Enduring Grace

2:47 restrained heart and a supernaturally changed heart. And we've said all along, because Paul says so in 1 Corinthians 13, that it's possible to be ethical, completely ethical, morally virtuous in all your behavior, but out of a heart that is filled with self-centeredness, desire for power over others, and what we want, therefore, to do is look underneath ethical behavior to the marks of supernaturally changed heart character, a heart that's changed at the root in its fundamental desires and motivations and its foundational identity. Today we come to a term, a trait, which is in verse 25, and it's translated in our translation, Strict training. But it's the Greek word. It's a very important, as we're going to see, important word in Greek philosophy and in Greek language.

3:43 It's the word self-control. It's a word egokratia, egokratia, which you can see the word ego in it. And it literally means self-rule, self-command, you see, self-control. self-control is important in the last 30 or 40 years there's one way to look at this we've had an explosion of 12 step groups groups helping people with drinking with drugs 12 with gambling with spending with with rage with anger with overeating with under eating with all incredible range of addictions but that's one way to look at it as there's been an explosion of groups but what it really means is an explosion of people who feel out of control.

4:30 And even if you don't, and most people don't, probably participate in those kinds of more destructive addictions, we'd call them, think about the step down. Think of how much misery or maybe even devastation there is in your lives, our lives, because we can't control our tongue, or because we can't control our time, or because we can't control our thoughts in some way, so we have a tremendous amount of fear or resentment or because we just can't control our spirit. We make impulsive decisions or impulsive words and then we wish we could take them back. I mean, you don't have to be at the level of what our modern culture would call an addiction in order to see that just about everybody in this room has got a problem with self-control in some area. What's the solution?

5:18 In this passage, Paul again, because we saw this a few weeks ago in another, with another regard, Paul says, I have self-control. He says, and of course, he had to. We know that he was one of the five or six most influential leaders in the history of the human race, in all of history. He's one of the five or six people who's had the biggest impact on the history of the world. He had enormous self-control. He had enormous what we would call self-control, self-command, and that sort of thing. And he says, I'm going to tell you the secret. Now, what we do is we'll look at first this subject of self-control in this passage under the heading of what I call principles and then under practice. We'll first look at some principles he teaches us, principles about what the nature of self-control is, and then secondly, practice some very, very specific ways of going about increasing it in our lives and carrying it out. Principles, practice. First, principles, three. First thing we learn here in this passage is that we're not really so much after control of the self as coherence in the self. Not so much control as coherence. What do I mean? Well, Paul uses an illustration that's well-known today and well-known then. Games, athletes, stadiums, and there was not just the Olympic games back then, of course, but there were actually several other kinds of games, and every other year there were the Isthmian games at Corinth, so everybody knows about this, and he says in verse 25, in verse 25, where we have the translation strict training, he says, we all know that athletes exercise in all things self-control, in all things. Now, probably the translation with the word strict was trying to get at that word panta or all things, but it's important. And I don't think it comes out with the word strict.

7:19 He says, we all know that athletes don't just train on Saturday. If you're going to be in the Olympics, you can't just train on Saturday. Every part of your life, everything, everything has to be ordered and brought into, put in its proper place. Now, the reason this is important is this illustration helps us get at something that's something of a contradiction in the very word self-control. And Plato knew about it. And Plato in his Republic says this about the word self-control or self-mastery. He says, isn't this phrase self-mastery or self-control a contradiction? I mean, anyone who is his own master would also have to be his own slave and vice versa, since it's the same person who's the subject in all these expressions. Now, yeah, he's saying, what in the world can the word self-control mean? It can't mean the very thing that is out of control is now in control.

8:16 I mean, how can the thing that is the object of control be the subject of control? And what Plato goes on and says, well, the word self-control is really trying to get at this, that there are numbers of desires in the self. The self is multifarious. nefarious. The self has many, many different desires. And the problem is that these desires get out of place, and they begin to grate against each other, and they don't cohere. Now, what you're really looking for is a self in which the desires are rightly or properly ordered. Now, what does that mean? What does Plato mean? I agree with him. And the Bible does too, fortunately for me, because all through the New Testament, just like in Greek literature, the word that comes up as our problem is the word epithymia, which means over-desire or inordinate desire, desires that are out of order. Not desires that are wrong in themselves, but that they're too big or they're out of order, they're not properly ordered. Now, let me give you an example. If you've ever done a big, big event, pulled off some big conference, or maybe take it over an institution and you have to recast it or something like that.

9:31 In every single big project, there are 100 things that have to be done. Every one of them has to be done. But the key to success is doing them in the right order. The key is that you do the first thing first, the second thing second, the third thing third, and of course there's a little bit of leeway, but not too much. Because wisdom shows us that if you do things that ought to be done right away, later, and you do things that really could best be put off later right away. If you do the urgent things before the important things, problems, huge problems. In other words, if we know that a wise person knows what are the important things to do first, the fundamental things, because if you do the fundamental things first, the other things can happen more easily later and things go quick. If you instead concentrate on certain things that are not fundamental first, not only will things go a lot longer, maybe things won't work at all.

10:29 You've got to put first things first, and second things second, and third things third, otherwise it doesn't work. And what Plato says, and what the Bible says, self-control isn't exactly the problem, it's self-coherence. If you want the most important things most, and you want the less important things less, and you want the least important things least, no problem. There's nothing wrong with wanting rest, but if you want rest more than you ever want to work, you've got a problem. You see, there's nothing wrong with wanting to eat, but we all know that over desire or under desire creates enormous problems, physical problems, emotional problems, and so on.

11:05 And so here's what self-control is. Let's really define self-control as this. Self-control is the ability to recognize and always choose the important thing rather than the urgent thing. because within the self, your desires are properly ordered so that the most important things in life you want the most and the less important things in life you want less. Then there's coherence, okay? So what you want is a properly ordered self so that you are able to recognize and always choose the most important thing over the urgent. So what you're after is not just kind of naked control, but you're after coherence, an ordered self with all the disparate kinds of desires in the self that are put in their proper place. That's the first thing we see here with this illustration. The second thing is even, and the second thing we're going to differ from Plato and the Greeks. The second thing Paul teaches us here is that self-control is not really a matter of the will, but a matter of the heart. It's not really a matter of the will, but of the heart.

12:11 Now here, what Paul is saying, what the Scripture says, goes completely against common sense today and back then. It goes against what the Greeks thought. It goes against what most people think. Let me just try to paraphrase this. This is how most people think of self-control. We think of self-control as an exercise of the will over the feelings.

12:36 We think we have these feelings, the heart's filled with feelings, but we've got to put the feelings in their place. And so we have to exercise our will over our feelings. We don't let the feelings carry us away. We don't let the feelings move us along. We move on the basis of our will, not our feelings. And that's an understanding of self-control. But that's not what the Bible says. There's a whole lot of reasons besides the biblical reasons why, let me just say, not speaking as a teacher of the Bible, but just as a human being, it doesn't work. Naked exercise of the will over the feelings doesn't work because that's not how we're put together. And Paul, again, gets this across in the illustration. Because in the illustration, look at verse 25. In the illustration, what is it that leads to everything being put in its proper order? He says, everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. In other words, exercise the self-control in everything. But why? The answer is to get a crown, to get the prize. Why is it that the athlete puts everything in its right place? You don't eat too much, you don't eat too little, you don't sleep too much, you don't sleep too little. Why is the athlete in this incredible, balanced, coherent kind of life? Why? The prize. Everything is subordinated. My desire to eat chocolate is subordinated. My desire to do this or that is subordinated. I won a medal. The prize. And therefore, what Paul is saying here in this illustration is self-control is not a matter of a naked exercise of the will against the feelings.

14:30 Rather, self-control, you're always controlled by your deepest passion. You're always controlled by what captivates the heart the most. It is basically a misnomer. It's misleading to think that self-control comes from stuffing your feelings. No. Self-control comes from feeling strongly, passionately for some goal, which then is the basis for the right ordering of your entire life. Now, let me give you some examples of what I mean. For example, and some of you were here when we talked about this back in the fall, there's a famous story of Jacob. And in the story of Jacob. Jacob wants to get married. And we're told in Genesis chapter 29, verse 20, so Jacob served seven years to get Rachel. Jacob was willing to work seven years for her father Laban. Very, very hard, back-breaking work. Jacob served seven years to get Rachel.

15:34 why? Listen, but they seemed like only a few days to him. He had no problem with endurance. He had no problem with giving up. He had no trouble getting up in the morning. He had no trouble saying, when is this going to be over? He had no trouble, he had no sense of, I was even working for it. I mean, his thoughts and his feelings and his desires of heart were so completely ordered that seven years seemed like nothing to him. Why? It says, so Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because he loved her. Now, obvious, isn't it? What gives you self-control? You say, I'm going to be a good laborer. Now, even think about this. If you say, I'm going to labor good, and I'm going to be the kind of person that has a lot of self-control, even there, look carefully. That's not an exercise of the will. You set your heart on being a really great-looking, moral person. You've set your heart on something. Whatever you set your heart on the most, the greatest passion of your life, is that which will seek to bring all the desires of the heart into order.

16:41 It's the thing that all the desires of the heart are subordinated to, that passion of your life. And Jacob had such an incredible, for the joy that was set before him, which was the love of Rachel, for the joy that was set before him, for the love of Rachel, he ordered everything in his heart so that seven years seemed like nothing. Well, let me give you a little more concrete and crass example of this. Put two guys and put one in this room and one in that room and say, for the next 12 hours, I'm going to pay you to sit in this room. I want you to fold a piece of paper and then put it aside, then fold another 12 hours. Just fold these papers. Stack them over here. Just fold these papers. You have to sit at this desk. You can look out this window. And, of course, since it's Manhattan, what you see out the window is a brick wall. Okay? and I will pay you 12 hours.

17:35 Well, the first guy can't take it. He's like, I hate this desk. I hate this window. I hate this view. I hate this paper. I can't take it. For three o'clock, he... Why? Because you're paying a minimum wage. And you say, you know, come on. You know, I can't take it. I'm distracted. I can't endure. I can't hold... I can't stick to it. The other guy is having no trouble. It's incredible. He says, I love this desk. I love this view. I love this paper. I'm having no trouble at all. Of course, you also said, I'm paying you $2 million.

18:11 So what's the difference between these two guys? One has more willpower. One has more self-control. Why? It has nothing to do with will. There is no such thing, in a way, as willpower. This one guy loves everything that the other guy hates because of the joy that is set before him. And this is the reason why, and there's several ways in order to put this in front of, several ways to use this, but I've used it in the past, but old Dr. Thomas Chalmers, the old Scottish theologian, puts it like this. We only cease to be a slave of one appetite because another has brought it into subordination. A youth might cease to idolize sensual pleasure, partying around, but it's only because the idol of material gain and career success has gotten the ascendancy. There is not one personal transformation in which the heart is left without an ultimate object of beauty and joy.

19:08 Its desire for one particular object may be conquered, but its desire to have some object is unconquerable. The only way to dispossess the heart of an old affection is by the expulsive power of a new one. So do you see? The second thing that Paul teaches about self-control, it's not so much just control, it's to rightly order the desires of the heart so they all work together. Secondly, it does not come through so much a matter of the will, but to have a uniting, a self-uniting, soul-uniting joy that's set in front of you, a goal, something that lifts you up, pulls everything together, some passion that unites your heart and unites all of your desires to endure. But thirdly, so first of all, it's not so much a matter of just control, but coherence. It's not so much, it isn't a matter of the will, but of the passion of the heart. But thirdly, Paul tells us here that there's only one ultimate goal. There's only one ultimate passion that will truly, truly give you that sense of inner cohesion and coherence and really rightly order all the other desires of the heart. Now, what is that? What is his prize? What is his prize? See, obviously, the athletic metaphor is a metaphor for a prize that he's taught. What is his prize? Well, he says it's not a perishable crown. It's an imperishable crown. Well, what would that be? Now, if you're like me, you read this passage. In fact, it's a fairly well-known passage. Some of you may have read this before. And you say, well, of course, he's talking about his individual heavenly reward, right? Obviously, the crown means some individual heavenly reward that Paul is beating his body for and working really hard for. And of course, if that's the

21:15 case, and you know, that is the first, that's the thing I've thought about every time I've read it for years. And that's the first thing you think about. And if that's the case, of course, that means it's a total contradiction of everything else Paul's ever said. I mean, you know, here's does the guy who wrote Galatians and Romans, especially Romans 8, 1, who says now there is no condemnation, there is no more condemnation ever for those who are in Christ Jesus, is the same guy who wrote that, would he really be saying, I'm working really hard and I'm beating my body and I'm really worried because I'm afraid at the very end I might not get into heaven, so I have to really work and I've got to really be good? Does that make sense? Does that Paul know? What is his crown then? What is this passion that's uniting his life and bringing everything into subordination? What is this gold medal that's making him just about as effective as a, you know, a top Olympic athlete? Well, let me tell you, here's a couple other places where he talks about it. In 1 Thessalonians 2, he says, remember how we were gentle among you, he writes to the Thessalonians. We loved you so much. We were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our very selves, because you had become dear to us. For what is our joy or the crown in which we will rejoice in the presence of the Lord Jesus? Is it not you? You are our joy and our crown. Or here's Philippians 4, chapter 4, verse 1. He's writing to his Philippians.

22:44 He says, therefore, my brothers and sisters, you who I love and long for, long for, my joy and my crown. What's going on here?

23:50 It wouldn't have been, you wouldn't make this mistake, or I wouldn't have made this mistake, of thinking that he's talking about some individual heavenly reward if you read this passage in the midst of where it is, which is a long section of Corinthians from chapter 8, verse 1, to the end of 10, to chapter 11, verse 1. There's a long place in there in which he goes through like this. First of all, he says, you strong Christians, you're seeing all these weak Christians. Actually, we worked on this a few weeks ago. You strong Christians, your church is filled with weak Christians, Christians that are superstitious, Christians that are with all sorts of scruples. He says, I want you to forgo your freedom. I want you to give up your rights. I want you to do everything to help those weaker Christians along. Stop living your own life the way, of course you're free, but he says, you're not free. He said, help them. Forgo your freedom for them. Serve them. Love them. Then in chapter 9, he actually, right before this passage says, you know, he says, I'm free from the law in the gospel. I don't need to obey all of the Mosaic customs. I don't need to do the dietary laws and all that sort of stuff. He says, but to those who are under the Mosaic law, I also come under the Mosaic law. I give up my freedom. I take that all on so that I can show them the glory of Jesus, so that I can reach them. And so then he says this, what's his crown? What's his prize? The key is verse 23, where it says, I'm doing all of this.

25:24 See, here it is. I do all of this. This is my goal. This is the passion of my life that brings everything into submission, that has ordered all the disparate desires of myself. He says, I do all this for the sake of the gospel that I might share in its blessings. I guess there's no other way. I've been thinking about this. What does this English translation look like? It's saying I'm doing everything so that I might receive the blessings of the gospel, but that's not what it means. That's what it looks like. That's not what it means. This is the word koinonia, which some of you know is the word for fellowship, but it has on top of it a little prefix called synchoinonia, which we have the word S-Y-N means synchronized or synonymous. And here's what he's saying. He says, I have these incredible blessings of the gospel. The passion of my life is to have other people, other people, both people who do believe and people who don't believe. I want them to have as much joy as I have. I want to share the things I see in the face of Jesus. I want to so reflect. He says, I'm giving up everything in my life. I give up this and this. I forgo all kinds of things because I want to reflect the beauty of God to other people so that they can have the same transforming view of the glory and beauty of the one that I'm looking at right now.

26:44 C.S. Lewis puts it like this in a very famous place in his book, The Reflection on Psalms. He says, have you ever noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless shyness deliberately brings it into check. We praise what we enjoy because the praise does not merely express but completes the enjoyment. It is its appointed consummation. It is absolutely frustrating to have discovered a new author and not be able to tell anyone how good he or she is. It is incredibly frustrating to have found some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and not be able to take anyone to it. you can't enjoy it as much. He's saying you can't enjoy something without praising it to other people and having them come in. Why? It's not like I enjoy it and I'm going to praise it. I can't enjoy it without praise. I can't enjoy it without sharing it. I can't. It's the nature of things. It's the way God made me. It's the way God put his own beauty into the world. I cannot enjoy it very well alone.

27:45 I don't want to enjoy it alone. And therefore, everything in my life, everything in my life is subordinated to this one passion. I want nothing in my life to keep people from seeing the beauty of God. Nothing. I want everything in my life to be a joy to Him and therefore to bring joy to others. I'm subordinating everything for that passion. It is a completely other-directed thing. It works extremely different. It works completely differently than the way self-control works in the world. Because in the world, people say, what you have to do is you have to get inside yourself. And you have to find that strength. No. Paul says, no. It's the gospel. The power of God into salvation. It's the gospel that controls me. It's the gospel that gives me the power. Other people say, well, self-control means what you have to do is you have to say, I'm going to be the person I've always wanted to be. No, Paul says. It doesn't work. He says, what you want is you want to be completely outer directed. He says, what's really happened is not when I tried to order my life for the purpose of self-control. Self-control happened as a byproduct of something greater. And what is that something greater? I want not to enjoy God myself. I don't like doing it alone. In everything I do, but of course, he's a missionary.

29:14 He plants churches. You say, are we supposed to all do that? Absolutely not. It's talking about no matter what you are, no matter who you are, why do you control your tongue? Why do you work on being loving instead of grumpy? Why do you do everything to get into heaven? That's not what Paul is saying. He says, in that case, what you're really doing, I'll show you, to have other people think well of you? None of these things liberate. None of these things really order, as I'm going to show you here in just one second. Only this does. I've already got these incredible blessings in the gospel, and I just do not, I cannot enjoy them alone.

29:54 That's the passion. That's why everything in my life happens the way it does. Those are the principles. Now, if that's the principles, how do you actually work it out? I mean, I know what I just said seemed very esoteric, but what does it mean? practically, and here's what they are. The general principle, okay, and four specifics. Here's the general principle. Number one, the means to self-control, according to the Bible, is worship. The key to self-control is not to directly try to control yourself. The key to ordering all of these disparate desires of the self is not to try directly to order them. It never works that way. The key is worship. It's having the right passion, and is putting the most important thing into place number one in your heart. Don't you see that? For example, let me give you two examples of self-control at different ends of the spectrum. At one end, this is very serious, but I'm sure there's people in this room in this situation.

30:50 It happens regularly. Let's just say that you've got this kind of high-powered job, you've got this pressure job, and you're working really hard at it, and you can't quite take the pressure, and you're having trouble really keeping on top, and you start to turn to drugs for it. You start to pop certain kinds of pills. to keep yourself up, to keep yourself alert. Next thing you know, you're a drug addict. What are you supposed to do? Well, at one level, you should go to detox. You should admit it. You should break through your denial and all that stuff. But there's a fundamental problem, and what is that? If the number one thing in your life, if the thing that is, the reason why you're doing it is the pressure of, I've got to be good in my career. I've got to be. I'm nobody if I'm not good in my career. I've got to get there. I've got to get there. If you put your career as number one thing in your life, when only God can be the number one thing in your life, everything else is out of order.

31:42 Got it? If you put a number two thing or a number three thing, number one, everything else is out of order, period. Let me go to the other end of the spectrum. So you're not just going to have to go to detox. You're going to have to worship the right thing instead of what you've been worshiping. At the other end, how about those two or three of you out there that just are out of your schedules out of control I'm sure there's not many of you and uh you're over committed I sure that hardly anybody like that and you're always saying yes to everybody and you can never say no and and everybody gets mad at you and you get mad at yourself and friends get mad at you and you feel awful why because people's approval is number one when it should be number two or number three You see how this works? The key to self-control is worship. That's what Paul is saying. He says, the most beautiful thing in my life, the joy that's set before me, this great passion, which is to have other people enjoy what I'm enjoying. This is my ultimate wealth. This is my ultimate status. This is my ultimate, what I have in Jesus Christ. And now what that does is it makes me want to increase the community of people who enjoy that, who can sit there along with me and say, isn't he magnificent? And he says, that's what I want more than anything else.

33:00 Then everything is ordered properly. Everything gets in this right order. So the ultimate way to self-control is worship. And you say, okay, but that's still too sweeping for me. Okay, let me give you four things you got to do. You can start tomorrow. You can start this afternoon. Okay. And they're in the second part of the passage. I wish I could show you how this part of chapter 10 fits in with all the other parts. I don't have time to do it. As I have just told you, chapter 8, 9, and 10 are all of a piece. They're all talking about this very thing, that real freedom and real inner freedom and self-control and inner coherence comes when you start to serve others and God, not yourself. Real self-control comes not by trying to have self-control so that you can have some kind of respect, but when you lose, in a sense, yourself in the service of others and the Lord. But here at the very, very end, we have this very interesting statement where he has just talked about something that happened to Israel in the book of Exodus, and here's what Paul says. He says, these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us in the scripture on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. If you think you're standing firm, be careful you don't fall. No temptation, no trouble has overcome you except that which is common, part and parcel to all human beings. And God is faithful, okay? Four things.

34:20 If you want self-control, number one, Scripture. These things happen to them as examples. Paul uses Scripture right before verse 11, chapter 1, verse 1 to 10, in order to try to show the Corinthian Christians something. Let me just, let me cut here to the chase. Jesus Christ, what a man, totally enduring, sets his face like a flint to go up to Jerusalem, never wavers, never says, never is put off. There's a man of utter self-control and discipline, right? What's his secret? Well, you say, of course, he's God. Well, yeah, he was divine, but he was also human. What's his secret? And the answer was, I'll tell you, every spot in the desert, how does he handle temptation? Willpower? No.

35:11 It is written. Scripture. How does he deal with controversy? Rationality power? When he's arguing with people? Never. Never, never, never. Scripture. And let me just show you how utterly saturated with the Scripture he was. He never looked at anything without thinking about Scripture. He never looked at anything. He never thought of anything without reflecting on how the Scripture gave light to it. Peter's in the garden. The soldiers are about to take him. Peter pulls out his sword, and what does Jesus say? He says, Peter, put it back. I could call 12 legions of angels, but how would the Scriptures be fulfilled?

35:54 What is a man thinking about the Scriptures being fulfilled at a time when he's about to be arrested and killed? And, of course, on the cross, when he cries out at the moment of greatest agony that anyone's ever experienced, my God, my God, why is thou forsaken me? he's quoting Psalm 22, verse 1. Let me tell you something. When you are at the depths of pain and suffering and agony, you don't say, well, what should I say now? What would sound good up here? When you're stabbed, you bleed. And when he was stabbed, he bled Scripture. He was utterly saturated with what the Bible said. Why? Why is this a key to self-control? The scripture is not a key to self-control because it's magic. It's the key because if worship is the key to self-control, and our big problem is that we know God is there, but we don't find him beautiful.

36:48 We know he's the number one thing, but he's not actually the number one in our heart. He's not attractive enough to stay up there all the time. He's always slipping down. And as he slips from number one to two to three to four to five or six, and everything else goes in the wrong place, and everything gets screwed up, Now, the Scripture, though, is God's way of continually making Himself real to you again. He speaks to the Scripture. Number one, Scripture. That's your key to self-control. Number two, balanced expectation. It says, do you not know, pardon me, it says, these things happen to them as examples and are written down as warnings for us on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. Now, I'm going to do in 30 seconds what it should take about five minutes to do, but I'll just put this out. He says, on whom the fulfillment of the eons has come, A-E-O-N. It's a technical theological term. The religious leaders of Judaism basically believe that when the Messiah came, the old eon would end, sin and death, and the new eon would begin, restoration, immortality, no more sin, no more death, no more disease, nothing. They believe that when the Messiah came, the old eon would be over and the new eon would start. But when Jesus Christ came, he came back twice. He comes the first time and then the second time.

38:03 And between the first and second coming, the eons overlap. They're both, we're at the end of both eons. Both the new eon is being fulfilled in Christ and the old eon is still going on. And there is no bigger key to self-control than understanding that, believe it or not. You said, what? Like I said, I should be taking five minutes, but I can't just skip it over. What this is saying is you will only do well at change in your life if you're not too optimistic or too pessimistic. If you think, as many Christians do, that when I become a Christian, I ought to be able to change quickly, you're forgetting you're still in the old eon.

38:41 That things do not happen that fast. That the kingdom of God is here, but it's not fully here. But if, on the other hand, you're too pessimistic and you say, I'll never change. You can't teach old dog new tricks. You're forgetting that the Spirit of God is here, and the kingdom of God is here, and the new Eon is here. There's nothing more important than that balance. Scripture, balanced expectations. Third, community. Look, listen, look carefully. It says in verse 11, note, pardon me, verse 10, no, it's 12, sorry, I'm very sorry. If you think you're standing firm, Be careful you don't fall. If you think you're standing firm is an emphatic, perfect indicative, which means if you think you've arrived.

39:30 Secondly, it's an emphatic singular, which means if you think you have arrived or if you think you can do this yourself, you've got another thing coming because you are in the same boat as everybody else. No temptation ever takes you to that which is not common to others. And you need to hear from them. This is as simple as this. If you think you can do your changes alone, and self-control, let me tell you something.

39:58 Most of the people in this room, your deepest problem with self-control, you do not want people to know. And you're not telling them. And you're saying, I can handle this on my own. I don't want to be embarrassed. And Paul is saying it will never work. you've got to have other people who you give information to and you make it safe for them to lovingly ask you tough questions regularly about how you're doing so scripture without that not willpower secondly balanced expectations without that thirdly community without that and last of all God is faithful and together with the temptation he will always provide a way out that you can be able to endure it.

40:45 It doesn't say that in the NIV, but it's the word endure. And there's a reference here. Let me read. Here's the ultimate key to being a man or woman of self-control. In Hebrews chapter 12, we read this, almost as if the Hebrews writer, it's almost like the Hebrews writer had this very text in mind. Hebrews chapter 12. Therefore, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run the race with perseverance that is marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, made light of its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God. Consider him who endured that you may not grow weary and lose heart. Now, the ultimate way, according to the text, for you to run the race is to think of the faithfulness of God.

41:43 The Hebrews writer tells us what that is. Let me ask you an exegetical question. What was the joy set before Jesus? Jesus Christ came and ran a race, see? Jesus Christ came and put all of his desires, subordinated all of his desires to something, and we're told it was a joy. for the joy that was set before him. He ran the race. He endured.

42:07 What was it? Well, you say, it was a crown? I mean, it was like, you know, glory? He had the glory. It was God? He had God. It was a relationship with the Father? He had a relationship with the Father. All before, why would he have come down here? What joy did he not already have? You know what the answer is? The only possible thing that would have meant, Jesus down here. The only thing He didn't have was you, was me, was us. The joy that was set before Him was us, or maybe put it another way. We're His Rachel. we're his Rachel he loved us so much that he made light of the cross remember Jacob loved Rachel so much that seven years seemed like a few days Jesus Christ loved us so much that the cross was something he was able to take and the Hebrews writer says directly and Paul hints indirectly this if Jesus Christ if you see Jesus Christ making you his joy making you, in a sense, his Rachel.

43:16 And that being the passion of his life to get us, to have us. He had everything else. He had a father. He had the glory. He had the crown. He had the authority of the universe. The only thing he didn't have was us. And if he loved you like that, and if you were his joy, then he'll become your joy to the degree you just screw this down into your heart through adoration and worship every day, all the time. if I am the joy set before you oh Lord Jesus then you're the joy set before me if I'm really the only crown you didn't have now what? I want to serve you but see what Paul says the gospel makes you utterly other directed because you already have your wealth you already have your claim you know he's loved you like this therefore everything else gets put into second, third, fourth place. Nothing can control you.

44:12 Do you see that? Ultimately, it's not willpower. It's gospel power. Ultimately, you will only endure if you see why he endured and who endured. Fix your eyes on him. Contemplate him. All the self-control you want. Let us pray. Father, we ask that you would help us to understand what it is that you offer us in a text like this, we ask that you would also use us so that we're able to bring our disorderly desires into a coherent whole, not out of some kind of external willfulness or some kind of stoicism, but because we finally put our heart on the one passionate beauty that will really put our egos and our identity and our internal feelings and our mind and our will and our emotions all in their proper place and will enable us to endure and enable us to keep on, enable us to finish as your son finished.

45:21 Help us to fix our eyes on him. We pray this in Jesus' name.