Main Idea: The Spirit’s self-control is the freedom to live a life that is fully pleasing to God.

This morning we come to our last message in the series "Living from the Inside Out". In this series we have spent our time talking about the fruit of the Spirit that Paul discusses in Gal. 5:22-23. There are nine expressions of the fruit of the Spirit that Paul mentions. He says, "But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." One thing that we have said throughout these talks is that every one of these qualities can be duplicated in some fashion without the Holy Spirit. In other words you don’t have to be Christian to show love or have joy and peace. Yet what we have wrestled with each time is that surely the fruit of the Spirit is something more than the human expression of these qualities. I mean if I can do these on my own then I don’t need God. There has got to be something else, something deeper, something more that God’s Spirit supplies that I can’t do on my own. That has never been truer than the quality we talk about today: self-control.

When I started thinking about this message I thought that it would be pretty easy for me to talk about because I am normally a fairly self-disciplined person. It is just part of my DNA. I get up very early everyday and have time with God. I’m careful about maintaining a healthy lifestyle. I work hard and seek to keep my human desires in check. For whatever reason I like reading books and articles that talk about discipline, I think because I am a perfectionist and self-discipline and being a perfectionist sort of go together. But I had to ask myself the question: Is that really the fruit of the Spirit? I mean are those things I can do without God? Do I have the self-control of the Holy Spirit or is it just the routine of my life that has been built up over time? Am I willing to ask the hard questions: Are there parts of my deepest self that I am helpless to change? Am I in touch with things within me that are so bad, so wrong, and so weak, that no amount of self-discipline or effort can take care of them?

You may be a person who has a tremendous amount of self-discipline. You have the ability to do amazing things out of shear will power. But are you honest with yourself that there are places in your life that you know that no matter how disciplined you are everywhere else you can’t win the battle deep within yourself? You know that there is this life that pleases God and that you really want to live but you can’t seem to find the freedom to say, "Yes!" to that life. You can’t say, "Yes" because there are areas of your deepest self that you can’t control.

If that is you then you can identify with Paul when he said, "I don't understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate…I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn, I can't make myself do right. I want to, but I can't. When I want to do good, I don't. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway." (Romans 7:15, 18-19) Sounds familiar doesn’t it. You would think that if anyone knew what it was to be free to live the life that was fully pleasing to God it would be Paul but he admits that by himself he is helpless! There was no one who had more self- discipline than Paul but when it came to a life that would be fully pleasing to God he knew that he couldn’t do it on his own.

So what did he do? The answer is that he learned to live in the freedom of the Spirit’s self-control. He would say in Romans 8:12-13, "So, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation whatsoever to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you keep on following it, you will perish. But if through the power of the Holy Spirit you turn from it and its evil deeds, you will live. Paul understood that the life that he wanted to live that would be fully pleasing to God would always be hindered by a part of his nature that no amount of self-discipline would master. He was not free to say, "Yes" to that life because he was caught in the struggle of saying, "No!" to a part of himself that continually wanted to control him. So in order to say, "Yes" he knew that he had to release himself to the higher power of the Holy Spirit within him. And that was not easy. In fact it was a struggle that demanded all of his energy. That is what he describes for us in our text for today. What I want us to see today is that the Spirit’s self-control is the freedom to live a life that is fully pleasing to God. Yet gaining that life requires a willingness to engage in the real struggles with parts of our lives that we can’t control.

The background to the verses that we look at this morning is from the area of athletics. In the original language Paul uses the word competes in verse 25, referring to the Greek stadium. It meant, "to carry on a contest or conflict." Other places in the New Testament it refers to the goal, which can only be reached with the total commitment of our strength (Luke 13:24). For Paul, the work of a life that would be fully pleasing to God was not a daily fulfillment of duty but a tense exertion, a passionate struggle (Col. 1:29). It was like a competition that demands a rigid self-control (I Cor.9:25). It also was aware of the struggles, obstacles, dangers and catastrophes through which a believer must fight their way. This word places a note of struggle and conflict in his discussion. He knew at anytime those things that deep with in him were out of his control could control him.

It is possible for you to have a disciplined life but not live a life that is fully pleasing to God. I mean you can have your life so neatly arranged that everything runs like clockwork and nothing interferes with your schedule or plans. You depend on your habits and traditions or routines and are determined to keep them going not because you like them or that they are fulfilling but because they keep life sane and divert the chaos. But simply because you have your life all neatly planned doesn’t mean that it is one that truly is pleasing to God. Why? Because you never really depend on his power! You never really wrestle with the hard stuff because, well, it just doesn’t fit in your schedule. Avoiding the realities of life as it is or yourself as you are will never put you on the path to freedom and it certainly won’t connect you with the life that is fully pleasing to God. If you are not willing to engage in the struggle then you will not know the freedom!

One thing we need to understand is that there is a difference in self-discipline and the fruit of the Spirit called self-control. The word self-control meant, "to master yourself" or "one who controls himself". Self-control was a highly sought after quality in the culture that Paul lived. He mentions it in verse 25 when he talks about the discipline those athletes must have to compete. He says, "All athletes practice strict self-control." The place where this self-control was demonstrated was in the games held in Corinth every three years and similar to our summer Olympic games. To the Greeks athletics was for many their religion (not unlike we are today). To them, the athlete was an earthly god. To win in the games was to be the hero of all heroes! If they won, they would receive, first of all, a crown of pine needles, or olive branch or laurel wreath. But that was only a small motivation. The other rewards included unparalleled recognition and monetary support for a lifetime. This was the motivation for a man to compete in the games! But in order to win the most difficult self-control was to be applied!

But is the Spirit’s self-control nothing more than hard-nosed self-discipline? No, because if all it means is self-control then I’m sunk because the very thing I can’t control is myself! That is why Paul says that a Christian’s motivation is different than human self-discipline. He says, "They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize." Previously in verse 24 Paul reminds them, "Remember that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize. You also must run in such a way that you will win." He uses the example of a runner in the 200-yard sprint. Many would enter the race but only one received the prize – there was only one winner. His point is that for believers there is a higher motivation or prize than just the ability to control your self.

What is that "prize" that he mentions here? He uses it three times in the passage for today so it must be pretty important. While I can’t be certain because Paul never really defines it I believe the "prize" that motivates him is the dream of a life lived so fully here that it is rewarded by God when he gets to heaven. Now think about that for a moment. Does that mean a life that is all neat and tidy and never experiences conflict or problems? If it does then I’m out of the race! Is it a perfect life that is so organized and disciplined that it is all boxed and shiny so that God can just put it on a shelf? Or is it a life that was willing to say to God, "Here I am with all this stuff inside of me that I can’t control. I want a life that is fully pleasing to you more than I want anything else but I can’t do it myself. I need your Spirit to control those places that I just can’t control."

You see the ability to experience the Spirit’s self-control starts with that kind of motivation. In other words we must believe that with God’s power we don’t always have to be defeated by our own nature. To be fully aware that there is much within me that I cannot control no matter how hard I try puts me in touch with the fact that I’m licked. Only then can there be any freedom for the Spirit to work in my heart. The freedom begins by our awareness of deep parts of our souls that we can do nothing about and releasing that to God. We believe that God is more powerful than any of the deepest problems we face. For the Spirit to begin to control what we can’t, we must say, "I am choosing to take a step toward God’s control of my life rather than away from him."

But is this something that I do passively or casually? No, it is done with intensity and with all our energies. Paul uses two examples of this intensity in verse 26. First he mentions running. Like a runner he runs toward a specific aim – the finish line. The whole of Paul’s life is directed toward the goals that God has for him. Boxing was another event in the games. The boxers used leather gloves with a strip of metal over the knuckles. Paul means he does not swing wildly but every punch is methodical and exact. The method for Paul is that he knew exactly the places in his life that were the biggest threat to his relationship to God and he was not going to waste time on non-essentials.

Why? Well, he tells us in verse 27, "I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified." Paul gave himself to the complete control of God’s Spirit for the simple reason he did not want to lose the reward of the benefits of preaching the gospel. What did he do? He said, "I discipline my body" – literally make it black and blue. Was this unusual? No. Gladiators were known to have submitted themselves to being "whipped with rods, burned with fire" to be ready to fight. Next, he says he "trains it to do what it should". He meant that his physical life was totally without a will of its own and was allowed to continue only as long as it did not hamper him in his ministry.

Why did he do it? Because he knew that any area of his life that was not under the Spirit’s control could in moment destroy a lifetime of service to God. Paul wanted nothing in his life that would hinder his being able to have the freedom of living a life fully pleasing to God.

So let’s be honest have you fooled yourself into thinking that there is nothing in your life that you can’t control by your own will and discipline? Have you come to settle for a life that is safe and routine believing that that is a life that fully pleases God? Have you imagined that a life that is fully pleasing to God is a life that isn’t messy with struggles and conflict within the deepest parts of your self? Are tired of struggling with always just saying, "No!" to the temptation when you want to say "Yes!" to God’s greater purpose? Do you know the freedom that comes by saying, "Yes" to a life that is fully pleasing to God? If any of those questions describe you then you need to release control of your self and all of its struggles and battles to the control of God’s Spirit. When you do then you will know what it is to have God’s Spirit controlling your self!

During the last two weeks I have been personally saddened by the revelations of the actions of Ted Haggard. Haggard, as you know, was the president of the National Association of Evangelicals and the pastor of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Denver, Colorado. The accusations against Haggard are well known and do not require my restating them for you. What has come to my mind is how does this happen? How can a person be able to serve as a minister of a church and be as prominent of a leader as he was and have a whole other life that is the exact opposite of what he preached and believed? The answer is what Haggard was finally able to admit about himself, "The fact is I am guilty of sexual immorality. And I take responsibility for the entire problem. I am a deceiver and a liar. There’s a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring against it for all of my adult life." What a man was never able to admit to himself has now been exposed to the entire world.

Today I honestly ask you, "Where are you at war within yourself? Where is your life within totally out of your control?" Don’t keep thinking, "I can do it! I can win this time!" The answer is you can’t and you will never be able to control what God has always intended to control and that is yourself! You may feel today that you are at the end of your rope with trying to win the battle for control of yourself. You wonder if you can go on one more day. Today I tell you that the life you want, a life fully pleasing to God, is waiting, waiting for you. The ability to have that life will never come from your own self but from One who deep within you says, "Let me give you the freedom to say, "Yes" to a life fully pleasing to me!" Do you know the freedom of saying "yes" to the Spirit’s control of your self?

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org