These are also Proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, copied
out.
It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honor of kings is to search out a
matter.
The heaven for height and the earth for depth, and the heart of kings is unsearchable.
Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer.
Take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne shall be established in righteousness.
Put not forth thyself in the presence of the king, and stand not in the place of great
men.
For better is it that it be said unto thee, Come up hither, that thou shouldest be put
lower in the presence of the prince whom thine eyes have seen.
Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof, when
thy neighbor hath put thee to shame.
Debate thy cause with thy neighbor himself, and discover not a secret to another, lest
he that hearth it put thee to shame, and thine infamy turn not away.
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold and pictures of silver.
As an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient
ear.
As a cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them that send
him, for he refreshereth the soul of his masters.
Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift is like clouds in wind without rain.
By long forbearing is a prince persuaded, and a soft tongue breaketh the bone.
Hast thou found, honey, eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled
therewith and vomit it.
Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbor's house, lest he be weary of thee and so hate thee.
A man that beareth false witness against his neighbor is as a maul and a sword and a sharp
arrow.
Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a foot
out of joint.
See that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon niter, so is he that singeth
songs to win heavy heart.
If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water
to drink.
For thou shalt heave coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord shall reward thee.
The north wind draveth away rain, so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue.
Is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop than with a brawling woman and in a wide house.
As cold water is to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.
A righteous man falling down before the wicked is as a troubled fountain and a corrupt spring.
It is not good to eat much honey, so for men to search their own glory is not glory.
He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without
walls.
Let's pray to the Lord God.
Thank you for this opportunity to be in your house.
I pray that you would fill our pastor with your spirit now as he preaches and pray that
we would be edified by the message.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Amen.
Okay, we are in Proverbs 25, look down at your Bibles in verse 28.
It says, "He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down
and without walls."
The title of my sermon this morning is "Go Rule Yourself."
Go rule yourself.
This morning I want to preach on the subject of ruling yourself or the necessity of reigning
over your body.
Now before we discuss how to rule the spirit, I want to talk about the consequences of failing
to do so.
You see, the Bible says that a man that does not rule his own spirit is like a city that
is broken down and without walls.
What does that mean?
Well, in the Bible, a city with walls represents protection, it represents order, it represents
security, right?
And a city without walls is essentially exposed.
It is defenseless and is definitely vulnerable to attacks from without.
And so when there is no rule, then you have what's called a breach in the wall.
What is a breach?
It's a hole in the wall.
It is a chink in the armor.
It is an opening for the enemy to be able to infiltrate in and cause destruction.
And without government, the enemy enters freely and of course, destruction follows.
This is why it's important for us to rule over our own spirit.
So your spirit requires governance, right?
The body requires a governor, a ruler in order to keep the walls up and keep the enemy out.
If you don't rule your body, you create openings from outside, influence, temptation, and spiritual
assault.
But think about this.
Walls do more than keep people out.
It actually keeps the inhabitants in as well, right?
So we obviously want to keep the enemy out.
We want to keep temptations out.
We want to keep attacks out of the city that we would refer to or compare to as our body.
But we also want to subjugate the inhabitants that are within as well, right?
We want to keep everything in order within, maintain order and governance within.
They restrain chaos and preserve stability among the inhabitants.
You see, it's not only that we have to watch out for the enemy that's out there, but the
Bible says that our heart is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked.
Who can know it?
Meaning that it desires to do wrong.
It desires to sin.
It desires to do that, which is contrary to the word of God.
And therefore, we need to have walls up with no breach.
We need to rule over the members of our body so as to subjugate these inhabitants that
want to do wrong, you understand?
A broken down city without walls not only leaves you open to attacks from without, it
essentially allows the inhabitants who are within to get out of control and leave your
governance.
And so that's important to note there.
And this is why the Bible says to keep thine heart with all diligence.
What does it mean to keep?
It means to guard, right?
And what is the next part of the verse?
For out of it are the issues of life, right?
The Bible also says in Matthew chapter 15, you don't have to turn there, in verse 17,
do you not yet understand that whatsoever entereth into the mouth, goeth into the belly,
and is cast into the draft.
But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they
defile the man, the Bible says.
Such as what?
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts,
false witness, blasphemies.
These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashing hands defileth not a
man.
Now it's obviously good to wash your hands before you eat, right?
The point being is that you're not an unspiritual person if you don't, you're just, you know,
you're not very sanitary, okay?
The Bible's saying here that really what defiles you, the most important thing, the spiritual
defilement proceeds from the heart, therefore we need to keep the walls up, amen?
We need to make sure there's no breach in the walls, not just to keep the enemy out,
but even to keep the enemy and the inhabitants within subjugated and in control.
Now, let me also talk about this real quick.
Let me explain how that the Holy Spirit gives us temperance and how the Bible also commands
us to have self-control.
You know, that's something that's pretty common in the Bible.
You'll have God commanding us to do something, but then you also have other statements in
the Bible that imply that God is the one who does it through us, right?
For example, temperance, what is temperance?
Temperance simply means self-control and it's often used in the context of alcohol consumption,
meaning abstaining from alcohol, right?
Temperance means to abstain from it, but just in general, it just means to have self-control.
And the Bible tells us that temperance is a fruit of the spirit.
So in other words, when you walk in the spirit, the spirit produces temperance or self-control
in our lives.
But the Bible also tells us to keep under our bodies.
So the question is like, how does that work?
Is it the Holy spirit that does it or is it us that's making us have self-control?
Well, here's how it works is that temperance, the flesh obviously is inherently sinful and
cannot choose to do right.
We know that the Bible says for in me, that is in my flesh dwells no good thing.
The Bible tells us that the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be.
So let me explain what that means.
It means that you can't make your flesh want to do right.
It's never going to want to do right, okay?
You can't reform the flesh.
We can only hope for the resurrection.
Reforming the flesh doesn't work.
You just have to rule over it, okay?
It has to be ruled over by force.
It's not like, "Oh man, my body just desires to do right all the time now."
Well, you're not resurrected, so you're lying, okay?
Only in the resurrected state will the physical body actually naturally or should I say supernaturally
want to do right because God has to glorify it.
He has to remove sin from it.
At this particular time, our bodies are corruptible.
This is why it's nonsensical when someone says once you're saved, you just desire to
do right.
Batteries come included.
You're never going to sin.
That is a fantasy.
It's a lie.
Why?
Because when we're born again, it's the spirit that is born again.
It's the spirit that's made new.
The spirit is a new creature, but this body's still corrupt.
It still wants donuts and, you know, bad food and, you know, it doesn't want to work out.
It's lazy, it's fat, you know, it just does all these things, right, that we don't like.
Amen.
And so the body is carnal, and the Bible says it's not subject to the law of God.
And I want you to notice this, neither indeed can be, okay?
So it's a fool's errand to try to reform the flesh.
You have to rule over the flesh, okay, by force.
You can't comply with it.
You can, you say, all right, let's make an agreement here, okay?
I'll let you sin this many times as long as you let me live righteously this many times
or something.
You got to rule over the flesh and subjugate it and make it do what you want it to do,
what the spirit wants it to do, you understand?
But the way it works when it comes to temperance of the spirit is that the spirit supplies
temperance, but listen to me, we supply the obedience though, you understand?
So when we walk in the spirit, the Bible says walk in the spirit, you should not fulfill
the lust of the flesh, the flesh lusts against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh.
These are contrary to the ones of the other, so you cannot do the things that you would.
But when we walk in our lead of the spirit, what do we do?
We supply the obedience that essentially helps us to have temperance.
So the Holy Spirit is there to give us temperance.
It's there to give us self-control over sinful habits, over vices that can destroy your life.
But we have to choose to obey that.
So it's very important to note there that that is how it works.
The Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 1, you don't have to turn there.
It says, "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these
he might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the
world through lust, and beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to
virtue knowledge, to knowledge temperance," meaning add self-control to your life.
And the way we do that is by walking in the spirit.
When we do so, the spirit produces temperance.
Boom, we experience victory in our personal lives.
Okay?
So that's important to note folks, you know, and a lot of times people think to themselves,
well, I don't think so and so is saved because they just never come to church or something.
No, just so and so is just carnal.
The way we figure out if someone is saved or not is not based upon necessarily how they
live.
It's really based upon what they believe, okay?
Because what the, you know, the Bible tells us by thy words, thou shalt be justified and
by thy words, thou shalt be condemned.
It's all based upon what you believe.
So if you want to know if someone is saved or not, don't judge it based upon how many
tattoos they got on or something like that, how many piercings they have on.
Now obviously sometimes it's hard, you've got blue hair and you look weird or whatever,
it's just like, I don't know about this one.
But in general, we can't necessarily judge based upon appearance, because the body is
corruptible still.
And so just because someone doesn't go to church, just because they don't read the
Bible doesn't mean they're not saved.
We can essentially say that they're not saved if they give a different salvation message
than what's found in the Bible.
You ask them, what do you have to do to be saved?
And they say, well, I have to do good works, I have to be a good person, I have to repent
of my sins.
It's like, oh, okay, you know, you're not saved basically.
But if they give the right answer, it doesn't really matter how they look on the outside.
They have the new man within, you understand?
And you say, well, then what's the issue with them?
The issue with them is this, they are carnal, they're fleshly, they're not led of the spirit.
They're led of their bodies.
Okay.
And make no mistake about it.
I'm looking at a crowd right now that is spirit-filled to a certain degree, okay?
Maybe some more than others, some less than others, but let me, let me prove to you how
I know the vast majority of people in here are filled with the spirit.
You're here today.
Okay.
You know, you came to church or, you know, you might, you might've been dragged to church
or something.
I don't know.
But in general, you chose to came to church, you chose to be here.
You chose to obey, you know, the Holy Spirit supplied the desire to do right, but you actually
obeyed it.
You understand?
And so this morning I want to talk about ruling yourself, the importance of temperance, governing
yourself spiritually speaking.
Obviously we can apply this in a variety of ways, you know, making sure you stay on your
diet or whatever, but I'm going to give you just three points this morning regarding ruling
yourself.
Now you are in Proverbs 25, point number one, regarding ruling yourself.
Let me start off by saying this, rule your wrath.
What is that?
What am I talking about?
Your anger.
You got anger issues.
We all got anger issues to a certain degree, okay?
And you know, it's important for us to learn how to govern our wrath.
Now we're not Jedis here, okay?
As much as I wish sometimes I could be, no, I'm just kidding.
You know, we're not Jedis.
This isn't the force.
This isn't Star Wars.
And you know what?
Anger is not necessarily a sin all the time, okay?
You know, the Bible says, you know, the Bible talks about be angry, and I want you to notice
this, and sin not.
So obviously what the Bible's implying there is that anger can be exerted without actually
sinning against the Lord, okay?
And there's certain instances where we're supposed to be angry over some things, not
just a bunch of passive, limp-wristed Christians who just let the world, the devil, and the
flesh walk all over them, okay?
You know, there's instances where we have to have a little bit of wrath and anger and
indignation over sin, over the workers of iniquity, over the injustices of this world,
you understand?
And if you don't exert a little bit of that, then you're not a godly person.
You know, a godly person not only loves the things that God loves, but he also hates the
things that God hates as well, okay?
And it's important for you to do so, but you have to have some semblance of self-control
over your wrath.
Why?
Because anger can easily turn into ungodly wrath, where you exert violence over someone,
right?
It could be harming someone, or ruining your testimony, or saying something that you shouldn't
have said, or doing something you shouldn't have done.
It's important for us to have anger, but also coupled with meekness, which is strength under
God's control.
You understand?
And so let's talk to the people who have anger issues in our church, all right?
I'm one of them, you know, and I think every guy to a certain degree has a little bit
of an anger issue, you know?
And you say, "Well, not me."
Well, let's look at you when someone cuts you off on the freeway, and let's see if
that's true.
Right?
Okay?
Let's, you know, do you give them a number one, do you give them a thumbs up?
What do you do?
You know?
Control your attitude.
So look at Proverbs 25 verse 28, "He that has no rule over his own spirit is like a
city that is broken down and without walls."
Now, let's talk about some things regarding this verse.
It's worth noting that the spirit here in Proverbs 25 actually isn't referring to the
new man.
So we often think of the spirit as either referring to the Holy Spirit, or it's referring
to the spirit of man, what we would call the new man, right?
The reborn aspect of our being.
But spirit is also used interchangeably in the Bible to describe our mind.
So it's actually used sometimes to describe our disposition, our attitude, right?
The Bible says in Ephesians chapter 4, "And be renewed in the spirit of your," what?
"Mind."
So the spirit and mind are often used interchangeably.
We obviously know that the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity.
The new man is also referred to as the spirit, but there's instances where the spirit of
man is also referring to the mind and the attitude.
Well, this is the context that we find in Proverbs 25, that definition.
When it says here that if you have no rule over your own spirit, it's basically saying
if you don't have rule over your own attitude, your own mind, your disposition, that inner
disposition, your temper, your impulses, your emotional disposition, your governing faculties
of thought and reaction, that's what the spirit here is actually referring to.
And go with it if you would to Proverbs chapter 15.
Proverbs chapter 15.
So what is it saying?
If you don't control your attitude, if you don't control your disposition, you're basically
vulnerable to spiritual attacks.
We have to subjugate our attitude.
And you know, all of us to a certain degree, we have anger, we have a temper, and we could
cop an attitude, but God wants us to control that, you understand?
And he wants us to subjugate it under the leading of the Holy Spirit.
He doesn't want you to get rid of your anger.
And in fact, look at Proverbs chapter 15, and verse 18 says, "A wrathful man stirth
up strife, but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife."
So I want you to notice that it doesn't say, "But he that does not have any anger," right?
It actually talks about the rapidity of how fast you get angry.
It says, "He that is slow to anger."
So it's not condemning the emotion of anger.
What it condemns is if you're hasty in your anger.
In other words, you have a short fuse.
You're easily offended.
You're easily angered, right?
Someone says something to you and you're just like, you know, you're ready to just fight
someone at the drop of a hat.
You have a short fuse.
You are an ungodly individual because of the fact that you're not slow to anger.
Understand?
Bible is not condemning anger.
It's condemning how fast you get angry, you know, self control is just like, all right,
this guy's making me mad, but I'm not going to do anything about it.
You know, you're making me upset.
And the Bible saying here that if you're slow to anger, you actually appease strife.
So you try to reconcile the situation, even though emotionally you may feel a little angry.
Okay.
You don't just blow up on someone.
You don't just let them have it right then and there.
You don't just smack someone across the face or something.
You don't just give someone the bird.
When you are, when someone cuts you off on the freeway, you control yourself, right?
And you are slow to anger.
Proverbs 14, 29 says he that is slow to wrath is of great understanding, but he that is
hasty in spirit, exalted falling.
So what does it say?
If you, if you are not a person who is slow to wrath, you're dumb.
That's what it's saying.
Because what's the opposite?
He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding, meaning that the reason you're slow to anger
is because, you know, this could end really bad, right?
You know, if I'm just easily pushed over, if I'm just easily angered and I just start
a provocation and a fight with a person, this could end really bad.
I have the understanding of the results of these actions.
So you're a man of great understanding.
You can foresee evil in the actions of your anger if it's actually expressed, if it's
actually imposed upon someone.
And the Bible says here that he that is hasty in spirit exalted folly.
What does folly mean?
It means stupidity.
And what does it mean to exalt somebody?
It means you're elevating stupidity.
So it says like, if you're just easily angered, you just exalt stupidity.
Basically you're exalting yourself.
You're just the Simba.
You're just showing everyone how dumb you are.
You understand?
This is what it's saying.
Don't be offended by this.
I'm trying to discourage you from being an angry person.
Or should I say, a person who is hasty in their anger, hasty in their spirit.
You just react to something.
You just, as soon as someone says something offensive or they make you mad, you punch
them.
You say something that you regret later.
And look, folks, you know, a man I'm understanding recognizes, you know what?
I'm going to hold my tongue because we've all felt that emotion that, you know, six
hours go by and then you're embarrassed.
You're just like, man, I shouldn't have said that.
That was really embarrassing.
I feel so bad.
Lord, forgive me.
And then you go to the person and you know, it just creates a lot of problems.
Whereas if you just, you know, close your mouth and then you're slow to anger, you let
yourself cool down a little bit.
You don't live with that regret, you understand?
A person who's constantly hasty, they just, they just automatically react.
The Bible says that they exalt, they will elevate folly, they'll elevate stupidity.
You basically demonstrate to everyone how dumb you are.
Okay.
You're just like, oh man, this is offensive.
Well, I'm trying to offend you so that you're not a person who's hasty in their spirit.
So that you think twice before just, you know, starting a fight with your husband, starting
a fight with your wife, starting a fight with some random person on the street, be a person
of understanding.
And look, you know, it's important for us as Christians as well to recognize that, you
know, there's dangerous people out there and you might be a person who's hasty in their
spirit, but you might also end up arguing with someone who's equally, if not more hasty
in their spirit, and they're actually violent because you might be hasty in your spirit,
but you're not so hasty.
You'll take someone's life, but the person you're being hasty with will, you understand?
So that's not worth it.
It's not worth your life fighting with someone on the freeway road rage or whatever may be
just because you want to demonstrate that you're the important person and you have the
last word.
And let's be honest, we've all been in that situation.
You know what I mean?
By the way, parents, there's mother, baby rooms you can go to if your child is getting
a little fussy so you can ushers if you can help with that.
You know, you can run into someone who is hasty and they are actually angry and they're
about that.
Right.
They got that thing on them.
Okay.
You know what I mean?
It's just and you may have a good comeback and everything, but they might be like a comeback
this and it's like not worth it.
Look at Proverbs 16 if you would Proverbs chapter 16, 16 verse 32 says this again, he
that is slow to anger is better than the mighty.
Now who are the mighty?
Well we can compare the mighty to someone who's physically strong, someone who is just
capable, someone who is just exerts and is characterized by strength.
What says here that the person who is slow to anger is actually better than the person
who can deadlift 500, you know, better than the person who can squat 500, better than
the person who could bench 315 or something.
He's better than that person.
You know, the, the, uh, the ideal situation would be to be able to do both bench 315 and
be slow to anger, right?
Squat 500 and as well as, you know, be slow to anger.
But if you were to have to choose one over the other, be slow to anger.
Because in God's economy, that's actually better than being physically strong.
And he says, and he, that rule at the spirit, then he, that take at the city and look,
you know, someone who takes a city is an extremely just powerful person, right?
They can lead an army, they can strategize, you know, they know how to essentially conquer.
But God is saying the person who's able to conquer himself is better than the person
of conquest of other cities.
It's basically God exalts in the fact that he obviously esteemed self control above everything
else.
You understand?
Go to Proverbs chapter 29, Proverbs chapter 29, Proverbs chapter 29.
What's the title of the sermon?
The title is go rule yourself.
Rule your anger.
And look, one of the best things that you can do in your marriage is not be hasty in
your speech.
You know, sometimes you're arguing with your spouse or whatever and there might be something
you guys are disagreeing on and you got a good comeback.
You got something, you remember something from 20 years ago that's just going to completely
destroy this argument and you're going to cook them.
You know, how about you just don't, right?
Let's not escalate the situation more.
Let's not create more resentment.
Let's not create more bitterness.
Let's not bring up the past.
Be a person who is slow to anger and has some self-control.
Look at Proverbs 29 verse 20, "Seeest thou a man that is hasty in his words?
There is more hope of a fool than of him."
Now keep in mind, the fool in the Bible is like the lowest of the low, right?
Because what is a fool?
It's a stupid person.
Well, the Bible is saying here that if you're a person who is hasty in a speech, meaning
you just kind of fly off the handle with your words, well, the idiot has more hope than
you.
Think about that.
So it's saying like the fool, the stupid person has more potential than you.
Why?
Because you exalt folly.
This person is folly, but you exalt the folly, okay?
But Ecclesiastes chapter five, Ecclesiastes chapter five, you know, one of the ways that
you can just cut out or minimize conflict about 70 percent is by just not saying anything
sometimes.
Because the Bible says that in a multitude of words, there wanteth not sin.
What does it mean to want sin?
It means that, you know, there doesn't lack any sin.
The more you talk, the more likely it is that you're going to say something really bad,
right?
And in the context, of course, we're talking about arguing, disputing, debating.
The more you say something out of haste, out of anger, the likely it is you're going to
say something that you will regret later, okay?
And look, if you are a person who has a short fuse, this is how you can lengthen your fuse.
Lengthen the time between what the person says and the time in which you respond to
that.
Meaning that if someone says something in your family, your spouse, they anger you,
just say, "You know what?
Just give me a couple minutes.
I need to go take a walk.
I need to go cool down a little bit."
And you know what?
You'll find that when you give yourself 30 minutes to an hour, you go walk, you go do
something else and you cool down and then go ahead and repeat in your mind what you would
have said.
You're going to think to yourself like, "Man, that would have been a horrible idea.
I would have wounded my spouse.
I would have wounded my wife.
I would have deflated the ego of my husband if I would have said this.
I would have created more conflict by doing this, by being hasty."
And so it's important.
Look at Ecclesiastes 5 verse 2, "Be not rash with thy mouth."
What does it mean to be rash?
It means hasty.
Okay?
"Let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God for God is in heaven and thou upon
earth.
Therefore, let thy words be few for a dream cometh through the multitude of business and
a fool's voice is known by the multitude of words."
Go to Ecclesiastes chapter 7, Ecclesiastes chapter number 7, if you would.
And verse number 9.
Look what it says here.
It says, "Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry for anger resteth in the bosom of fools."
Go to James chapter 1.
We're just looking at a couple of verses here regarding wrath and anger.
James chapter 1, if you would.
I'm going to read you another passage from Proverbs chapter 19 as you're turning to James
chapter 1.
Proverbs 19 says, "The discretion of a man defereth his anger and it is his glory to
pass over a transgression."
Now that's a powerful verse, if you think about it, because the person who is hasty
in his speech, the person who is just easily angered, he glories in the last word, right?
He kind of boasts in the fact that he checkmated this person, that he cooked this person, right?
He just got this person or whatever.
Well, the person who has discretion, the person who has self-control actually glories in the
fact that he passes over the transgression, meaning he's like, "You know what?
I'm not going to get involved in this and I'm going to glory in my self-control and
my ability to not just make a situation worse," escalate a situation.
He glories over the fact that there's a transgression and he's going to go ahead and pass over it
and not get involved in that altercation, whatever it may be.
Look at James 1, if you would, verse 19, "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift
to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath."
That's great.
That's the three-point outline right there, right?
Swift to hear means, you know, before you get all mad, listen to what they're telling
you first and foremost, right?
Just listen to what they're saying, okay?
Hear them out, right?
Hear your wife out, hear your husband out, hear your friend out, hear whatever argument
you're in.
Just listen to what they're saying.
B, it says here, swift to hear, just listen for a bit.
And then it says here, slow to speak, meaning don't be hasty, choose your words carefully.
And then of course, slow to wrath, don't allow yourself to just get worked up and angry.
Verse 20 says, "For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God."
What is the instruction?
"Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness
the engrafted word which is able to save your souls."
Go with me if you would, go back to Proverbs if you would, Proverbs chapter 15.
Point being here is that we need to learn how to rule ourselves.
And one of the biggest things that we need to learn how to do is have self-control over
our anger, over our wrath.
Don't be a person who has no anger, because a person who has no anger, either there's
something wrong with their testosterone, or they're not mad about the things that God
is mad about, we need to get angry about these things.
Injustices, false doctrine, heretics, things of that nature should make us mad.
It should upset us.
It should cause us to be angered in our spirit, because even the Lord Jesus Christ, when looking
upon the false prophets, known as the Pharisees, said that he looked upon them with anger.
He wasn't just like, you know, anger.
He's just like, you know, whatever angry faces, but he's just like mad.
But obviously, you know, he had self control.
Now, how do we know that he had self control with slow anger?
Well, because, you know, he's mad at the fact that they're making the house of God a house
of merchandise, right?
He's really mad about that.
He's angered, but yet he's slow to wrath.
How do we know?
Because it took him a really long time to make that chord.
So he's just like, he's just like, oh man, these guys are going to get, and you know,
whereas us, we would have just looked for a rock or a stick or something.
He's just like making it and he's controlled.
And then he goes in and just lets loose and starts whooping everybody, understand?
And so it's important for us to do so.
And look, this is, this is important for those of you who want to be pastors and preachers.
You have to have self control and you have to schedule your wrath.
You know, there's instances where something is just completely makes me upset and makes
me angry.
I don't know about it, but I need to wait until I preach and then get angry where the
notes say they're getting angry, man.
I don't have notes.
But you know, when I'm talking about this, all right, now it's time to get upset about
this particular topic, about this particular subject and kind of blow a gasket right now.
But it's scheduled.
You understand?
In other words, you control your temper, control your spirit, turn it on and you turn
it off.
Okay.
Very important.
Now that's point number one.
Number one is to control your wrath and look, just on a practical level, sometimes guys,
let's just talk to the guys real quick.
Okay.
You know, the guys are just overly emotional and get easily angered.
Yes, it could be a spiritual problem, but most of the time it is a physical problem.
Okay.
Meaning that you're not getting enough sleep, you're not getting enough nutrition and you're
not like working out, not lifting, you're not exercising, you're not exerting your
body.
And it's important to do those things because it gives you a sense of equilibrium.
It helps you to have some serotonin and it allows you to release some aggression.
Okay.
You know, if you're a person who's just constantly angry, well, it's probably because you're
sleeping like three to four hours a night because you're up all night playing video
games or something like that instead of actually going to bed at a decent time.
And you know, I'm talking to the single guys, but I'm sure married guys do this, but you
know what?
We have a past because we got babies and stuff like that.
You know, I would like to get eight hours of sleep for sure, you know, that would be
a luxury.
But you know, sometimes single guys are just like, you know, I'm single, so therefore I
can run off off of three hours, four hours of sleep.
Yeah, you could, but you're just emotional the entire day though, okay?
You're irritable, you're angry, you're blowing up on people.
Another thing is this, just get some more protein in your system, okay?
Don't be like Nick Fuentes who just eats chicken tenders or something like that and
fries.
What are you doing taking health advice from that guy anyways?
Any advice from that guy?
Bro has no gains.
He has no gains.
He likes chicken tenders.
He's a Catholic.
He's an incel.
Well, just because he says good things about the Jews or whatever, a broken clock is right
twice a day.
Bro has no gains whatsoever, okay?
It's not someone you want to take advice from.
Oh, you're going to order yourself a happy meal now?
Is that what you're going to do?
Get some meat in your system, okay?
Now, I'm not against chicken.
Chicken's great.
Good source of protein.
But you know what?
Get yourself some eggs.
Get red meat into your system.
Get some ground beef, amen?
And if you're about that life, you can get yourself some liver, too, okay?
Sprinkle some bacon on there.
If it's too much, put some onions and some syrup on there and there you go, okay?
But I digress.
You don't have to.
But get some red meat into your system, for crying out loud.
It'll preserve.
Let's say you just don't work out, which shame on you if you don't, okay?
Let's say you just don't work out, okay?
I said what I said.
I take nothing back.
But let's just say you don't work out at all.
Please just at least eat your body weight protein, just to maintain whatever muscle
you have.
So you don't have chicken legs for the rest of your life, right?
You want chicken legs?
You sure?
I know you are what you eat, but you know, eating chicken tenders, you know, you get
chicken legs or something, you know, preserve whatever muscle you have because the older
you get, you start losing muscle.
You need to be able to get off the toilet, you need to be able to get off your bed.
I'm not joking.
This is serious.
It's funny, but I'm serious at the same time.
You guys know what I'm talking about, right?
You know, go do some squats and I know you're scared of the deadlift, but you know what?
Then do 145 pounds for a couple of times just to grow a backbone and, you know, work your
muscle.
Look, we use our back for everything.
You got to do it.
And look, once you start lifting weights, even if it's just a little bit of weight,
you don't have to do a crazy amount of weight.
You know, people are like, "Oh, I don't want to do deadlifts because I just want to injure
my back."
Then don't do 300 pounds.
Don't even do 225.
Do 145 or something like that.
Do something, though, to exercise your back because we use our back for everything.
You understand?
Eat your protein, work out, lift.
If you want to run, you can do that, but I don't necessarily ... Go walk, okay?
But more than that, just lift some weights.
And I'm telling you, it'll actually help your mood.
I'm so moody.
It's because you're not lifting.
And look, we live in a stressful world.
There's just a lot of stress going on, and then you're always on the internet looking
at what's going on with Iran and everything.
You're just freaking out over everything.
OK, you know what?
I guess I can't get you off of Instagram, but maybe I can get you on some protein though,
so that even though you're stressed, at least you're a little bit happy.
You got some good mood in you or whatever.
And I'm not joking.
Lifting weights helps with this.
And I'm a major advocate of lifting weights, which is why we have a gym back here.
If you want to do some body squats-- not body squats.
You can do some body squats right here.
If you want to do some barbell squats, you can do it back there, some deadlifts there.
You want to do some just dumbbells, do it right here.
Do something though.
I'm telling you right now, when you just implement lifting in your life, you'll minimize your
outburst of anger.
I want to say about 20%.
I'm not joking.
I'm serious.
It won't hurt you to have some sort of lifting regime because you need some sort of governance
in your life, making yourself do what you don't want to do.
I don't always want to do deadlifts.
I don't always want to do squats.
I don't always want to just lift.
I don't want to do that, but guess what?
This man does not, you know, this body doesn't rule this thing.
I'm ruling this body.
And when the body's just like, I don't feel like doing it, you know, I'm just like, well,
we're doing it anyways.
Get under the bar and let's do it.
We're doing, you know, high reps, heavy, heavy sets.
We got to do it.
We got to work out the leg.
We got to do the Bulgarian split squats, okay, because it's super bothersome, but you get
a good pump, right?
Leg extension is good so that when you're done, you know, you feel really good.
And I'm not going home smacking my wife and all this, you know, not that I do that, you
know, but you know, I'm not yelling at my wife.
I'm not angry with my wife.
I'm not fighting with her.
You know, I'm in a good mood when I go home.
You want to know why you're irritable when you go home?
Because you're not lifting.
You're not eating protein.
Folks, this is a spiritual problem, but guess what, we're mind, body, and spirit, though.
They're all connected one with another, okay?
And you say, "Oh, mention coffee.
Drink coffee."
You know, I'm not discouraged.
I'm not going to discourage that.
You keep that heresy away from here, all right?
Drink coffee, okay?
But let me say this.
If you're pounding energy drinks and you're pounding coffee, but you're not utilizing
any of the energy from it, all right, now you got a problem, okay?
You know what I mean?
Get your coffee in.
Black coffee.
Right, Brother Kerry?
Black coffee?
You know?
"Nah, nah, everyone's all mad.
Who uses cream or whatever?"
All right.
Keep your gay creamer.
That's fine.
You know, black coffee and utilize the energy that you get from it.
Here's just your monthly reminder to make sure you're lifting, you're exercising, you're
either building muscle or at least please maintain the muscle that you have.
Okay?
And let me just say this.
I know you're in your 20s, early 30s.
You'll thank me later.
Okay?
All right.
I'm done.
I'll leave you alone now.
You're in Proverbs 15.
So rule your wrath.
Have some self-control over your anger.
Lengthen your fuse.
Don't have a short fuse.
And number two, rule your tongue.
And I know I already talked a little bit about that in the first point, but this is very
important and it deserves its own point.
Proverbs 15 verse 1, "A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger."
Now what does it mean to have a soft answer?
You know, when you are in a situation where you are arguing with someone, if you don't
want to fight, then one of the best things you can do is just agree with an adversary
quickly.
That means to have a soft answer, ok?
And look, you know, we got to get to a point in our Christian lives where we don't always
have to be right or have the last word.
Now I love to have the last word, am I the only one?
I love to have the last word, you know, just the banger to just destroy someone, you know?
You know, I love rage baiting, for you, you know, it's just like, you'll get that when
you're older, you know, just those one-liners that just make someone mad, but at the end
of the day, a soft answer turns away wrath, okay?
And if you feel like, man, my husband is just so angry, he gets mad when we argue, you know,
you know what helps with that, or should I, no, no, let me say this, you know what doesn't
help with that is when you nag, right?
Can I get a, it's true, that just makes things worse, makes matters worse, when you nag and
you fight with them, but you know what actually turns away his wrath is your soft answer.
You're like, I don't know about that, because I gave a soft answer and he was still mad.
Yeah, but how many like arguments did you do before and after that though, right?
You kind of sandwich the soft answer in between anger, wrath, ranting, you know, nagging.
You did the sandwich method on the reverse.
You know, obviously it requires some consistency in answering softly and making sure that you
are actually trying to, you know, pass over a transgression by actually, you know, saying
the right things or not insulting, disrespecting your spouse.
Bibles' grievous words stir up anger.
Verse two says, "The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright, but the mouth of fools
poureth out foolishness.
The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good."
A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, and I want you to notice this, but perverseness
they're in is a breach in the spirit.
Isn't that what we read earlier at the beginning of the sermon?
You know, "He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down
and without walls."
So when there's perverseness in the tongue, when you're speaking twisted things, you're
stirring up anger, you're not slow to wrath.
What is it?
It is a breach in the spirit.
You're opening yourself up to spiritual attack, more conflict, more anger, and obviously the
end thereof is destruction.
Okay?
Now let's go to James 3.
Go to James 3.
We're going to flip back and forth here.
Now as you're turning to James 3, I'm going to read you from Proverbs 16 verse 23.
It says, "The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth and addeth learning to his lips."
What does this mean?
It means that the person who is wise, the person who has understanding, thinks before
he says something.
Right?
They're not impetuous.
They're not hasty with their speech.
They say, "Okay, this is what I'm going to say."
Right?
"I'm going to formulate my sentence, I'm going to formulate my statement so that I don't
just let it fly off the handle."
Okay?
This is a wise thing to do.
He teaches his mouth and adds learning to his lips.
Look at James chapter three and verse number one, "What's the title of the sermon?
Go rule yourself, rule your wrath, but also rule your tongue."
And you have no idea how important it is to learn how to rule this thing right here.
And in fact, the majority of problems that we experience in our body, this is often the
source of it right here, according to this chapter.
Look at verse 1, "My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the
greater condemnation.
For in many things we offend all.
If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the
whole body."
That's interesting.
So he says here, if a person is not offensive in his words, this individual is perfect.
Now, it doesn't mean sinless.
Perfect in the Bible is used synonymously with mature, complete.
So the person who is not constantly offending others is a complete, mature individual.
Why?
Because he's able to also bridle his whole body.
You give me a person who controls his tongue, I'll give you a disciplined person, understand?
Someone who's able to bridle himself.
And you know, a bridle is something that's used for a horse, something that's used for
an animal.
You know, this thing can be an animal sometimes, right?
This thing can bring destruction, but it also can bring life.
And the Bible says if you're able to bridle the tongue, control the tongue, well, you're
probably an individual who's able also to control and bridle the body.
Verse three says, "Behold, we put bits in the horse's mouth that they may obey us, and
we turn about their whole body.
Behold, also the ships, which though they be so great, are driven of fierce winds, yet
are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.
Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things.
Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleeth.
So he's saying, you know, like the bit in the horse's mouth is able to control that
massive beast, right?
That little helm is able to control a huge ship.
Well, the Bible is comparing that to our tongue.
Our tongue is able to essentially control the entire body, and it can kindle a large
fire.
A little thing can kindle a large fire.
It says here in verse 6, "And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.
So is the tongue among our members, that it defileeth the whole body, and seteth on fire
the course of nature, and is set on fire of hell."
So it's saying, this thing can raise a lot of hell.
It can get you in a lot of trouble.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, the Bible says.
It says it can give life.
On a practical level, we know that because when we preach the gospel, we give life to
people.
But at the same time, you can provide life to your wife, life to your husband, life to
your children, life to others by the things that you say.
Now don't misunderstand me.
This is not to say that we can't say anything negative.
Negativity is a necessity in Christianity.
In preaching, in discipleship, you know, it can't be all just positive.
Can't just tell you like, oh, you're great, you know, because sometimes we're not great.
Oh, man, you're doing so well.
But sometimes you're not though.
You need to be corrected, right?
The point of being is that you need to recognize the powerful potential of your tongue to give
life but it can also kindle a fire and destroy people.
Now we know this on a practical level because of gossip, right?
Doesn't gossip just destroy relationships?
Gossip within family, right?
That's why families are just have so much conflict one with another, because this person
is gossiping about that person.
Then that person tells another person and they exaggerate the situation.
All done with the tongue, okay?
People can be railers and destroy people's lives with their tongue.
He says in verse seven, "For every kind of beasts and of birds and of serpents of things
in the sea is tamed and has been tamed of mankind.
But the tongue can no man tame.
It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison.
Therewith we bless God, even the Father, and therewith we curse we men which are made after
the similitude of God.
Out of the same mouth proceeded blessings and cursings, "My brethren, these things ought
not so to be.
Do the fountains send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?
Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries, either a vine figs?
So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you?
Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom."
What does it say?
A lot of times we want to correct people and sometimes that's necessary.
We want to give people wisdom with our words, right?
And that's sometimes necessary.
But here it says that we should show out of a good conversation our works with meekness
of wisdom.
Meaning sometimes people actually catch more how we live than what we say.
And herein lies the problem.
Sometimes Christians know how to say the right things but they live the wrong way.
So it's just like you want me to take your advice all the while you're a hypocrite yourself.
You want me to do as you do or do as you say but not do as you do.
And you know what?
Let's say someone's giving you advice and it's true.
But you just don't want to obey it because they're a bunch of hypocrites.
It doesn't mean what they're saying is wrong.
It's just they kind of lose credibility.
We listen to people who have credibility.
People who believe the right things but also live the right way.
And so, look, if you want to impart advice to someone regarding a particular area in
life, just make sure you're doing that thing, too.
I'm not saying you're wrong about your advice, though, because you know you can say some
accurate stuff.
It's like, "He's right.
She's right."
However, you know, you kind of lose a little credibility if you are in violation of that
principle yourself.
"Yeah, but what I said was right."
Right.
But your body's wrong, though, and it's not really helping the message here, okay?
You know?
You say, "What about you, do you lift?"
Yes, I do.
Now, I admit, I'm not as strong as some of the guys in our church, okay?
Some of the guys in our church are extremely strong, you know?
Our evangelist, Brother Hernandez, can squat 4'10", okay?
But you know, range of motion, we'll talk about that later, you know?
I'm being a hater right now.
You know, Brother Gio, or what would you say, Brother Jacob, you know, he just benched,
what was it, 3'37" or something like that?
You know, that's pretty strong, right?
But you know what, I do lift, and you know, I could only impart things that I know and
I've been successful at, and so can these guys.
The point being is like, what if I was giving you advice though and I just don't lift at
all?
I'm telling you, you need to make sure you lift, you need to make sure you eat your protein,
but I just don't do it.
Now, what I say was true though, you do need to do those things, but you know, I don't
really have that reputation, so no one's really going to take me serious, okay?
Point being here is that we need to make sure that we recognize that we have to control
this tongue, but also recognize that a good conversation needs to accompany that tongue,
okay?
It says in verse 14, "But if you have bitter envy and strife in your hearts, glory not
and lie not against the truth."
I would say about 80% of problems can be just completely, you know, dealt with if we just
control the tongue, okay?
And you know, this applies of course in marriage, this applies with our children, but this applies
all across the board with everyone.
Hey, how about this, just with church members, okay?
And we have a church that, you know, lets it fly sometimes, okay?
And especially amongst the brethren, they're a little rough or whatever.
I'm all for it though, you know?
I think it's good.
I think people need to grow some thick skin, and I think guys need to stop being so wimpy
and effeminate and easily offended, and you know, I think it's good to have a roasting
session, you know, every service.
I personally think it's great, okay?
Because you're treating each other like brethren, you know what I mean?
You go to these other churches and everything is just hunky-dory and you know, you can't
say anything negative and everyone's all offended and they're all gay and it's just not necessarily
a conducive environment, right?
For masculinity, biblical masculinity, right?
So obviously it's good to roast each other and all that and do all that and good fun,
but at the same time we need to make sure we balance things out though, okay?
And not just completely tear each other down to the point where some of us just leave our
church because you just cooked them beyond measure or something like that, okay?
And I've learned that, you know, one thing I've learned as far as friendships are concerned,
I've had a lot of great friends, I have a lot of great friends now, is that you can
roast someone like hard.
I'm talking about just to a crisp.
I'm talking about like, man, that was just like, this guy, you got him good, right?
You can destroy someone as long as they know that you love them, okay?
Very important, okay?
Like, I'll give you this example, you know, Brother Hernandez and Brother Marcos, I've
known them since they were kids, to a certain degree, you know what I mean?
Like 18 years of age or something, I've known them for a long time.
So I can just roast Marcos to like the third degree, fourth degree, and he will never think
that I hate him.
You know, I can just embarrass him in front of the whole church right now if I wanted
to.
I really can't.
In fact, no, I'm just kidding.
You guys want to hear one?
You know, and honestly, he will not be offended at all.
Like, he will not be bitter against me, he will not have any resentment towards me, not
because the joke wasn't good, because I was saying like, ah, whatever, I kind of sucked
or whatever.
No, it's because he genuinely knows that I love him, okay?
And you know, I have a deep love for Brother Marcos, for Brother Hernandez, you know,
so therefore I kind of have permission to a certain degree, right?
So in other words, you know, just make sure you develop deep relationships before you
let it fly off the handle, okay?
Because you know, people can get offended, right?
They can get offended.
You can destroy someone with your tongue.
But the great thing is is that if you have a good deep relationship with someone, you
know, they're never going to be offended at your correction.
Here's another thing.
If you want to correct someone in the Christian life, just make sure you have a good relationship
with them, right?
You know, because then people would get all offended and get bent out of shape.
They shouldn't.
They shouldn't get offended.
But sometimes they do.
And it's part of the reason, because of the fact that they think that you are, you're
out to get them or something like that, or maybe you just want to cook them or something.
But here's the thing, if they genuinely know that you love them, then you know they'll
take that correction.
So make sure you have a good relationship with people before you do so, because your
tongue can destroy people.
And of course this applies to people you just don't know.
Just be careful how you talk to people when you're out in public.
And if you're the type that can't control their tongue, do us a favor and don't tell
them that you're a Christian.
Don't be a bad testimony.
Go to first Corinthians chapter 9.
Rule yourself, go rule yourself.
Rule your temper, rule your wrath, and rule your tongue.
And look, I'll be transparent.
This is something that I struggle with because I'm a normal human being like everyone else.
You know, I let it fly off the handle.
I've offended people in our church over the years.
You know, and so I'm not exempt from this.
I'm not necessarily a perfect man, but you know, I strive for self-control though.
I strive for temperance.
So in like manner, you should do the same.
And we don't expect perfection, so to speak, sinlessness, but we should be a people who
are characterized by being people of self-control, discipline, temperance, okay?
And lastly, of course, rule your body.
Rule your body.
Make your body do the things that you're supposed to do, okay?
And I'm preaching to the choir because you're in church today, you're in church this morning,
you made your body, get out of bed, brush your teeth, do all that, and then come to
church, right?
But we need to rule our bodies in other areas as well.
First Corinthians chapter 9 verse 24 says, "Know ye not that they which run in a race
run all, but one receive at the prize, so run that ye may obtain?
And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.
Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.
I therefore so run, not as uncertainty, uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beat at the air,
but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest by any means when I preach
to others, I myself should be a castaway."
It's kind of like what I previously said, right?
Like preaching to others, but making sure you yourself are in subjection, okay?
And he's saying here to bring the body into control, to make your body do the things that
you're supposed to do.
Go to Romans chapter 6, Romans chapter 6 here.
As you're turning there, I'm going to read to you from 1st Thessalonians chapter 4.
You're going to Romans 6.
I'm going to read to you from 1st Thessalonians 4 and verse 3.
The Bible says here, "For this is the will of God.
In your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication, that every one of you should
know how to possess this vessel in sanctification and honor."
Now, let me just say something that has nothing to do with this sermon, but it's applicable
because it's literally from the text.
Sanctification, obviously we know what happens at the moment of salvation.
We are set apart unto God through faith in Jesus Christ.
Everyone agree with that?
But you know what?
Sanctification is also a process, not for salvation, but because God wants us to clean
up our lives.
That's what it means to be sanctified, right?
What's the opposite of it?
Defiled.
Okay?
Now, the reason it's important to make that distinction, because you have people out today
who are like, "Oh, there's no such thing as a process of sanctification.
Sanctification happened at salvation.
You don't have to try to keep God's commands."
And they're turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.
And they're literally saying, "The Bible only teaches sanctification at the moment
of salvation.
We don't have to try to live godly lives."
Oh, that's funny, because it says here, "Even your sanctification that ye should abstain
from fornication."
Now, do we abstain from fornication once?
No, this is like a process, right?
And he specifically says there that every one of you should know how to possess his
vessel in sanctification and honor.
What does it mean to possess the vessel?
To keep it in subjection.
That's sanctification.
Because, you know, they hate churches like this because we preach against sin.
We preach, we talk about the fact that God will judge you if you are involved in sin,
if you don't live a sanctified life.
But guess what?
That's literally what the Bible says, though.
The Bible tells us this is the will of God, even your sanctification, meaning you got
to live a clean life, not perfect, but seeking sanctification, that process.
And obviously we know that if you don't live a sanctified life, you're still saved.
However, because you did not subject the body, now you are subject to consequence.
God's wrath.
God's chastisement upon your life, because you have these preachers out there that just
think they're so cool and oh man, we're not under the law and therefore you can just do
all these things.
God's not going to judge you.
Okay, go ahead and get involved in sin, let me know how that goes for you.
Go ahead and go fornicate, go commit adultery, go commit crime, and let's just see how that
goes for you, right?
We need to make sure that we recognize that sanctification, though it is something that
happens instantaneously at salvation because we're set apart unto God, there is a concept
of the process of sanctification because the Bible says, "Be holy, for I am holy, saith
the Lord."
Okay?
But that was free.
All right?
Look at Romans chapter 6 verse 1.
He says, "What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
God forbid.
How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?"
Now this is important to note because sometimes people will also say, "Oh, you're saying
that we just are going to sin," but the Bible says here, "What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
God forbid."
But what they would neglect to read is the previous chapter that says, "Where sin abounds,
grace did much more abound."
So think about that.
You know, God says, "Don't sin.
I forbid you to sin, but here's the thing, where sin abounds, grace much more abounds."
So grace is always 10 steps ahead of your sin that is abounding, you understand?
So just because God forbids us to sin doesn't mean he forbids the grace to abound when we
do.
And in fact, what does the Bible say?
People with children, these things write on to you that you sin not.
But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and
he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the
whole world.
People think like, "Oh, God's commanding this, therefore you're just never going to happen."
The mere fact that he's commanding it is proof that you will sin, because if we would naturally
do that, which is right, there would be no need to command it.
Why do I need to command you to do something if you just naturally know how to do it already
or not to do it, right?
The reason it's command is because we have to make a choice to obey that command.
Everyone understand what I'm saying?
He goes on to say in verse three, "No, ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into
Jesus Christ were baptized into his death.
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised
up from the dead by the glory of the father, even so we also should walk in newness of
life."
Skip down to verse number 11.
He says, "Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto
God through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Now, he's saying here we have to reckon ourselves, meaning we have to account ourselves in this
particular condition.
So this has to do with the mind, right?
Like we have to recognize in our mind like we're dead indeed unto sin.
It doesn't mean we're not going to sin, but our disposition towards sin needs to change.
Our attitude towards sin needs to change.
We got to recognize like we're dead to this.
This is essentially the first step in victory over sin.
He says in verse 12, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body.
So the language we see here is similar to what we saw in the beginning, right?
To rule yourself means you can't let sin rule over you, which is possible.
He says, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in the
lustre of, neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin.
Now what are the members?
Referring to your hands, your feet, your body.
He's saying here, don't let these members, the inhabitants, right, be instruments of
unrighteousness.
What is this telling us?
It's telling us that the body naturally wants to sin, but you have to rule over the body
and subjugate it so that it doesn't.
Doesn't mean that you won't, but you know what?
You can keep yourself away from fornication.
You can keep yourself away from drunkenness.
You can keep yourself away from railing.
Hey, you can keep yourself away from dishonesty.
You know lying is a sin.
Bearing false witness is sin, right?
And sometimes people think, well, you know, I don't like steal.
I don't like commit adultery, but are you a liar though?
Because you know, sometimes that becomes like culturally acceptable sometimes when people
just are raised in a home where people are just naturally dishonest.
They just learn dishonesty from others.
They just have no problem saying a little white lie, okay?
But you know what?
There's no such thing as a white lie in the Bible.
It's just a lie is a lie is a lie.
Can I say this?
You know, learn to be an honest individual.
Learn to be honest with your boss, be honest with your parents, be honest with others.
Don't be characterized by being a liar, okay?
You know, we need to exalt honesty in our society once again and recognize the value
of just telling the truth, even if it means you come out losing later on, okay?
Because it's the right thing to do.
But the Bible's telling us here, we should not let that reign over us.
So let's just say you come from a home that is just given to dishonesty.
Don't use this excuse.
Well, that's just how I was raised.
You know, it's just, that's how my mom was.
That's how my dad was.
You know, don't be a person who's just like, well, I'm a glutton because it just runs
in my family.
Part of the genetics or whatever, I can't really do anything about it.
You know, oh, you know, I just struggle with alcohol because it just runs in my family.
I just, every once in a while I smoke marijuana because it just runs in my family, you know.
I just struggle with eating food because it does, because it just runs in my family.
No, no, no.
You know, I don't live because it doesn't run in my family.
You don't run.
Yeah, we know.
Okay.
No form of exercise, no form of running.
You know, don't use your ancestors or whatever, your parents, as an excuse why you commit
these sins.
Because we have the Holy Spirit of God that transcends all that.
What you're saying is, well, because mom, dad, grandparents committed these sins of dishonesty,
of drug abuse, of alcohol, of laziness, therefore it gives me a free pass to also commit those
things.
And what does that translate to?
Reign over me.
Generational curses?
Reign over me.
Right?
But the Bible's saying here, don't let it reign over you.
Don't be subject to the flesh.
Yeah.
You know what?
Maybe you're predisposed to these particular sins because of your parents, because of the
environment that you grew up in, but now you're a Christian.
Now you're saved.
Now you have the Bible.
You have the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit produces temperance and you don't have to subjugate yourself to those
sins.
Rule over your body!
You just don't understand.
Alcohol was just everywhere in my family.
Join the club!
If you didn't grow up in a Christian home, likelihood is that you grew up around a lot
of vice.
But you know what?
Just because your great grandparents were alcoholics, just because they did cocaine
and smoke marijuana, and they gave it to you when you were five years old, whatever, doesn't
mean you have to subjugate yourself.
The Bible is commanding you to rule over your body, okay?
Rule over the flesh.
Don't reform the flesh.
And it's just like, "Okay, I'm going to just deceive myself into just hating alcohol."
No, your body, now that you open that door, is going to want to drink alcohol probably
for the rest of its life, okay?
You have to rule over it and tell your body, "No, we're not doing that."
Get rid of all the alcohol.
We're not going to any bars, and you know what?
I'm avoiding every single birthday party that has alcohol in it, which basically includes
all Mexican birthday parties at that point, okay?
Ain't that the truth?
It's like people show up, they don't even know whose birthday it is, you know?
It's just like, where I put the, you know, instead of bringing a present, they bring
like a case or something, right?
You know, avoid situations, because here's the thing, yeah, you can't use it as an excuse,
but also you have to recognize your limits though.
So you got to remove yourself from the presence of temptation.
So be wise about it, right?
If you struggle with alcohol, don't put yourself in a situation where you might be tempted
to drink alcohol.
Someone says, "Hold my beer," smack it out of their hand, like, "I'm not touching that.
That's poison."
You know, "Oh, come on, you can drink soda, I'll drink beer."
No, I'm not hanging out with anybody who drinks beer.
I'm not hanging out with anybody who drinks alcohol.
I don't want to smell it.
"Oh, why?
Because you're just like so spiritual?"
Yeah, that's what it is.
You know, obviously it's also because you're carnal, and you recognize that if you put
yourself in that situation, the likelihood of you drinking alcohol is very high.
But your spiritual side says, "So we're not going to do it.
You know what we're going to do?
We're going to go home and eat Swiss rolls, okay?
We're going to have apple juice.
We're going to choose an alternative."
I'm confessing my personal sins, you know.
"We're going to do something else."
And you know, it's just like, "Oh man, but then people are going to get offended when
I don't go."
But you know, who cares?
Because you will be offended by allowing that atmosphere to cause you to stumble back
into that sin.
Rule yourself.
You know, it's just like, "Oh man, I don't really struggle with those vices, but I do
struggle with like overeating."
Well, I can't help you with that because I do too, you know, I'm just kidding.
You know?
Well, rule yourself.
You got to rule yourself.
And you know what?
I'm not necessarily for fat diets anymore.
I used to be about fat diets and you know, just, you know, do this and do this and you'll
never desire these things.
You know, at the end of the day, it's just raw deficit.
That's what it is.
It just comes down to just being in a caloric deficit and you know what, shut up, we're
not eating right now.
Kind of thing.
Okay.
It's just, I got to trick the brain.
No, you just got to tell yourself not to eat.
That's just all it is.
It's just like, no, if I just kind of do this little, now I will say there is a life hack
when it comes to a deficit and many of you may not like this, but it's okay.
You know, you can, you can be this way.
I'm all for the diet cokes.
Okay.
You know, don't drink, don't drink your calories.
Okay.
Sometimes if you have like a, you're like, Oh, but what about all those chemicals?
Bro, it's just, you got to eat, you could drink like 60 of them for it to even affect
you in one sitting or whatever.
Okay.
But you know what?
You know, if I'm hungry and I want to get, I don't want to just overeat, here's a better
one.
Just get a Sprite zero and just pound that thing and you're good to go for the rest of
the night.
Okay.
That's not very healthy.
Yeah.
But you know, here's the thing.
Not true.
Okay.
Not true.
Right.
Because you know, I've been doing this stuff and I got my blood checked out and guess what?
My blood is great.
Okay.
Everything's A-okay.
Yeah, we're going to die in the future.
We're all going to die in the future.
You're dying.
You're dying right now.
Okay.
You know, I'm just saying here, you know, you got to come up with some life hacks in
order to lose weight sometimes.
Okay.
And I'm not, I'm not talking about sinful life hacks.
Okay.
I'm not, don't do math or something like that.
Like I got to do math or, you know, that helps the weight loss or whatever.
Let not sin reign over your mortal body.
You know what the greatest thing that you can do as a Christian is just learn how to
be disciplined.
Be such a flex.
Be disciplined in reading your Bible.
Be disciplined in praying.
Be disciplined in going to church.
Just be a person of temperance.
Such a flex.
Because we live in such a society that is just given over to their own vices and desires
and they're just subject to the desires of the flesh and of the mind.
God wants us to be a disciplined people.
We wake up, we take care of business, we go to work, we love our families, we love our
spouses, we love our children, we read our Bibles, we listen to God.
We go to church.
We listen to preaching.
We win souls to Christ.
We lift.
We do all these positive things and guess what, it's just a life of discipline.
Don't be, these people are just like, don't be, let me just say this, don't be a crack
head Christian.
You know what I mean by that?
Crack heads just kind of wake up at whatever time.
They don't really have a schedule, right?
I'm not saying you know by personal testimony, I'm just saying they just kind of live in
a whim.
We should be scheduled.
Disciplined.
Why?
Because we have a purpose.
We're Christians.
Look here, look at verse number 13, "Neither yield you, your members, as instruments of
unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves to God as those that are alive from the dead
and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace."
What then?
Shall we sin because we're not under the law but under grace?
God forbid.
"Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey?
His servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness."
What is the Bible saying?
You yield.
Okay?
In the morning you've got to yield.
You yield your body to spiritual disciplines, you yield your body to carnal disciplines
such as deficit, exercising.
Be a person who rules over the body.
Not just your emotions, not just your tongue, but just your body in general.
And look folks, it's important for us to do this because of the fact that if we're
going to experience any form of physical or spiritual success, it requires discipline.
It requires for you to learn how to govern yourself.
And I deal with Christians.
I've dealt with Christians over the years, which is just like, man, I struggle to read
my Bible.
But really what it is, it's a discipline problem.
I struggle to do this.
It's a discipline problem.
And we have access to being and having self-control and temperance.
And if you want to experience success, you have to have those things, understand?
And so what's the sermon today?
The sermon is simply this, go rule yourself.
I know that the diet is no longer non-existent, you know, maybe like you started off strong
in January and you're just like, but you know what, March, March 1st, amen.
Now we messed you up by the muffins and stuff, but you know, Monday, tomorrow's the new,
the mercies of God are new every day, okay?
So tomorrow's a brand new day.
And you know what?
Yeah, if you go to the gym tomorrow, Tuesday, your legs are going to be linguine.
They're going to hurt.
They're going to be destroyed.
Get over it, that's just how life is.
People are like, "Oh, I can't work out because it's just going to be horrible the next couple
of days."
Life is just horrible sometimes.
Let it be horrible for a week and then you'll get over it, okay?
And then you'll start lifting, you'll feel great about it.
And you know what?
A deficit sucks too.
I'm not going to be like, "Here's the life hack so that you enjoy your day."
We could do little things here and there, but at the end of the day sometimes I go to
sleep hungry.
I just cry myself to sleep, you know?
Just roll over and just like, "It's time to go to sleep, I've used up all my calories."
It's true.
You laugh because you know it's true.
You've experienced the same thing.
It's just like, man, I'm like, Sarah, how many I got?
You got 10 left.
10?
What is that?
I'm going to eat air or something?
I got to eat water?
You know what?
Sometimes things are just hard.
Discipline is hard.
But you know what?
Allowing your body to reign over you is harder.
Allowing the flesh to subjugate you is harder.
It's more difficult, it's miserable, it's depressing, it's discouraging, it's defeating.
And you know what?
I don't want you to live like that.
So pay the price being a disciplined person instead.
Rule yourself.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for this day.
Thank you for the truths of your word, Lord.
Help us as your people to be disciplined in all areas of life.
We fall short, I fall short, Lord.
And the important thing is that when we live maybe a week or a day, maybe there's a month
where we just fell off.
We fall off in our being disciplined in our tongues, in our wrath, and in our body, Lord.
Help us to get back up.
A just man falls seven times and rises back up again.
A disciplined person is not someone who falls, it's someone who gets back up even when they
do.
An undisciplined person falls and stays down, and I pray that you'd help us as your people
to recognize that the Spirit transcends the flesh.
We are to rule over this body, and I pray that you'd help us to have that victory.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.