Cultivate | Self-Control | Luke Davidson

Your morning cup is, let's put our hands together. This is the day you made So I'll rejoice and be glad Rejoice and be glad in it This is where I believe That you are more than enough More than enough for me You are faithful to your promise You are strong when I am weak When I'm standing in your presence I have everything I need The joy of the Lord, joy of the Lord is my strength Oh my soul, bless his name All I need is within me staying The joy of the Lord, joy of the Lord is my strength Jesus, come what may You are worthy of all, worthy of all my praise You are faithful to your promise You are strong when I am weak When I'm standing in your presence I have everything I need The joy of the Lord, joy of the Lord is my strength Oh my soul, bless his name All I need is within me staying The joy of the Lord, joy of the Lord is my strength Let it rise up like a river Overflowing Holy Spirit Let it pour out with no limit Overflowing Holy Spirit The joy of the Lord, joy of the Lord is my strength Oh my soul, bless his name All I need is within me staying The joy of the Lord, joy of the Lord is my strength Is my strength Lord, Lord Don't go away until you've made it Risk for risk, hallelujah Even though I don't deserve it You did it Even though I couldn't earn it You give it To you and I That you keep me on your mind God, I'm just grateful for you Oh my Lord You've been right here by my side God, I'm just grateful for you Holy, holy, there's only one

♪ Who am I to forgive you for all that you've done ♪ ♪ Even though I don't deserve it, yeah, ooh ♪ ♪ Even though I couldn't earn it, come on, make it man ♪ ♪ Say who am I, who am I, who am I ♪ ♪ Keep me on your mind, God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ ♪ Yes, I'm thankful, God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ ♪ Say who am I, who am I, who am I, who am I ♪ ♪ You've been right here by my side, God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ ♪ God, I'm just grateful for you, ooh, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Ooh, yeah, yeah, been with me all of my life ♪ ♪ Yeah, God, you stayed by my side, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ And I, I'm lifting both of my hands ♪ ♪ Because you give me chance after chance after chance ♪ ♪ And I, I'm giving all that I have ♪ ♪ Because you give me, come on, every chance, every chance ♪ ♪ And I, I'm lifting both of my hands ♪ ♪ Because you give me chance after chance after chance ♪ ♪ And I, I'm giving all that I have ♪ ♪ Because you give me chance after chance after chance ♪ ♪ So who am I that you keep me on your mind? ♪ ♪ God, I'm just grateful, I really am ♪ ♪ God, I'm just grateful, I really am, I really am, yeah ♪ ♪ Oh, you've been right here by my side, right on this way ♪ ♪ I'm really grateful and painful for you to not survive ♪ ♪ I'm really just here, I'm just grateful for you ♪ ♪ Sing I'm alright, I'm alright if they say I'm alright ♪ ♪ See I'm out of my mind, God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ ♪ Sing God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ Come on, let's thank him. Yes, Lord, we're so grateful for who you are.

We're in awe of your greatness. Lord, we just thank you for your son, Jesus, for the life that we have. We just worship you and we lift you high this morning. ♪ You give life, you are love ♪ ♪ You bring light to the darkness ♪ ♪ You give hope, you restore every heart that is broken ♪ ♪ Great are you, Lord ♪ ♪ It's your breath in our lungs so we pour out our praise ♪ ♪ We pour out our praise, it's your breath in our lungs ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise to you only ♪ ♪ Oh, you only, Lord ♪ ♪ You give life, you are love ♪ ♪ You bring light to the darkness ♪ ♪ You give hope, you restore every heart that is broken ♪ ♪ Great are you, Lord, it's your breath ♪ ♪ It's your breath in our lungs so we pour out our praise ♪ ♪ We pour out our praise, it's your breath in our lungs ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise to you only ♪ ♪ We pour out our praise to You only ♪ ♪ Only You are worthy Lord, only You are worthy ♪ ♪ Only You are worthy, come on we sing church ♪ ♪ And all the earth will shout Your praise ♪ ♪ Our hearts will cry, these bones will sing for You ♪ ♪ It was great and greatly to be praised, yes ♪ ♪ And all the earth will shout Your praise ♪ ♪ Our hearts will cry, these bones will sing for You ♪ ♪ Great are You Lord, so You were great, come on we sing ♪ ♪ And all the earth will shout Your praise ♪ ♪ Our hearts will cry, these bones will sing for You ♪

♪ Great are You Lord, it's You we sing for You Lord ♪ ♪ It's Your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise ♪ ♪ We pour out our praise, it's Your breath in our lungs ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise to You only ♪ ♪ You're all we need, You're all we need, You're all we need ♪ ♪ Oh, You're all we need, You're all we need, You're all we need ♪ ♪ Let's sing, come on. ♪ It's Your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise ♪ ♪ We pour out our praise, it's Your breath in our lungs ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise to You only ♪ ♪ And great are You, Lord, yes, Lord ♪ ♪ We sing great are You, Lord, one time more ♪ ♪ We sing, we sing great are You, Lord, one time more ♪ Before the sweetness, before the color, the ground gets tended to, the soil gets ready, the seeds go in, and then we wait. In the same way, God is cultivating something within us, transformation. The Holy Spirit is producing fruit in our lives. It's different, real, sweet, and it lasts. Jesus said, abide in me, because apart from Him, we can only do so much. But when we remain rooted in Him, real growth happens. This season, prepare the soil and watch what God grows. I don't know if when you were growing up, you learned about the Greek philosophers like Aristotle and Plato and Socrates. I can't remember much about them. Maybe to you, like me, they're just statues of old white guys in a sheet.

Remind you of a toga party or something like that. But what I do remember is that these philosophers taught things about virtues, desires, cravings, how to handle those things centuries before Jesus. Like hundreds of years before Jesus, people were talking about this stuff. But then it's a historical fact that after Jesus, the majority of that Greek Roman world became Christian. Why? They already had the virtues and the good morals and the teachings and all that stuff. Why did they need Jesus? I'll tell you why. Because Jesus gave them the ability to actually live out those virtues and values. The ability, the power of the Holy Spirit. It is what the Apostle Paul called the fruit of the Spirit. It is the fruit, the result of a life that is rooted in Christ. It is what is produced when you live in step with the Spirit of God. And that is what we have been discovering in this series over the. last few weeks called Cultivate. I wanna welcome you to Compass Christian Church. Our mission is navigating people to God. My name is Luke Davidson, and I'm the campus pastor at our Mid-Cities Campus. We meet over at Fort Worth Christian School every Sunday. So if you know anybody over in that area

that needs a church home, please send them our way. But today, I'm honored to be here with you as we continue in this series called Cultivate. What does it mean to cultivate? Cultivate is to prepare something so as to encourage its growth, that it can improve and develop. And so that's why we think of farmers. They're out in the field, plowing the field. They are preparing the ground to grow plants. So that's why we think of that. And the idea here is that when you become a Christian, when you become a follower of Jesus, God gives you his spirit, and the Holy Spirit begins to cultivate. He begins to plow. He begins to prepare you for growth so that you can become who he has meant you to be. You can become more like God, and you can start to experience what truly life is supposed to look like. And it looks like some of these things. This is how the apostle Paul described it in Galatians chapter five. He said, the fruit of the spirit, the things that you'll start to produce or that will be produced in and through you are love instead of hate, and joy. And you might experience joy for the first time in your life when you start following Jesus.

And it's a lot different than happiness. And I'm not here to talk about happiness today, but sometimes we're chasing happiness, and that's shallow and can be selfish, but joy is deep and it's lasting. It comes from the spirit of God. And then he says, peace, both to make peace with others, to be at peace inside. What about forbearance? It's a fancy way to say patience. It means you bear through tough things. And then you got kindness, which is to do kind things for people. Goodness, an upright, good person. Faithfulness, of course. Gentleness. Now, gentleness does not mean you don't do tough things. Some of the toughest things that have ever been said to me were said to me by people who cared and had the courage to say tough things, but they did it with gentleness, so to build me up, not tear me down. But the one I wanna talk about today that I think is most surprising on this list is the last one, self-control. If you think about it, everything else on this list, these are things that you do or that you express. But self-control is specifically what you don't do. It's how you say no to yourself. It's how you limit yourself.

And that is a lot different than all of the other things that we see on this list. Do you know when enough is enough? I think a lot of us, we have a tough time saying no to ourselves because we are the king of the castle and whatever the king wants, the king gets and I just crave like, and we think about it and we're up late night scrolling to find the thing that we wanna buy or purchase or achieve. And we think it's gonna give us this gratification feeling or something, and yet it doesn't. So we're chasing this thing all of the time. And we have a tough time saying no to our cravings and our appetites. You know what happens when you feed an appetite, right? It just gets bigger. You know what I do? I take a bag of chips with me to bed to snack. What is wrong with me? Lack of self control. I'm just up here being honest with you guys today. What do we do when we're stressed? We reach for the phone and you scroll, even though all of us know, it's not a surprise. Everybody here knows that scrolling does not help with your anxiety. We all know this, but we don't control it. We are addicted.

We lack self control in all of these areas, whether it's screen time or food or whatever the bad habit might be. Now, Henry Cloud gives five warning signs that you lack self control. Number one, he says your responsibilities begin to suffer because you lack self control. Number two, you find yourself needing a little bit more to get the same experience as last time. It takes a little bit more. Number three, you need a regular fix. It becomes a part of your rhythm of life. There's a rhythm to your food situation. There's a rhythm to your pornography usage. Number four, I think this is a telltale sign. This is where you have told yourself that you need to stop or cut back and you tried, but you were unable to. I think this is where you discover that you've lost freedom. Number five, you keep doing it with greater and greater risks. You risk exposing your kids to your addiction. You risk missing work. You risk losing your license. You risk losing a friendship, losing your marriage. These are all warning signs of the most tragic thing, which is that addiction separates us from the life. we were meant to live, the life you want to live. Not saying that life that Luke wants you to live

or the Bible wants you to live or God wants you to live, the life you want to live, who you want to be, the person you wish you were, the parent, the husband, the wife, who do you want to be? Proverbs chapter 25, verse 28 says, "'Like a city whose walls are broken through as a person who lacks self-control.'" You gotta think of those old ancient cities where that big wall around the city was the defensive barrier that kept the enemy from coming in and taking over the city. But like a city whose walls are broken through as a person who lacks self-control. So if you are a person who is controlled by bad habits in your life and your desires and your cravings take control of you, if you are embarrassed of your screen time and your lack of self-discipline, then I think self-control might be the most appealing virtue on Paul's list of the fruit of the spirit here. You're like, you're telling me that if I live in step with the Holy Spirit, he will teach me how to say no to things that I don't want to do anyway? Things that I know are bad for me, but I can't control them? Yes, that's the crazy promise that I think scripture makes and that has been testified to by numerous, innumerable Christians who have come before us. That when you walk in step with the Holy Spirit,

you will, one person at a time, little by little, develop self-control, command of your desires, independence instead of dependence on all these things, discipline, and even freedom. This is a person who is not controlled by your impulses and your cravings and your desires. And I think this is a person that all of us, myself included, want to be. We want to be a person that can control ourselves and has power and experiences freedom. But the problem is so many of us are not this person. So many of us are not free. Not really. The apostle Paul talked about this in a really serious section of scripture in Romans chapter seven. And I tell you it's really serious, but then I have to admit to you, can I just admit to you something? It's also kind of really funny to me to read through this section because it's like the most relatable part of Romans. I don't know if you've ever tried to read through Romans before or any part of the Bible and you've ever been like, I have no idea what's going on. Can I just tell you like Romans, Romans is the book that everybody that is like really spiritually like deep and like, hey, I know Romans.

And we're all kind of like pretending that we really understand Romans. And it's like, Romans is so deep and vast, but I will tell you chapter seven, simple, very simple, kind of funny. If you were to read through the whole section, you would laugh, I think, especially if you read it in the voice that I hear in my head. And I'm not gonna read the whole thing, but one verse, you're gonna see exactly what I'm saying. Paul says the most relatable, simple thing I've ever seen in the Bible. He says, I want to do what is good, but I don't. Can anybody relate to that? I think every single one of us can relate to that. It's like, oh, I understand that. That all makes sense. I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. I think we all can relate to this. And he goes on and says, but if I do what I don't want to do, and I'm not really the one doing wrong, it is sin living in me that does it. So I don't know if you can relate to this, but honest question, like show of hands, let's just be honest. Are there things that are holding you prisoner in your life? Just me?

Okay, we got a few honest people in here, okay? Are there things in your life that are holding you prisoner? Things that you would say, hey, I don't really want to do that. It's not that you like can't, it's that you don't want to, and yet you still do it, and you feel controlled by this thing. Like you don't have self-control, it controls you. Paul knew what this was like. And he speaks about it in a way that everybody that has ever read this has said, yeah, I know that feeling. The apostle Paul knew that feeling. We pick up in verse 24. Paul says, oh, what a miserable person I am. Have you ever said that? Like right after you did the thing, you said you were never gonna do again. Like, oh my gosh, I said I would never do that again. And here I am doing it. What a miserable person I am. So he echoes what we all feel. Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? But then notice the sharp change in tone in verse 25. Thank God, he says, the answer is in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen? Amen. What he's saying is the fruit or the result

of a life that is rooted in Christ is this new freedom. This new freedom, this new opportunity that is not possible in and of yourself. And that this struggle with sin begins to not be a losing battle. it becomes something that is a winning battle in Christ. If you break this down into practical steps, I'd say step one here is you gotta admit that you've lost control. Paul says, I want to do the right thing, but I don't. Some of you need to admit that. Some of you are living in denial. Everybody else knows that you've lost control. They all know, especially those closest to you, but you're continuing to live in denial and say, no, I've got control of this. And everybody's like, no, you don't. I think it's a big step to simply say, I don't want to do this thing and yet I'm doing it. Or I want to do the right thing and I don't. You gotta admit that you've lost control, just like Paul does. Number two, you gotta reach out to a power that's larger than yourself. He cries out and says, thank God. You gotta pray and say, God, would you help me? Would you give me a power that I do not have in and of myself? I need help.

Reach out to a power that's larger than yourself. Reach out to other people that have the capacity to help you. You might be surrounded with people who have the capacity to continue your bad habits and your lack of self-control. What if you were to start to find some people that could actually help you grow into self-control? And that leads to number three, surrender to a process. You are not gonna be able to achieve this or cultivate self-control if you go Lone Ranger and just try to do it your own way. You need to bring others in. You need to reach out to a power larger than yourself and you need to surrender to a process. I wonder what that could look like for you. Maybe you just need to start going to AA meetings. Just go. Maybe you need to do the Whole30 Diet or whatever the trendy diet is. I don't know. Just do it. And if it feels like an all or nothing thing and it's too big, I can't do it, well then just give yourself like a little time slot. What if for the next seven days, you said, I'm not gonna look at pornography for just the next seven days. What if you could surrender to a process and like set up something to say,

I wanna start to experience freedom, even in small little ways. We set up all sorts of ministries in our church to try to help people. We have Celebrate Recovery. We have One-to-One Care. We have Grief Share Groups, which is vital because a lot of this lack of self-control comes from periods of time where something really tragic happened. You have a lot of grief and you're trying to comfort yourself. And so you start to lose control because of the pain. We have Rooted Discipleship Groups that'll be kicking off here before too long. We have Community Groups in our church. These are all sorts of ways where you can be real, honest with other people and where they can be real and honest with you and start to guide you forward. Because we believe like what it says in Titus chapter two, verse 11 and 12, that the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation, solution, savior to all people. It teaches us to say what? Well, that ain't gonna work, is it? No. You can't walk up to like a really intense craving and temptation and it says, hey, you wanna come do this?

And you go, no, that ain't gonna work. After today, we're gonna say it's strong, okay? It teaches us to say what? No. Yes, very good. Say no to ungodliness. You gotta be strong in those moments of temptation. Say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age. You can learn this in Christ. He can teach you. Now, I think the most essential practice for developing self-control, in my opinion, is fasting. And to oversimplify it, what is fasting? Fasting is a period of time where you don't eat. Maybe you allow yourself water or tea or coffee. That's really up to you. I would say, please do not overcomplicate this. Keep it simple. And you just have a period of time where you don't eat and the food hunger, when you feel hungry, it's just a reminder to pray. That's all it is. What do you pray for? Whatever you wanna pray for. Maybe it's a bad habit you wanna pray about. You say, I can't control this, God. And you pray for that. Maybe you feel hungry and you pray for that thing

that's going on at work. It's been kind of crazy. So you pray for that thing at work. Maybe there's a health issue that you have or somebody that you care about. And so when you feel hungry, you pray for them. Maybe there's like this big decision and you don't know what, should I do this? Should I do that? You fast, don't eat. When you feel the hunger, it reminds you to pray for that decision. Now, some of you are like, Luke, this is really ironic. We're talking about the fruit of the spirit. That is food. I'm hungry. It's almost lunchtime. And now you're telling me not to eat. I get it. But yeah, I'm asking you to try this out because here's what happens when you prayerfully deny yourself this most essential need, which is food. You learn that you can say no to yourself, that you can control it. And you start to learn, hey, I'm stronger than I. I thought I was. And I cannot think of a better way to start to cultivate this gift, this fruit of self-control than by fasting.

It is a great teacher, so try it out. Do not over-complicate this. Don't feel like, oh, I gotta go read 10 books about this and over-spiritualize it. No, just set a period of time, don't eat, and when you feel hungry, pray. Keep it simple. Maybe you fast through one meal. Just try it, just try it. If you can't, I get it. If it's a health thing for you, I get it. But if you can't, try it out. 24 hours, try that, a couple of days. It doesn't matter. What matters is that you're cultivating self-control, and I guarantee you, if you will try this, you will start to experience freedom, especially if you have never experienced that freedom before. Now, I have talked about some practical things today, steps towards breakthrough, fasting, but I gotta be honest with you, none of that's really gonna help unless you start to change how you think. This is a battle that begins in the mind with what you believe and with what is true. And if I had to summarize what is true, I think I might point to Rolands 8, verse one, which says, there is now, no, no, no condemnation. You're getting a little better at it.

That wasn't as good as I was hoping for. Now, hopefully the next time you run into something, you have to say no, you can say it strong. There is now what? No condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. It's a really strong no, because sometimes we think, well, there's a little bit of judgment, right? A little bit of condemnation. That's what Christianity is all about, like a little bit of judgment, right? No, not supposed to be. If you go read through the New Testament, it's like, no, there's none, no condemnation, no eternal judgment, no hell. You are free from all of that. Whatever Jesus did has given us this huge opportunity. You gotta recognize this opportunity. You have to live in this freedom that Jesus has achieved for us. You can do anything. And sometimes you hear me say that and you're like, yeah, sure. You think Christianity is a rules-based religion. It's not. It's meant to be the opposite of that. It's a grace-based religion. And that makes all the difference in the world. You can do anything, no hell, no judgment, you're free in Christ.

But here's the problem. The problem is when your use of freedom turns you back into a slave. Why would you go and put yourself back in a prison when Jesus sets you free? Why would you get yourself entangled in something that Jesus set you free from? This is exactly what the Apostle Paul was talking about in his letter to the Corinthians. And he says these exact words. He says, I am allowed to do anything, but not everything is good for you, is it? Some of it's dumb and you know it's dumb. Stop doing dumb stuff. He goes on and says, I'm allowed to do anything, but I must not become a slave to anything. Are you doing things that you think are freeing? Oh, I'm living life without limits. And everybody else is like, you ain't free. You're a slave. That thing is an addiction for you. It controls you. You wake up longing for it. Your body craves it. You're a slave. You don't have control. Control has been taken from you. And you call it freedom. But we all know that it's really slavery. A few years ago, I heard a story,

this true story, report of a woman who had been traveling in America and was going to get on her flight back to Asia. During her trip, she bought a $200 bottle of Cognac and was trying to carry it in her handbag through the security checkpoint into the airport. Of course, they're not gonna let her carry that bottle of Cognac, not just because it's Cognac, but because liquid over 100 milliliters or whatever. And she didn't want it to go to waste. She didn't wanna pour it out and throw it away. So you know what she did? She drank the whole bottle of Cognac right there at the security checkpoint, just chugged it. And you know where this is going. They later found her rolling on the floor at the boarding gate. Just like, you know, when you were a kid, just tumbling down a hill. I don't know, maybe that's what she was doing. And she is so out of control. She couldn't stand up. She couldn't walk. So now she can't fly because they're not gonna let her fly. They rolled her in a wheelchair to a waiting room to sober up and rest. And she missed the flight. She missed the flight. And I just thought it was so ironic

that the thing that she couldn't take with her on the flight kept her from being able to get onto the flight. The thing that she couldn't take it with her, it kept her from being able to get on the flight. So my point is this, just because you can do something doesn't mean you really want to do that, does it? You gotta think, is my use of freedom going to cause me to miss out on what I am actually trying to accomplish? Because if it is, then you need self-control. I mean, the woman. It's been in our story that I just told, like was her goal to drink or was it to catch a flight? Her goal was to catch a flight, but she let a freedom take that from her. And instead of her being in control, it took control of her and she messed out on what she was trying to do. I know it's just a flight. I know there was another flight a few hours later, but don't we all know people who have messed out on big things because of a lack of self-control? I know people who have lost the job of their dreams because of the lack of self-control. I know people who've lost the family they always hoped for, and now they can only see their kids on a split schedule because of a lack of self-control. A lack of self-control can undo everything that you have worked so hard to achieve.

Not what I want for you, but what you want. Don't play around with this. Throughout my life, I've heard a common saying of wisdom that goes something like this, legacies take a lifetime to build and a moment to destroy. You gotta recognize there's a spiritual battle happening for your life and you think you're insignificant. Nobody really cares. You're wrong. You really matter. Everybody in the kingdom of God matters. And there's a spiritual battle happening for you and your life. And there are definitely enemies that are whispering into your ear, you don't matter. You're worthless. You're a mess up, you're a screw up. You gotta remember what Jesus says about you, that you are worthy of the sacrifice and he has gifted you with grace so that you can be a part of eternal kingdom of God. Jesus set up the kingdom of God that the gates of hell may not prevail against it. And he empowered you with his spirit so that you can live as more than conquerors, so that you can live with self-control. So I would encourage you, please start asking yourself, hey, is my use of freedom limiting who I can become and what I can accomplish? I heard a 30 second clip of a podcast

just a couple of weeks ago. I didn't hear the whole podcast, but that 30 seconds was something that really stuck with me. It's Cam Newton's podcast, who was the former quarterback for the North Carolina Panthers. On the podcast was Pastor Jamal Bryant. A few decades ago, Pastor Jamal Bryant was involved in a lot of sexual scandals, extramarital affairs, paternity disputes. It was really messy. And so on the podcast, they were looking back, talking about some of the tough lessons he learned because of his lack of self-control. And they were talking about self-control in the area of sexual immorality. Imagine that, Cam Newton. And this is what Pastor Jamal Bryant said. He said, let me say it backwards. I can't imagine where God would have taken me if I had had sexual discipline. I am nowhere near the orbit of what my possibility was if I had had self-discipline. And then he said this, my greatest enemy has been me. What about you? Sure, you could choose to live your life with no limits and no self-discipline, but that lack of self-control will eventually become its own prison. And one day you'll be looking back,

wondering who you could have been, what you could have accomplished if you learned to take control of freedom in your life. Today's an opportunity for that. Say, hey, I wanna start to take control of things, then letting them control me and dictate my life and who I'm gonna be. I don't want that, I wanna take control. And you can because of Christ. Now I was reflecting on this personally, getting ready for this message, and I started thinking about the fact, like for most of my life, I have been known or at least had the reputation, whether it was true or perceived or whatever, it doesn't matter, but I've just had the reputation as being somebody of a lot of self-control, self-discipline. I'm like regulated morning routine, wake up down to the minute scheduled, read my Bible, pray, exercise, stuff like that. But all of that went out the window in COVID. Can anybody else relate to that? Like the routine of life just disappeared. And so my routine fell. I've got five kids in my house. I was like, I can't keep up, I can't do this. And it was justifiable. It's COVID, right?

But then as time went by, I was like, you know, I'll get it back. You know, it'll come back. And it's been such a struggle to like get control back. And a lot of times I'm like, you know, it's no big deal. Like, you know, just eventually I'll get it back. And then I had this conviction that I wanted to share with you guys. It's a personal conviction, but maybe you relate. I felt like God was showing me that like, my kids are in my house only for a few short years. And here's where my conviction came in. Felt like God was saying, hey, you can be somebody for. 90%, I can be somebody for 90% of my life. But if I'm not that person while my kids are in my house, I will not be that person to them because they will have no memories of me as that person. You know what I'm saying? I want my kids to have known me as a man of self-control, to know their father as a man of self-control. So I'm just saying, let's learn this together. Like maybe there was something justifiable, a crazy thing that happened and you lost control. I get it. But what if now is the time to say, you know what, I'm gonna start to take control back and I can because of the spirit of God being with me in my life.

I ran across a quote that hit me in the chest. I love this quote from St. Philip Neri, who said, when God intends to grant a man any particular virtue, it is his way first to let him be tempted to the equal and opposite vice. It's pretty deep. Let me say it again. When God intends to grant a man any particular virtue, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control, it is his way to let him be tempted to the opposite vice. What if every single temptation isn't just an opportunity to say no to something bad, but it is the specific moment that God has given you to test you to say yes to something good, to who you really want to be. Could you have courage if you didn't have a moment where you were afraid? No. Could you have purity and faithfulness if you did not have a moment where you were tempted to lust first? No. When you're shopping, it's not just an opportunity to say no to compulsive spending, but to say yes to control. When you're at work, you're not just saying no to being an arrogant jerk. You're saying yes to being a team player who is humble.

When it comes to money, you're not just saying no to spending, you're saying yes to generosity. When it comes to lust, you're not just saying no to lust, you're saying yes to purity and faithfulness. And when it comes to like the pressure-filled moment where you're tempted to lie, to get out of something because you're afraid of the consequences, what if that was actually the moment where God was giving you the opportunity to be a man of courage who tells the truth and is honest regardless of what the consequences might be? Ryan Holiday echoes this in his book, "'The Obstacle is the Way'." He says, each and every one of these obstacles is an opportunity to practice some virtue, patience, courage, humility, resourcefulness, reason, justice, creativity. I think it's a tough fight, maybe the toughest fight any of us will ever face, but the Holy Spirit will help you with this to teach you self-control, to teach you that you're stronger than you think you are. I mean, I'll be honest with you, I've been in ministry 16 years now. There have been moments where I've seen people become a Christian, give their lives to Jesus, and they are completely delivered

from some significant sin in their life. They no longer have a appetite for alcohol, they no longer have an addiction to pornography, like it's amazing, it's miraculous, and it's rare. You know what usually happens? I think I would describe it like, hey, you become a Christian, it's like the Holy Spirit comes up next to you and it's like he picks up a sword and a shield and he hands them to you and says, hey, grab these. And then he picks up a sword and a shield and he hits the shield with the sword a few times, and he's like, okay, you ready? We're gonna start to do this together. And you're like, what? We're gonna fight? He's like, yeah, I'm gonna teach you. And he teaches you how to take back ground that the enemy has taken from you. And you can start to take it back one step at a time, 1% at a time, and he teaches you. You say, well, why wouldn't he just set me free from this whole sin? Because he wants to teach you that you are stronger than you think you are. Wants to teach you that you have something valuable to offer the kingdom of God, including self-control, that whatever this short temporary life right now before Jesus returns, whatever this is, is only meant to prepare us for eternity

in the kingdom of heaven forever. So whatever's happening right now, what if the Holy Spirit is trying to teach you something that you are more strong than you think you are? And you could start to learn how to fight this with the Holy Spirit by your side, one step at a time. Are you gonna lose some battles with sin? Yes. Does that mean you lose the war? No. In fact, if I could just give you one thing to hear before we wrap up today, it would be this. If you are a Christian, if you are in Christ, sin is not your master. It's not. Maybe you don't believe that. And you think, Luke, I can't control it. Sin dominates my mind and my thoughts. I get it. Let me read you something that the apostle Paul wrote in chapter six of that book of Romans. Paul said, we know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. And here it is, we are no longer slaves to sin. Verse seven, for when we died with Christ, we were set free from the power of sin. Really, Paul, I'm free? Yeah, you're free. because verse 10, when he, Jesus, when he died,

he died a sacrificial death to break, he died. I lost my spot. He died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So, and we're like, yes, so what? That's Jesus, Jesus, the son of God. He died for my sins, I'm forgiven. But that's Jesus, I can't relate to that. To which Paul's like, no, you can relate to this. Jesus died, changing what is possible for you. So what that means, verse 11, so you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. What does that mean? Verse 12, do not let sin control the way you live. Do not give in to sinful desires. To which some of us might say like, is that even possible? Because that seems totally impossible. I mean, Luke, you're a nice guy, but I have tried to say no, I can't do it. I've begged, I've pleaded. Listen, I get it, I've been right there with you, begging, pleading, but these are not my words. This is the apostle Paul, this is in the Bible. This is the word of God. He says, verse 13, do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God. Verse 14 says, for sin is no longer your master.

Some of you need to hear this because sin has lied to you. Your addiction has lied to you. It has deceived you. You think that you are in a sin prison cell that you can't get out of. The door to your cell, your sin prison, was opened by Christ. You can walk out anytime you want. So let me say it again. If you are in Christ, sin is not your master. Lust is not your master. Food is not your master. Prescription drugs are not your master. Alcohol is not your master. Anxiety is not your master. Shopping is not your master. Jealousy is not your master. Your bad habit is not your master. When you... When you became a Christian, you were placed into Christ and Christ came to do more than just forgive you. He came to set you free, to give you new liberty in life. And you do not have to serve sin anymore. You say, but Luke, I can't control it. Well, Paul's like, you may act like you can't say no. You may pretend and throw sin a bone. You may say yes to sin and make it your master, but you don't have to do that. You don't have to do that. You don't have to do that. You may say yes to sin and make it your master,

but sin is not your master. You can say no. You can go and sin no more. Every morning, you can get on your hands and knees and pray, God, I give all of me to you. My eyes, my thinking, my hands, my lips, my words, my ears, the things I hear, my feet. I surrender all of me to you. And I wanna agree with you that sin is not my master. And I will not submit the members of my body to a master who is no longer my master. You can do that every day. And I'm telling you, when this gets in you, it changes you. Just 1%, you begin to cultivate and say, hey, I don't have to do what sin tells me to do anymore. Because sin is not my master. Now Jesus is my King. He's a lot better person to listen to and to serve than your sin. And I'll tell you this, if you're not a Christian, maybe you grew up in church, got away, now you're back, or you don't know what you believe, whatever it is, guess what? Sin doesn't have to be your master either. And if you ever get fed up and tired of the sin that drags you down and the bad habits that bring destruction on yourself, cycles of destruction that destroy your relationships, I got good news for you.

Jesus has an open invitation that if you will turn and follow Him, He will change what is possible for you. Sin doesn't have to be your master either. If you ever get fed up and tired of that, you can turn and follow Him and He'll change what's possible for you. So I'd encourage you today, fill out that Connect card, let us know that you're making a decision, taking a step towards breakthrough in this. And I've been praying that somebody here would have a moment of breakthrough to say, yeah, you know what? Sin's not my master anymore. Doesn't have to command me. Now I can live in response to Jesus because we believe Jesus did something that changed what is possible. And if you will turn and follow Him, He will change everything about what is possible for you. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and how He transforms what is possible. Would you do a new thing in and through us? Would you break through all of the lies and the deception? in the calloused hearts that we might have, would you break through and start to prepare us for new growth, that we would experience all these wonderful virtues that we see

that are produced when we live in step with the Spirit. And I pray that there would be at least one person here today, Lord, would say, you know what? I'm gonna stop making sin the master of my life. Instead, I'm gonna serve Jesus as King of my life who has set me free. It's in His name that we pray. And we all say, amen. Thank you, guys.