3Circle Church
Galatians 5:22-23 (ESV)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Self-control = the Spirit-produced ability to restrain your own desires and passions
Matthew 26:50-54
Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. 51 And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. 52 Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. 53 Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
Ecclesiastes 2:10
And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil.
Solomon tried a self-indulgent life and found it to be empty.
Proverbs 16:32
Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.
Every yes and no in our lives are connected.
Proverbs 25:28
A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.
A lack of self-control leads to extreme vulnerability.
1 John 2:15-17
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
World = Kosmos = a system or way of doing things
The fruit of the Spirit is demonstrated in believers, as we withstand the magnetic pull of the world system, while submitting to God’s authority.