Sermon delivered March 31, 2007 by Pastor Don Gettys

McDonald Road Seventh-day Adventist Church

McDonald, Tennessee

Biblical quotations are from the New International Version NIV unless otherwise noted. Divine pronouns and titles are capitalized.

How To Control Self

2 Peter 1:5-8

You know, America is out of control. As far as that goes the world is out of control. I saw a full double-page ad in a highly respected news weekly, and it says this: “The world consumes two barrels of oil for every barrel discovered.” And then they continue, “so is this something you should be worried about?” On the next page the major oil company said this, The fact is, the world has been finding less oil, LESS oil, than it has been using for over 20 years now. And the oil we’ve been finding lately is coming from places that are tough to reach. We have been selfishly using up unreplaceable fossil fuels until now the end is in sight. We’ve been jeopardizing our life because of selfishness I guess. I don’t know. The crunch is fast coming upon us, and life as we know it is going to change. I don’t know how we’ll fly jet aircraft without oil. The last barrels of oil will go fast. In just the next 23 years the number of cars in the world will increase by 50%. We are squandering the gift of oil. Instead of conserving non-renewable resources human beings are consuming them as fast as possible. And we’re just simply out of control. We squander our wealth. We squander our health. We use up the vital energies that God has implanted in our body, and then we wonder why we come down with all these diseases and have all these problems.

Proverbs chapter 25 and verse 28. I like the book of Proverbs. “Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.” You’ve got to have self-control. Every one of us has a break pedal. Use your brake pedal! That’s what it’s there for. The Bible words this in a different way in first Corinthians chapter seven verse nine, “exercise self-control”. You see, self-control is like a muscle. If you don’t exercise your muscles you won’t have them. You’ve got to exercise your self-control. And one of the fruits of the Spirit according to Galatians chapter five verse 23 is self-control. So get out there and exercise that.

What is the hardest word in the English language to pronounce? Could it be anti-dis-establish-mentarianism? Or gobbledygook? Well, I don’t think so. Actually, it’s one little word -NO. We can’t pronounce this word well. We do not use that little word well. Charles Spurgeon said, “Learning to say no will be of more use to you than learning to speak Latin.” Well, I would agree with that.

Second Peter chapter one, our scripture reading, “Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, SELF-CONTROL”. We’ve got to be in charge of ourselves. Self control is a key link in the chain of spiritual success.

In the 1950s, researchers at Stanford University performed what they called the "marshmallow test." Have you heard of the marshmallow test? A researcher would tell a four-year-old youngster the following. "I’m going to leave for a few minutes and I’ll be back. And this nice marshmallow here on my desk, you can eat it while I’m gone if you would like to do that. But if you wait until I come back, I will give you two marshmallows to eat. It’s your choice. Either way is fine.” And they kept track of these kids. And they discovered about a dozen years later as they restudied these same children, they found that the children who had grabbed the single marshmallow were more troubled as adolescents. The kids who wolfed down that one marshmallow instead of delaying gratification, scored an average of 210 points less on their SAT. Just that simple test. There is real and documented value to controlling and disciplining our desires. You don’t have to go down to the store and buy that gizmo. You don’t need everything.

Let’s examine seven key areas that must be controlled and that are currently totally out of control in our world.

Number one is our thoughts. These all begin with the letter “T”. Our thoughts are out of control. The Bible says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” Our thoughts are not right. We walk around thinking things that are going to lead us to destruction. We are what we think. And if our thoughts are out of control, then we are out of control. Dwight L. Moody said this. “I have more trouble with Dwight L. Moody than any other man I have ever met.” You’ve got to discipline your mind. Julie Andrews said, “If God controls the inner man, the world cannot control the outer man.” That’s pretty good.

A second area that is totally out of control in this world is the tongue. The tongue. Now you say, well, I have my tongue under control. Well you do at the moment. You know, you should be selfish.... with your tongue. Keep it! Keep it. Proverbs chapter 15 verse 32, “It is better to be patient than powerful.” Don’t let your tongue cut your throat. It’s interesting that God placed the tongue so close to the throat. We talk more about gun control than tongue control. But you know, you can do more harm with your tongue than with your gun. Speaking without thinking is like shooting without aiming. Big problems. Psalm 34:14, “Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.” To belittle another person, do you like to do that? To belittle another person is to be little. We need to uphold other people. They will never reach a high position unless you affirm them. Let’s not throw mud at people. We just had an election campaign here in Collegedale. I don’t think I’ll comment on it.

Number three. Temptation. Temptation is out of control in this world. Sensual, sexual temptation. You’ve got to rule lust or lust will rule you. If you are the lord of yourself, even though not of lands; even though you have nothing, yet you have all. Be in control of your fleshly desires. Powerful Samson, Samson could strangle that lion; but he could not throttle down his lust. He tore apart Delila’s ropes, the first few times. But he could not escape the cords of sensual cravings. He burned the crops of his enemies by lighting the tails of the foxes on fire, but could not extinguish the flames of lustfulness ignited by one woman. His hands could bring a whole building down but he couldn’t handle little microscopic hormones in his body. Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 32, “It is better to have self-control than to conquer a city.” And you are stronger than Samson if you have self-control. Do you know that. That’s what that means. You’re stronger than Samson, if you can control yourself.

Look at James, over here in James chapter one in your Bible, right after Hebrews. James one verse 14. This talks about temptation. Verses 14 and 15. It says, “But each one is tempted when by his own evil desire he is dragged away, and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown gives birth to,” what? “To death”.

Sexual control is out of control in this world. And tragic damages occur when God's standard is violated. Let me illustrate. I do a lot of weddings, and for each wedding that I do I give the premarital counseling to those that I marry. And occasionally, once in a great while, I discover a couple has been intimately involved with each other. And I demand that this would be stopped if I am to perform the wedding. And I will tell you why that has to be stopped. If it isn’t stopped there will be ramifications later on in that marriage. And I will tell you what those ramifications will be. The new wife often becomes more assertive. She has to be, because the guilt that he feels from being out of control makes him more passive. And to balance that, the wife becomes more aggressive. She tries to fill the vacuum of leadership. He feels like he failed, he withdraws slightly from the lead, she has to take up the lead. And I will tell you that the passive male is one of the root causes of a lot of the problems in this world today. Especially in unsuccessful marriages. First Corinthians seven, verse five speaks of husbands and wives and Paul says, “Don't withhold yourselves from each other unless you agree to do so for a time to devote yourselves to prayer. Then you should get back together so Satan doesn't use your lack of self-control to tempt you.” When we’re out of control, we are into severe and heavy and hard temptations. Obviously, a lack of self control makes it extremely difficult to overcome temptation. Ephesians chapter five and verse three, “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or greed, because these are improper for God's holy people.”

Let me speak about the fourth thing that is out of control in this world, and that is television. I think television is totally out of control. I think it is ruled largely by un-Godly, un-Christian people in Hollywood. Americans view over 28 hours of television each per week. I don’t. So that means that somebody is 29 hours or 30 hours to make up for those that I don’t watch. And this has adverse effects. We have more aggressive behavior, we have poor school performance in our adolescents, we have obesity because of television, early sexual activity, drug and alcohol use are enhanced. Modern children are couch potatoes. I remember as a boy, I used to be out playing in the yard. I was hardly ever in the house unless it was raining. Where are most kids today? They’re in watching TV. Television watching consumes only a very few more calories than sleeping. It’s no wonder that children who watch too much television don’t get much physical activity, they don’t have time. They don’t explore, they don’t invent activities, they don’t go for a walk. And what are the kids watching? They’re watching violence in the media. Even some parents take their kids to movies. They can’t have enough TV. The typical American child will be exposed to 12,000 violent acts on television each year. That’s an average of one hour you get 20 violent acts.

Children are imitators of what they see. Just like monkeys. Monkey see, monkey do. And kids who watch violent programs, and you may say, “well, my kids don’t watch violent programs”. Cartoons. They are more likely to strike out at their playmates, to argue, to disobey authority, to disobey you. Kids feel that violence is a proper way to handle problems. So guard your television. We watch it too much. And at the rate we watch it, I think the next generation is going to have eyeballs the size of grapefruits and brains the size of marbles.

Number five. Our treasure is out of control. Control your money. We don’t need to be in debt. America & Americans are financially out of control. The banks own us. We’re mortgaged right up to here. America is deeper into debt than ever before. We have over-used our plastic passports to poverty, credit cards. Our personal, business and government debt now is a total of 48 trillion dollars. Now how much is a trillion dollars? Anybody have any idea? If you were to fill this church with a trillion one dollar bills, it would take acres and acres of land. I don’t know how much that is actually. We have the highest debt ratio in history. 161,000 thousand dollars per every man, woman and child here in America. Let’s see, 645,148 dollars per family of four, that’s the debt. And that’s 45,500 more debt than we had last year this time, per family. We’re simply out of control. And there’s two great questions that we could ask about this. Number one, can production of debt forever replace production of goods and services? Can Americans forever borrow their way into prosperity? We can’t do it. We are like Popeye’s buddy. Remember Wimpy? He always said “I will gladly pay you on Friday for a hamburger today.” Stop borrowing. Spend less than you make. That’s a simple rule. And if you say, “well, I don’t make enough”. Well then, sell your house and move into a cheaper house. Spend less than you make. You can do it.

Number six. Our tummy. Our tummy is out of control. He is strong who conquers others, but he is mighty who conquers himself. We dig our grave, not with a shovel, but with a spoon. Real strength is the ability to take your muscles and your hands and break a chocolate bar in half, into four pieces and only eat one piece. That’s real strength. Adam and Eve fell on what issue? On appetite. That’s why they fell. To go on a diet is sort of like going to a ball game. You are the umpire, and you’re positioned behind home plate. And your decisions will determine the outcome of the game. I think we have too much nourishment.

Number seven. Our temper. Our tempers are out of control. Have you ever seen road rage. Now, you didn’t get mad, but the other person got mad. Have you seen that? God gave Cain some priceless wisdom back here. Look at Genesis chapter four in your Bible. This is really great wisdom. Just take it all out of the context of Cain and put it in the context of your life. Genesis chapter four and verse seven. “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." That is great wisdom. Control yourself Cain. Control yourself McDonald Road member. Today we must master our temper. Anger is out of control in our modern world. From road rage to every other type of rage. Be selfish with your anger. Keep it to yourself. It's wise to remember that anger is just one letter short of danger. Proverbs 29:11. “A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.”

There will be a lot of people out of control in the last days. And I want to use my last ten minutes almost here, to give you some principles on how you can be in control. Second Timothy three, verse three. In the last days people will lack self-control. We know that. But that has not always been the case. We’ve had some people that have been in control. But ever since Adam and Eve, people have been out of control, and Cain and Abel, and Abraham and Sarah. Remember Abraham and Sarah? They could not wait for God to provide a son for them so they chose Hagar to help God out. And they took control out of the Holy Spirit’s hands, and put it in Hagar’s hands. And look at the tragic results. We’ve got this hatred now between those two boys, and it continues in the Middle-East to this day between the Muslims and the Jews and the Christians. When we cut off God’s control we are out of control. So we need to trust God. Let Him take the steering wheel of your life.

Rule lust. Temper your tongue. Bridle the belly. No horse goes anywhere unless that horse is harnessed. No steam or gas drives any engine until it is confined. No Niagara falls ever made the first watt of electricity until it was focused and tunneled. And no life ever grows great until it is disciplined and dedicated.

I want to read you something. See if you can guess what this is.

You may know me.

I am your constant companion.

I am your greatest helper; and I am your heaviest burden.

I will push you onward or drag you down to failure.

I am at your command.

Half of the tasks you do might as well be turned over to me. I'm able to do them quickly. I'm able to do them the same every time if that's what you want.

I am easily managed. All you've got to do is be firm with me.

Show me exactly how you want it done and after a few lessons I'll do it automatically the rest of your life.

I am the servant of all great men and women, of course; and I am servant to all the failures as well.

I've made all the great individuals who have ever been great.

And I've made all the failures that have ever failed.

But I work with all the precision of a marvelous computer. I work with the intelligence of the human being.

Be easy on me and I will destroy you.

Be firm with me and I'll put the whole world at your feet.

What am I? A Habit! A Habit.

Here’s another key. I think this is specially true here in Collegedale. We need to clean out the clutter of our life, ans out of our agenda, out of our schedule. Suppose that some morning we get up, pray, read our Bible, eat our breakfast, exercise, and then we go to a race, and we’re going to watch this race. All the runners are there, they’re all ready to go, and they’re at the starting line ready for the gun. And here comes the last runner. Another fellow comes up to the starting line. He’s fully dressed. He has on a full suit, a heavy overcoat, hip boots and a heavy woolen cap. And in his hands he carries a lunch bucket and an umbrella. And his pockets are filled with medications. And everybody is sort of surprised that such a person would try to win this race. And we ask him about it. And he says, "Well, of course I'm running the race. What's wrong with what I wear? Is there anything wrong with a coat or cap or some medicine? The race might be long, you know. I could get sick, you never know what I might need.” We can't tell him that what he carries is a burden. We can’t tell him, “you’re never going to win the race. There’s not a chance in the world that you’re going to win that race with all that stuff.” Why won’t he win? Because he is loaded down with too much stuff. If you’re going to win the spiritual prize, you’ve got to unload your schedule, unload your stuff. Hebrews chapter 12, verse one, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin which so easily besets us, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” You’ve got to leave those hip waders at home, and get on your tennis shoes. You’ve got to lighten your load. And what that basically means is, that you need to unload your schedule. You’ve got too much stuff. Remember that word that’s hard to pronounce. “NO”. Could you do this? “No, I can’t do it. I’ve got other things that are important.”

First Corinthians nine, 25. “All the athletes practice strict self-control. They do it to win a prize that will fade away. We do it for an eternal prize.”

So beware when you say, "Well, you know, the reason Pastor, that I didn’t read the Bible this morning is because I didn’t have time. I honestly did not have time to read the Bible.” Don’t say that. Like Oswald Chambers said, just be truthful and say "I did not discipline myself to do that this morning. I failed."

Winning the race requires that you cast off many “Good” things. You can’t own everything. You can’t eat everything. You can’t say everything. You can’t think about everything, or watch everything. To reach the prize of Heaven you must lay aside many, many things. You must ask Jesus to change your thoughts, your tongue, your time, your temptations, your television, your treasure, your temper and your tummy. Bible self-control is actually putting Jesus in control. That’s what it is. That is true self-control.

You know, in today’s day and age it has become harder and harder to detect the “Saints” among the “Ain’ts”. The ones that “are” among the ones that “ain’t”. True Christians will strive to control self. Two men are tempted to buy a forbidden bottle. The one in control passes on by with help from Jesus. But you’ve got to try. Real self-control is when you give the Holy Spirit complete control of your life. You pray, “Breathe on me breath of God. Send Your Holy Spirit into my life. Help me to be what I ought to be.” And you will be in control. You can do it. God wants to help you. And He will help you.

Hymn of Praise: #244, My Song Shall Be Of Jesus
Scripture: 2 Peter 1:5-8
Hymn of Response: #265, Breathe On Me, Breath Of God

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McDonald Road Sermon transcribed by Steve Foster 4/10/07