you. Giving honor to God, Pastor Rogers, and my Nebethlehem family. Webster Dictionary defines temperance as moderation in action or resistance, moderation in the indulgence of appetites or passions, or moderation in or absence from the use of alcohol beverages. The biblical meaning is almost the same, except That is the spirit and power ability to control appetite, emotion, and attitude. It's the capacity to resist sin. It's the ability to turn down opportunities for excess of good things. It's the power of God to do what we know we should do. Temperance that they give from God. God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind. 2 Timothy 1-7. Galatians 5, 22 and 23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control against such things that is no law. Temperance is something that we must work at or achieve through the Holy Spirit. The Christian life demands diligence and pursuing moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, godliness, brotherly kindness, and selfish love. 2 Peter 1, 5, and 6. And beside this, given all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness. Temperance shall be displayed in the life of all Christians. Does the world make it difficult for us to achieve this sometime? Of course. But we must control our action, thoughts, and feelings so that we are able to display what the Holy Spirit has deposited in us. We must control the inner man, the flesh, so that the world might see Jesus Christ through us. Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but one who has haste, temper, exalts flaw. Have you ever gone to McDonald's for food and get home to find you either have the wrong order or not all the items that you ordered? Or to Walmart and experience their cashier with a nasty attitude? Or maybe to Belts or Macy's and seeing their associates treat you like they are doing you a favor by checking you out. Sometimes our first instinct is to let them have a little piece of our mind or to change our spirit to match their spirit. Most likely, we all have had this experience. However, change 119. Remind us that everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. Titus 3.2 says, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and show perfect courtesy toward all people. Let us examine ways we can exhibit temperance, self-control in our daily life. We must bring these things under Christ's control. We must control one of our biggest weapons, the tongue. Our tongues need to always be under the Holy Spirit. We should be slow to speak. Proverbs 14, 33 says, wisdom resided in the heart of him that hath understanding, but that which is in the midst of fools is made known. Proverbs 29, 11 say, fools give vent to their anger, but the wise come in the end. We must control our thoughts, bring them under the control of the word of God and direction of the Holy Spirit of God every second, every minute, every hour. In other words, always. Second Corinthians 4 and 5 says, for the weapon of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, and the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imagination, and every higher thing that exalteth God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. We must control our thirst, which is our passion and our desires. No one is without passion and desires, such as maybe sports, television, gambling, shopping, or dating. However, we must examine them to determine if they align with the Holy Spirit. Romans 13, 13, 14 say, let us walk honestly in the day not in rioting and drunkenness, not in shaming and wantonness, not in strife or envy, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and making no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust they are. We must control our temper or our anger. The only reason we are not in control of our anger is because we have not allowed or do not want Christ to take full control. But we know that if we give it over to him, we would be unable to get our little worldly, freshly sought after revenge. Proverbs 16, 32 says, he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty. And he that ruleth his spirit, then he that taketh a city Proverbs 25, 28. He that has no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls. In closing, let us always be mindful of the spirit of the fruit called tempers. Although it is the last fruit listed, it's just as important as the first. The fruits begin with love and end with temperance or self-control. We do not sin because of our ignorance, but because we are not willing to make the necessary sacrifice to control ourselves, just as Adam and Eve did in the garden in Genesis.