There are many genres of books if you go to a library. Who here actually still goes to the library? Raise your hand. It's OK. OK. All right. Good, good, good. We have a few people in here who still utilize a library. Who here likes to use their Kindle or their various e-reader to access books online? I'm more toward that. I do like paper books. I like Bibles to be paper. I do like to make notes in margins, and it's just not the same when you have an e-reader. For me, at least, I try to make a note with my fingers. It's just not the same, but I try to be versatile, right? Become all things to all people, right? That's what the Apostle said. But if you go to a library or you go to a bookstore or you go online on amazon.com and you click on their book genres, you'll see the typical ones, right? You'll see mystery, you'll see autobiographical, you'll see historical, all these different genres, but one that's really come to B, I don't know about in the past 50 years, I don't chart its growth, but it's exploded in the past probably 40 or 50 years, has been one that's called either self-help Or if people don't want to admit that they need help, you'll see other stores label them personal growth. Really, they're the same thing. And the irony behind this idea of self-help is that by you going to a book or a resource to get help, it's not really self-help, is it? It's you getting external help. That's beside the point. But regardless, these things have arisen because why? because we need help. The rise of these books and how they've become really best sellers, I urge you sometime, go on Amazon and go to the self-help section or personal growth section and see how many reviews each one has. You'll see some have like 100,000 reviews, 50,000 reviews, and it'll say, New York Times Best Seller, a self-help book. The fact that many of these books are bestsellers should open our eyes to the condition of our society. There's something wrong. If you didn't know that already, newsflash, there's something wrong when these self-help books are on the national bestseller listings because it means that we recognize there's something wrong with us. We need help. Oftentimes, if you look at the titles of these various self-help books, there's one that's called Atomic Habits, and then Navy Seal-like Discipline. These thoughts are good. And then I remember one that I read probably five or six years ago, just because I was interested in it. It was by a clinical psychologist who I've referenced before. But one of the chapters was literally entitled, I may be messing up the title slightly, but the thrust of the heading was Make Your Bed. And you're thinking to yourself, if there's a book in the New York Times bestseller listing, and one of the chapters is entitled, Make Your Bed, there's something wrong with our society. There's something wrong with control, isn't there? And typically, when we seek something to control, it means what? That our lives are out of control. We tell ourselves, I'm in control of my anger. I'm in control of how much alcohol I drink. I'm in control of which recreational drugs I use. I'm in control of what I choose to watch. Until one day we realize we're not. And usually by that point we are in a mid-stage or later stage of addiction. Because we think we're in control, we lie to ourselves, and we say, I'm in control, I'm in control, I'm in control, and it gets to a point where maybe we were originally in control, but then things start to get a little bit out of control, then we say, no, no, no, I'm still in control, and then we get to the point where we're completely out of control, and then we seek the self-help, but by then, oftentimes, it's beyond us, and our lives are spiraling. Proverbs 5.22 tells us, the evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them. The cords of their sins hold them fast. And we don't need to think of the murderer, right? Oh, the evil deeds. It's anything less than good, anything that's not wholesome. Anything that's not wholesome, that's detrimental, will ensnare you if left unchecked. Those cords of sin will hold you fast. This is where you and I desperately need spirit-fueled self-control to prevent our lives from ruin. Proverbs 25, 28 tells us, a person without self-control is like a city with broken down walls. So, well, what is self-control? Before we get into that, I'd like to read Galatians 5, 22 through 23, like we have been doing. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. And I'll read verse 24 this time because this is critical to each fruit, but in particular to this one here. Verse 24, those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Let's just pray briefly. God, I pray that your spirit would lead us and guide us into all truth. Your word is truth. We know we can trust it. And we know you've promised your spirit is with us now. And so I pray he opens our eyes and opens our hearts to receive what you have laid up in store in your word. In Christ's name we pray, amen. A definition of this word for self-control is the idea of mastery over your passions and desires. But remember, it starts with the Spirit, so it's Spirit-fueled mastery over your passions and desires. And I read in one commentary, it even called this fruit the foundation of Godward obedience. The foundation, without this self-control, Everything else is going to be all over the place and your life is going to come to ruin. Things are going to be spiraling and you're just not going to be able to be stable in the way you're living your life. The beginning of self-mastery is to be mastered by Christ, to yield to his lordship. Augustine said, would you have your flesh obey your spirit? Then let your spirit obey your God. You must be governed that you may govern. And the irony of all this, and this is the thrust of what I want to get to, the irony of all this is that by living in spirit self-controlled, you'll experience immeasurable freedom. It seems almost like a paradox, doesn't it? Living under the control of the spirit is when you'll actually experience the greatest measure of freedom. Turn with me to Matthew chapter 4, and we'll be spending our time in Matthew chapter 4 for the remainder of the sermon, because I thought since we need to look to Christ to control us, it would be good to look at an example of when He exercised self-control. This is just after Jesus has been baptized. The Lord God, the Father has just declared from heaven, this is my son in whom I am well pleased. I love him. And then immediately after that, we read at the beginning of chapter four, then Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Now it's interesting there because we know that We're Spirit-led, right? You and I, that's what we've been talking about, walking in the Spirit, keeping in step with the Spirit, and so it's almost…you can almost picture the beginning of chapter 4 where it says, Jesus was led by the Spirit in the wilderness to be tempted or to be tested by the devil as having a direct correlation to where we are with the fruit of the Spirit. So, we go forward. We'll be reading the verse 11. After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, if you are the son of God, tell these stones to become bread. Jesus answered, it is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point on the temple. If you are the son of God, he said, throw yourself down, for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. Jesus answered him, it is also written, do not put the Lord your God to the test. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor or their glory. All this I will give you, he said, if you will bow down and worship me. Jesus said to him, away from me, Satan, for it is written, worship the Lord your God and serve him alone. Then the devil left him and angels came and attended to him. Isn't it interesting that immediately after Christ is confirmed as the Son of God audibly from the heavens by the Father Himself, that then we have an immense time of testing? But before that, of course, there was a spiritual preparation where the Spirit leads Him in the wilderness to be tested. That's the purpose of being led into the wilderness. And then there's the 40 days of Christ fasting, where He's not eating, and miraculously, He's still coherent enough so that at his weakest moment, when the enemy, when the darkness comes to him and tests him, he is able to resist. There's a lot we can learn from what we just read about how we are attacked with self-indulgence. Because that's kind of the opposite of self-control, isn't it? Self-indulgence, when we choose to just give in to every single whim of our lust, every single whim of our passion. You want it? You get it. I like it, I love it, I want some more of it, right? More, more. You do what you want to do. It's the idea that if it feels good, do it, right? And you keep pursuing that. That's the opposite of what this self-control is, and it's the opposite of what Christ models for us, and it's really what the enemy tries to get us to do, which is yield more and more to ourselves, turning more and more inward so we become useless for the kingdom of God. That's his goal for any Christian. It's to make you useless for the kingdom of God, either by ruining your testimony so every single person who knows you doesn't give you any respect because they go, that guy, I mean, he talks the talk. He says he believes in God, and yet he has absolutely no love for anyone in his life, or he's just made such a shipwreck of his faith that to the outside world, he's just simply a hypocrite. That's what the devil's trying to do every single day in your life. And one way he does that is by turning you inward through self-indulgence. And the first way we see him attack Jesus is by questioning God's provision. where Jesus is hungry, it's been 40 days and 40 nights, and the tempter comes to him and says, if you are the Son of God, remember, the Father has just called from heaven and said, this is my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased. 40 days later, Satan comes to him and says, if, if that's true, tell these stones to become bread. Provide for yourselves. And there's an interesting thought about what the enemy's trying to get Jesus to do here. He's telling Jesus to supernaturally change the nature of these stones to suit His own desire. Just think about that for a second. God created these stones, right? probably all the way back at creation. God created these stones and over time they broke off and now they're just little stones in front of Jesus. And so God created those the way they were. And now Satan is coming to him and telling him, if you are the son of God, change their makeup, change their identity, change their nature to suit your own desire, your own desire. And yet we see when Christ does perform miracles, on whose behalf does he do them? others. It's not about Himself. And so, in this, Satan is attempting to sow the seed of doubt that God might not meet your needs, so you need to take things into your own hands. And when this happens, when the seed of doubt begins to grow in your heart, this seed of self-indulgence begins to grow in your heart, your desires become preeminent. What you want becomes what's most important. And this is the first way self-control begins to unravel in your life. When you look to your own desires instead of the desires of those around you. But notice how Christ answers. He says, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. He puts a twist on it, doesn't he? He says, in essence, physical indulgence at the expense of spiritual growth is not what ultimately leads to life. Did you catch that in what he was saying? Man shall not live by bread alone. That's not the focus, Satan. It's not about finding life in your physical sustenance, in your physical desires. Rather, it's about trusting the Lord at His word. That's what will ultimately lead to life. And this is where we need to realize that self-discipline is not synonymous with Spirit-fueled self-control. Because at the end of the day, if you're relying on self-discipline, you're only going to be able to discipline yourself as much as you want to be disciplined, right? You're only going to be able to Obey what you inevitably want to do, right? You overpower your desire for sin with a desire to do right, but what happens when your desire to do right is less than your desire to sin? You're just gonna be caught in a vicious cycle. And this is where spirit-fueled self-control is, in fact, different than just self-discipline. And that's why these people who write these self-help books, look up how many self-help books they've authored. One isn't enough. For some reason, there has to be a part two. Wait a minute, I thought you said that applying these principles into my life would make my life better. It's like, well, yeah, but you can make it even better. And at the end of the day, you go, oh my goodness, these are just, it's endless. You could spend the rest of your life reading self-help books and still be in the exact same place as you were when you first started reading them. Maybe intellectually, you'll feel better about yourself. But unless we go to the spirit, Unless we rely on the Spirit, unless we're, as Jesus was, led by the Spirit, we're not going to change. The Spirit, this is what's amazing, the Spirit gives us the ability to do right despite our desires. That's the power the Spirit of God has given to you and to me. We see first that the that self-indulgence, it'll question God's provision. And then second, we see this in the second temptation, it questions God's power. This next temptation is quite remarkable where you have the accuser, that's what the word Satan means, the accuser, and he's the devil. We know who this is, right? He's coming to Jesus, and it's like, okay, the first time it doesn't work, but the second time, I'm gonna take you to the place where God is most present. In fact, I'm gonna take you to the height of the place where God is assumed to be most present, the temple, the zenith of the temple. We're gonna go up to the very top, and this is when we're gonna see if God's power really is what it's all cracked up to be. Okay, Jesus, Why don't you throw yourself down? Because if you're relying on God's word, which you just quoted to me, I've got another thing for you from God's word, which you say you trust and believe. It's written, this is Satan quoting scripture, he will command his angels concerning you and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. Imagine Jesus standing at the pinnacle of the temple. He's not just 15 feet in the air. They're up high, and they're at the seat of where in this time they viewed God dwelt. So this is where the absolute amount of God's power would be centered in their thinking. And so Jesus is there looking down, and Satan tells Him to jump because God's Word says that He's going to protect your foot, so you're not going to even strike it against a stone. So, in essence, he's saying, if you trust God so much, how about you force Him to prove His trustworthiness? In essence, claim a scriptural promise and demand God fulfill it according to your interpretation. And there's a seed of doubt that's being planted right here. And even though it didn't plant itself in Christ's mind, it certainly can plant itself in our minds. The seed of doubt is, if God isn't faithful in the way I expect Him to be, how can I truly trust Him? There was a story of, I may have mentioned this a couple years back, but there was a big mainstream church, hundreds of thousands of views on the program they broadcast on YouTube. They pump out a lot of modern Christian music. And there was a five-year-old who at this church, she passed away, and they, instead of burying her, they were more of a charismatic stripe, and they were under the persuasion that it was always God's, it's always God's will to heal. Always God's will to heal. And so there's this five-year-old who passed away. And they brought her to the church, and they had a vigil going. And the pastor had said, it is God's will to heal this child. Guess what? Five days went by, the child wasn't healed. What do you do with that? If that's the buttress of your faith, if that's your interpretation of the scripture and it doesn't happen, you don't fault the pastor, maybe some do, you fault God. Because the pastor is just supposed to be the mouthpiece for God, right? He's just supposed to communicate God's Word. And if that's what the pastor says God says, and God doesn't deliver on what he says, God's a liar. You see, the devil tries to do that in our lives. We, for some reason, expect God to work in a way, we see a promise in Scripture, and then we apply it to our lives in a very specific way. And if we see that specific way doesn't come to pass, then we either say, well, God, I, wow, I guess you didn't have my back on it this time. That's what self-indulgence says because that's centered on me. That's centered on what I want. In essence, my personal experience becomes preeminent. It's about my experience. But self-control, notice what Jesus, how he responds. He says, it is also written, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. We're told that we're to preach and teach the whole counsel of God. And so for us to take one thing in isolation and apply it into our lives, into a specific situation, and expect God to work according to our interpretation is faulty, to say the least. And it's wrong at the end of the day. All of this is focusing on self, whereas Christ went back to the word of God and said, accuser, you're missing it. You're missing it, because that's not all God said. In essence, my faith in God is not diminished by the pain of my present circumstance. They're not even connected. If anything, the pain in my present circumstance is what should bolster my faith in God, or at least bolster me to run to God. C.S. Lewis said, God shouts in your pain. God's Word, all of God's Word is true, not just the content I prefer. And it's necessary for us to know this, accept this, and learn this. in order to exercise Spirit-fueled self-control, because Spirit-fueled self-control puts personal preferences in their proper place, namely under God's Word, not above it. And then third and finally, self-indulgence, it gets us to question God's plan. Notice Satan's, the accuser's third temptation. You have this almost viewed as a vision because we know there's no mountain high enough to show all the kingdoms of the world in their glory. So it's as though the accuser takes Christ into a vision, onto a high mountain, and shows all the kingdoms of the world in their splendor and their glory. And he says, I'll give you all of this if you just bow down and worship me. In essence, this is an interesting temptation, isn't it? Because this is what Christ gained authority over, but only after the cross. So what's Satan telling Jesus? Forgo the pain. Forgo the suffering. Forgo the valley of the shadow of death. Forgo all that evil. Just take the easy way. Do you hear self-indulgence in there at all? In essence, God's plan is too enigmatic and his glory too distant. My plan, however, is straightforward and my glory will be immediate. Proverbs reminds us that sin is pleasurable for a season. people who say, oh, there's no pleasure in sin, for one, they haven't read the Bible, and two, they're not speaking truth because there are aspects of sin that are so pleasurable and that draw our hearts to them daily. But the rest of that proverb says the end, though, the end is death. So Satan is trying to flip everything on its head by saying, take the easy way, get the glory without the pain. Take what is rightfully yours, you deserve it, you've earned it, go ahead, just take it, just bow your knee, just worship me, it'll be our little secret. Screwtape, in his letter to Wormwood, says of their demonic mission, in regards to temptation is our purpose is really to tempt our enemies, that's you and me, into taking something good at the wrong time or in the wrong amount or with the wrong person. Because all corruption is really something good that God has designed that's being twisted or corrupted or perverted. And the result of this is that your life becomes preeminent. It becomes about you. It becomes about your pleasure. It becomes about your glory. But what does self-control say? Self-control responds, go, accuser. You shall worship the Lord your God and serve only Him. It recognizes the path's terrain and difficulty, but it recognizes that they're besides the point. It's not about the road I take. It's not about where God leads me. Though it be through the valley of the shadow of death, what I'm focused on is the fact that He's with me. He's guiding me. And it resolves to stand its ground. He tells Satan to go. He doesn't flee. It resolves to stand its ground, and it focuses on the main thing, which is worshiping God. Self-indulgence, it gets us to question God's provision, it gets us to question God's power, and it gets us to question God's plan. And it tries to get us to focus on ourselves. whereas living in spirit-fueled self-control, it turns everything back to God. There are some very natural ways in which the Spirit has given us to exercise self-control. And that may be through setting up physical boundaries far from sin's edge. Because we'll read a principle in Scripture as we continue through Galatians that if you sow to the flesh, you'll reap corruption. And some of that corruption is addiction. You continue sowing to the flesh and doing things that are evil over and over again, or just things that are corrupting, you're gonna reap that corruption. And so there's a need to set up physical boundaries sometimes far from sin's edge. Maybe you need to be a teetotaler just because you know that you have a proclivity toward addiction. And so you set up the boundary far from sin's edge so you don't fall off the cliff and ruin your life. There's also the need for us to seek help. The enemy attacks us when we're isolated. See that with Jesus here. He attacks us when we're tired. This isolation, and when he attacks it will produce shame, and shame will draw you into further isolation. You see this in addicts so much, where they're so mad at themselves and what they're dealing with, but they keep going back to it, so then there's that shame. Then they isolate themselves from people because they feel so messed up, and then they get more shame, and then they get more addicted, and it just spirals out of control. And yet we need to be willing to be people who are honest with our own faults, with our own issues. and with the realization that portrayals of perfection precede demon possession. And you say, oh my goodness, what is he talking about there? Matthew chapter 12, verses 44 through 45, where Jesus talks about impure spirits coming out of a person, going through arid places and seeking rest and not finding any. Then it says, I'll return to the house I left. And when it arrives, what does it seize? See, it seized the house unoccupied. It sees the house swept clean and put in order. You hear the portrayal of perfection there? The house is swept clean, the house is in order, everything's looking great and dandy. But what happens? That spirit brings in seven more demons which are worse than just the one that was there previously. And you don't have to take this to mean that you're literally possessed by a demon. It can also mean that you're portraying yourself as being perfect. And what God's word tells us is that's the perfect place if you want to be led into evil. Portrayals of perfection precede demon possession. Seek help, no one has it all together, and if you need help, I pray that we are a church, we are a body of believers who will not shame someone. That's what we'll be getting to next week. In a spirit of meekness, we restore our brother or sister. who is ensnared in sin. And then primarily, saturate yourself in God's Word. You've heard the saying, this book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book. Jesus relied wholly on God's Word. when he was tempted through self-indulgence, and he's God. Think about that for a moment. If we're going to places everywhere except God's Word to find solutions to our problems with self-indulgence, we're really not obeying the scriptural model. Jesus went to God, and he's God. Where should we go? God wants you to live in the freedom found through Spirit-fueled self-control, through allowing Him to master your passions. If you master your passions, you'll still only do what you want to do. But if you allow the Spirit to master your passions, He will lead you, get this, further into love, further into joy, further into peace, into long-suffering, into kindness, and into goodness, and into faithfulness. He'll lead you further than you ever thought possible. but it all begins with giving him control. Only when we give up control will we discover the freedom of spirit-fueled self-control. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this time we could spend in your word and looking at the power your spirit has given to us. I just pray that as we yield to you more that this fruit of self-control manifests itself, that we work out our salvation with fear and trembling as you work in us to will and do of your good pleasure, giving you all glory, honor, and praise. In Christ's name we pray, amen.