“Be Diligent to Cultivate Self Control”
2 Peter 1:6
INTRODUCTION What is the Meaning of 2 Peter 1.6 Part 1 Self control
ILL: We’re speaking of self control today. Someone said… Self-control is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands—and then eat just one of the pieces.[1]
Someone else said, “it’s the ability to turn the full length movie off in the middle because it’s time for bed.”
And think of this one…
Sign by a flower bed in a park: “DO NOT PICK (twist off, sever, cut, clip, snip, snap off, pluck, pinch off, pull, bend, crush, pare, cleave, divide, break, touch or take, borrow, steal, remove or otherwise harm, mutilate or endanger) THE FLOWERS.”[2]
ASK: Why would they need that?
ANS: B/c human nature tries to figure a way out of the command? “But it didn’t say I couldn’t … uproot them!
Rather than controlling ourselves, we so often make excuses within ourselves regarding what what is permissible. We can even get spiritual about not restraining our desires…. “But God doesn’t want me to be unhappy.”
NEED: There is a war going on in our hearts. Peter says in his first letter…1 Peter 2:11 11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.” Paul calls them ‘lusts of deceit.’ Promising the world, but steal your soul! And sinful desires reside within! The enemy is already inside! But by grace, we’ll conquer.
READ v. 5.
Review: Abundant entrance. Everything we need, not having to force God’s hand, rub the lamp harder. No excuses. He even gives the willing and the doing of His good pleasure…Philippians 2:13 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
Why pursue a life of self control? How attractive is that to people today, right? Why?
The answer in this passage is verse 11, abundant entrance. Because what could happen? Without controlling your desires for health and wealth, you could follow false teachers like in ch. 2 and fall from your own steadfastness. There is 1:10, the possibility of stumbling. See 3:16-18. Growth in grace keeps you from stumbling. That’s a major reason in the passage. If you don’t fall from steadfastness but instead grow, you’ll have an abundant entrance.
POINT: Pursue self-control to ensure an abundant entrance into the eternal kingdom.
TRANS: Same 3 points again. Diligent, cultivate (briefly) and then focus on the quality of self control. Why same points? Stir up by way of reminder (vv. 12, 13, 15)! consider yourself stirred up this morning!
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Diligent
v. 5 applying all diligence.
1 Ti. 4:7b-8
1 Timothy 4:7–8 7… On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; 8 for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
ASK: What can easily happen to our hard Bible work when we’re going through a difficult time, of busyness, or whatever…
ILL: lady on fb some other part of the world that we’re friends with who was going through a trial and decided ‘I’m going to stop reading my bible and coast on past knowledge I’ve received. People agreed with her in the comments!” No! Why…
POINT: Pursue self-control to ensure an abundant entrance into the eternal kingdom.
–many temptations all around, I could be tempted today and I might not be ready. [“I’m just home with kids today, why?”]
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Cultivate
To add, supply. Cultivate like a garden.
ASK: Any kids want to share what they read in the Bible this past week?
TRANS: Cultivating a desire for the excellence of Christlikeness results in learning of Christ and gaining knowledge of Him. When that life-changing knowledge hits home to the heart, self control is the result. I’ll learn about Christ controlling Himself; I’ll begin to control myself.
True knowledge, life-changing, doesn’t result in loose, materialistic living like the false teachers of ch. 2, but it results in self control.
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Self Control
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What it is
Mastery of internal desires. Restraint. He’s in full possession of himself
Fruit of spirit – control of natural self, sinful desires, impulses. Natural desires satisfied scripturally; sinful desires denied. Good desires can be eating. Must eat. But can be wrong amount, time, place, motivation, etc.
ASK: what can be a wrong motivation to eat?
ASK: what strong desires can people cultivate in their lives?
ANS: fashion, stuff, relationships,
ASK: How do people create strong desires for those things?
ANS: Dwell on it, think about how nice it would be if…, see others with it and dwell on it. Not always bad.
Many internal, heart desires pull us from Christ and His desires for us.
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Proverbs 4:23 23 Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.
Proverbs 25:28 28 Like a city that is broken into and without walls Is a man who has no control over his spirit.
In ancient times the walls of a city were its main defense. If the walls fell, the city fell. Self-control is our defense against passions and desires. Charles Bridges from 1850 wrote of the one without self control, “He yields himself to the first [attack] of his ungoverned passions, offering no resistance…Having no discipline over himself, temptation becomes the occasion of sin, and hurries him on to fearful lengths that he had not contemplated. … Anger tends to murder. Unwatchfulness over lust plunges into adultery.”[3]
Proverbs 21:25 25 The desire of the sluggard puts him to death, For his hands refuse to work;
KIDS: The Lord is enabling you kids who trust Christ to have an abundant entrance into the kingdom also. But if you are really wanting what you can’t have, or you have anger over not being able to do something you think you should, something doesn’t go your way and that’s how you live life, you’ll be in a world of hurt.. .that was for us big kids too!
ASK: what are some examples of lacking self control?
ANS:
…Maxed-out credit cards, gluttony, laziness, workaholics, dysfunctional marriages, the prevalence of sensuality in language, dress, and entertainment choices, outright immorality, unfaithful employees, and the disrespect to authority so commonplace today all testify to disorderliness.
One author writes, “Parents can easily tolerate the lack of self control in their children: allowing and promoting hours watching television, hours of playing video games, or hours surfing the Internet; purposeless hanging out with friends, whether online, on the phone, or in person; disrespectful body language and words; overeating; and sloppiness in dress or tolerating messy rooms—are part of the problem. Such parental failures often reveal their own disorderliness. They are either too busy with their own activities, too afraid of their child’s reactions, or too blind to spiritual things to see the need to actively disciple their children in the first place. The root problem is obvious. Most who know Christ live for themselves rather than wholeheartedly for Jesus Christ. Their failure to pursue the excellence of Christlikeness and the knowledge of Christ—column-one virtues—is obvious by their failure to exercise self-control. They are ruled by their passions. ….Temporal matters have been given priority over eternal concerns. We must repent of any conformity to the world and of our indulgence in sinful passions. We must cultivate the pursuit of Christlikeness, knowledge, and self-control.
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Areas to control self
This week let’s pursue self control in our …
physical appetites: 1 Corinthians 9:27 27 but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
speech: Ephesians 4:29 29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.
Thoughts: Philippians 4:8 8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
POINT: Let’s get it! Pursue self-control to ensure an abundant entrance into the eternal kingdom.
Now, he’s gracious. As you grow, you’ll need grace/mercy/forgiveness! Pursue it! Be diligent to pursue it!
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How to get it
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Starts in salvation Luke 9:23-24
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Luke 9:23–24 23 And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. 24 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.
You may see your need and be convicted; maybe you need to tell the Lord your grief over your sin.
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A continued choice to die to self (1 Co. 9:23-27)
1 Corinthians 9:27 27 but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
ILL: My track and field years. I wouldn’t eat this or that. I would force myself to exert beyond what was normal.
APP: at any moment, you could be at a crossroad: do I choose to honor the Lord or choose to fulfill this desire in a way that displeases Him.
ILL: One said, “Just 2 choices on the shelf, pleasing God or pleasing self.”
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Cultivate it, practice it.
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Ask the Lord…
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Ask the Lord… where can I cultivate this? By denying self even good things so that when bad things are presented, you’re already in the habit.
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How can you deny self when you walk by the pantry? TV, internet, phone?
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Talk to yourself.
Ps. 42. “why cast down?” You can’t just say no to the wrong desire; say yes to Christ and His will and His glory because of His wonder, majesty, and because of his work done for you! I urge you by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice.
Say no to the disorder in your life! Passionately pursue Bible verses on self control.
TRANS: …for the glory of God… in tandem with a relationship to Christ.
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Do so for the glory of God, not for earthly gain.
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Develop Christian character. Pray to the Lord and recall Scripture in light of your need to restrain certain desires. Don’t just do it for some benefit you get here and now. Do it for the Lord’s glory!
2 Timothy 2:22 22 Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
“Lord, I’m often tempted, help me honor you since you’ve done so much for me in Christ.”
CONCLUSION What is the Meaning of 2 Peter 1.6 Part 1 Self control
APP: pray for it; seek Him for it; be mindful this week about it during normal life; say no to your desires this week.
You have everything you need for a godly life! We can do this by His grace; He hasn’t left us; he hasn’t forsaken. He has given to us exceedingly beyond what we could ask for…and folks, in glory, it’ll be worth it all when we see Him!
Don’t let shiny objects distract, say no to them, and focus your attention on Him who died and rose for you. Discipline yourself for godliness and if you do, you will ensure for yourself an abundant entrance into His kingdom.
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Michael P. Green, ed., Illustrations for Biblical Preaching: Over 1500 Sermon Illustrations Arranged by Topic and Indexed Exhaustively, Revised edition of: The expositor’s illustration file. (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1989). ↑
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Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc., 1996), 274. ↑
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Bridges, Jerry. The Practice of Godliness (p. 131). The Navigators. Kindle Edition. ↑