As we continue to learn how we can join God in His transformative work in our lives, we learn how we can add self-control to our faith.

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OC Church of Christ

Get to go ahead and continue

our sermon series that we began

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called Become More in twenty-four.

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God wants us to become more.

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You want to become more.

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You want to become more kind,

more loving, more punctual more

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in shape, whatever the case is.

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But God also wants you to become more,

not only this year, but and beyond.

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And so we started.

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Looking through what is called

maybe the Ladder of Faith

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or ladder of transformation

in second Peter chapter one.

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And so we're studying that out.

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We actually have a little handout

online, on our church app.

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You can go ahead and look at,

uh, for a little handout to give

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you a little brief summary of the

chapter or excuse me, of the book of

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second Peter that we're looking at.

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And so, as we go this, I wanna remind

us of a couple of things because

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that helps us set up the proper

context for what we're studying

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out and what we're delving into.

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God desires for you to become

like him, not for you to

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have the power and all that.

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We're thinking.

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Well, can I be divine

in that nature though?

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But for your character, for

your likeness to be like.

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His, you know, my, my dad is in town

and I haven't seen my dad in many years.

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And so my dad was in town and

it's so funny because my dad he he

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really likes to dress up in suits.

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So you'll see him, he'll be

in a casual setting, but he

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might be dressed up in a suit.

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And so our kids are like,

you know, what's up?

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What's up with Grandpops?

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Why is he, why is he got a suit on?

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I'm like, that's your grandpops.

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And then I'm like, you see

where I get some of that from?

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Hence my suit today.

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You know what I'm saying?

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And so in many ways he's so proud.

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He is like, man, okay,

you're being like me.

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You know what I mean?

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And in many ways I want my kids to as

well, you know, to, to rock some suits

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on Sunday, you know, and then for little

Dominique to go ahead with a mustache

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and to goatee, you know what I mean?

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To have his suit on as well.

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And so God wants us to be like

him, but the problem is we sin.

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And so we get corrupted.

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And so now he's in the process of

redeeming us to become more like him.

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Are you with me, church?

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And so this is so huge for us to

understand not only for our journey,

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but especially as we study out two

Peter chapter one now, as we'll see,

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and we'll be reminded again in the text.

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God has given us everything

we need to live a godly life.

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He's given us everything we need, but then

he says in the scripture, but your role is

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to make every effort to add to your faith.

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And so it's not just God just gives us in

and that's sit, but God gives us in that

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we're called to put it into practice, but

to make every effort to add to our faith.

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And so we've looked at so far

adding to our faith, goodness.

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And we also looked at oh, excuse me, also.

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Uh, yes.

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Uh, uh, at the intersection of God's

empowerment and our human effort

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is when transformation takes place.

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Now we can change in many ways, but

for us to transform into the likeness

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and image of God, we have to have human

efforts that needs God's empowerment.

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And so we've looked at so far

how, uh, goodness, how we can

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add goodness to our faith.

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Daniel talked about how we can add

knowledge to our faith, and this week

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we'll talk about adding self-control.

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And so again, the, uh, title

for today is Becoming More or

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Become More at twenty-four.

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And we're looking at self-control.

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Let's go to the father in prayer.

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Father, we thank you

so much for your word.

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God, I'm excited about what

you've been teaching me.

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I feel challenged.

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Uh, God, I feel grateful,

and I pray right now.

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Father, I know you have a, a message

and a point here for every soul

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that's here, every soul that is

online, every soul that will hear it

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later through a podcast or YouTube.

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God, I pray right now that as every

soul hears your word, not mine,

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but Father, they hear your word.

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And God, that, that, that you minister

to all of us for others so that we

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can add to our faith so we become

more like you and live out your will.

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We pray this in the name of Jesus.

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Amen.

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Alright, so let's go ahead, let's go

to second Peter, chapter one here.

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Uh, I will say this, uh, uh,

uh, you know what, pray for me.

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Uh, last time I preached, I, I had

to be subdued because I threw out my

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voice watching the Forty-Niner game.

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And, uh, and then, then the next

week we went to the Hope Saturday

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Academy and our orientation.

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And I think I threw out my voice again,

yelling and trying to do the hope chant.

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And, uh, so this week I'm like,

all right, I gotta save myself.

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And, uh, so I'm trying

right now to save myself.

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And then later on at three-thirty, I need

your prayers that I don't throw out my

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voice when the Forty-Niners are playing.

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Amen.

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And some have said, this

is my Forty-Niners tie.

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You know what?

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I guess it is my Forty-Niners tie.

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And so if they don't win, do

not call or text me at all.

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Okay?

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Now I'm be like, oh, I'm

gonna be funny and text 'em.

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No, do not.

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Okay.

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I might block your number going forward.

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Okay.

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All right.

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And that's just a partial joke.

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All right, so second Peter, chapter one.

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Let's go in verse three here.

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Okay.

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His divine power has given us everything

we need for a godly life through our

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knowledge of him who has called us by

his own glory and goodness through these.

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He has given us his very great and

precious promises so that through them

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you may participate in the divine nature.

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Having escaped the corruption in

the world caused by evil desires for

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this very reason, make every effort

to add to your faith goodness and to

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goodness knowledge and to knowledge.

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Self-control.

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Again, I wanna remind us as

we add these things, it's not,

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uh, we're adding one by one.

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Once I get one down, then

I can get to the other.

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No, this is like, uh,

baking ingredients here.

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Okay?

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We're adding the sugar, we're adding

the flour, the eggs, whatever.

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We're adding 'em all the time

so that again, what comes

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out is the image of Christ.

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And so we wanna look at

this idea of self-control.

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And so the Greek here, we're gonna

drop a little Greek here for you.

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All right, is a cretia,

the N is actually silent.

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And this word here in Greek, it, it

means self-control, especially, uh,

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Continents temperance, but really has

its meaning of dominion over the self

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or something Dominion over the self.

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What comes to mind when you

hear dominion over the self?

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There's a mastery, there's a

control, there's a, there's a

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sovereignty, there's a lordship.

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And so Peter is calling us to

add to our faith this dominion

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and control over ourselves.

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And so it makes me think,

okay, well what does this look

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like in the disciple of Jesus?

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And number one, I think what it means

here is for the Christian, for you

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and me, for the disciple of Jesus.

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Self-control is submission to the

control of the indwelling Christ.

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See those who have repented and

got baptized, we received the

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indwelling of God's holy Spirit.

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And so self-control then for the

Christian is to be in full submission

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to the Holy Spirit's reign and rule

in our lives that the Holy Spirit is

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master and ruler, and not ourselves,

not our feelings, not our appetite.

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But God and his will.

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It's living for God and serving

others rather than serving

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our self and our desires.

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It means feelings and emotions becoming

servants and not masters because many

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times we can have it backwards, right?

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Where our feelings, our emotions

become our masters and therefore what

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happens, we lose What self-control I.

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When you give into that impulse

and you lash out or you, you,

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you go out, what happens?

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You have lost control and you

created, or maybe not created, but

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you therefore behave in a way in which

you knew you really didn't want to or

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wouldn't in a different circumstance.

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But because you lost self-control

and gave in, now there's damage.

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It's dominion and control

over our mind, our eyes.

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Our ears, our hearts, our hands,

and our feet, our stomach.

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It's demeaning.

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Controlling these things.

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Controlling what we consume,

and controlling what we put

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out, what we, what we take in.

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We have a control over.

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And then also what comes out of us.

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We have dominion over.

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For that, and obviously this means

a denial of evil and sinful desires

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and we're gonna have self-control.

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God is obviously meaning, Hey,

you know, we gotta make sure that

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you control yourself with these

temptations and evil desires that are

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in your life or that are around you.

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You know, let's, it's sports.

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Season here.

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We got the Super Bowl today.

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Jessica's got her.

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Uh, yeah, yeah, she's got that jersey on.

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Amen.

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Um, and so in football, you know,

we, we've talked about this, but, but

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even in basketball, you know what?

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Let, let's just do this here.

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Okay, come on man.

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Can you come up to the stage real quick?

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Come on up here, man.

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Come on up to the stage here real quick.

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Come on up here to the stage real quick.

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Gabe's a good friend of mine.

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At least I think we're good friends.

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All right, here we go.

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There you go, Gabe.

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I'm sorry man.

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You want you, you strong.

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There you go.

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Look at him.

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Come on.

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There you go.

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There's Gabe here.

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All right.

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He said No, you'll, you'll be good, man.

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Don't worry about it.

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All right, here we go.

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So, so, so I'm, I'm a huge football

fan, but I'm also a basketball fan.

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And so in basketball, uh, you know,

sometimes they tell you that you

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have to deny the person the ball.

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So let's say he's like, Steph Curry

or something like that, right.

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Or, uh, LeBron James here.

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That, that, that you would

describe yourself that way.

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Yes, he is.

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He's a Caucasian version of LeBron James.

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So there you go.

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Built like him too, you

know what I'm saying?

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And so in basketball, you know, they'll

say, Hey, deny LeBron James the ball.

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Deny, uh, LeBron, Strobel the ball here.

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Okay.

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All right.

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And so in, and so I have to go

ahead and I have to deny him.

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And so if he were to move that

way, move that way, I'm trying to

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make sure he doesn't get the ball.

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You get what I'm saying?

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Oh, look, he thinks he's way,

oh, oh, he thought he had me.

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He thought because I'm old, I

couldn't deny him, but I did.

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And so here's what happens here.

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So if somebody throws the ball,

I'm supposed to deny him the ball.

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I gotta deny it.

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I don't want him to have it.

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Now, this represents our souls.

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And sometimes we have temptations.

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And what he's saying is,

you gotta add self-control.

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Deny that.

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Deny that sin, deny that lust.

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Deny that thing that maybe

not now, but for later.

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You gotta deny that.

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Don't let it feed into your soul

because it will corrupt you.

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So when we have

self-control, I control it.

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I'm denying myself.

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I Denying my, my, my anger

giving my, my lashing out.

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I'm denying myself and

taking things I shouldn't, I

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shouldn't, I shouldn't take in.

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And so God is calling us to

add to ourselves self-control

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that denies evil desires.

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Give it up for Gabe LeBron.

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James Strobel.

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That man thought he can get by me.

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You crazy.

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I am tired now, but Amen.

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Here's the thing, brothers and

sisters, this isn't a denial of just

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sin, but it's having self-control

in all aspects of our lives.

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It's having self-control with

our thoughts, our internet

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usage, our speech, our eating.

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Our schoolwork, our homework,

our our, our, our work at our

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jobs, our sleep, our anger, etc.

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In every area of life, we must learn to

control ourselves and let Christ reign

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rather than our own self-centered desires,

because if we don't, then we'll be

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mastered and controlled by other things.

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Second Peter chapter two, write this down.

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Verse 19.

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He says, people are slaves to

whatever has mastered them.

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So again, if I don't control

myself, then I will be a slave

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to whatever is mastering me.

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That might be sick.

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It might be my stomach, it

might be my cravings, it

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might be whatever the case is.

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We have to make sure that we

add to our faith, Self-control.

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Now, can we just have a moment of honesty?

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I know y'all like moments

of, of non-honesty, right?

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Can we just have a moment here where we,

where we can just acknowledge something?

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Self-control is what?

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Hard.

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It's hard.

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If it was easy, then it

wouldn't even be added.

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It wouldn't, we wouldn't be

mentioned because it would be

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something that we naturally do.

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But our natural tendency

is to lack self-control.

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And so it's hard and what happens often.

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Is that because it's hard.

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We give in too easily sometimes.

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We give in to sin, we

give into temptation.

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We give into our feelings and our

emotions, our impulses, and we give in,

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and therefore we become a slave to that.

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I know before I became a Christian,

there was times where I would have these

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moments where I would be religious.

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I would say, you know what, I,

I, I really wanna live for God.

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And, and, but I never really, you know,

would submit my whole life to God.

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So I would want to give, I didn't

realize this at the time, but

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I realized later I'd give maybe

50, 75% of my heart and my faith.

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And I remember this time I was like,

alright, I want to be a moral person.

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And then this temptation came along

and I told my friends, all right,

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I'm, I'm leaving all this stuff.

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I'm not gonna do this anymore.

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And within two weeks I was right

back into everything I was doing.

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As soon as a serious temptation

came to be a moral I gave in.

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I just gave in way too easily.

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What I also notice is when

it's hard, we not only give in

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too easy, but we make excuses.

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We make excuses, and

what do those excuses do?

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Justify ourselves.

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We make excuses so that we can justify

ourselves so we don't feel bad or guilty.

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And so we say, oh, well it's

because of this and because of that.

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You know, even recently, I, I,

uh, I, I'm saying, all right, I, I

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want to grow and, and discipline.

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This year I felt like I had been

slipping and getting back, and so

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I'm like, all right, in every area.

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And so one of the areas

is, is, is what I eat.

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And uh, a couple weeks ago we had a

ministry event and we had some, some

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leftover food and some cookies, and Karina

put the cookies on the kitchen counter.

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And I'm looking at 'em,

I'm like, why she do this?

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There were Oreos, and you know, if

you have one Oreo, you don't have one

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Oreo, you have more than one Oreo.

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And so I see it and I'm like, no.

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Okay, well it's just one.

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Then I come back, well, let

me grab two more for the go.

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You know what I'm saying?

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And then the next day I was like,

oh, let me just take another one.

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I'm like, well, you know, I've be

doing better in these areas when I

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eat and I'm justifying it to myself.

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And I look up and I'm like, man,

I have four or five days in a

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row, man, I ate half the bag here.

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There you go.

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So now I ate half the bag.

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All right, so, and how was I doing?

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Making excuses, justifying myself.

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Well, you were okay in this

area, but the goal was to be

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self-controlled in all areas.

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And so how can we overcome this?

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Well, here's the beauty is that we can.

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Overcome this and we can

become self-control because

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God's word even tells us.

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In fact, let's go back to this verse.

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What does he say?

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His divine power has given us

everything we need for a godly life.

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Did you, did you see that?

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Are we ill-equipped?

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Do we lack something?

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No.

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You and I, those of us who are in

Christ, we have everything we need.

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To live a godly life.

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But he says, but you still

have to do something.

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You have a role in this.

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Make every effort to add to your faith.

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So we can, that's the,

that's the great thing.

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We can be men and women of God who

are self-controlled, but we gotta

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make sure that we add it to our faith.

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And so how can we add self-control to

our faith and overcome these things?

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Church, are you still with me here?

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So let's go ahead and

let's get into it here.

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So here's a couple things.

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Number one, uh, it always

starts with prayer.

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Again, this, this will be a thread

throughout the whole series.

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If we want to add anything, we

have to pray about it, desiring it.

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It is a part of our daily prayer,

therefore, it becomes part of our

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consciousness, and therefore we can have

more Being tuned with the Holy Spirit.

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So when these situations

arise, we can overcome.

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So we need to pray about it, but

secondly, to have a no excuses mentality.

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No excuses mentality, a determination.

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I am going to grow in this area.

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I'm not gonna make excuses what

we saw well earlier, right?

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When we make excuses, what

happens, we justify ourselves

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and therefore we don't grow.

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Had a good friend of mine, he said

this to me, uh, many years ago.

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I'm not sure where he got it from,

but he said, you know, uh, there

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are many reasons, but no excuse.

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I said, man, that's good.

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Because there are many reasons

to do anything, isn't there?

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There's a reason for me

to, to leave my family.

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There's a reason for me to leave God.

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There's a reason for me

to cheat on my taxes.

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There's a reason for

me to lie to your face.

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There are many reasons for me

to do any of those things, but

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there would be no excuse for it.

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So it's good to understand the

reasons, but we can't justify

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or make excuses when we give in.

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We need to have a mentality.

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I'm not gonna make any excuses.

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Does that mean we'll be perfect?

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Probably not, but we can grow some.

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And in fact, we need accountability.

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I know for some of us, we, we get a

little squirmish when we hear this word.

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Accountability.

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Accountability is when, uh, you,

you are accountable to people

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in a good and healthy way.

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I wanna read this scripture

here in Proverbs 27 verse six.

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It says, Wounds from a friend can be

trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.

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Many times we want to go and hear

what we want to hear, but the true

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friends isn't gonna multiply kiss.

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Oh, you're awesome.

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You lack self-control.

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Don't worry about it, bro.

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In sis, we all do.

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Say, you know what?

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You want to grow, bro.

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Here's what can help you.

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Hey, what can I do to help you in this?

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You know, LA about two years ago.

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During that time, uh, me, me and a

couple brothers, we had a, a, a small,

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what we call, uh, discipling group.

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We'd get together on Saturday mornings

and, uh, and, and, and, and, and

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the, the we'd get together and we

decide, all right, we're gonna have

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some goals for the next three months.

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So we had some goals for the next three

months, and we go around and we share,

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and that at that time, I saw the most

spiritual personal growth I had in my

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life, probably for the previous two years.

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And the brothers that, that I was with,

they actually, they actually didn't offer

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up a lot of spiritual input and advice to

me, and there was no knock against 'em.

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But they didn't say like, Hey bro, you

should do this, you should do that.

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That wasn't the case.

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It was the accountability that

I had that helped inspire me to

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push through when I didn't feel

like doing what I wanted to do.

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And so I would come in and, and

then there was times where I'm

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like, yeah, I didn't do as well.

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Oh, okay, well let's talk about it.

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And that was healthy

and it was good for me.

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And then there was times where

I'm like, man, I'm on it.

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And you know what?

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Part of the reason I'm on it is

'cause I knew this Saturday morning

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I was gonna have to talk about it.

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And so I'm grateful for

that extra motivation.

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You get what I'm saying?

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And so we need some accountability.

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Another thing here is confession.

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When we fall short,

which we will fall short.

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But it's to confess it not to, hold on.

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'cause when we confess, then we put it

out there not only to God and others,

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but then we can actually see growth.

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'cause here's what happens when

we confess, well, the proper

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confession, whoever can steal

their sin does not prosper.

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But the one who confesses and

renounces them finds mercy.

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Not just confessing,

but renouncing the sin.

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Renouncing means I'm

going to do away with it.

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I'm going to get better.

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I'm no longer going to succumb to

the pressure and temptation in this

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area and 'cause true confession

leads to change, which is repentance.

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And lastly here, crawl, walk, run.

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What do we mean by this?

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We mean starting off in small

areas helps build habits which

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build character, which leads to

greater success and transformation.

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Remember when I told you I was, uh, I gave

him to the cookies a couple weeks ago?

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What would also happen during that time,

I, I saw this correlation is, uh, I

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decided beginning of the year, you know,

I'm gonna make sure that all my shoes,

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when I go into my closet, I put 'em away.

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'cause sometimes I can go over there and

put my shoes down and then they start

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to pile up, and then you have to do

exercises when you come into the closet.

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You know what I'm saying?

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You gotta dodge the shoes by Marcel.

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You know what I'm saying?

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And so I was like, man, I don't, I don't

wanna do that because I know that's

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just a reflection of my character.

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And so then as I was giving into

the cookies a couple weeks ago,

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I, I come into my, my, my closet

and I'm like, wait a second, man.

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I've been slipping on my shoes here.

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Because why?

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Because it became a habit.

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It was small things, but it

revealed itself Now as my character,

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you see, that's why we have

to crawl, walk, and then run.

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Let's go ahead and let's

focus on some smaller things.

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Let's get better at those.

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So that again, we can change it

and it becomes our character, or we

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can master and overcome the larger

issues and challenges in our life.

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Church.

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Do you understand what I'm saying?

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So here are some ways that you and

I can add self-control to our life.

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How will it affect us?

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What would be the benefits?

464

Let's be reminded what it says in second

Peter, verse eight, for if you possess

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these qualities, an increasing measure.

466

So we never arrive.

467

It's increasing, it's growing.

468

They will keep you from being

ineffective and unproductive in your

469

knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

470

You and I both want to be effective,

productive in our lives as Christians,

471

and so one of the benefits is that we will

avoid being ineffective and unproductive,

472

but we will be effective and productive.

473

But whoever does not have them is near

sight and blind forgetting what they

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have been clenched from their past sins.

475

Therefore, my brothers and

sisters make every effort.

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There it is again, to confirm your calling

and election for if you do these things,

477

you will never Stumble and you'll receive

a rich welcome to the eternal kingdom

478

of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

479

Again, this never stumbled.

480

Doesn't mean we never sinned, but

it means that we never fall away

481

from God and we actually do conquer

our sin more and more in our lives.

482

And so we can become stronger spiritually,

stronger emotionally, stronger mentally,

483

and stronger physically, and it also

will have an impact on our relationships.

484

Think about this.

485

If you are self-controlled in your

relationships, what will that do

486

for you and your relationships?

487

If you control your tongue and what

you say and how you say it, will that

488

affect your, your, your roommates or your

spouse, or your kids or your parents?

489

If you control yourself from an

outburst, would that infect, would

490

that impact your relationship?

491

Of course it will and allows

for more intimacy and closeness.

492

So we see the benefits not only for our

lives, for our eternity, but even in

493

our relationships for the here and now.

494

So what's the call for the hour?

495

What's the call for?

496

The hour every time is to make every

effort not to make some efforts.

497

But to make every effort

to grow in Christ.

498

Again, this is the call to join

God in his transformative work,

499

in our lives and in our churches.

500

It requires every effort.

501

So let's get real practical here.

502

Action steps this week here.

503

And so one encourages every

one of us to write this down.

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Take a picture, do

whatever you need to do.

505

And first off here is let's continue

praying for the church, not just for

506

ourselves, not just for our small

groups, but let's pray for God's people

507

all across, especially here in Orange

County, but all across the world.

508

World.

509

Really pray for us to add to our

faith the list that is listed out,

510

that virtues that are listed in

two Peter one, five through seven.

511

And then secondly, get accountability

for an area that needs more self-control.

512

Find a partner, find whatever it is.

513

Say this is the area, I

need some more self-control.

514

It gives him accountability for this

week and that can serve you and help

515

you going forward in your faith.

516

Right now we're gonna take communion.

517

That's where we take the emblems

that represent Jesus' body and blood.

518

That was sacrificed for our salvation

and as we think of Christ, he always the

519

example of all the virtues, but we see

in Christ the example of self-control,

520

even as he suffered upon the cross.

521

And what led to him in, in, in going to

the cross, and we see this laid out in,

522

in one peter, he says, when they hurled

the insults at him, he did not retaliate.

523

When he suffered, he made no threats.

524

Instead, he entrusted himself

to him who judges justly.

525

He himself bore our sins in his body on

the cross so that we might die to sins.

526

And live for righteousness by his wounds.

527

You have been healed.

528

For, you are like sheep going astray,

but now you have returned to the

529

shepherd and overseer of your souls.

530

Let's pray.

531

Father in heaven, I thank you so

much for Jesus, for his example.

532

God, again, even as I was praying

earlier, talking with the kids'

533

Kingdom volunteers, God, I I, I'm

just amazed at Jesus' example.

534

Father, I think of man threats when

people lie or say things to me, I wanna

535

retaliate, I want to defend myself.

536

But we see Jesus be totally

self-controlled father, and

537

he did that for all of us.

538

He did that for your creation so

that we can have a relationship

539

with you so that our wounds could be

healed, so that we can return to you.

540

The shepherd and overseer of

our souls, the God we say.

541

Thank you.

542

Thank you for sending

your son, Lord Jesus.

543

Thank you for displaying

self-control upon the cross.

544

You could have come down at any time.

545

It, it's written that you could

have called 12 legions of angels.

546

They could have stopped it,

but yet you didn't so that the

547

greater good could take place.

548

Father, we say thank you.

549

Thank you for the mercy and

grace that is in Christ.

550

Father, may we respond with

devotion, faith, love, and father

551

adding to our faith, self-control.

552

We thank you.

553

We love you.

554

We need you.

555

We honor you, we adore you, we

admire you, and we praise you.