Episode 4

Become More in '24 - Self-control (North OC)

As we continue to learn how we can join God in His transformative work in our lives, we learn how we can add self-control to our faith.

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OC Church of Christ

Transcript
Speaker:

Get to go ahead and continue

our sermon series that we began

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called Become More in twenty-four.

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God wants us to become more.

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You want to become more.

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You want to become more kind,

more loving, more punctual more

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in shape, whatever the case is.

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But God also wants you to become more,

not only this year, but and beyond.

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And so we started.

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Looking through what is called

maybe the Ladder of Faith

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or ladder of transformation

in second Peter chapter one.

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And so we're studying that out.

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We actually have a little handout

online, on our church app.

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You can go ahead and look at,

uh, for a little handout to give

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you a little brief summary of the

chapter or excuse me, of the book of

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second Peter that we're looking at.

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And so, as we go this, I wanna remind

us of a couple of things because

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that helps us set up the proper

context for what we're studying

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out and what we're delving into.

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God desires for you to become

like him, not for you to

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have the power and all that.

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We're thinking.

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Well, can I be divine

in that nature though?

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But for your character, for

your likeness to be like.

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His, you know, my, my dad is in town

and I haven't seen my dad in many years.

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And so my dad was in town and

it's so funny because my dad he he

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really likes to dress up in suits.

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So you'll see him, he'll be

in a casual setting, but he

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might be dressed up in a suit.

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And so our kids are like,

you know, what's up?

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What's up with Grandpops?

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Why is he, why is he got a suit on?

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I'm like, that's your grandpops.

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And then I'm like, you see

where I get some of that from?

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Hence my suit today.

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You know what I'm saying?

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And so in many ways he's so proud.

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He is like, man, okay,

you're being like me.

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You know what I mean?

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And in many ways I want my kids to as

well, you know, to, to rock some suits

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on Sunday, you know, and then for little

Dominique to go ahead with a mustache

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and to goatee, you know what I mean?

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To have his suit on as well.

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And so God wants us to be like

him, but the problem is we sin.

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And so we get corrupted.

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And so now he's in the process of

redeeming us to become more like him.

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Are you with me, church?

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And so this is so huge for us to

understand not only for our journey,

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but especially as we study out two

Peter chapter one now, as we'll see,

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and we'll be reminded again in the text.

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God has given us everything

we need to live a godly life.

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He's given us everything we need, but then

he says in the scripture, but your role is

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to make every effort to add to your faith.

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And so it's not just God just gives us in

and that's sit, but God gives us in that

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we're called to put it into practice, but

to make every effort to add to our faith.

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And so we've looked at so far

adding to our faith, goodness.

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And we also looked at oh, excuse me, also.

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Uh, yes.

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Uh, uh, at the intersection of God's

empowerment and our human effort

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is when transformation takes place.

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Now we can change in many ways, but

for us to transform into the likeness

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and image of God, we have to have human

efforts that needs God's empowerment.

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And so we've looked at so far

how, uh, goodness, how we can

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add goodness to our faith.

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Daniel talked about how we can add

knowledge to our faith, and this week

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we'll talk about adding self-control.

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And so again, the, uh, title

for today is Becoming More or

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Become More at twenty-four.

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And we're looking at self-control.

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Let's go to the father in prayer.

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Father, we thank you

so much for your word.

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God, I'm excited about what

you've been teaching me.

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I feel challenged.

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Uh, God, I feel grateful,

and I pray right now.

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Father, I know you have a, a message

and a point here for every soul

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that's here, every soul that is

online, every soul that will hear it

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later through a podcast or YouTube.

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God, I pray right now that as every

soul hears your word, not mine,

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but Father, they hear your word.

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And God, that, that, that you minister

to all of us for others so that we

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can add to our faith so we become

more like you and live out your will.

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We pray this in the name of Jesus.

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Amen.

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Alright, so let's go ahead, let's go

to second Peter, chapter one here.

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Uh, I will say this, uh, uh,

uh, you know what, pray for me.

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Uh, last time I preached, I, I had

to be subdued because I threw out my

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voice watching the Forty-Niner game.

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And, uh, and then, then the next

week we went to the Hope Saturday

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Academy and our orientation.

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And I think I threw out my voice again,

yelling and trying to do the hope chant.

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And, uh, so this week I'm like,

all right, I gotta save myself.

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And, uh, so I'm trying

right now to save myself.

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And then later on at three-thirty, I need

your prayers that I don't throw out my

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voice when the Forty-Niners are playing.

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Amen.

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And some have said, this

is my Forty-Niners tie.

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You know what?

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I guess it is my Forty-Niners tie.

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And so if they don't win, do

not call or text me at all.

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Okay?

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Now I'm be like, oh, I'm

gonna be funny and text 'em.

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No, do not.

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Okay.

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I might block your number going forward.

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Okay.

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All right.

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And that's just a partial joke.

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All right, so second Peter, chapter one.

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Let's go in verse three here.

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Okay.

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His divine power has given us everything

we need for a godly life through our

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knowledge of him who has called us by

his own glory and goodness through these.

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He has given us his very great and

precious promises so that through them

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you may participate in the divine nature.

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Having escaped the corruption in

the world caused by evil desires for

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this very reason, make every effort

to add to your faith goodness and to

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goodness knowledge and to knowledge.

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Self-control.

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Again, I wanna remind us as

we add these things, it's not,

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uh, we're adding one by one.

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Once I get one down, then

I can get to the other.

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No, this is like, uh,

baking ingredients here.

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Okay?

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We're adding the sugar, we're adding

the flour, the eggs, whatever.

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We're adding 'em all the time

so that again, what comes

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out is the image of Christ.

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And so we wanna look at

this idea of self-control.

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And so the Greek here, we're gonna

drop a little Greek here for you.

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All right, is a cretia,

the N is actually silent.

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And this word here in Greek, it, it

means self-control, especially, uh,

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Continents temperance, but really has

its meaning of dominion over the self

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or something Dominion over the self.

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What comes to mind when you

hear dominion over the self?

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There's a mastery, there's a

control, there's a, there's a

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sovereignty, there's a lordship.

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And so Peter is calling us to

add to our faith this dominion

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and control over ourselves.

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And so it makes me think,

okay, well what does this look

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like in the disciple of Jesus?

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And number one, I think what it means

here is for the Christian, for you

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and me, for the disciple of Jesus.

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Self-control is submission to the

control of the indwelling Christ.

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See those who have repented and

got baptized, we received the

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indwelling of God's holy Spirit.

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And so self-control then for the

Christian is to be in full submission

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to the Holy Spirit's reign and rule

in our lives that the Holy Spirit is

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master and ruler, and not ourselves,

not our feelings, not our appetite.

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But God and his will.

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It's living for God and serving

others rather than serving

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our self and our desires.

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It means feelings and emotions becoming

servants and not masters because many

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times we can have it backwards, right?

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Where our feelings, our emotions

become our masters and therefore what

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happens, we lose What self-control I.

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When you give into that impulse

and you lash out or you, you,

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you go out, what happens?

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You have lost control and you

created, or maybe not created, but

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you therefore behave in a way in which

you knew you really didn't want to or

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wouldn't in a different circumstance.

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But because you lost self-control

and gave in, now there's damage.

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It's dominion and control

over our mind, our eyes.

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Our ears, our hearts, our hands,

and our feet, our stomach.

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It's demeaning.

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Controlling these things.

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Controlling what we consume,

and controlling what we put

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out, what we, what we take in.

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We have a control over.

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And then also what comes out of us.

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We have dominion over.

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For that, and obviously this means

a denial of evil and sinful desires

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and we're gonna have self-control.

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God is obviously meaning, Hey,

you know, we gotta make sure that

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you control yourself with these

temptations and evil desires that are

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in your life or that are around you.

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You know, let's, it's sports.

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Season here.

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We got the Super Bowl today.

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Jessica's got her.

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Uh, yeah, yeah, she's got that jersey on.

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Amen.

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Um, and so in football, you know,

we, we've talked about this, but, but

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even in basketball, you know what?

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Let, let's just do this here.

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Okay, come on man.

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Can you come up to the stage real quick?

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Come on up here, man.

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Come on up to the stage here real quick.

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Come on up here to the stage real quick.

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Gabe's a good friend of mine.

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At least I think we're good friends.

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All right, here we go.

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There you go, Gabe.

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I'm sorry man.

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You want you, you strong.

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There you go.

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Look at him.

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Come on.

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There you go.

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There's Gabe here.

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All right.

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He said No, you'll, you'll be good, man.

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Don't worry about it.

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All right, here we go.

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So, so, so I'm, I'm a huge football

fan, but I'm also a basketball fan.

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And so in basketball, uh, you know,

sometimes they tell you that you

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have to deny the person the ball.

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So let's say he's like, Steph Curry

or something like that, right.

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Or, uh, LeBron James here.

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That, that, that you would

describe yourself that way.

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Yes, he is.

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He's a Caucasian version of LeBron James.

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So there you go.

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Built like him too, you

know what I'm saying?

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And so in basketball, you know, they'll

say, Hey, deny LeBron James the ball.

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Deny, uh, LeBron, Strobel the ball here.

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Okay.

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All right.

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And so in, and so I have to go

ahead and I have to deny him.

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And so if he were to move that

way, move that way, I'm trying to

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make sure he doesn't get the ball.

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You get what I'm saying?

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Oh, look, he thinks he's way,

oh, oh, he thought he had me.

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He thought because I'm old, I

couldn't deny him, but I did.

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And so here's what happens here.

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So if somebody throws the ball,

I'm supposed to deny him the ball.

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I gotta deny it.

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I don't want him to have it.

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Now, this represents our souls.

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And sometimes we have temptations.

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And what he's saying is,

you gotta add self-control.

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Deny that.

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Deny that sin, deny that lust.

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Deny that thing that maybe

not now, but for later.

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You gotta deny that.

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Don't let it feed into your soul

because it will corrupt you.

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So when we have

self-control, I control it.

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I'm denying myself.

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I Denying my, my, my anger

giving my, my lashing out.

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I'm denying myself and

taking things I shouldn't, I

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shouldn't, I shouldn't take in.

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And so God is calling us to

add to ourselves self-control

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that denies evil desires.

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Give it up for Gabe LeBron.

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James Strobel.

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That man thought he can get by me.

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You crazy.

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I am tired now, but Amen.

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Here's the thing, brothers and

sisters, this isn't a denial of just

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sin, but it's having self-control

in all aspects of our lives.

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It's having self-control with

our thoughts, our internet

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usage, our speech, our eating.

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Our schoolwork, our homework,

our our, our, our work at our

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jobs, our sleep, our anger, etc.

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In every area of life, we must learn to

control ourselves and let Christ reign

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rather than our own self-centered desires,

because if we don't, then we'll be

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mastered and controlled by other things.

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Second Peter chapter two, write this down.

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Verse 19.

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He says, people are slaves to

whatever has mastered them.

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So again, if I don't control

myself, then I will be a slave

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to whatever is mastering me.

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That might be sick.

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It might be my stomach, it

might be my cravings, it

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might be whatever the case is.

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We have to make sure that we

add to our faith, Self-control.

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Now, can we just have a moment of honesty?

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I know y'all like moments

of, of non-honesty, right?

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Can we just have a moment here where we,

where we can just acknowledge something?

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Self-control is what?

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Hard.

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It's hard.

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If it was easy, then it

wouldn't even be added.

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It wouldn't, we wouldn't be

mentioned because it would be

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something that we naturally do.

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But our natural tendency

is to lack self-control.

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And so it's hard and what happens often.

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Is that because it's hard.

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We give in too easily sometimes.

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We give in to sin, we

give into temptation.

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We give into our feelings and our

emotions, our impulses, and we give in,

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and therefore we become a slave to that.

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I know before I became a Christian,

there was times where I would have these

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moments where I would be religious.

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I would say, you know what, I,

I, I really wanna live for God.

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And, and, but I never really, you know,

would submit my whole life to God.

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So I would want to give, I didn't

realize this at the time, but

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I realized later I'd give maybe

50, 75% of my heart and my faith.

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And I remember this time I was like,

alright, I want to be a moral person.

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And then this temptation came along

and I told my friends, all right,

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I'm, I'm leaving all this stuff.

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I'm not gonna do this anymore.

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And within two weeks I was right

back into everything I was doing.

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As soon as a serious temptation

came to be a moral I gave in.

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I just gave in way too easily.

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What I also notice is when

it's hard, we not only give in

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too easy, but we make excuses.

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We make excuses, and

what do those excuses do?

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Justify ourselves.

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We make excuses so that we can justify

ourselves so we don't feel bad or guilty.

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And so we say, oh, well it's

because of this and because of that.

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You know, even recently, I, I,

uh, I, I'm saying, all right, I, I

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want to grow and, and discipline.

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This year I felt like I had been

slipping and getting back, and so

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I'm like, all right, in every area.

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And so one of the areas

is, is, is what I eat.

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And uh, a couple weeks ago we had a

ministry event and we had some, some

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leftover food and some cookies, and Karina

put the cookies on the kitchen counter.

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And I'm looking at 'em,

I'm like, why she do this?

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There were Oreos, and you know, if

you have one Oreo, you don't have one

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Oreo, you have more than one Oreo.

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And so I see it and I'm like, no.

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Okay, well it's just one.

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Then I come back, well, let

me grab two more for the go.

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You know what I'm saying?

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And then the next day I was like,

oh, let me just take another one.

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I'm like, well, you know, I've be

doing better in these areas when I

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eat and I'm justifying it to myself.

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And I look up and I'm like, man,

I have four or five days in a

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row, man, I ate half the bag here.

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There you go.

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So now I ate half the bag.

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All right, so, and how was I doing?

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Making excuses, justifying myself.

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Well, you were okay in this

area, but the goal was to be

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self-controlled in all areas.

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And so how can we overcome this?

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Well, here's the beauty is that we can.

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Overcome this and we can

become self-control because

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God's word even tells us.

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In fact, let's go back to this verse.

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What does he say?

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His divine power has given us

everything we need for a godly life.

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Did you, did you see that?

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Are we ill-equipped?

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Do we lack something?

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No.

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You and I, those of us who are in

Christ, we have everything we need.

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To live a godly life.

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But he says, but you still

have to do something.

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You have a role in this.

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Make every effort to add to your faith.

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So we can, that's the,

that's the great thing.

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We can be men and women of God who

are self-controlled, but we gotta

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make sure that we add it to our faith.

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And so how can we add self-control to

our faith and overcome these things?

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Church, are you still with me here?

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So let's go ahead and

let's get into it here.

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So here's a couple things.

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Number one, uh, it always

starts with prayer.

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Again, this, this will be a thread

throughout the whole series.

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If we want to add anything, we

have to pray about it, desiring it.

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It is a part of our daily prayer,

therefore, it becomes part of our

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consciousness, and therefore we can have

more Being tuned with the Holy Spirit.

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So when these situations

arise, we can overcome.

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So we need to pray about it, but

secondly, to have a no excuses mentality.

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No excuses mentality, a determination.

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I am going to grow in this area.

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I'm not gonna make excuses what

we saw well earlier, right?

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When we make excuses, what

happens, we justify ourselves

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and therefore we don't grow.

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Had a good friend of mine, he said

this to me, uh, many years ago.

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I'm not sure where he got it from,

but he said, you know, uh, there

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are many reasons, but no excuse.

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I said, man, that's good.

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Because there are many reasons

to do anything, isn't there?

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There's a reason for me

to, to leave my family.

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There's a reason for me to leave God.

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There's a reason for me

to cheat on my taxes.

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There's a reason for

me to lie to your face.

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There are many reasons for me

to do any of those things, but

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there would be no excuse for it.

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So it's good to understand the

reasons, but we can't justify

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or make excuses when we give in.

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We need to have a mentality.

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I'm not gonna make any excuses.

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Does that mean we'll be perfect?

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Probably not, but we can grow some.

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And in fact, we need accountability.

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I know for some of us, we, we get a

little squirmish when we hear this word.

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Accountability.

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Accountability is when, uh, you,

you are accountable to people

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in a good and healthy way.

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I wanna read this scripture

here in Proverbs 27 verse six.

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It says, Wounds from a friend can be

trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.

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Many times we want to go and hear

what we want to hear, but the true

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friends isn't gonna multiply kiss.

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Oh, you're awesome.

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You lack self-control.

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Don't worry about it, bro.

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In sis, we all do.

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Say, you know what?

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You want to grow, bro.

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Here's what can help you.

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Hey, what can I do to help you in this?

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You know, LA about two years ago.

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During that time, uh, me, me and a

couple brothers, we had a, a, a small,

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what we call, uh, discipling group.

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We'd get together on Saturday mornings

and, uh, and, and, and, and, and

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the, the we'd get together and we

decide, all right, we're gonna have

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some goals for the next three months.

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So we had some goals for the next three

months, and we go around and we share,

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and that at that time, I saw the most

spiritual personal growth I had in my

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:

life, probably for the previous two years.

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And the brothers that, that I was with,

they actually, they actually didn't offer

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up a lot of spiritual input and advice to

me, and there was no knock against 'em.

405

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But they didn't say like, Hey bro, you

should do this, you should do that.

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That wasn't the case.

407

:

It was the accountability that

I had that helped inspire me to

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push through when I didn't feel

like doing what I wanted to do.

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And so I would come in and, and

then there was times where I'm

410

:

like, yeah, I didn't do as well.

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Oh, okay, well let's talk about it.

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:

And that was healthy

and it was good for me.

413

:

And then there was times where

I'm like, man, I'm on it.

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And you know what?

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Part of the reason I'm on it is

'cause I knew this Saturday morning

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I was gonna have to talk about it.

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And so I'm grateful for

that extra motivation.

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You get what I'm saying?

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And so we need some accountability.

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Another thing here is confession.

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When we fall short,

which we will fall short.

422

:

But it's to confess it not to, hold on.

423

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'cause when we confess, then we put it

out there not only to God and others,

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:

but then we can actually see growth.

425

:

'cause here's what happens when

we confess, well, the proper

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:

confession, whoever can steal

their sin does not prosper.

427

:

But the one who confesses and

renounces them finds mercy.

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Not just confessing,

but renouncing the sin.

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Renouncing means I'm

going to do away with it.

430

:

I'm going to get better.

431

:

I'm no longer going to succumb to

the pressure and temptation in this

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:

area and 'cause true confession

leads to change, which is repentance.

433

:

And lastly here, crawl, walk, run.

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What do we mean by this?

435

:

We mean starting off in small

areas helps build habits which

436

:

build character, which leads to

greater success and transformation.

437

:

Remember when I told you I was, uh, I gave

him to the cookies a couple weeks ago?

438

:

What would also happen during that time,

I, I saw this correlation is, uh, I

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:

decided beginning of the year, you know,

I'm gonna make sure that all my shoes,

440

:

when I go into my closet, I put 'em away.

441

:

'cause sometimes I can go over there and

put my shoes down and then they start

442

:

to pile up, and then you have to do

exercises when you come into the closet.

443

:

You know what I'm saying?

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You gotta dodge the shoes by Marcel.

445

:

You know what I'm saying?

446

:

And so I was like, man, I don't, I don't

wanna do that because I know that's

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:

just a reflection of my character.

448

:

And so then as I was giving into

the cookies a couple weeks ago,

449

:

I, I come into my, my, my closet

and I'm like, wait a second, man.

450

:

I've been slipping on my shoes here.

451

:

Because why?

452

:

Because it became a habit.

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:

It was small things, but it

revealed itself Now as my character,

454

:

you see, that's why we have

to crawl, walk, and then run.

455

:

Let's go ahead and let's

focus on some smaller things.

456

:

Let's get better at those.

457

:

So that again, we can change it

and it becomes our character, or we

458

:

can master and overcome the larger

issues and challenges in our life.

459

:

Church.

460

:

Do you understand what I'm saying?

461

:

So here are some ways that you and

I can add self-control to our life.

462

:

How will it affect us?

463

:

What would be the benefits?

464

:

Let's be reminded what it says in second

Peter, verse eight, for if you possess

465

:

these qualities, an increasing measure.

466

:

So we never arrive.

467

:

It's increasing, it's growing.

468

:

They will keep you from being

ineffective and unproductive in your

469

:

knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

470

:

You and I both want to be effective,

productive in our lives as Christians,

471

:

and so one of the benefits is that we will

avoid being ineffective and unproductive,

472

:

but we will be effective and productive.

473

:

But whoever does not have them is near

sight and blind forgetting what they

474

:

have been clenched from their past sins.

475

:

Therefore, my brothers and

sisters make every effort.

476

:

There it is again, to confirm your calling

and election for if you do these things,

477

:

you will never Stumble and you'll receive

a rich welcome to the eternal kingdom

478

:

of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

479

:

Again, this never stumbled.

480

:

Doesn't mean we never sinned, but

it means that we never fall away

481

:

from God and we actually do conquer

our sin more and more in our lives.

482

:

And so we can become stronger spiritually,

stronger emotionally, stronger mentally,

483

:

and stronger physically, and it also

will have an impact on our relationships.

484

:

Think about this.

485

:

If you are self-controlled in your

relationships, what will that do

486

:

for you and your relationships?

487

:

If you control your tongue and what

you say and how you say it, will that

488

:

affect your, your, your roommates or your

spouse, or your kids or your parents?

489

:

If you control yourself from an

outburst, would that infect, would

490

:

that impact your relationship?

491

:

Of course it will and allows

for more intimacy and closeness.

492

:

So we see the benefits not only for our

lives, for our eternity, but even in

493

:

our relationships for the here and now.

494

:

So what's the call for the hour?

495

:

What's the call for?

496

:

The hour every time is to make every

effort not to make some efforts.

497

:

But to make every effort

to grow in Christ.

498

:

Again, this is the call to join

God in his transformative work,

499

:

in our lives and in our churches.

500

:

It requires every effort.

501

:

So let's get real practical here.

502

:

Action steps this week here.

503

:

And so one encourages every

one of us to write this down.

504

:

Take a picture, do

whatever you need to do.

505

:

And first off here is let's continue

praying for the church, not just for

506

:

ourselves, not just for our small

groups, but let's pray for God's people

507

:

all across, especially here in Orange

County, but all across the world.

508

:

World.

509

:

Really pray for us to add to our

faith the list that is listed out,

510

:

that virtues that are listed in

two Peter one, five through seven.

511

:

And then secondly, get accountability

for an area that needs more self-control.

512

:

Find a partner, find whatever it is.

513

:

Say this is the area, I

need some more self-control.

514

:

It gives him accountability for this

week and that can serve you and help

515

:

you going forward in your faith.

516

:

Right now we're gonna take communion.

517

:

That's where we take the emblems

that represent Jesus' body and blood.

518

:

That was sacrificed for our salvation

and as we think of Christ, he always the

519

:

example of all the virtues, but we see

in Christ the example of self-control,

520

:

even as he suffered upon the cross.

521

:

And what led to him in, in, in going to

the cross, and we see this laid out in,

522

:

in one peter, he says, when they hurled

the insults at him, he did not retaliate.

523

:

When he suffered, he made no threats.

524

:

Instead, he entrusted himself

to him who judges justly.

525

:

He himself bore our sins in his body on

the cross so that we might die to sins.

526

:

And live for righteousness by his wounds.

527

:

You have been healed.

528

:

For, you are like sheep going astray,

but now you have returned to the

529

:

shepherd and overseer of your souls.

530

:

Let's pray.

531

:

Father in heaven, I thank you so

much for Jesus, for his example.

532

:

God, again, even as I was praying

earlier, talking with the kids'

533

:

Kingdom volunteers, God, I I, I'm

just amazed at Jesus' example.

534

:

Father, I think of man threats when

people lie or say things to me, I wanna

535

:

retaliate, I want to defend myself.

536

:

But we see Jesus be totally

self-controlled father, and

537

:

he did that for all of us.

538

:

He did that for your creation so

that we can have a relationship

539

:

with you so that our wounds could be

healed, so that we can return to you.

540

:

The shepherd and overseer of

our souls, the God we say.

541

:

Thank you.

542

:

Thank you for sending

your son, Lord Jesus.

543

:

Thank you for displaying

self-control upon the cross.

544

:

You could have come down at any time.

545

:

It, it's written that you could

have called 12 legions of angels.

546

:

They could have stopped it,

but yet you didn't so that the

547

:

greater good could take place.

548

:

Father, we say thank you.

549

:

Thank you for the mercy and

grace that is in Christ.

550

:

Father, may we respond with

devotion, faith, love, and father

551

:

adding to our faith, self-control.

552

:

We thank you.

553

:

We love you.

554

:

We need you.

555

:

We honor you, we adore you, we

admire you, and we praise you.

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