The Practice of Self-Control Gal 5:19-23

Nobody likes practice!  Phil 4:9 “The things you have learned, rec’d and heard from me, practice these thing…”  “My job as coach is to get men to do what they do not enjoy doing (Practice!) in order that they may achieve what they have always dreamed of.” (Tom Landry)

 Rom 7:18&19 “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish.”  Pete Koeshall’s paraphrase…

 Prov 25:28 “Like a city that is broken into and without walls is a man who has no control over his spirit.”  The “wall” missing in many of our lives is self-control. When there’s no wall, the flesh kicks in and breaks in and destroys us.

A catalog of the flesh…  Gal 16:21 “…and things like these…”  This is not a throw-away part of the verse:  All the theology will not dress up the flesh – it’s ugly – as ugly as sin.

BUT…  Gal 5:22 “But the fruit of the spirit…”  The Spirit should dominate the flesh:  Verbal restraint for a quick mouth; anger restraint for a quick temper; mental restraint for wandering thoughts; moral restraint for lusts of the flesh

The mastery of “self”  1 Cor 9:24-27 “Do you not know…”  How do we run a race in a depraved world, a race against all odds?  Knowing that none of the odds can overwhelm the power of the Spirit and the work of Christ in our hearts and minds.