Yeah, it's a powerful song. Thank you. When we consider what he's done for us. Should be easy for us to, to give back to give back and he's given so much he gave us his best. Why not give them our best back. So all right, this time we'll go ahead and dismiss the kids for Children's Church. I'm thankful for my son to step up and help out with Children's Church. Of course, that means I can't use him as an illustration now. So that'll fall on my daughter and son-in-law while they're here. All right. We're going to go ahead and continue in our study of Galatians 5, 22 and 23, the fruit of the spirit. So before we dive into it this morning, let's go ahead and open in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we just thank you again for the truth of your word. We thank you for your goodness. for your watch care and protection over each and every one of us here, Father. I'm thankful for those this week that were on the road or had to travel places when the roads weren't so well. You kept people safe. I'm thankful you got my daughter and son-in-law here safely yesterday. They had friends come over yesterday and, you know, just thank you for watching over and protecting them. And I know you'll get them safely back. Father, we thank you for, I'm just thankful for this church and this church family. And so good to see people who are thankful to you, to see a thankful church, a church that works, a church that desires to please you and to bring honor and glory to you. And so just makes it a joy for me, Father. Thank you for blessing me with this church. Thank you to be a part of this church. Thank you, Father, for allowing me to preach your word. Fill me with your spirit at this time. Use me mightily that your word would go forth. We know it won't go void, Father, so I know it's not going to fall on deaf ears. I pray you'd help everyone here to be open and attentive to the word. Just a little longer, Father. I know people are getting hungry. and have things to do. Help us to keep our thoughts on you and your word at this time, and not to be thinking about the busyness of the week ahead, about what we're going to partake of here in a little while, Father, but help us to stay focused on you and your word at this time. Help us to learn about temperance. And may you be honored and glorified in it all, we ask in Jesus' precious name, amen. Galatians chapter 5, we've been continuing. Galatians chapter 5, verses 22 and 23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. finally reached the ninth and final fruit of the Spirit, the temperance. As we get into this, what is temperance? The word temperance comes from the Greek word enkratia, which gives the idea of being in control of one's own desires especially sensual desires. This is referring to self-control. Temperance is self-control. Many of our problems stem from a lack of self-control. Self-control is possible only when we are under the Spirit's control. Ephesians 5, verse 18 says, "...and be not drunk with wine where it is in excess, but be filled with the Spirit." It's ideal when we think of this. I think, you know, Paul was so smart to use drunkenness and wine. And when we partake in alcoholic beverages, the one thing that's going to happen that you can count on in partaking of something that's going to influence your body is there's a loss of self-control. That's why he says, be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. You want to practice self-control, you need to be filled with the Spirit, not spirits. Remember, if we are not filled with the Holy Spirit, we will not be able to produce the fruit of the Spirit, and therefore we will not walk in temperance. It is imperative that we as believers exercise self-control in our lives, or we will continually walk in the flesh. When we began this study, it started with the walk in the flesh and what that produced. And we do not want to go down that road. Proverbs 25, verse 28 says, He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls. I love this quote by Robert E. Lee. He said, I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself. Without self-control, our guard is down. We have no walls up to defend ourselves from the enemy. If we can't practice self-control, if we can't control ourselves, how can we control others or be a positive influence on others around us? Do you have the rule over your own spirit? Will you walk with temperance? This morning, I want you to see three key details that will help us all to walk with temperance or self-control. And the first detail is temperance explained. Temperance explained, it all begins with discretion. Discretion is knowing to do the right thing at the right time. Right? Another word would be discernment. To have discernment. Or discretion, right? Doing the right thing at the right time. And this quality helps us with integrity. Integrity. What is integrity? Integrity was grained into my brain being a member of the United States Air Force. There's three core values in the Air Force, and I always believed, they always said they're all equal. Not one is more important than the other. I disagree. There's a reason why they said integrity first. Because without integrity, all the rest falls apart. Integrity first, service before self, excellence in all you do. Without integrity, you will not put the service before yourself. Without integrity, you will not have excellence in all you do. Because what is integrity? Integrity is doing the right thing even when nobody else is around. Proverbs 3, verses 21 through 23 says, My son, let not them depart from thine eyes. Keep sound wisdom and discretion, so shall they be life unto thy soul and grace to thy neck. Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble. Notice here at the beginning, it says, My son, so who's talking? This is Proverbs, so we know this is Solomon, right? Solomon's talking. He says, let not them depart from thine eyes. What is them? Well, if you read in context the verses prior to that, Solomon had been talking about knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. Let not these things depart from thine eyes. Right? What is knowledge, understanding, and wisdom? Oftentimes we use them like synonyms, like they mean the same thing. It's just a different word for the same thing. But I disagree. They are not the same thing. Let me give you an example. So there's a little girl, and she's standing there watching her mom iron. And as she's watching her mom run the iron over the shirt that she's ironing, the girl's intrigued as she sees all these wrinkles just as the iron goes over it on the backside of the iron, the wrinkles are gone. And so she's just infatuated and watching this. As she's watching it, the phone rings. Mom sets the iron down and says, stay away from the iron. It's hot. And she goes and answers the phone. Okay. Well, guess what? That little girl just received knowledge. Don't touch the iron. It's hot. As the little girl sits there patiently waiting for mom to come back, she starts to thinking, you know, mom's away. That doesn't look that hard. I can probably help mom while she's away. and she reaches out and touches the iron on the hot part and burns her fingers. Now she has understanding. She understands, what mom told me, it was true, because that is hot, right? Next day comes along, mom's ironing again, her daughter's watching her iron, the phone rings again, and mom says, puts the iron down, says, stay away from the iron, it's hot, and goes away. And again, the girl's intrigued, starts to get a little impatient, thinks, I can help mom, starts to reach out for the iron again, then pulls back. And she remembers, oh, I burned myself last time. That's wisdom. I learned from my mistake. And that's wisdom. These three things are not the same thing. They're all different. Titus 2, verses 1 and 2 says, But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity and patience. We look back here in Proverbs 3, 21-23. What was Solomon doing? He was trying to... When you read that verse, we all as parents want the best for our children, right? And he's saying here that if you keep wisdom and knowledge and understanding, don't let them depart from your eyes. It says here what? Then thou shalt walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble. You know, and so this young girl learns from this stuff. She's not going to stumble again, right? She learns from it. Keep it in your eyes. And that's what Solomon's saying. And it goes for us as believers. But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. Sound doctrine is knowledge, understanding, and wisdom of the Word of God. Knowing the doctrines, the truth. Like I shared at Sunday school, when my daughter sat in a church and the pastor said, when everyone dies, everyone goes to heaven. And while that struck a quick nerve with her, she said, the next thing that happened scared her even more, when the rest of the church hollered out, Amen. And so, when you know sound doctrine and you know that's not true, you get away from heresy, you get away from false teachings, and you go where the Word of God is going to be taught. You dig into the Word of God yourself, that you may gain knowledge, understanding, and wisdom yourself. And that's the idea here. That if we'll do these things, as we grow older, it says here that the aged men be sober, grave. Notice the word temperate there. As we get older, we'll be able to practice self-control better as we have wisdom. Now, I guarantee you, prior to my salvation, I didn't practice self-control very often. But it even goes further. We become sound in our faith, in our love, and in our patience. So it's important, right? We need to exercise discretion, but we also need discipline. We need discipline. When I think of discipline, one of the things that popped into my mind is, I remember back in the 1990s, I liked watching football. I'm not so much anymore. After the kneeling thing, that all kind of went to the side. But I really loved watching football when I was younger. I was a Dallas Cowboys fan. In the 1990s, the Cowboys became a dynasty. Three Super Bowls in four years. Emmett Smith, I remember reading an article about Emmett Smith. Emmett Smith wanted to be the best, he didn't want to be the best running back in Cowboys history. He wanted to be the best running back in NFL history. He strived to be the best. And when I read this article about Emmett Smith, it talked about how in the off-season, you know, season ended, guys went on vacations. Guys that, you know, guys talked about they're going to take their families to Disney World, and they were going to take a break, and they were going to step away. Not Emmett Smith. Emmett Smith, the day the season ended, began training season. And he trained all the way up until the next season started. He stayed constant, doing the things he needed to do to prepare for the coming season. Emmett Smith played from, he started his career in 1990, but in 1991, only one year, one year after his rookie year, from 91 to 2001, he had 11 consecutive seasons of 1,000 yards or more rushing. In 1990, he fell just 63 yards short of that mark, and in 2002, on the other end, he fell just 25 yards short, or he would have had 13 consecutive 1,000-yard rushing seasons. So, no person in NFL history has ever rushed for 11, had 11,000-yard seasons in a row. Emmett Smith appeared in 226 regular season games and 17 playoff games in his 15-year Hall of Fame career. He missed just five games through the first 11 seasons, and two of those were over contract dispute. In other words, in his first 11 seasons, he missed three games due to injury. As the NFL's all-time rushing leader, No running back in history has rushed for as many yards as Emmett Smith. He has 18,355 yards rushing. He won three Super Bowls and was the MVP of Super Bowl XXVIII. When we read 1 Corinthians 9, verses 24 and 25, it says, He had to get his body trimmed, his weight under control. He had to build up his muscles, his lungs, his reflexes, his endurance. He restricted his diet and he denied himself. He started a program of strenuous physical exercise. Can we do any less? How can we hope to win if we do not put ourselves into a disciplined program of daily preparation for usefulness to the Lord? We have the opportunity to live our lives to the glory of God and to give Him our best. So run that ye may obtain that honor. Be the best at whatever God has called you to do. Be the best. Emmett Smith desired an earthly prize. We, however, as Christians, we are running our race to obtain an incorruptible crown, an eternal prize. We are seeking eternal rewards. Our eyes should not be on our life here, but on the life to come, and on the judgment seat of Christ, where we will be judged for our works, or rather, for our race that we are running as believers. 2 Corinthians 5.10 says, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Are you prepared to be judged for your race? Are you running your race well? Are you well-trained and disciplined? So far this morning, we have looked at temperance explained. Now let's look at our second point, temperance experienced. Temperance experienced. And we're going to stay on that line of discipline. It starts with a disciplined life. A disciplined life. We want to experience temperance, we have to have a disciplined life. Continuing in 1 Corinthians 9, verses 26 and 27, it says, I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beateth the air, but keep under my body and bring it into subjection. lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." Notice here that Paul, who goes from running a race, he's talking about it, he starts, I therefore shall run, not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. He rolls from running to pugilism, to boxing. Talks about, you know, I'm not one that is just beating against the air. I'm not that way. I'm bringing my body into subjection. Here the emphasis is staying disciplined, bringing our bodies into subjection, keeping them fit and prepared to run the race to the best of our ability. That's what we should all be striving for. Why? So we do not disqualify ourselves from the race. The word castaway is derived from the Greek word adokimos, and gives the idea of being unqualified or disqualified. Jesus is our judge, and if we are unqualified to run in the race, He'll make that call. If we are qualified, but we do something to disqualify ourselves, He will yank us out of the race. Rest assured. Our desire should be to make sure we are qualified to run the race by preparing through study, prayer, reading, and witnessing all for the glory of God. Don't do anything to disqualify yourself from the race. Stay the course, stay disciplined, walk in the Spirit. Why? Because the flesh fights the Spirit. We need to walk in the Spirit because the flesh is continually fighting with the Spirit. Galatians 5, 17, For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. Remember, again, when we look back on Galatians 5, we began up here talking about the lust of the flesh, right? And how it battles with the Spirit. And the idea is we want to walk in the Spirit, but the flesh is always battling. It's always battling. When we walk in the flesh, we produce the fruit of the flesh. Remember, look at verses 19. What is the fruit of the flesh? Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like. So the idea here is, when we did that, remember I pointed out, there's nine fruits of the Spirit. I believe there's 17, so almost double fruit of the flesh, or works of the flesh. We're under constant battle. It's in combat. When we walk in the flesh, we produce the fruit of the flesh. But you know what? We can take comfort in knowing that the flesh has been defeated through Calvary. The flesh has been defeated through Calvary. We can have victory when we trust in Jesus Christ. Remember how I told you, putting your faith in Jesus Christ at justification, that moment that you ask Jesus to come into your heart, you've trusted Him as your Lord and Savior, you are immediately saved by the Savior. It's justified, not sinned, right? Because Jesus' righteousness is now imputed on you. It's an atonement, a covering. Prior to that, we have Adam's sin is really our atonement. We are covered in sin because of Adam and the fall. But when Jesus comes along, through the blood, through the precious shed blood, we are washed. We are made white as snow. And it's a covering. It's a white covering. It's a clear covering. And it's atoned for. And so we have victory over that. And so at salvation, we are saved from the penalty of sin. What is the penalty of sin? Death. Eternal separation from Jesus Christ, from God the Father, from the Holy Spirit for all of eternity. But when we trust Jesus, we are now saved from that penalty. We now have eternal life with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Remember? What we see here is now, when we get saved, we enter into sanctification. Sanctification. And Jesus gives us the victory here as well. So, justification saves us from the penalty of sin. Sanctification, our daily walk with the Lord, saves us from the power of sin. It saves us from the power of sin. Look at Romans 6, 11-16. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. See, when you get saved, there's a reckoning, right? It's reckoned. You are now dead to sin and alive in Christ. He continues, "...let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you. For ye are not under the law, but under grace." What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid, know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness." So what do we see here is when we get saved, we're saved. We're saved. We're going to heaven, you know, is that justified, not sin? But as we continue, as we go down the road of sanctification, we run into a crossroads. What are we going to do? Are we going to go to the left here and choose to walk in the world, to obey, to choose sin? and allow sin to rule and reign in our life? Or are we going to go down the right path of righteousness, choosing to walk with our Lord, choosing to walk in the Spirit? Or are we going to walk in the flesh? And that's what it boils down to is you can't do both. So many people walk that tightrope, and you can do it for so long. But at some point, you have to make a decision. Am I going to continue in the flesh, or am I going to continue to walk in the Spirit? We have the power. Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. We have that power. We have the ability to choose, but we have to use self-control. But this road looks a lot more fun. It really does. I'm really young. I've got a lot of time left in my life. When I'm older, I'll switch over here. I'll change paths later. We live in a world today where the preaching from the Bible, it's that idea that people come in as you are, but leave as you were. It's okay. Sin is covered under the grace. You can do whatever you want. Live however you want. It's okay. It's all covered under the blood of Jesus. Or they don't even want to use blood. They just use grace. It's a hyper-grace teaching in churches today. It's just so we can justify the sins that we want to live in. We know what we're doing is wrong. It's written on our hearts, right? It's written in our DNA. We know what we're doing is wrong, but we just like it, so we're going to continue to do it. That's not temperance. That's not self-control. So we need to have a disciplined life. We need to walk in the Spirit, but we also need a disciplined mind. We need to be mindful about what we think, right? We need to be mindful about what we think. The problem is the mind is not full. In fact, most minds today are pretty empty. I like what Dr. Goetsch noted in his book, What's on Your Mind? He states, our culture loves being amused, but does little musing. By nature, we are lazy mentally and desire that someone else does the thinking for us. Our entertainment certainly bears witness to that fact. We look at the world today. Everybody's about video games and television and movies and sports. It's all about entertainment. And we don't spend any time reading. We don't spend any time in the Word of God. We don't spend any time reading books that will help us, you know, that shows there is actually any brain activity left up here. 2 Corinthians 10.5 says, "...casting down imaginations in every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." Casting down those imaginations, those dreams. You know what? We allow a lot of things through the movies we watch, and maybe even some of the filthy things we read, and the music we listen to, and the things that we do, it puts images in our heads. And he's saying here, cast down every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. What do you know about your God? Oh, my God is holy. What were you watching? You think He'd be okay with that? What was that you were just looking at on your phone? You think God would be alright with that? Is that okay? God desires to change our way of thinking, which in turn will affect our behavior, right? Really, honestly, the way we think directs our behavior and what we do. How we behave then is a product of the way we think. If we think biblically, we live biblically. If we think worldly, we'll live worldly. Romans 12, 2, "...and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Right? Well, how do you renew your mind? You better be in the Word. If you want anything, you want to know what pleases God. Well, I just don't know how to please God. Well, read your Bible. It tells you how to please God. It tells you what doesn't please Him too. You can walk in the Spirit because we have directions on how to do it right in our fingertips. We must be careful what we allow into our minds. When we are in the Word of God, it will transform us and renew our minds so as to have the mind of Christ. I wanted to share with you an illustration here from Dr. Goetsch's book. Again, it's that What's on Your Mind. If you've ever read it, it's a great one. He talks about how 10,000 thoughts go through our mind in a day. 10,000 thoughts. And not all of them are good. And so, but he touches here on this illustration. It says, years ago, I was privileged to speak at a summer camp for teenagers with Dr. Ed Nelson, longtime pastor and educator. In one of his messages, he told how he and his wife were walking down the street to a restaurant in Denver, Colorado one day, when they spotted the headline of the newspaper in the vending machine. The headline read, Lucy Dies. Dr. Nelson looked at his wife and said, who's Lucy? She didn't know. She didn't know either. And so upon sitting down to eat, they asked their waitress who Lucy was. She said, Lucille Ball from I Love Lucy. Dr. Nelson and his wife looked at each other and shrugged. Neither of them had ever heard of Lucille Ball or her famous television program. I thought to myself, that's impossible. Everybody in that era had heard of I Love Lucy. but not the Nelsons. He went on to explain that he and his wife had never watched a single moment of television in their entire lives up to that point. I was stunned. Not even the news? The World Series? The Super Bowl? Nothing? As I contemplated that later, I thought, what have they missed? The answer, not much. Their minds and hearts were not cluttered with non-essential things, not to mention the countless temptations to sin that they were never exposed to either. Their lifetime of ministry was testimony to their minds being filled with the things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy. We have the same choice. You know, I'm not advocating, I'm not saying, man, everybody go home and throw your TVs in the trash can and, you know, dump your computers and, you know, let's go back to flip phones. I'm not saying that. But we can control what we allow our eyes to see, what we allow to go into our ears. And we need to be mindful of it. There's a lot of things out there that we don't really need to be wasting our time on. So, to this point we have seen temperance explained through discretion and discipline. We've also looked at temperance experienced through disciplined life and a disciplined mind. Now let us consider our final point. Temperance exemplified. Temperance exemplified. How can we develop temperance or self-control going forward? Understand we can't move forward if we're always looking back, right? So it starts by forgetting your past. Forget your past. Think about it, when you're running a race, and you're running down the track, you know, you're looking towards the finish line is where you should be looking. How many of you ever watched videos or seen something where somebody was, looked like they were just blowing everyone away, and they got so excited they looked back to see how far of a lead they had, and in the process of looking back, tripped, stumbled, and people passed them by, and they lost the race. And that's the idea here. We can't be looking back. We need to be looking forward. If you want to be able to produce the fruit of self-control, power of the Holy Spirit, you have to... Sorry, I got a little ahead of myself. So, you're running this race. When we focus on Jesus, we will have the victory. That's what we're supposed to be focusing. As believers, our focus is on Christ, keeping Him and the cross out in front of us, not looking back on the world and the things of our past. Philippians 3, verses 13 and 14 says, Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. We need to be looking forward, not looking back. How about considering that popular hymn, I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back. The world behind me, the cross before me. No turning back, no turning back. Forget your past. Don't look back. Keep your focus on Jesus. Reaching forth to those things which are before you. We also need to admit your weakness. Admit your weakness. If you want to be able to produce the fruit of self-control and the power of the Holy Spirit, you have to admit your weakness. And what is our greatest weakness? The flesh. The flesh is battling with the Spirit, right? Remember, the flesh battles with the Spirit. James 1, verses 14-16 says, But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. And when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Look, the temptations we run into when we fail, temptation isn't sin. It's when we show a lack of self-control and give in to that temptation that it becomes sin, right? And that's what he says here. When we're drawn away of our own lust and enticed, then when lust hath conceived, it's produced something. Now it's sin. We must not give in to our flesh. Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Next, we must believe God can bring change. Your beliefs control your behavior. We talked about that earlier, right? Your beliefs control your behavior. 2 Corinthians 5.17 says, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things become new. Understand. You know, it says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, if you've trusted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, if you trusted Jesus as your Lord and Savior 10 years ago and your life hasn't changed one inkling. You have a problem. The Bible makes it very clear. Jesus changes us. We lived a life of sin. We were walking in the flesh prior to salvation. We should be walking in the Spirit now. We should be doing things that bring honor and glory to God, not honor and glory to Jim Patzer. How do we accomplish that? Philippians 4.13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. If you're saved, Better, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Jesus Christ can help us to accomplish these things. The next thing I want you to see is we need to become accountable. Become accountable. You know, we are not to forsake ourselves, the gathering of ourselves together as the church, right? We are to come together as a church. We are coming here, we are here to worship God. We are here, first and foremost, to worship our God and to praise His name for what He's done for us. But that's not all the church is. We can come together and grow together spiritually. And this is a big part here. We become accountable to one another. Are you struggling with sin? Is there something in your life that you're struggling with that you need help with? Well, you've got a church family who will be behind you that will help you. Ecclesiastes 4.12 says, And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken. There's power in numbers. If you're struggling, stop fighting it on your own. There's a church family who will get behind you, who will help you. You can grab one other brother. That's good. But the more you can get, a three-fold cord is not easily broken, but imagine what many, many more people, when you think of the power in numbers, that idea, We can have power. We can hold each other accountable. Are you checking with people? How's your Bible reading been this week? Have you been doing your devotions? Do Bible studies together. Tammy's doing a ladies Bible study on Saturdays here at 11 o'clock. Her and a bunch of ladies, they're going through the continued discipleship books together. And they're having a good time at it. And they're growing. They're coming together, working together, and so that's the idea. We need to become accountable to one another. And then the next thing is we need to avoid temptation, right? Avoid temptation. Let's face it, the flesh, in the flesh, we all want to take the path of least resistance, right? We all want the path of least resistance. We look for easy answers to tough questions. Always looking for easy answers to tough questions. I remember an episode of Hee Haw. I don't know if any of you remember the TV show Hee Haw. I used to watch that when I was a kid. And there was a guy on there, Doc Campbell. And he was confronted by one of his patients who came to him and said, Doc, I broke my arm in two places. And the doc looked at him and replied, well, then stay away from those places. Right? He gave him the easy answer. No exam, no nothing there. We're not going to dig into this. And that's the idea. We like the idea of easy answers, you know, and we want things the easy way. I heard the quote here, when you flee temptation, be sure you don't leave a forwarding address. Right? Ephesians 4.26-26 says, Be angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Neither give place to the devil. Don't give him opportunities to be able to bring temptation into your life. He'll do it. He did it to Jesus three times. Jesus responded with Scripture. Know your Scripture so when you are tempted, you can battle against it. You can beat the temptation. If you don't want rotten apples, stay out of the devil's orchard. You know, 1 Corinthians 15.33, be not deceived, evil communication corrupts good manners. The word communication means companionship. The idea is that bad company corrupts good behavior. So that is why we should avoid friends and places that are likely to draw us into temptation. We see it so often. Young kids think, oh, I'm going to hang out with these unsaved kids over here because I want to reach them for the gospel. And what happens is he doesn't reach them, they reach him. We need to be careful. It doesn't mean you can't have unsaved friends, because you do want to reach them. Just don't let that be the primary occupation of your time, because if it is, you will be drawn back into the world. You really will. That's why we come together as a church. We hold each other accountable. And we hang out with our church family as well, so that we can be strengthened. Iron sharpeneth iron. so that we can have those moments of time with our unsaved friends and not have to worry about being pulled back into the world. But if you make the majority of your time hanging out with unsaved people, you know, I'm an alcoholic, but I got saved and I'm going to go sit in the bar and reach those guys with the gospel. Before you know it, you're throwing down a few right with them. We need to be careful that we don't allow ourselves to be pulled back into the world. We also need to depend on God's power. Depend on God's power. Relations 5, 60-17, we use this numerous times. This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Why? For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, making us do the things that we shouldn't be doing, right? So, we need to walk in the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit consists of not only trying, but trusting. Right? It's not like I'm going to try to walk in the Spirit. No, I'm going to trust God. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. We just talked about that, right? Philippians 2, verse 13 says, For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do His good pleasure. It's God that worketh in you. To God be the glory. When you have victory over temptation, it shouldn't be, look what I did. It should be, thank You, Lord. for giving me the victory. Think about it. Why do you think we see things and we learn things from the Old Testament? Gideon got the victory with 300 men, right? Wrong! God got the victory with Gideon and 300 men. He used them, but God got the victory. The whole purpose of whittling His army down to 300 men was to show Israel, you're not doing this, God is. And we need to understand, we are not going to walk in the Spirit without the Holy Spirit. We are not going to do it in our own power. You are not going to practice self-control and walk in temperance without the Holy Spirit. You need to walk in the Spirit. Today we have explained that self-control requires both discretion and discipline. We also looked at temperance experience through disciplined life and a disciplined mind. And if we do not discipline our lives and our minds to the Word of God, we will never be able to walk in temperance or in self-control. And finally, we looked at self-control exemplified. How can we develop self-control going forward? We don't look back. at our past, we admit our weaknesses, believe God can bring change, be accountable, avoid temptation, and depend on God's power. All this requires that we walk in the Spirit, not the flesh. Only then will we be able to walk in temperance. And I want to leave you with one last quote. Pastor Paul Chappell, it should be in your hand there, said, The secret to self-control is Christ's control. By walking in the Spirit's control, we can experience temperance and exemplify it to those around us. So at this time, with every head bowed, every eye closed, if you'd all please stand. If you're able to stand, please stand. Every head bowed, every eye closed, no looking around. I want to offer a moment of invitation.