Why Self Control is Your Superpower

Self-control is often one of the least discussed fruits of the Spirit. When people think of spiritual gifts, they usually think of love, joy, and peace. However, self-control is a key to unlocking a fuller, more joyous life in Christ. It’s essential for experiencing and expressing other spiritual gifts.

Biblical Foundation of Self-Control

Paul writes in 2 Timothy 1:7, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." The term "sound mind" can also be translated as self-control or self-discipline. God grants power, love, and self-control, providing a foundation for spiritual growth.

Practical Application

Self-control manifests in everyday situations, such as resisting temptations or managing distractions to make more time for God. For instance, avoiding the temptation to indulge in favourite snacks can reflect the larger spiritual discipline needed in life.

Scriptural Examples

Jesus demonstrated ultimate self-control in the Garden of Gethsemane. Despite immense power, He chose to submit to God’s will. Romans 8:5 highlights the need to live by the Spirit rather than by human desires.

Transformation Through Self-Control

Self-control is a lifelong journey, not an instant fix. It’s essential for knowing more about God and becoming more like Him. Romans 12:2 encourages believers to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. This transformation is akin to metamorphosis, illustrating a complete and beautiful change within.

Self-control is a superpower, a gift from God that, when nurtured, can transform lives and bring believers closer to His fullness and wholeness.

Matt Edmundson: [00:00:00] Welcome to this week's Crowd Church service. We are a digital church on a quest to discover how Jesus helps us live a more meaningful life. We are a community, a space to explore the Christian faith and a place where you can contribute and grow. I want to invite you to connect with us here at Crowd Church and there are a few ways that you can do just that.

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And now, the moment you've been waiting for is here, our online church service starts right now.

Claire Glare: So exciting to be here with you, Dan. It's like a reveal now,

Dan Orange: isn't it? It's like, who's it going to be?

Claire Glare: The round window. Yes. Yes, looking forward to hearing your talk as well tonight.

Dan Orange: Yeah, so, um, I'm afraid you got me live and you got me recorded.

Claire Glare: No, there's nothing to be afraid of. Brilliant, a double, a double portion of you, a double dab, a dip dab, a double dab.

Dan Orange: Yeah, so today we've got, um, I'm doing the last in the series of the talks on the fruits of the spirit, self control coming up.

Claire Glare: Yeah, yeah. And we were just talking before, weren't we, about actually how, Yeah.

Dan Orange: Well, hopefully, some, there might be some in there. And when, when the talk's on. Please, if you've got any questions, then just fire them into the comments, whether it's on Instagram or YouTube or Facebook now, pretty much anywhere, just fire them in and we can see them all popping. front of us

Claire Glare: on the Tinternet.

Dan Orange: Yes. So Matt's saying, where's your, where's your knitting, Claire? You didn't bring your knitting today? No,

Claire Glare: I thought Dan couldn't cope with my knitting. I thought I needed to give my full undivided attention, particularly to self control, frankly, and I've sworn no karaoke as well. So we'll see.

Dan Orange: Yeah, I just found out about the karaoke.

Hmm,

Claire Glare: bit

Dan Orange: nervous.

Dan Orange: Oh, yes. Hi, Heather.

Claire Glare: And Graham. And Matt.

Dan Orange: Oh, and Andy. Yeah, everyone's tuning in.

Claire Glare: Oh, that's lovely.

Dan Orange: Yeah.

Claire Glare: That looks a nice place, Andy. I'd quite like to go there. I don't know where that is. Please do not sing, Matt. Matt Crew really doesn't like me

Dan Orange: singing.

Claire Glare: I will exercise self control. Self control. Yeah. All over it. All over it.

Dan Orange: I'm quite good at my self control with singing. Are you?

Claire Glare: Do you not like singing?

Dan Orange: I like singing when there's lots of singing around me. Yep. Um, but not on my own.

Claire Glare: Okay. So no singing in the shower

Dan Orange: or

Claire Glare: no singing humming along to the bird tune?

It just used to be there, like, when there was a bit of, like, tumbleweed silence, I wouldn't know what to do. And, um, wouldn't it be nice if Beach Boys would come? Would pop out.

Claire Glare: I love that.

Dan Orange: But far from that.

Claire Glare: Tell us your tunes. I'm a, I'm a Richard, what is it? Um, a marching, a marching tune. If I need to kind of stir myself up, I'm like, uh.

Um, yeah, I can't think of the one that I do now, but it's a, it's a kind of marching YouTube to get me going. I

Dan Orange: do like, I must admit, sometimes when I'm in the gym, if I listen to music, that's the time when I listen to like worship songs. Yeah. It is very hard not to. Sing out loud. My favorite song at the moment is, um, Ain't No Grave Gonna Hold Me Down.

Yeah. Really like that.

Claire Glare: That's tricky not to sing along with. Yes, it is.

Claire Glare: I, I think that sounds good.

Dan Orange: Okay. So let me see if, press a button and, um, here comes the talk.

Claire Glare: Okay.

Dan Orange: Welcome to the talk about self control. Probably one of the least talked about gifts of the Spirit.

We've got love, joy, peace. They're the big hitters, aren't they? Perhaps the gifts we desire most. You talk about Jesus, you know you're talking about love and the source of love. But how do we get more love? How do we get more joy, more peace? He came to give life and life in its fullness, the wholeness that God gives.

Perhaps you have more control of certain aspects of your life, and less over others. As a little example, we had a bank holiday recently and had already had a good deal of snacks, the food, uh, the day before. Nice food, but probably not what I need to get my cholesterol down. But I was in the supermarket and getting some food for lunch and came across my favorite crisps.

I'm a big crisp fan. They are a test of my self-control. So I'm staring at a big bag of Marks and Spencer's sour cream and jalapeno combo mix. They are simply the best crisps, and I know I could just buy a bag, eat them all on my own. Well, I didn't buy them. I bought something else. Wow. Self control in action.

The word sound mind is also translated as self control or self discipline, power, love, and self control. As Spider Man's uncle says, Great power comes with great responsibility. Well, the Bible had it first. God gives us this power, but along with it, he gives us self control. If we ask him, he will fill us with his spirit.

They are the fruits of his spirit that he has put within us. So how can we use it? Like the parable of the talents in Matthew 25. I haven't got time to go into that now, but, but have a read. Talks about how God rewards us when we use what we, what he has given us. So God has given us this spirit, not of fear, but of love and sound mind.

So how can we develop these gifts? Moving to more of his wholeness and the life that he has for us. The more I've thought about self control for this talk, the more I see it and I need it in my life. How do I know more about God? I read about him, I spend time with him. Well, I need self control for that.

How can I experience His joy when I'm jumping from one experience to another without control to take a moment and see God's joy, not man's fleeting highs? Ephesians 5 verse 18 says, don't be drunk with wine because that will ruin your life, instead be filled with the Holy Spirit. What I think God is saying there is don't lose control, have self control.

It isn't just tacked at the end of these lists of, lists of gifts. All these gifts complement each other. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. I want to jump back to Jesus's life just before he was crucified and before the Holy Spirit had come upon the disciples.

So I'm reading from Mark's Gospel, Chapter 14. Then they came to a place which was named Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, Sit here while I pray. And he took Peter, James, and John with him, and began to be troubled and deeply distressed. Then he said to them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death, stay here and watch.

Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Again he went away and prayed. And spoke the same words, and when he returned, he found them asleep again, but their eyes were heavy and they did not know what to answer him. So Jesus was about to be crucified.

He knew what was coming up. He had ultimate self-control. He could have run, he could have said, no, God, I can't do this. But he knew why he was there. There's a great hymn that said, has these words, it says he could have called 10,000 Angels to destroy the world and set him free. But he didn't. He had all that power, but he had self control.

Not by our own flesh, which is another way of saying our human desires. God's Spirit is what we need to live by faith. In Paul's letters to the Romans, Roman Church, he says this, For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. Those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

But it's a lifelong journey, it's not an instant hit, but to help us he's put his spirit within us, these amazing qualities, these fruits. God gives us the gifts, but we must nurture them, grow in them. And he will increase them by his spirit. God says we're a new creation in Christ. All the old has passed away and we've become new.

I've just listened to a story with my daughter about metamorphosis, about the amazing transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly and a tadpole into a frog. God gives great examples of his power and his word in creation, doesn't he? The more I think about metamorphosis, it just blows my mind. Does the butterfly remember its past?

Utter, beautiful transformation. A wonderful process, body and spirit. Allow Him to work and grow these gifts in you, to give God time, to ask Him for more self control, more of His sour mind. I'll leave this final verse with you, that it's a constant work, not an instant job in us. His gifts are to be received, nurtured and shared.

This is from Romans 12 verse 2. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

It does come around quick. Move back. It's very strange listening to yourself.

Some great scriptures there as well. Yeah, really meaty ones. Yes. Yeah. Is

Dan Orange: there anything, um, that, you know, what jumped out to you? It's very, sorry. It's really, really weird talking about yourself, but this is about the Holy Spirit. So what, what in that talk did you think?

Claire Glare: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think, um, I should have been making notes.

I should have been making notes. Um, I think it is that thing of, Um, you know, I think that example of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane is probably the one that stays with me. I think, um, I had this little confession, confession is good for the soul, everybody. I had a little sleep on my office floor this week.

They would know I'm not taking the MIG. I just need a little break here, so I lay down in the office, there was a handy cushion, and uh, I don't know, I had a little power nap, but it was really good. But, but, you know, actually, you know, imagine, like, being Peter, James and John, and Jesus saying to you, oh, you know, just wait and pray.

Dan Orange: recorded, for everyone else to go, man, they fell asleep, I wouldn't do a thing like that.

Claire Glare: Well, it happened twice in the space of an hour, you know, it was just like, But, I mean, I don't know if you've ever, I'm sure, driving on the motorway sometimes at night, you do, it comes over you all of a sudden, doesn't it, that sleep ly, sleepiness, and you do just have to pull over as safely as you can, and, you know, Just take a moment, or if you've not got any sugary snack, or my favourite thing is pulling John's ear, or like, we do a bit of shouting in the car as well, we go, ahhhhhh, to try and wake each other up or whatever.

Obviously it's a bit trickier with the kids in the back now, you can't really do that, because you don't want them to wake up. But that, that thing of trying to stay asleep, trying to stay awake when you feel really sleepy. And I think But I think that is, that's, that is a really helpful analogy, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah, those are some of my, yeah. [00:20:00]

Dan Orange: Yeah, I think, yeah, you're totally right. And the, the, it is that the Bible talks about renewing of the mind and that self control or self or discipline, that is something that it is an instance. So it's, it's a gift. So it's, It's like, it's like the other gifts, love, joy, that they're gifts from God.

God is love. So he pours it out on us. So it must be, you know, it's just his essence, isn't it? It pours out. But we still have to, we're still a new creation, we're still growing to be more like him. But it's knowing that he, he gives us that self control, and he's there saying, okay, Well, use it, let's discipline it.

Claire Glare: Yeah. And I think, I think that is, that does, because it's a gift and a, you know, a fruit of the spirit. It's, um, it does take the pressure off in that sense, doesn't it?

Yeah, it does. It, it, you know, it, but it's, it's like, and, and that when we are facing those difficult times that we can call out to God and just say, actually, I, I'm really struggling here. Can you? Flood me with your love, flood me with your gentleness, flood me with your self control, you know, and I think, I think that's, that's the extra, isn't it?

We see that in people use people. God's used me and uses me and I'm not in any way perfectly still. That's, that's where grace comes on top of it as well. Doesn't he just keeps pouring that out and says, these still, my gifts are still going to give you these things, but he has. Yeah. Imagine the self control to go on the cross when you know, you're the, you're You're the king, you're the creator, and people are just going to mock you.

How hard it is when people just talk back to you or talk, talk at you and belittle you. Yeah, yeah. And you're the, our saviour, and he still did that I think, it's just, that's, that's self control. That's the ultimate self control, isn't it?

Yeah.

Dan Orange: Yeah.

And Andy said when Jesus was in the desert and being tempted, self control there as well, knowing that, well, like the devil said to him, well, you could just tell this stone just to turn into some bread, you don't have to be hungry, I mean, again, self control to know, well, now this time is for me, between me.

And God and sometimes we don't know why we have to have these periods of, of wilderness, but it's just a time to, to know that God is still God. Yeah. Yeah.

The challenge, I think when you live in a, a Western culture, that, and the actually the, you know, I have a full fridge. Mm. Yeah. I, you know, I have cupboards that are full of tins and things that I could, you know, make food and have food and or I have money that I could go through a shop and buy. And, and I, for me, I think the challenge at the moment is where I need.

And, um. And so, even when there's such a beautiful prize as that, it's so hard, and, yeah, I don't have any answers for that really, I think it's, um, it can only be going to God and saying, you know, on a moment by moment, day by day basis, isn't it, and saying, Lord, Develop that fruit of your spirit in me. Yeah, yielding.

Yeah. Making some of those choices. No, actually, I'm going to have a drink of water rather than, you know, a bag of

Dan Orange: crisps. Yeah. And we just said they're just starting with one thing because I know for me, just on a practical thing. Um, I was overweight. My doctor said, yeah, your cholesterol is going to go down.

It helps me when this is my time. With God now, you know, and it's, it's, it's amazing how it has really just the discipline in one area. It's not wasted. Yeah, it goes into all the other areas of my life.

Claire Glare: Yeah.

Dan Orange: Yeah.

Claire Glare: Yeah, we agree, Nicola, as well, self control with money, yeah, and same thing, we live in a culture, don't we, where it's instant, we have so much, and we can get it, and we can get it tomorrow, if we order it by five o'clock.

Just like click, well, everyone else can do it and everyone else on Instagram and social media and friends, they seem to be doing it and they got the same job as me. So. If I do it, it must work out and it's got to live according to what our response, our self control for, but for us.

And just to think, Oh gosh, you know, it is, I want that, it's a good thing for me. Why is that? It's not a bad thing. But I think it's, I think it. It's about timing, isn't it? Yeah. And putting all your ducks in order.

Dan Orange: Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Is that the right term?

Claire Glare: You know, paying the important things first, and then with the extra.

And I can certainly say that that's been my experience over the years that, that, um. You know, God's faithful. Yeah, those things.

Dan Orange: Isn't it great when he fed the 5, 000 that they had loads left over? I always think that's brilliant. It wasn't like they fed the 5, 000, he's fed the 5, 000 and they all went and their stomachs were filled.

We go, okay. Well, we've seen that written down. Was that, did that happen? Did God just fill their stomachs? No. They had to collect up all this excess, um, Graham's just put, steadfastness is also a feature here, when we fail with God's help, we can pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and start all over again, absolutely, God doesn't leave us down there, and that's what I was just thinking about the 5, 000, he has that excess, he says, here's my gifts, here's what I want to lavish you.

Claire Glare: start all over again. Yes, exactly. That is definitely a cue for a song, but I'm going to resist it.

Dan Orange: Yeah. Um, I think our time's coming to an end. Wow. It goes really fast, doesn't it? Um, I don't know what's happening next week. Because when the talk was on and I was listening to myself, I was meant to check.

Oh, were you? Yes, because it's the last of them. And I was

Claire Glare: just listening intently. Yeah. Um, I promise I'm not singing. Um, and I don't know because I never know because it's always a mystery to me. Um, Matt Crew is definitely saying that there is definitely a Zoom. There's a midweek is always really good.

And there's a What's The Story podcast.

Claire Glare: Lots of my patients at work have PTSD. So I should definitely listen to that. Yeah, 7. 30 at Wednesday. Thanks, Matt. But the podcast is available at any time.

Dan Orange: Yes. So Matt is speaking next week on Who Are You, um, Wholeness, so it's like summing up this whole series that we've been on, so that'd be really good.

Claire Glare: Great. Yeah. Because you've done, because all the fruit has fruits and spirits have now been

Dan Orange: covered. Yes. And

Claire Glare: uh, yeah. Who are we as a result?

Dan Orange: Indeed. Yeah.

Claire Glare: Sounds good.

Dan Orange: Yeah. I'm looking forward to that. Um, and I'm back again. Matt will be actually in a moment. America, I think, either way. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Speaking gallivanting around the world. Fabulous. Um, sounds good. And so it'd be me and Will Sopwith next week. I'm looking forward to spending some time with Will.

Claire Glare: Yeah, that'd be good.

Claire Glare: I think it helps us stay focused on the topic as well, doesn't it?

It's like, yes, you are absolutely right.

Dan Orange: Um, and if you've got any prayer requests, so we have a WhatsApp group and whenever someone sends us a prayer request, it comes through to us. Throughout the day, um, we're getting these requests for, to pray and it's just brilliant. It is. I love it. And people have response in, yeah, responding back with answers to prayers as well.

Um, yeah, it is a massive privilege.

Claire Glare: Totally. Yeah. So we would love to pray for you about all sorts of things. Yes.

Dan Orange: Yeah, definitely.

Claire Glare: Yeah.

Dan Orange: Well, thanks very much. And we will see you all next week.

Matt Edmundson: Thank you so much for joining us here on Crowd Church. Now if you are watching on YouTube, make sure you hit the subscribe button as well as that little tiny bell notification to get notified the next time we are live. And of course, if you are listening to the podcast, uh, the live stream podcast, make sure you also hit the follow button.

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