Bible - Galatians 5:16-26.  2 Timothy 1: 6-7.

 Title- The Fruits of the spirit is self-control.

          Praise the Lord everyone.  I believe that all of you are doing well at your respective places.  Whether it is your place of work or reading or learning, wherever you are, you are doing better there.  And especially I appreciate all of you for giving your precious time to God.  Because you felt the work of God in your life and God is trustworthy to handle your life. 

        Let's move on to today's message.  As you all know, today's message is about the fruit of the Spirit, "restraint".  Is there anyone who can explain the meaning of this word "restraint"?

           Restraint  is also referred to in some Bibles as self-control.  The meaning of which is clearly stated, that is to control ourselves according to a right or proper education that we learn.  Because while living in this world, we do something which we should not do. 

 That's why it is very important to control yourself.  I expain you in detail.

        As we get some good education by our teachers, by parents or by this world which is called manners like we should not speak loudly, we should use pure words among people, respect elders  We should take care of each other, we should share our things, we should help people, we should treat people well and there are many such things which we have learned and which we think that we should do and often times we try to do them.

        But many times we fail and there are some reasons for this: - Because we give priority to our selfishness, or we want to live according to our desires or our nature is angry and many times we don’t believe that the people are capable and then we lose our restraint or control.

     All this happens because we either control ourselves according to our worldly teachings or by our own efforts.  We need to focus our attention on the teaching of the Bible because it will never let us fail.

        If any of you here who had  failed to control himself or does not able to control himself, then today's message will help you to be the one to bring change within yourself .

            Staying in moderation or controlling yourself is not an easy task, nor is it going to happen in a day.  For this you need to learn from God.  It is the fruit of a spirit.  The fruit never comes immediately.  It takes time, it costs.  A plant has to be constantly watered or moist.  That's why we also need to be persistent in God and in his teachings.

       2 Timothy 1:6-7 states that God's gift is to all of us.  We have all accepted God.  All we need is to stay in it and work in it because God has not given us the spirit of fear but of strength, love and self-control.

         The verse tells us that God has given self-control within us.  Now the need is that we have to work in that.  There will be times when living life in this world that will challenge your self-control but you have to overcome that time like a good Christian.

          Many times we lose our restraint or control, the reason for this is

 1- Our words,

 2- to act hastily,

 3- Getting in anger,

 4- Fulfilling your desires.

        *satisfying examples*

     1- You all know about Job.  He was blessed by God. He had everything, good money, a big house, a lot of wealth, a full family, and the reason for all this was that he was righteous.  There was no unrighteousness or impurity in his life. 

 Despite all these things, he was tested.  Everything he had was destroyed.  His children were also killed.  He was wounded from head to toe.

          Despite all these things, Job maintains restraint on his words (Job 2:7-10).

      2- Do you remember the fall of Jericho??  In those days God ordered Joshua to travel around Jericho for six days.  Joshua would get up early every morning and go around Jericho, carrying the ark of God with him and some people for six days.  God had commanded you to do this for six days and on the seventh day to make seven rounds and shout out loud then the wall of Jericho would be torn down.  Joshua completed this task.  Although it is strange to hear and also to do.  But still Joshua patiently fulfilled God's command.  He controlled himself and obeyed God's command with restraint.  Due to which he was able to see the wonderful work of God (Joshua 6:12-16).

      3- Can you remember the time when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane?  There they conspired to capture Jesus.  But Jesus controlled himself and saved a major event from happening.  A soldier's ear was cut off by Peter, but Jesus healed the soldier.  Jesus knew that his time was now over.  He was ready to accept the death of the cross.  At that time there had been situations of fighting, but Jesus handled those situations with restraint because the most important thing for him was to do the will of God.  And because of his self-control, he became the greatest (Luke 22:47-52).

     4- Do you know about Joseph when he became the owner of an Egyptian Potiphar's house?  God brought him out of the pit of death and made him the master of Potiphar's house.  Everything was in Joseph's hand.  Potiphar's house, his every work, his entire wealth.  Joseph had authority over everyone.  But still he knew how to control his desires.  

When Potiphar's wife lusted after Joseph, Joseph restrained himself.  and kept himself pure in the fear of God (Genesis 39:7-9).

           What do you think would have happened if these people had not kept restraint or had not controlled their souls, their actions, their thoughts, their bodies, their words, their intellect, their desires?

    1- Whatever Job had.  God returned him twice (Job 42:10, 12)

 

 2- Joshua obeyed God's command with restraint and he saw the works of God (Joshua 6:20).

 3- Jesus controlled himself so much that he endured the death of the cross and then came alive and made the way for all mankind to draw closer to God (Matthew 28:1-7).

 4- Joseph restrained his desires and was exalted to such an extent that he became the ruler of the house of the king of Egypt (Genesis 41:39-43)

        To keep self-control or to control one's soul is to keep oneself away from such activities which defile us or separate us from God.  Before speaking or doing anything, it is not easy to test what we are doing.  Many times we say or do something hastily and later we feel that I wish I had not done it.  But by then it is too late.  Till then we had already lost the blessings of God.

        What happened to Adam and Eve??  He did not control his soul.  They saw the fruit, saw the beauty of it (Genesis 3:6) and lost control and turned away from the company of God. 

          What happened to Moses??  Do you know that because of one mistake of Moses, he could not enter the Promised Land?

  In anger, he failed to fulfill the command that God had given him (Numbers 20:7-12)

        Do you know about David that he did such a bad thing by getting caught in his own lust?  Due to which he had to go through a great crisis.  David lost his self-control and took Bathsheba by deceit.  But because of this sin, the wrath of God fell on David (2 Samuel 12:14).

      The Bible is full of many examples of people losing their control and self-control and doing things that are not right in the eyes of God.  That's why God wants to give us the fruit of His Spirit "restraint" so that we don't sin by getting caught up in our desires.  Rather, on the contrary, let the fruit of this spirit "restraint" be fruitful in your life and be God-pleasing like Job, Joshua, Jesus and Joseph.

            Amen.