Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Growing Self-Control | Habits

Episode Date: December 26, 2022

Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in 2023. Get your FREE reading plan here. In a world where what feels good is more important than anything else, what is the need for self-control? How do you know when to say no to something? Why is self-control biblical? In today's episode, Keith shares how creating a habit of self-control can change your life. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Hebrews 11

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. I had knee surgery a few days ago. It was a partial knee replacement. Now, I was a little overly optimistic on how my recovery would go. I thought I'd bounce right back and resume normal routine in a few days. My wife was what I'd say was overly pessimistic. Maybe she thought they were cutting off my leg.

I don't know, but neither of us were right. So a couple nights after the surgery, Christina and I ate dinner together, and then she went to a concert with our friends. I was supposed to go to the concert, but the knee wasn't up for it. Before propping my leg up and I see my knee and watching football, I grabbed a very large bag of purple skittles that a friend had dropped off for me. I was going to watch the game and do some email. Now, while doing those things, I ate an obscene amount of purple skittles.

I keep referring to them as purple skittles because I'm a skittled connoisseur, and the skittles in the purple bag are by far the best. By far, don't come at me with your tropical skittles. Anyway, was I hungry when I ate those skittles? No, not at all. I'd just eat in dinner. Was it good for me to eat that many? Well, of course not. Well, if I wasn't hungry and they weren't good for me to eat, then why eat any skills at all? Well, because I wanted a treat. I could have said no, but I didn't. Well, okay, fair enough, we've all been there. But why not just have a few? Maybe a handful. Why go on to gorge myself with

Skittles to the point of making myself sick? Well, it's pretty obvious, isn't it? I lack self-control when it comes to Skittles. And to be frank, I lack self-control and a lot of other areas of my life, too. self-control is an indispensable part of a good life. Researchers say that if you have the choice between more intelligence and more self-control, choose more self-control. People with higher levels of self-control have better outcomes in their life. Now, we could have known that how we just read the book of Proverbs, because in chapter 25, verse 28, it says this,

a person without self-control is like a city with broken down walls. Now, in the ancient near ease, the way you protected a city was to build a huge wall around it to keep the enemies out. but if your wall was breached, if there was a hole in it, then you were exposed to every enemy who came along and wanted to attack your city. Now here's the same verse, Proverbs 2528, but this time in the message translation. A person without self-control is like a house with its doors and windows knocked out. Now the point is immediately obvious to us, isn't it? You don't want to have a house with all the doors and windows open because anybody who wanted to come along and do some damage or take something would have easy access. So you get the picture by now.

If you don't have self-control, then you have no defense against any and every desire that wants to come in and raid and rule your life. Without self-control, you're controlled by your desires and your impulses. Now, that's a super scary thought because my desires are dangerous if left unchecked. I mean, just think about it. If I don't have self-control over my tongue, that I'm going to say untrue things to protect my reputation.

Or maybe I'll have gossip or tear down other people. Or I'll say sarcastic things that hurt people. If I don't have self-control over my money, I'll make impulse purchases or splurge on things I don't really need. That might put me in debt. It will certainly mean that I can't be as generous toward God's kingdom as I otherwise could have been. If I don't have self-control over my sexual desires, I'm going to live in lust and pornography and even worse things. If I don't have self-control over my emotions, I'm going to lose my temper, be angry, blow up at people, say things I regret, wallow and self-pity or worry or fear. Without self-control over my time, I'm not going to read my Bible or pray or go to church because I won't be able to resist the temptation to sleep in or scroll through social media or to get something done on my list.

Self-control is incredibly important to be a well-functioning human and a faithful Christian. It's one of the nine virtues Paul calls the fruit of the spirit. Here's Galatians 5. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness. and self-control. Self-control is something the Holy Spirit produces in our life, but that doesn't make us passive. See, let's keep thinking about it. It's hard to resist sin. It's hard to say no to something unless you have something better to say yes to. So self-control is the ability to say no to something that I want, or at least I think I want, in order to say yes to something that I want more,

something better. So you can't always be saying no. You eventually wear down. You have to have something you want that you can say yes to. So let me show you how this plays out in Moses's life. I'm going to read a little passage out of Hebrews 11, and I want you to listen for what he said no to and why he was motivated to say no to it. All right, here we go. Here's Hebrews 11. By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking ahead to his reward. Did you hear what Moses was saying yes to that gave him the ability to say no to sin?

Before we talk about that, let's think about some of the failed strategies that people use to try to fight against sin. And I think the most obvious one is just that they don't fight at all. Jack Handy did these little segments on Saturday Night Live. they were called Deep Thoughts with Jack Handy. And then he wrote this other little book called Fuzzy Memories. And he tells this story about how when he was a kid, he'd walk to school, and there was a bully who would demand lunch money from him every day. And because the bully was bigger than him, he just would give it.

And then he's like, okay, I'm going to fight back. So he started taking karate lessons. But the instructor charged $5 a lesson. And that was a lot of money. So he decided it was just be cheaper if he paid the bully. So he gave up karate. Unfortunately, many Christians have the same attitude. about the temptations that come their way.

It's just easier to pay the bully than learn how to fight him. It's easier to give in to our sinful desires than to resist them. Another failed strategy people rely on is looking to rules and regulations to give them to power to say no to sin. They just put lots of rules in there and think, well, okay, if I have all these rules in my life, that will make me a strong Christian. But Colossians 2 says that those rules and regulations, they have an appearance of wisdom, but they lack any value in restraining sensual. indulgence. See, rules might work for a short period of time to control outer behavior, but they don't change the heart. So let's go back to Hebrews 11 and back to Moses's strategy to fighting sin, to developing self-control, to saying no to sin in our life. Here's a couple

of the verses again. He chose to be mistreated along with people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than all the treasures of Egypt because he was looking ahead to his reward. See, it says that Moses regarded, he considered, he thought this thing through. He weighed out the pleasures that sin offers and the rewards of following Jesus. I love that these verses encourage us to think about the pleasures of sin. Sin brings pleasure. Of course it does. That's why we do it. But notice that he says that whatever pleasures that sin offers, they are fleeting here today and gone tomorrow. The pleasures of sin don't last. They're like your breath on a cold day. You see it. It's there. It's gone. But the

treasures found in Jesus, they never fail, they never spoil, they never fade. You'll only find the power to say no to the fleeting pleasures of sin if you have something far better to say yes to. When I'm tempted by sin, then I need to follow the pattern that Moses has set out for me, and that is to consider the pleasures that sin offers. Like if I'm tempted to get things done on my to-do list instead of reading my Bible. What's the promise there that I'll feel more accomplished better about my day? Or what's the promise behind gossip? That I'll feel superior to other people or make them pay for hurting my feelings? Or what's the promise behind sexual sin? Remember that no matter what the sin is or what the pleasures they offer, all those pleasures are fleeting. That's what

Moses could see. So on one side, he had all the treasures of Egypt. And on the other side, Moses said he had the treasures of Christ. Imagine it's like a boxing match. And you know, the announcer comes out in the middle of the ring and says, in one corner, we've got all that this world has to offer. All the wealth, all the gold, all the recognition, all the respect, all the comfort, all the servants, all the education, all the power. And in the other corner stands Jesus. In Jesus is the treasure of salvation and a clean conscience before God. And Jesus is the holy one who is spotless and without blemish. In Jesus, there is no stain or spot of sin or defilement, no lying, no corruption, no error, no imperfection of any kind. Jesus is the only God. In him, all the fullness of God

dwells in bodily form. In him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. All things were created by him and through him and for him. He upholds all things by his power. Jesus is the only mediator between God and man. He is the sun that gives light, the physician that heals, the friend that comforts, the pearl of great price that enriches. He's the rock that sustains amidst the most violent storms. Jesus is seated at the right hand of God. He's the spotless lamb of God. He's the prince of peace, the bright morning star, the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus is the light of the world. He's the Lord of hosts, the Redeemer. He's the son of man, the bread of life. He is our righteousness. He is the wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father.

He is the chief shepherd in the lion of Judah, the rock of salvation in the ancient of days. He is the great I am, and he's our Savior. Now, you have to choose between all the treasures that this world offers and all the treasures in Jesus. Which do you want? Choose Jesus over family. Choose Jesus over money. Choose Jesus over career or getting drunk or pornography or redecorating your house or

protecting your reputation. Jesus is better than anything this world offers. When you see the treasures that are in him, it will give you the power to say no to all the fleeting pleasures of sin. It will give you the power to live in self-control. Hey, I want to let you know that starting in January, here on Tim Minna Bible Talks, we're going to go through the New Testament. In fact, we're going to try to make it through the whole thing in 2023. So grab a friend, listen, and let's grow on our faith together.