

this something, is this some kind of high thought

that's trying to raise itself above what the

word of God says, what God says about me, what

God says about this situation, what God has promised?

Is this thought trying to be higher than what

God has said? We moderate. And if it's trying

to exalt itself above, if that thought that comes

into your mind is trying to place itself above

what God said, just smack it down. Throw it in

a trash can. Somebody hold out your hand and

say, I'm going to smack it down. Just smack it

down. Hallelujah. Here's the deal. We can't control

the thoughts that pop into our minds. Some of

us, when that thought comes, we think we're already

defeated because the thought actually came into

our mind. So we surrender. Well, since that thought

came in, I know where it's going to take me,

so I'm just going to... Write it down. We can't

control the thoughts that pop into our minds,

but we can moderate, we can control, we can regulate

what we think about, what we continue to dwell

on, what we meditate on. You have control over

that. Now, our enemy doesn't want you to think

that you have control of that. Oh, you can't

control it. Because of your past, because of

your trauma, because of your experience, you

can't control it. Well, that sounds like a thought

that's trying to set itself above what God said

when God told you to set your mind to moderate

your thoughts. Would God tell you to do it if

you can't do it? Would he tell you to do it if

he's not going to empower you to do it? In Christ,

you have a helper. I mean, I can see people who

are not in Christ really struggling in this area,

but we have a helper. Hallelujah. We need to

acknowledge him. Here's your four example. Numbers

13. We've talked about this story before. How

many of you know when you look at a story from

the Word of God, there's multiple facets? Multiple

facets. Just like in self -control, we're looking

at all these different facets of self -control,

but it's all self -control. Numbers 13, 1. The

Lord now said to Moses, Send out men to explore

the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the

Israelites. Send one leader from each of the

12 ancestral tribes. So Moses did as the Lord

commanded him. Verse 17. Moses gave the men these

instructions as he sent them out to explore the

land. See what the land is like. Find out whether

the people living there are strong or weak, few

or many. See what kind of land they live in.

Is it good or bad? Do their towns have walls

or are they unprotected like open camps? Is the

soil fertile or poor? Are there many trees? Do

your best to bring back samples of the crops

you see. Verse 27. So they went into the land.

They spied out the land. There were 12 spies.

This was their report to Moses. We entered the

land you sent us to explore. And indeed, it is

indeed a bountiful country. A land flowing with

milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it

produces. Took two grown men with a pole between

their shoulders to hold one bunch of grapes.

I've never been in the publics where I couldn't

pick up a whole bunch with my hand. Took two

men with a pole. I want you to consider something.

All 12 spies, everybody say all 12. All 12 spies

were given the same instructions. They went to

the same place. They saw the same things. Everybody

say same. They all experienced the same thing

as they went in to spot the land. They saw that

the land was good. The soil was fertile. It was

a bountiful and fruitful land. They all saw the

same thing. Just like us. I mean, there may be

some differences in what we see. Listen. There

may be some differences in what we see. But I

believe there are a whole lot more similarities

than there are differences. Here's the deal.

We process what we see and experience. How do

we process it? With our thoughts. Are you with

me? Come on, somebody. Stay with me. They all

had the same instructions. They all saw the same

thing, but they processed what they saw differently.

They processed their experiences differently.

Here's a question. Will we? Or will you exercise

self -control to take your thoughts captive by

comparing what we see to what God has said? Or

will you let your imaginations run wild? See,

10 people let their imaginations run wild. They

didn't compare what they saw with what God had

promised. But two, compared what they saw and

what they experienced with what God promised.

Do you get it? Self -control of our thoughts

is vital. To walking by faith and not by sight.

You will never walk by faith without having self

-control of your thoughts. When you don't have

self -control of your thoughts, you will always

walk by sight and not by faith. Here's something

else to consider. All 12 spies, everybody say

all 12. All 12 knew that God had brought them

there with a promise to give them this land.

All 12 of them. That's why they had journeyed

so long because God had made them a promise.

And that promise was worth the journey. I'm telling

you, God's promise for you is worth the journey

to get there. Let's go to verse 28. But the people

living there are powerful, and their towns are

large and fortified. We even saw giants there,

the descendants of Anak. The Amalekites live

near the Negev, and the Hittites, Jebusites,

and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites

live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea

and along the Jordan Valley. Uncontrolled thoughts.

Thoughts that are not moderated with the truth

of God or the promises of God. Uncontrolled thoughts

will always focus on problems, obstacles, and

challenges. That's just where they go. Because

that's what those guys did. In verse 30, but

Caleb tried to quiet them. He said, hush up,

y 'all. If he was in the south, that's what he

had said. Hush up, y 'all. Shh. Caleb tried to

quiet the people as they stood before Moses.

This is what a moderated self -control thought

life looks like. Let's go at once to take the

land, he said. We can certainly conquer it. How

could he speak like that? That's the way faith

speaks. He had a promise. He had a promise. Here's

the deal. You have a promise. Be like Caleb.

Moderate your thoughts. Have some self -control.

Smack it down if it don't line up to what God

said. Smack it down if it don't line up to the

promise. Don't dwell on the challenge. Self -controlled

thoughts focus on God's promises. Amen. Verse

31. But the other men who had explored the land

with him disagreed. We can't go up against them.

They are stronger than we are. So they spread

this bad report about the land among the Israelites.

At least 1 .4 million people, maybe as many as

four or six million. So they spread the bad report.

Here's what they began to tell everybody. This

land we traveled through and explored would devour

anyone who goes to live there. Listen, their

first report, listen, their first report was,

you know, we saw some giants. But now, after

their mind has been set on not being controlled

and not being moderated, now it's like all the

people we saw were huge. Now everybody's a giant.

At first it was just a few giants. Now everybody's

a giant. Because when you dwell on it, It just

keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger and

bigger. We even saw giants there, the descendants

of Anak. Next to them, now our feelings are going

to take over because of what we've set our mind

on. Now, you know, we're so out of control now

that our feelings are just going. Next to them,

we felt. Like grasshoppers. Not only now do we

feel like grasshoppers, we've got a feeling that

they felt that we look like grasshoppers too.

Yeah, that's what I want you to think about.

I want you to think about a thought that has

popped into your mind that you should have looked

at it or moderated it. To know that it's not

true and it's not part of God's truth and what

God says about you and what God has provided

for you. How many of you have seen those thoughts

when you choose to meditate on that and let that

stir and go out of control? How many of you have

seen it as personal experience that it just keeps

getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger?

To the point that you think there's no way out.

Uncontrolled thoughts and imaginations lead to

fear and defeat. If you have a thought that leads

you to fear, you should know automatically that

that is not from God. Because God does not give

you a spirit of fear, but of power and love and

a sound mind. Self -controlled thoughts and imaginations.

When they're moderated, when your thoughts are

moderated and self -controlled, what are they

going to lead you to? They're going to lead you

to faith. They're going to lead you to victory.

God help us to apply. What you set your mind

on ultimately establishes your emotions, your

feelings, your attitudes, your words, and your

actions. Set your mind on things above, not on

things on the earth. Exercise your mind. Properly

regulate and moderate your thoughts from within

with the help of God the Holy Spirit. Intentionally

direct your thoughts. It's not the challenge

from your preacher, that's the challenge from

God. It's not even a challenge from God. It's

really a command from God. You set your mind.

How are you going to know the promises and what

God says? How are you going to know that? Well,

it's all in the Bible. Don't... It's so... easy

to find things now so much easier than it used

to be I mean you can I know Google can mess up

a lot of things but Google can help you find

what God says about something pretty quick and

then check it up we found some AI that didn't

match it gave us a Bible verse and that wasn't

even a Bible verse and we had to find it somewhere

else so don't trust it all the time but you can

use it as a search instead of Having to read

your whole Bible and memorize it. You have help.

You have the Holy Spirit, most of all. How many

of you think we have some things to think about

this week? You know, some of this stuff can be

pretty intense. Some of this information from

God's Word can cause people to bow up on the

inside. If you feel like you're bowing up on

the inside, it's coming from a stronghold of

a belief pattern that is not in agreement with

God's Word. But the Holy Spirit will help you.

The Holy Spirit will help you. He will empower

you. You just have to trust God. You have to

have faith in God. The problems that we face,

the biggest answer is have faith in God. Trust

God. Trust what he said. Trust what he's done.

Think back on the times in your life where God

has brought you through and brought you out.

And stand. Stand. Unwavering. Stand. This online

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