Get to go ahead and continue our sermon series that we began
called Become More in twenty-four.
God wants us to become more.
You want to become more.
You want to become more kind, more loving, more punctual more
in shape, whatever the case is.
But God also wants you to become more, not only this year, but and beyond.
And so we started.
Looking through what is called maybe the Ladder of Faith
or ladder of transformation in second Peter chapter one.
And so we're studying that out.
We actually have a little handout online, on our church app.
You can go ahead and look at, uh, for a little handout to give
you a little brief summary of the chapter or excuse me, of the book of
second Peter that we're looking at.
And so, as we go this, I wanna remind us of a couple of things because
that helps us set up the proper context for what we're studying
out and what we're delving into.
God desires for you to become like him, not for you to
have the power and all that.
We're thinking.
Well, can I be divine in that nature though?
But for your character, for your likeness to be like.
His, you know, my, my dad is in town and I haven't seen my dad in many years.
And so my dad was in town and it's so funny because my dad he he
really likes to dress up in suits.
So you'll see him, he'll be in a casual setting, but he
might be dressed up in a suit.
And so our kids are like, you know, what's up?
What's up with Grandpops?
Why is he, why is he got a suit on?
I'm like, that's your grandpops.
And then I'm like, you see where I get some of that from?
Hence my suit today.
You know what I'm saying?
And so in many ways he's so proud.
He is like, man, okay, you're being like me.
You know what I mean?
And in many ways I want my kids to as well, you know, to, to rock some suits
on Sunday, you know, and then for little Dominique to go ahead with a mustache
and to goatee, you know what I mean?
To have his suit on as well.
And so God wants us to be like him, but the problem is we sin.
And so we get corrupted.
And so now he's in the process of redeeming us to become more like him.
Are you with me, church?
And so this is so huge for us to understand not only for our journey,
but especially as we study out two Peter chapter one now, as we'll see,
and we'll be reminded again in the text.
God has given us everything we need to live a godly life.
He's given us everything we need, but then he says in the scripture, but your role is
to make every effort to add to your faith.
And so it's not just God just gives us in and that's sit, but God gives us in that
we're called to put it into practice, but to make every effort to add to our faith.
And so we've looked at so far adding to our faith, goodness.
And we also looked at oh, excuse me, also.
Uh, yes.
Uh, uh, at the intersection of God's empowerment and our human effort
is when transformation takes place.
Now we can change in many ways, but for us to transform into the likeness
and image of God, we have to have human efforts that needs God's empowerment.
And so we've looked at so far how, uh, goodness, how we can
add goodness to our faith.
Daniel talked about how we can add knowledge to our faith, and this week
we'll talk about adding self-control.
And so again, the, uh, title for today is Becoming More or
Become More at twenty-four.
And we're looking at self-control.
Let's go to the father in prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word.
God, I'm excited about what you've been teaching me.
I feel challenged.
Uh, God, I feel grateful, and I pray right now.
Father, I know you have a, a message and a point here for every soul
that's here, every soul that is online, every soul that will hear it
later through a podcast or YouTube.
God, I pray right now that as every soul hears your word, not mine,
but Father, they hear your word.
And God, that, that, that you minister to all of us for others so that we
can add to our faith so we become more like you and live out your will.
We pray this in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
Alright, so let's go ahead, let's go to second Peter, chapter one here.
Uh, I will say this, uh, uh, uh, you know what, pray for me.
Uh, last time I preached, I, I had to be subdued because I threw out my
voice watching the Forty-Niner game.
And, uh, and then, then the next week we went to the Hope Saturday
Academy and our orientation.
And I think I threw out my voice again, yelling and trying to do the hope chant.
And, uh, so this week I'm like, all right, I gotta save myself.
And, uh, so I'm trying right now to save myself.
And then later on at three-thirty, I need your prayers that I don't throw out my
voice when the Forty-Niners are playing.
Amen.
And some have said, this is my Forty-Niners tie.
You know what?
I guess it is my Forty-Niners tie.
And so if they don't win, do not call or text me at all.
Okay?
Now I'm be like, oh, I'm gonna be funny and text 'em.
No, do not.
Okay.
I might block your number going forward.
Okay.
All right.
And that's just a partial joke.
All right, so second Peter, chapter one.
Let's go in verse three here.
Okay.
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our
knowledge of him who has called us by his own glory and goodness through these.
He has given us his very great and precious promises so that through them
you may participate in the divine nature.
Having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires for
this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness and to
goodness knowledge and to knowledge.
Self-control.
Again, I wanna remind us as we add these things, it's not,
uh, we're adding one by one.
Once I get one down, then I can get to the other.
No, this is like, uh, baking ingredients here.
Okay?
We're adding the sugar, we're adding the flour, the eggs, whatever.
We're adding 'em all the time so that again, what comes
out is the image of Christ.
And so we wanna look at this idea of self-control.
And so the Greek here, we're gonna drop a little Greek here for you.
All right, is a cretia, the N is actually silent.
And this word here in Greek, it, it means self-control, especially, uh,
Continents temperance, but really has its meaning of dominion over the self
or something Dominion over the self.
What comes to mind when you hear dominion over the self?
There's a mastery, there's a control, there's a, there's a
sovereignty, there's a lordship.
And so Peter is calling us to add to our faith this dominion
and control over ourselves.
And so it makes me think, okay, well what does this look
like in the disciple of Jesus?
And number one, I think what it means here is for the Christian, for you
and me, for the disciple of Jesus.
Self-control is submission to the control of the indwelling Christ.
See those who have repented and got baptized, we received the
indwelling of God's holy Spirit.
And so self-control then for the Christian is to be in full submission
to the Holy Spirit's reign and rule in our lives that the Holy Spirit is
master and ruler, and not ourselves, not our feelings, not our appetite.
But God and his will.
It's living for God and serving others rather than serving
our self and our desires.
It means feelings and emotions becoming servants and not masters because many
times we can have it backwards, right?
Where our feelings, our emotions become our masters and therefore what
happens, we lose What self-control I.
When you give into that impulse and you lash out or you, you,
you go out, what happens?
You have lost control and you created, or maybe not created, but
you therefore behave in a way in which you knew you really didn't want to or
wouldn't in a different circumstance.
But because you lost self-control and gave in, now there's damage.
It's dominion and control over our mind, our eyes.
Our ears, our hearts, our hands, and our feet, our stomach.
It's demeaning.
Controlling these things.
Controlling what we consume, and controlling what we put
out, what we, what we take in.
We have a control over.
And then also what comes out of us.
We have dominion over.
For that, and obviously this means a denial of evil and sinful desires
and we're gonna have self-control.
God is obviously meaning, Hey, you know, we gotta make sure that
you control yourself with these temptations and evil desires that are
in your life or that are around you.
You know, let's, it's sports.
Season here.
We got the Super Bowl today.
Jessica's got her.
Uh, yeah, yeah, she's got that jersey on.
Amen.
Um, and so in football, you know, we, we've talked about this, but, but
even in basketball, you know what?
Let, let's just do this here.
Okay, come on man.
Can you come up to the stage real quick?
Come on up here, man.
Come on up to the stage here real quick.
Come on up here to the stage real quick.
Gabe's a good friend of mine.
At least I think we're good friends.
All right, here we go.
There you go, Gabe.
I'm sorry man.
You want you, you strong.
There you go.
Look at him.
Come on.
There you go.
There's Gabe here.
All right.
He said No, you'll, you'll be good, man.
Don't worry about it.
All right, here we go.
So, so, so I'm, I'm a huge football fan, but I'm also a basketball fan.
And so in basketball, uh, you know, sometimes they tell you that you
have to deny the person the ball.
So let's say he's like, Steph Curry or something like that, right.
Or, uh, LeBron James here.
That, that, that you would describe yourself that way.
Yes, he is.
He's a Caucasian version of LeBron James.
So there you go.
Built like him too, you know what I'm saying?
And so in basketball, you know, they'll say, Hey, deny LeBron James the ball.
Deny, uh, LeBron, Strobel the ball here.
Okay.
All right.
And so in, and so I have to go ahead and I have to deny him.
And so if he were to move that way, move that way, I'm trying to
make sure he doesn't get the ball.
You get what I'm saying?
Oh, look, he thinks he's way, oh, oh, he thought he had me.
He thought because I'm old, I couldn't deny him, but I did.
And so here's what happens here.
So if somebody throws the ball, I'm supposed to deny him the ball.
I gotta deny it.
I don't want him to have it.
Now, this represents our souls.
And sometimes we have temptations.
And what he's saying is, you gotta add self-control.
Deny that.
Deny that sin, deny that lust.
Deny that thing that maybe not now, but for later.
You gotta deny that.
Don't let it feed into your soul because it will corrupt you.
So when we have self-control, I control it.
I'm denying myself.
I Denying my, my, my anger giving my, my lashing out.
I'm denying myself and taking things I shouldn't, I
shouldn't, I shouldn't take in.
And so God is calling us to add to ourselves self-control
that denies evil desires.
Give it up for Gabe LeBron.
James Strobel.
That man thought he can get by me.
You crazy.
I am tired now, but Amen.
Here's the thing, brothers and sisters, this isn't a denial of just
sin, but it's having self-control in all aspects of our lives.
It's having self-control with our thoughts, our internet
usage, our speech, our eating.
Our schoolwork, our homework, our our, our, our work at our
jobs, our sleep, our anger, etc.
In every area of life, we must learn to control ourselves and let Christ reign
rather than our own self-centered desires, because if we don't, then we'll be
mastered and controlled by other things.
Second Peter chapter two, write this down.
Verse 19.
He says, people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.
So again, if I don't control myself, then I will be a slave
to whatever is mastering me.
That might be sick.
It might be my stomach, it might be my cravings, it
might be whatever the case is.
We have to make sure that we add to our faith, Self-control.
Now, can we just have a moment of honesty?
I know y'all like moments of, of non-honesty, right?
Can we just have a moment here where we, where we can just acknowledge something?
Self-control is what?
Hard.
It's hard.
If it was easy, then it wouldn't even be added.
It wouldn't, we wouldn't be mentioned because it would be
something that we naturally do.
But our natural tendency is to lack self-control.
And so it's hard and what happens often.
Is that because it's hard.
We give in too easily sometimes.
We give in to sin, we give into temptation.
We give into our feelings and our emotions, our impulses, and we give in,
and therefore we become a slave to that.
I know before I became a Christian, there was times where I would have these
moments where I would be religious.
I would say, you know what, I, I, I really wanna live for God.
And, and, but I never really, you know, would submit my whole life to God.
So I would want to give, I didn't realize this at the time, but
I realized later I'd give maybe 50, 75% of my heart and my faith.
And I remember this time I was like, alright, I want to be a moral person.
And then this temptation came along and I told my friends, all right,
I'm, I'm leaving all this stuff.
I'm not gonna do this anymore.
And within two weeks I was right back into everything I was doing.
As soon as a serious temptation came to be a moral I gave in.
I just gave in way too easily.
What I also notice is when it's hard, we not only give in
too easy, but we make excuses.
We make excuses, and what do those excuses do?
Justify ourselves.
We make excuses so that we can justify ourselves so we don't feel bad or guilty.
And so we say, oh, well it's because of this and because of that.
You know, even recently, I, I, uh, I, I'm saying, all right, I, I
want to grow and, and discipline.
This year I felt like I had been slipping and getting back, and so
I'm like, all right, in every area.
And so one of the areas is, is, is what I eat.
And uh, a couple weeks ago we had a ministry event and we had some, some
leftover food and some cookies, and Karina put the cookies on the kitchen counter.
And I'm looking at 'em, I'm like, why she do this?
There were Oreos, and you know, if you have one Oreo, you don't have one
Oreo, you have more than one Oreo.
And so I see it and I'm like, no.
Okay, well it's just one.
Then I come back, well, let me grab two more for the go.
You know what I'm saying?
And then the next day I was like, oh, let me just take another one.
I'm like, well, you know, I've be doing better in these areas when I
eat and I'm justifying it to myself.
And I look up and I'm like, man, I have four or five days in a
row, man, I ate half the bag here.
There you go.
So now I ate half the bag.
All right, so, and how was I doing?
Making excuses, justifying myself.
Well, you were okay in this area, but the goal was to be
self-controlled in all areas.
And so how can we overcome this?
Well, here's the beauty is that we can.
Overcome this and we can become self-control because
God's word even tells us.
In fact, let's go back to this verse.
What does he say?
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life.
Did you, did you see that?
Are we ill-equipped?
Do we lack something?
No.
You and I, those of us who are in Christ, we have everything we need.
To live a godly life.
But he says, but you still have to do something.
You have a role in this.
Make every effort to add to your faith.
So we can, that's the, that's the great thing.
We can be men and women of God who are self-controlled, but we gotta
make sure that we add it to our faith.
And so how can we add self-control to our faith and overcome these things?
Church, are you still with me here?
So let's go ahead and let's get into it here.
So here's a couple things.
Number one, uh, it always starts with prayer.
Again, this, this will be a thread throughout the whole series.
If we want to add anything, we have to pray about it, desiring it.
It is a part of our daily prayer, therefore, it becomes part of our
consciousness, and therefore we can have more Being tuned with the Holy Spirit.
So when these situations arise, we can overcome.
So we need to pray about it, but secondly, to have a no excuses mentality.
No excuses mentality, a determination.
I am going to grow in this area.
I'm not gonna make excuses what we saw well earlier, right?
When we make excuses, what happens, we justify ourselves
and therefore we don't grow.
Had a good friend of mine, he said this to me, uh, many years ago.
I'm not sure where he got it from, but he said, you know, uh, there
are many reasons, but no excuse.
I said, man, that's good.
Because there are many reasons to do anything, isn't there?
There's a reason for me to, to leave my family.
There's a reason for me to leave God.
There's a reason for me to cheat on my taxes.
There's a reason for me to lie to your face.
There are many reasons for me to do any of those things, but
there would be no excuse for it.
So it's good to understand the reasons, but we can't justify
or make excuses when we give in.
We need to have a mentality.
I'm not gonna make any excuses.
Does that mean we'll be perfect?
Probably not, but we can grow some.
And in fact, we need accountability.
I know for some of us, we, we get a little squirmish when we hear this word.
Accountability.
Accountability is when, uh, you, you are accountable to people
in a good and healthy way.
I wanna read this scripture here in Proverbs 27 verse six.
It says, Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.
Many times we want to go and hear what we want to hear, but the true
friends isn't gonna multiply kiss.
Oh, you're awesome.
You lack self-control.
Don't worry about it, bro.
In sis, we all do.
Say, you know what?
You want to grow, bro.
Here's what can help you.
Hey, what can I do to help you in this?
You know, LA about two years ago.
During that time, uh, me, me and a couple brothers, we had a, a, a small,
what we call, uh, discipling group.
We'd get together on Saturday mornings and, uh, and, and, and, and, and
the, the we'd get together and we decide, all right, we're gonna have
some goals for the next three months.
So we had some goals for the next three months, and we go around and we share,
and that at that time, I saw the most spiritual personal growth I had in my
life, probably for the previous two years.
And the brothers that, that I was with, they actually, they actually didn't offer
up a lot of spiritual input and advice to me, and there was no knock against 'em.
But they didn't say like, Hey bro, you should do this, you should do that.
That wasn't the case.
It was the accountability that I had that helped inspire me to
push through when I didn't feel like doing what I wanted to do.
And so I would come in and, and then there was times where I'm
like, yeah, I didn't do as well.
Oh, okay, well let's talk about it.
And that was healthy and it was good for me.
And then there was times where I'm like, man, I'm on it.
And you know what?
Part of the reason I'm on it is 'cause I knew this Saturday morning
I was gonna have to talk about it.
And so I'm grateful for that extra motivation.
You get what I'm saying?
And so we need some accountability.
Another thing here is confession.
When we fall short, which we will fall short.
But it's to confess it not to, hold on.
'cause when we confess, then we put it out there not only to God and others,
but then we can actually see growth.
'cause here's what happens when we confess, well, the proper
confession, whoever can steal their sin does not prosper.
But the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.
Not just confessing, but renouncing the sin.
Renouncing means I'm going to do away with it.
I'm going to get better.
I'm no longer going to succumb to the pressure and temptation in this
area and 'cause true confession leads to change, which is repentance.
And lastly here, crawl, walk, run.
What do we mean by this?
We mean starting off in small areas helps build habits which
build character, which leads to greater success and transformation.
Remember when I told you I was, uh, I gave him to the cookies a couple weeks ago?
What would also happen during that time, I, I saw this correlation is, uh, I
decided beginning of the year, you know, I'm gonna make sure that all my shoes,
when I go into my closet, I put 'em away.
'cause sometimes I can go over there and put my shoes down and then they start
to pile up, and then you have to do exercises when you come into the closet.
You know what I'm saying?
You gotta dodge the shoes by Marcel.
You know what I'm saying?
And so I was like, man, I don't, I don't wanna do that because I know that's
just a reflection of my character.
And so then as I was giving into the cookies a couple weeks ago,
I, I come into my, my, my closet and I'm like, wait a second, man.
I've been slipping on my shoes here.
Because why?
Because it became a habit.
It was small things, but it revealed itself Now as my character,
you see, that's why we have to crawl, walk, and then run.
Let's go ahead and let's focus on some smaller things.
Let's get better at those.
So that again, we can change it and it becomes our character, or we
can master and overcome the larger issues and challenges in our life.
Church.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
So here are some ways that you and I can add self-control to our life.
How will it affect us?
What would be the benefits?
Let's be reminded what it says in second Peter, verse eight, for if you possess
these qualities, an increasing measure.
So we never arrive.
It's increasing, it's growing.
They will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You and I both want to be effective, productive in our lives as Christians,
and so one of the benefits is that we will avoid being ineffective and unproductive,
but we will be effective and productive.
But whoever does not have them is near sight and blind forgetting what they
have been clenched from their past sins.
Therefore, my brothers and sisters make every effort.
There it is again, to confirm your calling and election for if you do these things,
you will never Stumble and you'll receive a rich welcome to the eternal kingdom
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Again, this never stumbled.
Doesn't mean we never sinned, but it means that we never fall away
from God and we actually do conquer our sin more and more in our lives.
And so we can become stronger spiritually, stronger emotionally, stronger mentally,
and stronger physically, and it also will have an impact on our relationships.
Think about this.
If you are self-controlled in your relationships, what will that do
for you and your relationships?
If you control your tongue and what you say and how you say it, will that
affect your, your, your roommates or your spouse, or your kids or your parents?
If you control yourself from an outburst, would that infect, would
that impact your relationship?
Of course it will and allows for more intimacy and closeness.
So we see the benefits not only for our lives, for our eternity, but even in
our relationships for the here and now.
So what's the call for the hour?
What's the call for?
The hour every time is to make every effort not to make some efforts.
But to make every effort to grow in Christ.
Again, this is the call to join God in his transformative work,
in our lives and in our churches.
It requires every effort.
So let's get real practical here.
Action steps this week here.
And so one encourages every one of us to write this down.
Take a picture, do whatever you need to do.
And first off here is let's continue praying for the church, not just for
ourselves, not just for our small groups, but let's pray for God's people
all across, especially here in Orange County, but all across the world.
World.
Really pray for us to add to our faith the list that is listed out,
that virtues that are listed in two Peter one, five through seven.
And then secondly, get accountability for an area that needs more self-control.
Find a partner, find whatever it is.
Say this is the area, I need some more self-control.
It gives him accountability for this week and that can serve you and help
you going forward in your faith.
Right now we're gonna take communion.
That's where we take the emblems that represent Jesus' body and blood.
That was sacrificed for our salvation and as we think of Christ, he always the
example of all the virtues, but we see in Christ the example of self-control,
even as he suffered upon the cross.
And what led to him in, in, in going to the cross, and we see this laid out in,
in one peter, he says, when they hurled the insults at him, he did not retaliate.
When he suffered, he made no threats.
Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.
He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sins.
And live for righteousness by his wounds.
You have been healed.
For, you are like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the
shepherd and overseer of your souls.
Let's pray.
Father in heaven, I thank you so much for Jesus, for his example.
God, again, even as I was praying earlier, talking with the kids'
Kingdom volunteers, God, I I, I'm just amazed at Jesus' example.
Father, I think of man threats when people lie or say things to me, I wanna
retaliate, I want to defend myself.
But we see Jesus be totally self-controlled father, and
he did that for all of us.
He did that for your creation so that we can have a relationship
with you so that our wounds could be healed, so that we can return to you.
The shepherd and overseer of our souls, the God we say.
Thank you.
Thank you for sending your son, Lord Jesus.
Thank you for displaying self-control upon the cross.
You could have come down at any time.
It, it's written that you could have called 12 legions of angels.
They could have stopped it, but yet you didn't so that the
greater good could take place.
Father, we say thank you.
Thank you for the mercy and grace that is in Christ.
Father, may we respond with devotion, faith, love, and father
adding to our faith, self-control.
We thank you.
We love you.
We need you.
We honor you, we adore you, we admire you, and we praise you.