Self-Control: Joseph

Sermon Summary:

What does it look like to have genuine power over our own desires, impulses, and habits? This message takes us deep into the story of Joseph in Genesis 42 through 45, where we witness one of the most remarkable displays of self-control in all of Scripture. Joseph, betrayed by his own brothers and sold into slavery, rises to become second in command over all of Egypt. When those same brothers appear before him desperate and unknowing, he holds all the power to destroy them. Yet he chooses restraint, grace, and ultimately reconciliation. The Greek word behind self-control is enkrateia, rooted in kratos, meaning applied authority. Self-control is not passive weakness or mere gritting of teeth. It is authority in action, the spirit-enabled mastery of our inner life so that our desires serve us rather than rule us. Joseph’s story shows us what that looks like in the most pressure-filled of circumstances, and it challenges us to ask honestly whether we are mastering our impulses or being mastered by them.

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Sermon Points:

• Knowing God
• Experiencing God
• Serving God

Key Takeaways:

• Self-control is the ninth and final fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5, and it is defined as the Spirit-enabled mastery of desires, impulses, and habits so that they serve rather than rule the believer
• The Greek word “enkrateia” is rooted in “kratos,” meaning applied authority or authority in action, which distinguishes self-control from mere restraint and frames it as active, Spirit-empowered governance of oneself
• Joseph’s response to his brothers in Genesis 42 through 45 is presented as a defining biblical example of self-control, as he chose to conceal his identity, show generosity, and ultimately extend grace rather than use his position of power to exact revenge
• Self-control is universally difficult and its absence causes widespread damage to families, communities, and individuals, as seen in the examples of Paul’s confession in Romans 7 and the governor Felix dismissing Paul’s message in Acts 24
• The solution to a lack of self-control is walking by the Spirit daily, as Paul commands in Galatians 5, which involves developing consistent spiritual habits such as reading Scripture, praying, participating in community, and engaging in small groups
• Fruit is an outward manifestation of an inner reality, and the transformation of that inner reality comes through abiding in Christ, as Jesus teaches in John 15
• Jesus Christ is the supreme model of self-control, demonstrated most clearly at the crucifixion, where he chose forgiveness and composure under the most extreme provocation imaginable
• The goal of the Christian life is wholesale transformation through intentional discipleship — knowing God, experiencing God, and being sent by God into everyday spheres of life as transformed disciples

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Scripture References:

Sermon Transcript:

Thank you, Michael and worship team also want to say a word of thanks to Africa. She is our newest partner on our Spain team. And Africa, thank you. She is from Spain and working in Barcelona with Emily and Guillermo and Jacob and Kayla and she what I told the folks in the first service, her name is Africa. She speaks Spanish.

That’s her heart language. But I thought she did a pretty good job in English with us today. Don’t y’ all think so? Thank you, Africa. We’re proud of you.

We’re so glad to have you on our team there in Barcelona and in Toronto. Well, you know, if you’ve been with us at all, you know we’re on this journey together as we’re learning about flourishing together. Transformed on the Jesus Way is our theme for this year. Today is the last Sunday in July and so this series is coming to an end. So next Sunday, first Sunday of August, we begin a new series and the theme is going to be for the month of August, prayer for Believers.

And we’re going to use as our foundation the Prayer of Jesus in John 17 where Jesus prays for believers. And we’re going to just spend the month in an in depth focus on prayer. And I have the outline with me. I’m pretty excited about it. As we look at how we’re going to spend our Sunday mornings together, we’re going to have prayer prompts for you as families and individuals to take you through the entire month of August.

And then in September, we’re going to begin on Wednesday evenings gathering together as a church family at what we’re going to call the table at 6:30 on Wednesday nights. And it’ll be a time of worship and prayer for our entire church family to come together and pray together. I’m so looking forward to that. But with that said, let’s go ahead and finish this summer series, Making a Difference. That’s been our theme for the summer 2026.

And you know that we have been studying the fruit of the spirit all summer and there are nine of them listed in Galatians 5. We’re on number nine today. Okay, so self control is our topic for today. And I’ve chosen Joseph as our Biblical character. We’ve chosen a Biblical character every week to somehow or who exhibits the particular fruit that we’re focused on.

So today’s fruit is self control. The text is Genesis 42. So if you have your copy of the Old Testament, let’s look at it. Now. A lot has happened by the time we get to Genesis 42.

This is the Story of Joseph. It’s one of my favorite characters in the scripture. Y’ all remember he was Jacob and Rachel’s first baby, and he had 10 older brothers and sisters, or brothers rather. And he was loved deeply by his dad. And you remember he received that coat of many colors.

And then he had a little brother named Benjamin, who was also Jacob and Rachel’s son. And so those two young boys, Jacob loved deeply. And you’ll remember that along the way, the older brothers were jealous of Joseph for a number of reasons, and they sold Joseph into slavery. Joseph ends up in Egypt. He goes to work for Potiphar, and Potiphar’s wife, she takes a fancy to Joseph and she begins several advances toward him.

He refuses them and demonstrates this quality, this characteristic of self control. Unfortunately, he’s falsely accused. He ends up in prison there in Egypt. As a Hebrew. While he’s in prison, the cupbearer and the baker for the Pharaoh were in prison as well.

And they had dreams. And Joseph, if you remember, could interpret dreams. So Joseph interprets the dreams for them. One of them survives, one doesn’t. One of them goes back to work for Pharaoh.

Then Pharaoh has a dream and no one can interpret it for him. You remember this story. And these. One of the guys who had been with Joseph in jail said, hey, there’s a young Hebrew who interprets dreams. Why don’t we ask him?

So they bring Joseph to Pharaoh. He interprets the dream, tells Pharaoh, your dream means this. We’re about to have seven years of a bountiful harvest, but then there are going to be seven years of great famine. So you better save some food because what’s in front of that or what follows that is going to be really difficult. So he said, well, I’m just going to put you in charge of it.

So Joseph became second in command in all of Egypt. Well, then seven years of bounty passed. Then we come to the seven years of famine. The famine spread beyond Egypt. The famine was in that entire part of the world.

It spread all the way to Canaan. So if you got your Bibles, let’s look at chapter 42. We’re going to pick the story up in verse six. But Jacob is there in Canaan with 11 of his sons. Joseph, he thinks, is dead because that’s what the brothers have told their dad, and they’re experiencing a famine.

You have. One of my favorite questions in the Bible is found in this chapter on this page. It’s not a part of our text today, but it is. Look at Genesis 42 verse 1. Jacob looked at his sons and says, why do you just keep looking each other?

Looking at each other? It’s one of my favorite questions. In other words, what are y’ all doing? Jacob is an old man. He doesn’t believe he can go to Egypt and get food, but these boys can.

And he’s like, what are y’ all waiting on? Go get us some food. So they decide to go. Well, he wouldn’t let them take Benjamin. He’s already lost Joseph.

So only the 10 older brothers can go. And so they go. And that’s where we pick up the story. Look at verse six of Genesis 42. Now, Joseph was the governor of the land, the person who sold grain to all its people.

So when Joseph’s brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground. And Joseph said, I dreamed about this. This is awesome. I knew the day was coming when y’ all were going to bow in front of me. All those things y’ all did to me.

Do y’ all remember what all. No, that’s not what happened. Joseph’s such a good dude, y’, all, isn’t he? He shows remarkable restraint. As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized him.

But he pretended to be a stranger. He spoke harshly to them. As a matter of fact, he used an interpreter. Where do you come from? He asked.

From the land of Canaan, they replied, to buy food. Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they didn’t recognize him. Then he remembered his dreams about them. And he said to them, you’re spies. You’ve come to see where our land is unprotected.

And the brothers go, no, man, that’s not why we’re here. We’re just here to get food. And we’ve got a famine. And so he says, well, where’s the. Where’s your whole family?

And they say, well, we actually have a dad back home. And we have a little brother as well. And so Joseph says, I’m not convinced. I think you guys may be spies. So he puts them in jail for a little while, holds onto them.

Now, the brothers have a family secret, right? They’ve told their dad that Joseph is. What? Dead? But there’s somebody who’s in on the secret.

God. And every time they find themselves in a difficult situation, they think about that secret. And they’ll say to each other, told you, man. God, we should have never done it, you know? And look, now look what’s happened.

We’re down here in Egypt. We’re just trying to get food. And now all of a sudden, We’re. They’re going to hold on to us. Well, finally what happens is Joseph says, okay, I’ll tell you what.

Y’ all can go home. And if you come back, don’t come back without your little brother. And just. Just to see if y’ all are telling the truth, I’m gonna keep one of you here. So he chooses Simeon, has him put in jail, and he binds him in front of them, puts him in jail, and the boys go back.

Kind of the strange thing that happens, though, when they get ready to go, let’s look at what happens. He tells his men, men go ahead and put grain in their sacks. The boys brought silver to pay for the grain, so they bought the grain. Joseph says, take all the silver and put it back in everybody’s sack. In other words, give them the grain for free and let’s give them some extra food for travel.

So look at verse 25. So Joseph, he gave orders to fill their bags with grain and to put each man’s silver back in his sack to give them provisions for their journey. After this was done for them, they loaded their grain on their donkeys and left. At the place where they stopped the night for the night, one of them opened his sack to get feed for his donkey, and he saw silver in the mouth of his sack. And he says, my silver’s been returned.

He said to his brothers, here it is in my sack. Their hearts sank, and they turned to each other, trembling, and they said, what is this that God has done to us?

Isn’t that interesting? So they find the grain, and they had extra food. They got their money back. And again they’re looking at each other and they’re saying, dude, now we’re thieves. They thought we were spies, and now we’re thieves.

So they get home, have to tell Jacob the whole story. And Jacob is like, well, where’s Simeon? Well, we had to leave him. Well, then they run out of food again, as you keep reading the story. And Jacob says, you boys got to go back and get food.

And they said, well, dad, we got to take Benjamin. Because the man in charge said, if we don’t bring Benjamin, he’s going to put all of us in jail. Jacob’s like, you can’t take Benjamin. I’ve already lost Joseph. I’ve already lost Simeon.

And they said, we have to. And so Judah finally says, I tell you what, I’ll take responsibility. Let Benjamin go with us, and when we get there, if something happens, I will make sure Benjamin gets home safely. I’ll give my whole Life for that. So they go back and as the story unfolds and they end up making their way to Joseph, Joseph sees them and it’s kind of interesting all the way it’s worded again.

This is not a part of our text today, per se, but when Joseph sees Benjamin, his little brother, who he hadn’t seen in years, he starts crying. Look at verse chapter 43, verse 31. After he’d washed his face, he came out controlling himself. So he’s just. He’s displaying this self control characteristic, if you will.

And so then Joseph says, he gathers the guys up and he says, I want you to go get them all and bring them all to my house. He doesn’t tell them why. And the boys are like, we’re about. We. We’re about to get in trouble.

They figured out that we stole all the money and we should have never done this, y’. All, we are in big trouble. But instead, Joseph has a big feast for them and they have a great time together. And then comes time to leave. And Joseph tells his men, he said, I tell you what, here’s what I want you to do.

Put their grain in a sack, put all their money back. And they had this big dinner. And Joseph had this silver cup chalice that he drank out of. He said, take my silver chalice and put it in Benjamin’s sack and let him go. So that’s what they did.

So they all leave. He says, let Simeon go. Get Simeon out of jail. Simeon returns. Well, they’re on the way home, and Joseph sends his men after them.

And the men say, hey, y’, all, I cannot believe what y’ all have done after the way we’ve been so sweet to you all. I’m paraphrasing y’. All, We’ve been so sweet to y’. All. And y’ all stole our commander’s silver cup.

And they’re like, we didn’t steal the commander’s silver cup. Yes, you did. You know, well, just look in our sacks. And they open the sacks and that silver cup is in Benjamin’s sack. And Judah has a heart attack, right?

No, not really. He just has a freak out because he’s like, what are we going to do? So now they all go back. Now they think they’re really in trouble. Is this an interesting story, y’?

All? I’m so glad this is in the Bible. I love all this. So they get back, Joseph sees them all, and he’s just overwhelmed. So look at chapter 45, verse 1.

Joseph could no longer control himself and so before all his attendants, he cried out, have everyone leave my presence. So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him and Pharaoh’s household heard about it. And Joseph said to his brothers, I’m Joseph. Is my father still alive?

But his brothers are not able to answer him because they were terrified now, because now they’re thinking, oh man, we have been found out. But instead, Joseph cares for them. And y’ all remember the story. He says, go get dad, bring him back and you can have a life here. It’s a remarkable, remarkable story.

Now, so with that said, here’s what I want us to learn about today. I want us to learn about self control. How many of y’ all have just got it down?

You can just go ahead and go if you got it now. Okay, I’ll talk to the rest of y’. All. Any of y’ all trouble, have trouble with it. Let me show you the lexicon definition.

From the Greek lexicon. Self control in grotea is the Greek word. It denotes the spirit enabled mastery of desires, impulses and habits so that they serve rather than rule the believer. Because here’s the challenge, y’, all, in the flesh. Our habits, our desires, our impulses will rule over us.

And they’re terrible masters. And they will dominate your life and they will lead you to destruction. How many people have had their lives ruined because they can’t handle their own desires, their own impulses, their own habits? It destroys people. So self control is the opposite of that.

It’s not mere human asceticism, but it’s a grace driven capacity. In other words, this is something God does to bring every faculty under the lordship of Jesus Christ for holy living and effective service. You see that word ingrataia K R A t? You see that that Greek word is the root of this word and it’s the word that’s translated self control. In our Bibles, kratos is the core word.

There are three words in the New Testament, Greek for power. There’s the word do not miss. We get our word dynamite from that word. That’s potential power, explosive power. There’s the word exousia, which means authority, and then there’s the word kratos.

Kratos is applied authority. That’s what that word means. It’s more than just being authoritative. This word actually means authority in action. Now, we’ve borrowed that word into English.

In fact, if you the Greek word demos is people. And so if you take demos and Kratos, people. Authority in action. Democracy is people ruling themselves. Democratic means to have applied authority among people.

Those are two Greek words. Well, that’s the word that’s used here. It’s applied authority. In other words, it’s authority in action. That’s what it is.

That’s what self control is. Here’s what I’ve learned about self control. Living it, Living my own life and watching y’. All. It’s easy to talk about.

It’s just hard to do. How many times have you said this? I just. I just couldn’t help myself, you know, I just. I just couldn’t help myself.

And here’s what happens when you repeat that mantra. Becomes a part of your identity. Well, that’s just who I am. I mean, I can’t help myself. Just who I am.

And we excuse our behavior because we’ve identified ourself with our weakness. And that means you’ve allowed your desires and your impulses to have mastery over you. It’s dangerous, y’. All. And so self control is the opposite of that.

It’s easy to talk about. It’s just hard to do. And it’s something people don’t want to hear. Paul the Apostle, he was arrested. He was taken to Caesarea, the northern part of Israel.

I’ve been to Caesarea. And Felix was the governor. And he brought Paul out for Paul to defend himself. Acts 24. It’s interesting to me.

Acts 24. Here’s what Paul said to Felix. Acts 24, verse 25. He’s on trial for his life and he’s standing before the Roman governor. Luke says, here’s what Paul did.

He talked to the Roman governor, Felix, about three things. Righteousness, impending judgment, and self control. And Felix dismissed him because he didn’t want to hear it. The Roman governor did not want somebody lecturing him about self control. Self control is hard, y’.

All. It’s difficult. And our lack of it is damaging. Families are broken because of it. Communities are broken, businesses go bankrupt because of it.

It’s just damaging when you can’t control yourself. In fact, here’s what the writer of Proverbs says. Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self control. In other words, there’s just no boundaries. You just live your life willy nilly.

Happens all the time. Guess who struggled with it? Paul. Y’ all ever read Romans 7? It’s interesting.

If you haven’t read Romans 7 in a while, I’d encourage you to do it in verse 18. Paul says, I know that Good itself does not dwell in me, that is in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good. I just can’t carry it out. In fact, in this chapter, Paul will say, the very things I know I’m supposed to do, I don’t do.

And the very things I know I’m not supposed to do, I do. Who will deliver me from this body is what Paul says. So if Paul the apostle struggled with it, then come on, y’, all, it’s hard. And a lot of it. The reason it’s hard is because we’re just so into self gratification.

We just. And not only that, in this era, it’s instant self gratification. We struggle with it. I know y’ all remember the test from the 1970s, the psychologists from Stanford, the marshmallow test. Y’ all remember where they take the little four or five year old kids in a room and put a marshmallow in front of them and they’ll say, now if you don’t eat that here in a little while, I’ll come back and I’ll give you two more marshmallows.

Y’ all need to watch the videos. Here’s my favorite little guy. They’re great videos. Y’ all can just Google it and watch the marshmallow test, y’. All.

It’s hilarious. This little guy right here, he struggled, man. He stared at that marshmallow, you know, I mean, look at the next one. Zach found these photos for me. There’s a little video he just like, dude, this was my favorite one.

This where he just. All he can do, man. He just kind of. One of the little girls, the lady says, all right, if you just don’t eat this marshmallow, we’ll come back here with a couple more marshmallows. She walks out through and the little girl goes, done.

You know, here’s what it is. Self control is hard. Here’s what’s crazy, though. They did some research on these kids as they grew up. And the kids that delayed gratification did better in almost every aspect of life.

In other words, the practice of self control, self control is just hard. I’m telling y’, all, it’s hard. It’s hard everywhere. It’s hard in athletics, okay? So last Sunday I watched the game, y’.

All, I’m just gonna tell y’ all I was pulling for Argentina, but I red carded the whole team, okay? They had nobody left by the time the game was over, even though I was pulling for them. And some of y’ all are pulling for Spain, right? Any Spain fans in here? Did y’.

All. Did I hear from y’? All? Okay, well, they deserved it. I’ll give it to them.

Golf.

It’s hard to maintain your control in golf. I’m just telling you. Let me. Let me show you this guy.

This is Ryan McCormick, and he is a PGA Tour professional. Lost his card one year. So last year, in 2025, he’s on the Korn Ferry Tour. After this first round of golf, the playing in Savannah, Georgia, he was so mad at himself and all the things he had said to himself. This is the second round in the golf tournament, Korn Ferry Tour in Savannah.

He shows up with his mouth taped up with a little hole so he can breathe.

So when the tournament was over, they asked him, they said, what is the deal? He said, I just got tired of listening to myself. I decided just to shut myself up. And he just taped his mouth over, he said, because he couldn’t stop saying stuff to himself, y’. All.

It’s hard, you know, Years ago, I was playing golf in La Jolla, California, at Torrey Pines, and I was so enamored with this golf course. Me and one of my best friend, and we’re getting ready to tee off. They paired us with two guys who we didn’t know. We met him on the tee box. We hit, and the first guy, the other twosome hits, and he hits a terrible snap hook.

And I mean, first thing he does is high dollar cuss words. I’m talking about category four. I mean, he went from the little ones to just off the chart. And I stood there for a second, and my best friend was a deacon in my church. And he looked at me and he said, this could be a long day.

I said, it could be a long day. And I’m telling y’, all, this guy just lit up the golf course. It just scorched high dollar cuss words over and over. We’re standing on the fairway, hole number six. My buddy’s up there getting ready to hit, and this guy walks over to me, said, I’m sorry, I hate to ask y’ all what y’ all do for a living.

He said and said. I said, what’s he do? I said, well, he’s a lawyer. He said, what about you? I said, I’m a Baptist preacher.

And he said, well, this is another. Another one of those. And then he said, so you’ve let me play golf for six holes without telling me you’re a Baptist preacher? I said, yeah. He said, why I said, well, I don’t want you showing me any more respect than you show God.

I said, he hears everything you say. And he said, so that’s how it’s going to be? I said, that’s how it’s going to be.

We get to hole number 18, I’m standing on the green. He walks up to me, says, alright. I’ve always wanted to ask the preacher, preacher this. I said, okay. He said, do you think it’s possible to actually know what happens to you when you die?

I said, yeah, it turns out it is. He said, well, how do you know? And I got to share the gospel with him now. He didn’t pray to receive Christ, but he did clean up his language a little bit. And I was grateful because sometimes, you know, when you hear that kind of stuff, I was glad it was Monday because I had a lot of time to clean up before Sunday.

If that happens on the weekend. It’s hard to recover. But self control is just hard, isn’t it? It’s easy to talk about. It’s hard to do.

Joseph. Joseph demonstrated his ability to control himself when confronted with the opportunity to avenge his brother’s evil actions. Right? He could have done them in and they deserved it. But somehow Joseph was in authority over them and he demonstrated incredible grace, didn’t he?

Joseph is a great example to me. Self control. So let’s talk about self control. Let’s talk about the fruit of the Spirit. This summer we’ve been studying the fruit of the spirit.

We’ve listed nine of them. Today’s the ninth one. And you remember in Galatians 5 says this, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. There’s no law about these things. In other words, Paul says, you can’t mandate these things, you can’t legislate them.

This is something that you’ve just got to live out. So I’ll just ask y’, all, how are you doing with these? Do they describe you? Do you need a little work? My experience has been it’s a lifetime journey and we just need help all along the way.

Sometimes you seem to exhibit some of them better than others. Okay, if you’re wondering which ones you’re not good at, then ask somebody really close to you and they’ll let you know. Just ask them, what do you think? More importantly, ask God, Let him show you. Because fruit is.

It’s important for us to bear the right kind of fruit. And here’s what I believe about Fruit. Fruit is an outward manifestation of an inner reality. All fruit is, is an expression of what’s on the inside of you. That’s true of a tree.

That’s true of me and you. In other words, fruit just manifests itself. And the way for our inner reality to be transformed is to spend some time with Jesus, which is what Jesus says in John 15. Remain in me, and I in you, and you’ll bear much fruit. In fact, Jesus says, when you bear fruit, it’s to my Father’s glory.

God gets glorified for it, not you, God. Because we all know that these things don’t come naturally to us. In fact, Jesus says this. By their fruit, you’ll recognize them. In Matthew 7, Jesus said, this is how people will know who you are, by the fruit they see in your life.

So think about the people in your world, where you work, where you go to school. What is it? What do they know about you? So how do you do it, y’? All?

How do you fix the brokenness? How do you address the fruit that’s not being manifested? Well, Paul tells us in Galatians 5, the very page where he tells us about the fruit of the Spirit. Here’s the answer. Paul says this.

Walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. That means you’ve got to walk by the Spirit. Now, the word walk in Greek is the word peripateo pateo, means the stomp. It means to put your foot down. It means to take a stand.

And if you put the little Greek peri, which is a prefix to it, that means to walk in a certain way every day. It means to walk around that way. It means to live that way, to develop the right habits, to choose your everyday life, to live in a certain way. And if you do that by the Spirit, through the Spirit, in the Spirit, what Paul says is, then you will not give in to the desires of the flesh. So this is an everyday thing for me and you walking by the Spirit, seeking the Spirit’s counsel, the Spirit’s wisdom.

Can you show me how to live today, Lord? Because I’m going to tell you what today is going to be like on my calendar. I need you to help me. I need you to show me and be good in those moments of intersection, just like Joseph had to be. Now, who’s the best example of self control?

Your pastor. Right. I’m sure. I mean, right? Cindy.

Cindy can tell y’. All. No, who’s the best example? Jesus. Right?

How many times did Jesus exercise self Control. I mean, I believe it was fully on display at the crucifixion. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus was able to master impulses.

He was tempting all points, just like us. But somehow he chose self control. He could just do it. He’s on the cross and he says, father, just forgive them. The thief on the cross says, get us down from here.

And the other thief goes, come on, dude. You know we’re supposed to be up here. And looks at Jesus. We know you’re not supposed to be up here. And Jesus looks at him and says, I’ll tell you what.

Today you’re gonna come with me. Jesus could just exercise self control. He was just so good at it. Let’s learn from his example. He’s just the one who teaches us, empowers us, and models it for us.

So here’s. Here’s what we’re trying to accomplish, y’. All. This is. This is the.

This is really what it’s all about. It’s just wholesale change. That’s what we’re after. That’s really what the gospel is about, intentional discipleship. And what we mean by that here is knowing God, experiencing God and serving God.

That’s what discipleship is. It starts with knowing God. You’ve got to be saved. First you got to come to know Jesus, and then you experience God. You let him shepherd you in your life.

Let him shepherd you past your past, because he can do that. And then let him shape you as you experience him, into a disciple. You don’t show up in the Christian family as a disciple. You just don’t. None of us do.

We need to be shaped, and then we need to be sent. We’ve got to serve God. You know, we listen to these testimonies of these youth in Toronto and praise God for those of you that have been able to go all over. I’m so proud of y’. All.

But you know what? We don’t want you just to be sent to the border. We don’t want you just to be sent to Indonesia. We don’t want you to be sent to Spain. We don’t want you to be spent, sent to Toronto.

We do. But guess what? We want you to be sent to Martin High School, Arlington High School, to Lamar High School, to Gunn Junior High, to Bowie, to Sam Houston, to Mansfield, to Grace Prep, to Pantega. I don’t know where it is you go. We want you to be sent there because that’s where you live.

That’s how it is with us. We’re to be sent everywhere, but we need to be sent as transformed disciples.

A few years ago, I was in a FCA meeting, and Tim Brown was our speaker. Tim Brown won a Heisman Trophy at Notre Dame. He’s from Dallas. He said, when he’s at Notre Dame, he never seen the ocean. And they flew to a game in California, and he went out in the Pacific Ocean, first time he’d ever seen the ocean.

He went out swimming in it, and he said he got out way out, and one of the coaches noticed him. And the coach started coming out there toward him. And Tim all of a sudden realized he was in a little bit of trouble. And a coach went out there to help him. And he pulled him back in and got him all the way in the shore.

And he said, tim, I want to show you something. And of course, Tim Brown was an incredible athlete, but he said to him, he said, hey, here’s what you need to know. You can get so far out, you can’t get back. Just don’t forget that. So Tim Brown said, remember that.

Well, then he went on to win a Heisman, went to the NFL. He played 18 seasons in the NFL. He never missed one game because of an injury. I mean, he’s a remarkable athlete. He said he was at the height of his fame, making all this money, and he got invited to a party at Magic Johnson’s house.

So he said, he goes to the party. When he gets there, he’s standing at the door, and they open the door, he looks in and he said he thought to himself, ooh, man. He said, and that thought came, you get too far out, you may not be able to get back. He said, I just turned around, went and got in my car and went home. That next week, Magic Johnson made an announcement.

Some of y’ all remember it. He had aids. And that was back when nobody really knew what that was. Those coaches called all the players in for a team meeting. Said, anybody get invited to Magic Johnson’s party?

Ever been to his house for a party? Several of the guys had. He said, they all are all going to have to be tested, see whether or not you’ve been infected. Tim Brown said, I was sitting there thinking, I’m so glad I didn’t get so far out that I couldn’t be rescued. Well, here’s what I’d say.

You’re never going to get so far out that Jesus can’t rescue you. But why would you even test it? There’s no need to. A lack of self control. You may find yourself in that place one day, though.

So I’LL just encourage us. Let’s walk by the spirit, y’. All. Come on, do it. That’s why we’re asking to read your Bible every day.

Have truth brought into your life every day. Pray every day. Come and be a part of a church, getting part of a community, getting part of a small group walk with other believers all the time. Develop the right habits because we want you to be transformed. That’s what the gospel’s about, wholesale transformation from the inside out.

And then you’ll bear the right kind of fruit. And then God can use you to go out and rescue some of those that have gotten way yonder out there. He can use you. Isn’t that the kind of Christian you want to be? Yeah, of course you do.

Let’s do it. May it be so. Let’s pray together. Well, Lord, we love you. We thank you for your love for us, God, you’re so good to us.

And we know we have people all around us, Lord, that struggle with issues like self control. And we lift them to you today. And we know that we struggle with with it as well. I ask you, Lord, just to grow up the right fruit in us, cultivate the inner reality in us, so that we might honor you every day of our lives, just in the everyday of life, God, that we’ll be the people you need us to be. We’ll bear the right kind of fruit.

And we trust you to guide us to do it in Jesus name.