Months and months ago, when God laid on my heart to preach this series through the fruit of the Spirit, and as I was preparing for this series, I ran across a board game that's called the Little Angels and the Fruit of the Spirit. And it's for ages three to six, two to four players, no reading required. That's always good. Let's don't challenge our kids. But it says on the back, the little angels fruit of the spirit game is a fun, easy Bible game for young children to play as players move their little angels along the brightly colored path. It's kind of like the game Candyland, if you remember that game. They will be introduced to the name and meaning of the nine fruit of the spirit from Galatians and the board here that you see for the fruit of the spirit. Little angels game again, kind of like Candyland. You just take your little angels around the board and learn all the fruits. Of the spirit, it did have two things of note. One was a warning that the plastic inside could smother a child. And it says on the front also a warning that the small pieces could choke your child. So outside of small children, smothering and choking, it's great family fun. You know, things like this on one side can be great teaching tools, and sometimes I think it's just a cheesy way that someone makes a buck off of Christians. But anyway, What I've discovered in the past 10 weeks in studying the fruit of the spirit is, number one, sorry, we're not a bunch of little angels. You know what we are? We are sinners saved by grace of an amazing, loving God. I've discovered the last 10 weeks that the fruit of the spirit is definitely not a game. It's life. It's a life well lived for God's glory. It's the life of Jesus shining out of us that advances the gospel to all people. And in this game, you can see up here only one person wins. I'm glad that through Jesus and because of the fruit of the spirit filled life, every single believer can win in our families, in our ministries, in our communities and in our churches. Now, the last. Fruit of the Spirit flavor we're studying today is way up here near the end and it's self control and the self control picture here on the game. There is a green bench and a paintbrush with green paint on it. And it says, do not touch wet paint. And the little angel is put her finger to her little mouth and she's having such a struggle. Does she have the self control to touch the bench or not touch the bench? Well, Man, I wish that the self-control issues that we struggle with was as easy as touching wet paint or not, but we all know it's much deeper than that. We're going to talk about the flavor of self-control in the fruit of the spirit, which is not a game. One more time, this series has been called Fruit Gushers. I actually contacted the maker of Fruit Gushers to see if they would give me like a deal to give me like several thousand packets of this on the last day of the series. I could give you all one and they wanted way too much money. I love you all, but not that much. So they wanted way too much money. So anyway. Fruit gushers, because we've studied the fruit of the spirit and the little fruity, chewy candies been around for twenty five years. You bite into them, fruit juice squirts out of them. And that's a very simplistic picture of a deep, deep truth of who we are. The life of Jesus fruit is in us, and when we interact with our neighbors in our schools, people where we work. The life of Jesus should just gush out of us. How does it gush out of it? By handing someone an invite card. It's beyond that. It's by loving people and being joyful and being kind and goodness. The life of Jesus coming out of us, because remember what we said in Galatians five, we need to find in your Bible. We're talking about this entire series, the authentic Christian life is a fruit of the spirit filled life. This is the life Jesus has for us and the life he wants from us. God wants for you in your life. Love, joy, peace, et cetera. God wants from you and from me to express to others his life through us. Love, joy, peace, kindness, because again, it's God wants us to experience on the inside and express on the outside. So for 10 weeks, we've camped on these two verses from Galatians 5, 22 through 23. I realize that everyone cannot see this screen, but everyone can see that screen. Would you read this? Let's read this one final time together, if you would, please. It says, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control against such there is no law. Thank you. The fruit of the spirit, the fruit. of the Spirit, that life of Jesus in us showing out of us, because when I came to Christ, He gave me His Holy Spirit. And that Holy Spirit's power and that Holy Spirit's presence is the only thing that can produce this. This is supernatural. We may once in a while in our humanity be able to do some of these, but to sustain them in a life inside and outside of us, we can't do this through hard work. It's surrender to the Holy Spirit. And remember, not not we got a bunch of fruit up here, but this is one fruit, one fruit and nine flavors. And these nine flavors are to be always all nine in every Christian and every church. We don't do that perfectly, but as we grow in our relationship with the Holy Spirit, that fruit ripens where we become more loving and more joyful and more acts of kindness as we grow in Christ. Remember that this is this is who we are and this is what we do. We don't do it perfectly. But this is our witness. This entire series has been about how we get out the gospel. This is how we represent Jesus to people. He brings into our life one on one. If we go to the unreached people in the nations, which we're doing as a church, these things should be shining out of us as we interact with people. And right here in our own world every day, this entire series is the very heart of what it means to be on mission for Christ. Because this is how we represent Jesus in the world. And the very last one is this thing called self-control. And let's just spend our time there. And I've got three lessons for living. I want to share with you this morning about this thing called self-control. Here's the first one. OK, are you ready? If you are, say Amen. All right. Here we go. Self-control for self-control. We must give up control. Sounds kind of weird to have self-control. We must give up control. Self-control does not sound very inspirational. I mean, to study self-control. Dr. Neely talked about how self-control does not seem very inspirational. He said, just imagine if you put the fruit of the spirit into Christmas cards. In a Christmas card, you could say, God grant you love this Christmas. May God grant you joy this Christmas. May God grant you peace this Christmas. May God grant you self-control this Christmas. I mean, we're not going to put that on. It's probably the one we need the most, though, to be honest with you at Christmas. But we're not going to put that in a Christmas card because it doesn't seem very inspirational. But folks, this is radical. This is really needed in real life. It is listed last of the flavors, but it's not least. This is the very capstone. You see, if you don't have self-control, there won't be love. If you don't have self-control, there won't be kindness. If you don't have self-control, there won't be goodness. This is a package deal. It's listed last, but it's not the least of the flavors. Matter of fact, all the other eight flavors flow through the capstone of self-control. Think of the word self-control that implies something self-control implies the opposite out of control. If there was an out of control, you wouldn't have to have self-control. And we know something about life. When you're out of control, when something's out of control, it causes trouble. You know what cracks me up about golf? There are actually some people, some players who are so good they can control their golf shots. They can control the ball. They can hit the ball in such a way to draw it or to slice it or to put spin on it. So when it hits the green, it comes backwards. They can control what the ball does. That amazes me. Me, when I play golf, number one, if I get the ball in the air and number two, if it goes past the ladies tee box, it's a victory for me. OK, my golf ball is out of control. My golf ball is all over the place and you have no idea and I have no idea where it's going to go. And because my golf ball is out of control when I play golf, it affects my score and it affects other people on the course because I'm always yelling for. See, when you're out of control, trouble comes. Well, think about think about with me the unchecked inner sinful cravings. of humanity. That's out of control and devastates marriages and devastates families and devastates ministries in churches. We see in our world, it's a highlight on the nightly news. There are great athletes who have incredible control in their sport. There are politicians who have wisdom and control in the areas that they govern. There are business leaders who have incredible control as they give leadership to multi-million dollar industries. There are passionate generals who have great control over the military, but we see how they fall flat on their face because they have no personal self-control. So they have an affair, so they cheat, so they lie, so there's plagiarism. Amazing how people can have such control over an area in their life, but no self-control. And this lack of self-control, it covers the human calendar from end to end. You go to the first days of mankind. How about in the garden, Adam and Eve lacking self-control with the forbidden fruit, and all it brought about was the fall of the entire human race? How about the other end of the calendar? You know, the Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter 3 that at the end, in the end days, people will lack self-control. And for us as believers, those of us who know Christ, we know that we can still have this self-control struggle. In Luke chapter 9, verse 23, Jesus told us as disciples, very important. He said to be my disciple, you must deny yourself. Think about what it means to deny ourself. That teaches me that we as believers have desires that we either will deny or they will dominate us. If we don't deny those inner cravings, if we don't deny those sensual spirit or sinful appetites, if we don't, Jesus said, you've got to deny yourselves. If we don't deny them, they will dominate us. They will become the dictator of our lives. I mean, the Bible doesn't pull any punches. It even shows us those areas of our life, those desires, those inner cravings that want to dominate our lives if we don't have self-control. For all that is in the world in the world here is speaking of this organized system of Satan that's against God. For all that is in the world. First, it lists the lust of the flesh. This has a very heavy sexual connotation that all sexual sin of polygamy, homosexuality, adultery, fornication and perversion like pornography is the lust of the flesh. It wants to dominate our lives. And it even goes beyond that to any unhealthy craving for pleasure. It can be food. It can be a hobby. That's the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes. This speaks of coveting the things of the world. This is the materialism American dream rat race where we just want more, more, more buying and spending out of control and the pride of life. This speaks of of wanting the applause. This speaks of being proud of being self-absorbed, where everything's always about us. If we do something for someone else, we make it about us. If we go through a hard time, that's even a moment of pride because we want everyone to know it's all about us. These, Jesus said, deny ourselves. We have desires and the lust of the flesh, desires and the lust of the eyes, desires and the pride of life. If these things are not denied, are not resisted, they will become our dictator in our lives. They will dominate our lives. The inner cravings, even as believers, I mean, we're saved in Jesus, but we still fight the war with the old flesh. These sinful inner cravings in our lives, believers, are a three hundred and sixty five day a year vacation, less ruthless battle that we face. And different people. have different struggles with different areas of self-control. It amazes me in the life of the church how a believer will look at someone else's life and see an area that they lack self-control in. And that believer will even wonder, how in the world can they lack self-control in that area? And many times we're blind and deceived to the lack of self-control in our own lives. Self-control. Our self-control struggle concerns things that are bad, that's obvious, but it also concerns things that are good. But we take to harmful excess. There are things in life that are bad. There are desires that are bad and they can dominate our lives. There are things in life that are good. They're really good things. But if we take them to a harmful excess, they become bad things and they dominate our lives. The self-control struggle. I mean, I just made a list here and you could add things. Here are some of the self-control struggles we all have. Food. Anger. Worry how we use our time, not sleeping, talking, gossip, lying. We struggle with the self-control of being lazy. So we're lazy or the exact opposite. We can struggle with self-control and being a workaholic, drugs and alcohol, pornography and lust, the self-control and worldliness. The self-control in buying and selling materialism, the self-control in what we watch, the self-control in where we go, the self-control in our thought life. I could go on and on and on. This last of the little flavors of the fruit of the Spirit that doesn't seem very inspirational. It is either a dictator that will dominate our lives, but it's a dictator that you and I must deny and defy. And I've got great news for you in Jesus. We can. We can have self-control in these areas of our lives, that word in Galatians 5 self-control, here's what it means. It literally means self-control in Galatians 5 literally means a strong grip. Have you ever heard the saying, get a grip? It's kind of where it comes from. It's saying, get a strong grip on your life, get a get a strong grip. on who you are and what you do. And here is my definition that I came up with what this word self-control means, yielding to God's power to rule your life so that your heart, who we are, inhabits what we do, are not driven or dominated by sinful indulgences. That's an action or sinful impulses. That's a reaction. Once again, getting a strong grip on our lives, yielding to God's power to rule your life, to rule my life so that our hearts and habits are not driven or dominated by sinful indulgences or impulses. Now, the only thing bad about this word is this word self can throw us off. It can mislead us. We can think that self-control means self. That self has to do it, that self has to grit their teeth and pull themselves up by the bootstraps. Hear me, self-control does not happen through willpower. It only happens through the Holy Spirit's power. Like all the fruit of the spirit, self-control only comes by the spirit's control. This any of those things I listed. Food, anger, buying, spending, worry, time, talking, laziness, workaholic, drugs, alcohol, pornography, lust, worldliness, on and on and on. All those things. We cannot gain victory through our willpower. It takes the Holy Spirit's power. And when you and I surrender those things to the Holy Spirit, two things will happen. We'll be in harmony with Scripture and glorify God as we do things we do not want to do. I don't want to exercise, but you know what? By the Holy Spirit self-control, I can do it. I really don't want to study for that final, but by the Holy Spirit self-control, we can do it. Think of all the things that we do that we do things that we don't really want to do. And the exact opposite, when the Holy Spirit gives us self-control, the fruit of self-control, we do not things we do want to do. We may want to blow up in anger, but we're restrained. We don't have to eat the entire box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Don't have to look at the opposite sex and lust. Chuck Swindoll said this about when self-control through the spirits control, it's not our willpower, it's his power. As for the tongue, we exercise verbal restraint when our diet is concerned, we exercise restraint at the dinner table and leave the ice cream in the freezer pertaining to temper. We exercise emotional restraint. As it relates to our thoughts, we exercise mental restraint in terms of sexual lust. We exercise moral restraint. All of us have areas that tempt us more than others. So we must give ourselves over to the spirit's authority. He steps in and empowers us to hold back before we take steps to satisfy our impulse of our desire. When I was. about to turn 16, I could not wait to get my driver's license. But there was one thing I dreaded the most that I practiced the most, and it's called parallel parking. Even today, I still dread it. I want to show you a video how times have changed. There's no audio in this video, but I want to show you a video of what can happen today. Have you heard, according to Extreme Tech, have you heard of cars with fully assisted parking aid? They parallel park themselves. Why wasn't that around when I was 16? They use electronic sensors. Here's what it says to scan for an opening in a parking space that speed as high as almost 20 miles an hour. When the car finds a suitable spot, it alerts the driver who can stay in the car. Some models you even get out of the car and stand on the sidewalk with a remote control. The car then backs itself into the parking space. The car would automatically switch gears, accelerate, steer and brake. The drivers function. You just keep your hand on the button and it parks itself. Look at his hands. The car's doing it. Now, I'm just telling you, if there was a new Mercedes in the front and a new BMW in the back, I don't know if I could just push a button and say, here we go in order for that to work. In order for that to work simple, I must be willing to give up control and take my hands off the steering wheel or to never work. That's how life works. That's how the fruit of the spirit works, because every day, believers, we make the control choice. Who's going to have their hands on the steering wheel? Who's going to steer our thoughts? Who's going to steer our emotions? Who's going to steer our attitudes and our actions? Believers, we fill our daily lives with so much stress and worry, trying to control things that we cannot control. I know it sounds almost as simple as a little kid's game. But we've got to take our hands off the wheel. And we've got to give the Lord control. Surrender, it's the hardest thing to do. Because we're just going to keep gritting our teeth and trying as hard as we can. For self-control, we do not need more of the Holy Spirit, we need to give more of ourselves to the Holy Spirit. Through surrender, number two. For self-control, we must let go. It's what we've just talked about. And we must know that God is in control. It's very important. Why would we give God control of the will if we don't think he's in control? Obviously, if we think we've got to keep our hands on the wheel, it really is a statement of our faith, because we think either God doesn't care enough about me to do it or God's not big enough to do it. But what's great in the Bible is that self-control is an attribute of God. Self-control is exemplified in the life of Jesus and self-control is the expectation of every believer. A matter of fact, if we want to measure how we're growing in our maturity in our lives, The level of self-control we have is a great gauge. You know, God, God is is in control. I know this fallen world we live in can be a frustrating mess. But believer, regardless of how much this world seems out of control, please know that God is completely independently, totally in 100 percent control all the time, governing this world and guiding our lives. The Bible says in Romans 8, 28, you might remember that passage of Scripture that teaches us that it's God. He causes all things to work to good. The Bible doesn't say all things are good, all things are not good, but he causes all things to work to good. The Bible says for those who love God and who are called according to his purpose, what that verse teaches us. Every moment, every molecule, every insignificant detail or small event of life, our God is on his throne in control for his purpose and his purpose in your life and my life is to make us more like Jesus. In Isaiah 14, 24, God said, as I have purposed, so it shall stand. Sure, we can be confused. We may not understand everything that's going on, but we trust in our Lord no matter what. He loves us and we know God is the only one who sees the eternal big picture of how everything's supposed to work out. We don't see that. Think about how Jesus, His life, exemplified self-control. Jesus was tempted in all ways like every one of us, yet the Bible said He was sinless. Jesus never said anything He shouldn't say. Jesus always did what was right. He never did anything that was wrong. He had such self-control as He trusted and obeyed the Father in everything and all things, even to the point of going to a cross. Now, think about what the Bible, the encouraging word it teaches us because of our God who is in control and his attribute is self-control because of our Lord and Savior Jesus, who's in control, because we have the spirit in us who produces the fruit of self-control. That's why the Bible says in Galatians 5 16. So I say live by the spirit. It's surrender to the spirit, live by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Philippians 2.13 says, For it is God who works. It's not our hard work. It's God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Romans 8.9 says, Believer, you, however, are not controlled by the sinful nature, but by the spirit and the spirit of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. And of course, Second Timothy 1.7 Believers, God has given us past tense when we receive the Holy Spirit, the moment we got saved, God has gave us a spirit, not a fear, but of power, of love and look, a self-control. Watchman, he said, God gave us a spirit of power towards our enemy, a spirit of love towards other people and a spirit of self-control, because it's what we need the most inside of us. So self-control means giving up control, self-control means letting go, knowing God is in control. And one more area I want to focus on for self-control. Number three, we must overcome temptation and practice discipline. We must overcome temptation and practice discipline. Self-control. is what allows us to resist and overcome temptation. Let me just speak about temptation briefly. In this world, believers, you and I cannot avoid temptation. But in Jesus, we can overcome temptation. Remember, temptation itself is not sin. Jesus was tempted and he was sinless. If we welcome the temptation, if we do not resist the temptation, then it becomes sin. The Bible clearly tells us the sources of temptation in our lives, of all the things we've talked about previously, good things and bad things, good things to excess and bad things. It tells us, first of all, the source of temptation is never God. God never tempts us with evil. The second thing the Bible teaches us is that the source of temptation is outside of us. Satan is given the title of the tempter and Satan works in this sinful world to tempt us. But it also teaches us the source of temptation is not only outside of us, it's inside of us, because once again, even as born again believers, we still have this internal struggle with the sinful cravings of our old flesh. And we will until we go to be with Jesus in heaven or he comes back to get us. That's why the Bible says you might remember in James 1, 13 and 14, let no one say when he is tempted. In other words, the Bible is telling us we're all going to be tempted. We're all going to have things that's going to take self-control for us to have victory, the spirit self-control. When I am tempted, I am tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. Verse 14 of James 1, but when each one is tempted, because we will be, we can't avoid it in this world, but we can overcome it in Christ. When each one is tempted, he is drawn away by his own desire and enticed. That word enticed teaches us that we don't fall into sin. It's our fault. That word enticed, as we've talked before, it's like fishing. The bait doesn't catch the fish. The bait entices the fish and the fish takes the bait. When we take the bait, of temptation because we lack self-control to resist and restrain ourselves. It's it's always our fault. I think about. And the thing about Samson, Samson was so powerful, he could choke out a lion. But he had no control, he couldn't resist temptation, and he was choked out by lust. Samson was so powerful. He defeated an entire army of warriors. But he had no control and couldn't resist temptation, and he was destroyed by one woman. I'm glad the Bible teaches us, though. First Corinthians 1013 teaches us the Lord is the way out of temptation. Second, Peter to nine teaches us the Lord knows how to deliver the godly from temptation. It's all connected to the fruit of the spirit. Jesus is our savior. And when we yield to his spirit, he will produce he will produce self-control to where we can resist and overcome the temptations in our lives. Those desires don't have to be our dictator. Those desires do not have to dominate us. We can have victory. But also there's discipline. Remember what we said for self-control, we must overcome temptation. We must practice discipline. You see, as with all the fruit of the spirit, especially when it comes to self-control, discipline takes dependency. It will never happen without me depending on God's power, surrendering to the Holy Spirit in me. But it also takes my discipline. Now, let's don't get confused here, because we said through this whole series, the fruit of the spirit is not our hard work. It's not self-effort, it's surrender. Here's a very important thing we need to realize. In God's power, we must practice the self-control the spirit provides. I cannot produce or provide self-control in my life. But when the Holy Spirit produces it in me by God's power, I then must practice what he produces. I must practice what the Holy Spirit produces. The Bible teaches as many verses we could look at. Second, Peter one, five and six says, for this very reason, also applying all diligence, in other words, saying, put into practice what God is doing in your life. In your faith, supply moral excellence and your moral excellence, knowledge and your knowledge, self-control and your self-control, perseverance and your perseverance, godliness. How do we how do we live this discipline life? How do we practice the self-control that the spirit provides? There's so many pictures in the Bible I could have spent time talking about where Paul talked about like their Olympics back in those days, how an athlete would buffet his body, would say no to certain things and yes to certain things. to win the victory. It's that kind of a picture. Again, we're not producing it. We can't we can't produce self-control. But when the Holy Spirit produces it, we must practice it. That's being disciplined. And that's what allows us to grow in our self-control. Here's how to practice self-control or discipline here. Here's as simple as I know to tell you and to tell myself to practice. How do we practice Christian discipline? We got to spend as much time as possible with God. And with God's people, the church. To practice the self-control the spirit produces. My discipline, I've got to have a prayer life. I've got to be a committed student of the word of God every day in my life. I've got to invest and infuse my life with church life. I've got to guard My closest associations and activities, I've got to yield my life. It's discipline. We practice what the Holy Spirit produces. Believers. You and I are not going to win every battle. I wish I could tell you from this point forward to Jesus comes back, you're going to have a perfect life in your thoughts, emotions, words and actions. There'll never be another time going forward that you won't have perfect discipline and self-control. There'll never be another time going forward that you will 100 percent till you die or Jesus comes back. You will resist every temptation. We will not win every battle. But you know what's great? The Holy Spirit produces the fruit of the Spirit filled life as we grow in Jesus each and every day. I am so glad that we can daily be increasing in our faith and decreasing in our failures. And when we do sin and when we do fall and fail, we absolutely should take it seriously and immediately confess it and repent it to our God. And when we do fail and when we do fall, don't stay down. That's what the enemy wants you to do. Go to the precious blood of Jesus who loves you and who loves me and confess it to Him. And believer, you keep your eyes on Jesus. You get up and you keep on going. You see, we've got to today give the Lord those areas of your life where you have weakness, and I've got to give him the areas of my life where we have weakness. And the key to victory is stop focusing on the problem. We've got to be honest about the weakness. We've got to be honest about the sin. We've got to realize it's there. You can focus so much on the problem. I can focus so much on the problem. That's all we think about. Focus on the person of Jesus and focus on the promise of God's word and allow the Holy Spirit to produce the discipline in you, the discipline in me to practice the self-control that the Holy Spirit produces. You know, the Bible is clear, there is no discipleship without discipline. Charles Stanley summed it up in three simple words. Discipline determines destiny. The discipline we practice today through the Holy Spirit self-control that he produces, it's going to go a long way to determine the success of our families, our jobs, our ministries, our missions into the future. Of course, all this all this goes back this entire series, what I read earlier in Romans, that if we don't have the spirit, we're not of God. We can't have the fruit of the spirit until we have the Holy Spirit. And we don't have the Holy Spirit until we have salvation in Christ and self-control and love and joy and peace. Long suffering and on and on and on, all those can only come about through the Holy Spirit, and we have got to have salvation in Jesus. God loves you so much. But we've got to turn from our man centered pride. And in God centered humility. We've got to realize from head to toe, we are sinners separated from the holy God of the universe. We can do nothing. or be nothing to make God put a little gold star by our sweet little angel names, and we just flood around heaven one of these days. Jesus brutally in a bloody cross died radically to pay for your sins and my sins. And he was buried and he arose and only through coming to Jesus, only through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Romans 5, 8, God demonstrated his love. And while we were sinners, Christ died for us and he arose from the grave and he's alive today. Self-control and love and joy and peace and all those things your heart craves in this world needs. The first step is to come to Jesus as your savior. And how I pray if you've never done that, you will. do that today. I read a story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about a new app for our smartphones. The app is called Self-Control. I've got a picture of what the app looks like if you download it to your phone or to your tablet. The app is called Self-Control. Here's here's how here's the whole thing behind this app called Self-Control, according to St. Louis Post-Dispatch. You and I at home, at work. We have things every day we need to do. We have things every day we want to do. We know we got to get these things done. But there sits that phone. And on that phone, there's emails. And there's Twitter and there's Instagram. And there's got to be some amazing videos of the first day of school for our friends, and there's all those wonderful selfies. So we know we've got to do all these things, so we'll just sneak a peek at our phone and 20 minutes later, we're still peaking. The app self-control, what allows you to do is to block your own access to your own websites. When you have the self-control app, the first thing you do is put in a time, say three hours, and then you list Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, whatever. You list all those sites that you don't want to see and you hit go and it starts the countdown and you cannot get to those sites. You can even turn off your phone and restart it. You cannot get to those sites until the countdown clock hit zero. So if you've got self. Control issues with your smartphone, you just can't seem to set it down. You're at work and it's just, you know, you spend time doing that. The self-control app is for you. The self-control life app is for all of us. All of us, all of us need self-control. And I'm so glad that God is offering a gift of grace called self-control through his spirit. It's there. If you've never come to Jesus, come to Jesus, if you've come to Jesus, surrender, apply it to your life and let's keep growing as food, as fruit gushers, fruit gushers of love and joy and peace through all the flavors, all the way to self-control for the glory of God and the advancement Of the gospel. You can defy the dictator this morning, what has been dominating your life does not have to dominate your life. Because Jesus is master, he can master it all. Father, we love you. And Lord, one little word. Hyphen self-control, the very last one that you say what it means to live an authentic Christian life. Wow, God, how down to earth and practical. Is this. God, I know as believers, all of us would say, man, I know. There are areas of my life I sure could use more self-control. And God, thank you for the victory and the exciting encouragement that starting today, going forward. Lord, we can keep growing and the fruit of the Spirit can keep ripening in our lives. God, help us to spend as much time with you as possible and as much time with your people, the church as possible, prayer and word and church life and activities and ministries. And God, thank you that you produce self-control and even in your power, we can practice what you produce. God, thank you that in your power we can restrain verbal, sensual, material, thoughts, words, anger. You'll step in and empower us to have restraint and not dive into that indulgence and not have that impulse, have the impulse to have victory over it. And Lord, thank you for your grace. We do not want to fall and we do not want to fail, and it's not an excuse to do it. But God, when we do. When we confess and repent and we can just keep going with you growing in Christ for your glory. God, I pray that this entire series, that the fruit of the spirit would be visible in our own individual lives and Lord, how I pray that the fruit of the spirit would be visible in the corporate life of this church. Lord, thank you for these past 10 weeks. Thank you for this summer. Thank you, Lord, that we're just so blessed in you that we can know you and the world can know you through our lives as you produce the fruit of the spirit in us. God, marriages need the fruit of the Spirit. Ministries need the fruit of the Spirit. Families need the fruit of the Spirit. Where we work, where we serve, where we go on mission needs the fruit of the Spirit. And Lord, produce it and cultivate it for your glory in our lives. For we ask it in Jesus name. Amen. Would you stand, please?