Fruit Of The Spirit - Self Control | Jason Martin

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Good morning again, it's an awesome testimony, right that Jad shared. Okay,

how many have you all heard from God like that before?

Not many? Right, Some may have heard audible voice, some

might have had dreams and visions. But when you probably

hear God's voice, I think I recommend that you answerla

and obey, right, because God is speaking to us. All right.

So this today, I'll be continuing on a sermon series.

The theme for this year in X Church is revival, right,

and revival there is no revival without the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the one that brings forth revival, right,

and I have touched a few sermons previously on how

the Holy listening to the Holy Spirit will lead us

to leading living a powerful Christian life. Okay, So I

wanted to recap a bit for the benefit of those

who are here or that might have forgot, or those

who are not here as well. Okay, so let's go.

So the first slide, we get the first slide. Okay,

so you know the font is funky, but it's not

the font that I used. But anyway, Okay, how do

I know if it's God's voice, my voice, or the

devil's voice. Remember just now Jet shared his testimony, right,

how did he know whether it's God's voice, his voice,

or the devil's voice. You know, most of the time

we get thoughts in our mind and we are thinking that, hey,

are you sure this is God? Or is it me?

You know?

And based on this I gave three points to It's

just guidelines for us to identify how it's God's voice,

our voice, or the devil's voice. Okay, next light, Okay,

so discerning the voice. So how do we know if

it is the spirit of God? If it is the

Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will always ask us to

do things that will draw us closer to God. You know,

if you say, if you hear a voice and a

voice says that, hey, go and attend Sunday's service, you

can be sure that it's the voice of the Holy

Spirit because he's drawing nearer to God. You can't. The

devil will not say get up on a Sunday morning

and go to church, right, But the Holy Spirit is

when he speaks to you, he will draw us closer

to God. The second one is the flesh. So the

flesh pinch yourself. That is the flesh. Okay, your flesh

is your own body. And how many of us when

your alarm rings, it is you straight away jump out

of bed. You love to jump out of bed the

moment the alarm rings, Yes, no, some do, majority don't.

How many of us press the snooze button, right, you

press the snooze button. So when you press the snooze button,

that is the flesh. The flesh is telling you that

he I need. Mostly, the pillow is very comfortable. It

just rained last night. It's so cozy. The blanket is warm,

you know. And that's the flesh. So the flesh will

always drivers towards what's comfortable, and the flesh will also

drivers towards self preservation. You know what self preservation. Self

preservation means want to put myself first. That means if

I don't care about other people, I want to put

myself first. That is self preservation. And the last one

is the enemy. How do you know it's the enemy's voice?

You know it's the enemy's voice. When the thoughts come

into your mind and you are suddenly stricken with fear,

have you had that kind of thoughts before you know,

you suddenly thought about something, and then you have fear.

You got anxiety. You're like, oh, no, how gonna face

my exam tomorrow? I'm not ready yet, or I do

not have enough money for tomorrow. I do not know

how am I gonna get my new job? I just

lost my job. And then you have a lot of fear,

and the voice of the enemy will say that you

are not good enough or you did bad things. That's

why God is punishing you and it will bring forth

shame and condemnation. So that is the lies of the

enemy that is causing you to be to take you down. Okay,

So this is three ways if if you have thoughts

or that come into your mind, this is a simple

way of how to evaluate is this from God? Is

this me speaking? Or is this the enemy? Okay, So

when we listen to the voice of God. Next slide.

So when we listen to the voice of God, there

are four stages. First, we obey the prompting. So the

voice the Holy Spirit is a gentleman. He will not scream,

he will not shout, he will prompt you. He will

speak in a still small voice. And then you obey

the prompting. So the first stime is you obey the prompting.

When you obey the prompting, then you recognize the Holy

Spirit's voice, and then you become more sensitive, you know,

so he speaks to you more. You will recognize, Wow,

this is the Holy Spirit speaking. So I become more sensitive,

and then the Holy Spirit will speak start speaking to

you more and more and more because you are obeying him.

And when you are obeying him, then you will live

a powerful Christian life. How many of us want to

live a powerful Christian life? We want to write, I

also want to live a powerful Christian life. If not,

what's the difference within being a Christian and any other religion?

You know, we want the power of the Holy Spirit

in us. Okay, so leads me to my next question,

which will it is going into the verse for today,

it is this, how do we know we are living

powerful Christian lives? We all want to live powerful Christian lives.

We listen to the prompting, our sensitivity to the prompting increases,

the Spirit talks to us more, and because of that

we live powerful Christian lives. But how do we know

we are living powerful Christian lives? How would you know. Okay,

there is a verse in the Bible that will be

the key text for today, So let's go into that

next night. So it's from Galatians five, verse twenty two

to twenty five. It reads, but the fruit of the

Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,

and self control. Against such there is no law. And

those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its

passions and desires. If we live in the spirit, let

us also walk in the spirit. So from this scripture,

he says, if you walk in the spirit, you will

have the fruit of the spirit. If you plant an

apple seed, what do you get? Apples? If you plant

a duria, see, what do you get Durians? If you're

living in the even following the Holy Spirit, what do

you get? Fruit of the spirit? Right, fruit of the Spirit,

that's what you will get. So today I'm going to

touch on one of the characteristics of the fruit of

the Spirit. Any guesses wish characteristics? You saw the slides, Yes,

So today I'm going to touch on self control. How

many of y'all are excited to hear about self control?

You are like, Wow, self control is awesome. It's so easy.

I got no problem with it, no, right, okay, So

to make it a bit more and easy to digest

and also to understand what self control is, I have

a video. Okay, so let's fix our eyes on the screen.

Mhm hm.

Yeah, yeah, there's no sound. Wait past pause, there's no sound.

I think, why is there like no sound? Sadly sound? Suspense?

Is are you coming out for no monitor?

Student?

Stop? Last?

Still this one.

Not people?

You stop.

Stop stop steps stops kass sss less keep st.

Yeah, all right, okay, let's pause that. All right. So

that's a bit on self control, right, So you know

that cookie Monster has a self control problem right in

terms of it it so you can see that most

of the times, right, we think that why do we

need self control? You know, I wish I can do

everything that I want to do. You know the same

thing like what we saw just now right with cookie Monster.

If Cookie Monster got to do whatever he wanted to do,

which is eat the cookie, they would have never completed

their mission. Right, So there is actually a good reason

why self control is the fruit of the spirit. Okay,

all right, so let's go into the next light. Uh back, Yeah,

So what is self control? What is self control? So

I put it into a simple definition, letting go of

what is good and for what is God? So what

is good? Whatever we think right? Whenever we say that, hey,

you want to wake up in the morning, what is

good your bid? Your bid is very good, you know,

but you know that God asked you to wake up

early to do devotion a quiet time, that is God.

Whatever is good to your flesh may not be what

God wants us to do. So that is self control

and self control. Sometimes I'm not saying that whatever is good.

Sometimes it's it's good stuff, you know, like for example,

that you want to be ambitious, you want to plan,

you want to have do well in your exams. You

know that's that's a good thing to excel. But because

you want to do well in your exams, you say that, hey,

I will I need more time, so I won't do

my quiet time. I need more time to study. And

because of that, that good intention overtook what God wants

you to do.

Right.

And it's also because whatever is good, it's good for you,

it may not be what God's plan is for you.

We think whatever is good right. Sometimes we think it's good,

it's good for me? You know, you go to McDonald's.

You're right, man, McDonald's is good, But is it really good?

You know? Or KFC finger licking good? Right? You think

it's good at that time of eating it, whether it's cookies, cakes,

whatever it is, at that point of time, it is good.

But is it what God intended us to do?

Right?

And what is God? God? Following God sometimes cost us.

Do you know that obeying God sometimes cost us? It

costs us to miss out on what we think is good.

And that's why it's obedience. Obedience. You know, when it's

most toughest to obey, when it goes against what we want.

But that's when obedience matters the most. And then sometimes

asking what God wants will interrupt our plans because we

already have a plan. I have a plan. I want

to go to this uni, I want to go overseas,

I want to go here, I want to go there.

That's my plan. But then suddenly God says that, hey,

I want you to go and serve me in this country.

Then you bell that, ah, that's not what I want.

But that is what God's plan is for you. And

when we have self control, we then give up what

is good and we follow what God wants. Okay, So

what does losing control look like? You have self control, right,

So what is losing control look like? Have any of

y'all used any of these words? You decide to lose

your temper or you are losing your cool, or you're

losing your mind. You know, sometimes when with my kids,

I'll be like, man, I'm going to lose my temper.

That means, right, I feel it coming. And when I

say I lose my temper means I straight away explode.

You know, you get angry and you cannot control your

emotions anymore. And that's what losing control is like. So

when you lose your temper, you know it's easier. In

James one, verse twenty, the anger of man does not

produce the righteousness of God when you are angry. They

have you ever replied an email in office when you're angry?

Or have you when you're angry decide to somebody does

something to you and you're angry, you go and lash

out because you lose control of what you say, and

that does not show the righteousness of God. So that's

what losing control is. The second one is losing your cool.

You know, losing a cool when things around us change,

Like for example, right now, right, you know what's the

most expensive place to go? Now the patrol station? The

patrol station. You want to go for a luxury meal,

You go to the shell man. You know it's suddenly

a luxury item, and you see all the prices going up.

You ask. Slowly, right, losing your cool, you are getting

more anxious, You're getting more worried. Well, I have enough,

what's going to happen? I don't know how am I

going to manage? And we are slowly losing cool because

of things that are happening on the outside. And what

does a Bible say? The Bible says the peace of

God gods our heart and mind. But when we lose

our cool, we don't have the peace of God anymore.

You know, our mind is in pieces, and the next

one is losing your mind. You're like going crazy because

everything is not going according to plan, Everything is not

going on according to plan. Suddenly you've got so many problems.

You got problems at work, you got problems in school,

you got problems your kids, you got problems everywhere, and

you just lose your mind. And then because of that, right,

you're consumed. It worry. You're consumed with so many things

that you do not have a clear mind anymore. But

in Romans twelve, verse two, it says, be transformed by

the renewing of your mind. Okay, so I wanted to

give you two examples of self control. In the scripture

next Light, the note takers are not proceeding with their

slides because, okay, can we go there next light? Yeah? Okay.

So these are two examples in the Bible of people

who had self control. So you know these stories very well.

One is Daniel and one is Joseph. Both of them,

it saysier two men impossible pressure, but they were both

governed by the spirit. The pressure that they had was impossible,

was crazy. How many of y'all were thrown into alliance

then before none? Right, how many of y'all were thrown

into prison? You were given up by your whole family

and thrown into a well. That kind of pressure is crazy.

But when you have that kind of pressure, if you

do not have self control, you would have lost your temper,

you would have lost your cool, you would have lost

your mind. But you see, for them, Daniel and Joseph,

they didn't lose anything. They were so in control. They

were so in control. Take for example, Daniel. Daniel was

a prisoner of war. You know, the enemy came and

captured you, took you away from your whole family, put

you in prison, and then you are in the But

when you're in prison, right, instead of being in the

instead of being in the prison, you are taken to

the palace, your prisoner of war, You're taken to the palace,

and the king gives you all the best food to eat.

As a prisoner, you got it better than everybody else.

As a prisoner, you got it better than anybody else.

You got all the King's food to eat. What would

you do? What would you do? A lot of people,

I mean to be honest, I will be thinking about

it twice as well as a prisoner. I'll be like, Wow,

instead of eating stale bread and water, I can eat

all the King's food. Why not? Why not? But Daniel

did had self control? He Sayasier right that Daniel resolved

not to defoul himself with the king's finest food and wine.

It didn't matter where he was, it didn't matter what

happened to him. What he has was self control within

him and Because of that, he chose God's diet, and

he became stronger and more wise than everyone else. And

when his enemies were out to get him. Can you

imagine if you think that your office politics is bad,

this is even worse this office politics, right is your

colleagues want to kill you. The only goal is one

you did. What would you do in that circumstance? Would

you give up your principles or would you say that, hey,

I have self control and no matter what happens, I

will still do what God wants me to do. When

he was faced with the lions, then Daniel opened his

window and continued to pray to God, knowing that he

will be thrown into the lions then, And that is

self control. That is so much of self control. He

let go of what was good. So Daniel let go

of what was good, what was good, the King's feast,

what was good being friends with his colleagues who were

probably evil, being popular, and he gave it up for

what is God, because what is important to God was

important to him, And the same way for Joseph as well.

No matter he was in the prison, he was in

the pit, he was in the prison, he was in party,

fast house or he was in the palace, he still

gave his best. Can you imagine, can you give your

best when you are in the prison? Can you give

your best when people falsely accuse you. That's what Joseph did.

It's because he had self control, right, Okay? So next,

So talking about self control. Self control is not will

power because it says that self control is the fruit

of the spirit. So it's not about how strong Joseph

and Daniel was, but it was about how strong God

was in their life. The stronger God is in your life,

the stronger your self control. It was not about how

good they were, but it's about how good God was.

And when you talk about fruit, do you know that

when you plant an apple seed, it is very important

where you plant it. Malaysia got apple treason. Not not

really right, not really, you don't really see. So if

you take an apple seed and you plant it the Malaysia,

you won't get apples. You need to plant the seed

in an environment which is very conducive. And then when

that you're a new planted in the right place, in

the right temperature, in the right country, then it will

grow and bad fruit. So are our lives. The right

environment for the Holy Spirit. Are we allowing our lives

to be the right soil for the fruit? So there

are four kinds of soil. We all remember the four

kinds of soil. What's the four kinds of salt? Okay?

So before we go into that right, remember self control.

It is produced. It is not about how we perform,

but it is produced by the Holy Spirit. It's not

about how good we are, but it's the Holy Spirit

that brings forth the fruit. But we need to be

good soil. So what are the soils? Next line? So

there are four soils? They remember this. If you're in

Sunday school you might remember this, or you in church

you might remember this. There are four soils? Which soil

are we? Which soil are we?

Are we?

The wayside? The wayside is when the Spirit talks to us.

The enemy can easily come and take it away? Or

are we the stony places? Stony places? You'll receive the word,

but then there is no root. The moment you feel pressure,

you forget about whatever the Holy Spirit tells you to do.

Or maybe you're the the tawny ground. So the tawny ground,

the word of God grows. But then you know what

happens to tones, right, they will come and slowly choke you.

And if you're not capital and you don't remove the torns,

you don't remove the world and lies of the enemy.

You don't remove what the flesh is speaking to you.

You don't remove what the enemy is speaking to you.

Those are the tons. Those voices become louder and louder,

and then they will choke your seed. And because of

that you don't have the fruit of the spirit. But

all of us should be like good ground. So group ground,

we hear the word, we understand it, and we remove

everything that will hinder the growth. We remove every weed,

we remove every torn, we remove every pest. We don't

care about external circumstances because we make sure that our

ground is good so that the fruit of the spirit

can grow in us. Right, so the spirit prepares the soil.

The focus is not about us doing self improvement. But

we need to surrender and say, Holy Spirit, have your

way in my life. Okay, all right, So now let's

go into the next light. So a lot of us

when I started this, right, when I said self control,

how many of we all were so excited? There is

self control? Not many, right, because self control talks about discipline,

talks about what self control means. I cannot do this, this, this, this, this,

a lot of things from me. A lot of times

when we talk about self control, we have the idea

that it's about we can't do this, we can't eat this,

we can't go here, we can't do this, and it's

about not getting what we want. But the Bible, why

does the Bible focus a lot about self control? Do

you know that self control is actually freedom? So this

was a perspective change for me. So think of it

as an athlete. Okay, y'all know Hussein Bot, I give

you Ussein Both and the example. So who is Hussein

Both or le Chong Way? Right now? Thomas coup is happening,

thank god. Yesterday lizicha wan and salvaged the first round.

So any athlete take Ussein bo Ussin Bot has a

lot needs. He became world number one, not by accident.

You cannot accidentally become world number one. Do you think

you can accidentally become world number one? You can't. Right,

you need a lot of self control and discipline. You

need a lot of self control and discipline so that

you can become the person that God intended you to be.

So for Usain Bo he wanted to be the fastest man.

That was his goal and because of that he needed

self control. So he controlled what he ate, He controlled

when he went out, how much sleep he had, he

had all this, but you know, as the saying on

the slide here right, the athlete who trained, the athlete

who has trained is freer on the field than the

spec who never was. Have you say Husain both race.

When he's running right and he is near the finish line, right,

you can see the smile on his face. That freedom

to be the person that he was called to be.

And he could only do that because he had self

control versus somebody who did not have self control. When

you don't have self control and you go and race,

you know what happens. You are limited by your body,

You're limited by your mind. You are limited by so

you don't have freedom to perform at what the maximum

you can. You are limited by so many circumstances. But

self control helps us focus on the mission. Just like

cookie monster, right, if you have self control, you know

that mission was to save the princess, was not to

eat the cookie. If you eat the cookie, that's about it.

You don't achieve the mission. So without self control, we

are driven by our appetite. So our appetite, it can

be sleep, it can be food, it can be comfort.

So you think that the opposite of self control, right

you think that, well, self control means I can't do

a lot of things. I want to do what I

want and I don't want to be controlled. But do

you know that without self control you are still being controlled.

Without self control, you are being controlled by your flesh.

And your flesh is not out to make you the

person that God intended you to be. So you that's

what you will live an unfulfilled life. Okay, you'll be

driven by fear whatever happens in the external. Can you

imagine if Daniel he was driven by fear, he didn't

have self control the moment his colleagues told him that, hey,

you better stop praying. If not, you'll be thrown into alliance. Then,

if he didn't have self control, he will be controlled

by fear. You will be controlled by something, by either

the flesh or the enemy. If you're not controlled by

the spirit, you don't have complete freedom. But only God

will give you the freedom to be the person who

he wants you to be so with. When we follow

the spirit, we have self control. Whatever happens inside of

us is what matters. The external can change, whether you're

in the pit, whether you're the prison, whether you're in

the palace. You will still follow God and you will

still do what you're called to do. So the external

circumstances don't change, and you're free because nothing else owns you.

You know that, you know who owns cookie Monster, whoever

owns the cookie, who owns cookie monster, whoever owns the cookie.

So if you do not have self control, you know

who owns you, whoever has whatever that fills your appetite.

Does that sound like a life of freedom, No, because

someone is always out to get you. Only God has

our best interests at heart. Right, So let's go to

the next slide. So the opposite of self control is

actually self indulgence. Self indulgence, self indugegens is whatever I want,

I want at whatever the cost. I don't care what

happens in the future. I want it now. That's how

wars start, that's how uh diseases happen. That's how people

are living more and more unhealthy. That's why there are

more broken families. You know, self indulgence is a I

I think I can sleep with anyone I want. This

is my body. I can do whatever I want with it.

You know, I don't care what the Bible says. I

feel like doing it, then I want to do it.

That's self indulgent. You follow whatever your feelings is, you know,

when they're growing up, right, how many are we all felt?

You know? Sometimes? Right? You I've had stories where you know,

you didn't prepare for your exam, you know, and then

you're like, some people go and pull the fire fire

fire alarm. They were going to pull the fire alarm

because they are not ready for the exam, you know,

because they gave in to their fear. And because of that,

then the whole exam was postponed or whatever. And then

the tests came out and it became harder.

You know.

That's the worst case scenario self indulgence. So self indulgence

is about self preservation. You want to protect yourself and

no matter what the cost. And that's what the Pharisees did.

So in Matthew twenty three, verse twenty five, Jesus said

to the Pharisees, you are so careful to clean the

outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are filthy,

full of greed and self indulgence. So you don't care

about anybody else. You're just what's in it for me.

And he says here a person without self control is

like a city with broken down walls. You know, a

city with broken down walls. Anybody can come and attack.

All they need to do is what's your appetite. Then

they can come for you. They can control you. And

in first Correnginans six, verse twelve, he says, I am

allowed to do anything, but I must not become a

slave to anything, because if you are a slave to something,

then that is what has you in control. The question

is not do you lack self control, it is what

is currently controlling you instead. So if you do not

have self control, something else is controlling you, and that

is something that we have to check ourselves.

Right.

So, even as I'm drawing towards a close, there is

good news if we have the fruit of self control.

And I just wanted to share three promises from the scripture.

Next night, you get freedom, you get protection, and you

finish well, you get freedom because nothing of this world

can control you. No fear no greed. You know they

have the seven deadly sins. The seven daily sins are

itally things that appetites that control people and cause them

to act a certain way and behave a certain way.

But when we have self control, we have freedom from

all that. And he says, yea in first Courrengies six

verse twelve, I'm not allowed to do anything, but not

everything is good for you. And even though I'm allowed

to do anything, I must not become a slave to

do anything. Don't be a slave to money, don't be

a slave to popularity, don't be a slave to just success.

Don't be a slave to your ambition. Because when we

have self control, then the fruit of the Spirit will

set us free from this. Second one is protection. We

don't have to depend on our own strength. When we

have self control, it's no longer about own strength. But

the Holy Spirit is in us and he gives us strength.

James four seven. So humble yourselves before God, resist the devil,

and he will flee from you. So when we humble

ourselves before God is saying that God, you take control,

and the Spirit of God will give us self control,

and that will help us to resist the devil, and

he will flee from you. If we try and do

it on our own strength, we can't. The final one

is finishing well. You want to finish the race well.

The last thing you know. Recently, I think on my

Facebook feed, there's a lot of videos about runners. There

are a lot of runners who are nearing the finishing

line and they start celebrating because they think they are first,

and suddenly somebody comes from the back and overtakes them.

You know, you like, ran the whole race so well,

but at the last minute, right before the finishing line,

you fail. How disappointing is that? And none of us

want that, especially in our race of life. And we

only got one chance. So let's finish well. Let's finish well.

So finishing well gets us to the finishing line. When

everything says quit, it's not end. When everything says quit,

there's a type of there. When everything tells us to

give up. Self control is what gets us to the

finish line. It is the fruit of the spirit. So

Hebrews twelve, Verse one, let us throw off everything that

hinders and run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

So even as I get the band up right now,

so how many of you all right now think that

self control is good? When I look at it right

right now, I want self control because I do not

want to be controlled by anything else. Because if I'm

controlled by anything else, I do not want to be

cookie monster that is controlled by the person holding the cookie.

And if the person holding a cookie asks cookie monster

to dance, the cookie monster will dance. Ask him to

bark like a dog, the creeen monster will bark like

a dog, all for the sake of a cookie. And

that's what the enemy will do to us. If he

knows what your appetite is. He will dangle that carrot

in front of us, and he will make us dance,

and he will lead us into the part of destruction

because we don't have self control. But even as we

listen to the Spirit of God, we obey his prompting,

he speaks to us more and more. The fruit of

self control will grow in us because the Spirit is

in work with us, and because of that we can

live powerful Christian lives because the world has no longer

any hold in our life.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

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God bless