TEXT: Galatians 5:22-23

SUBJECT: Kids’ Sermon #37: Self-Control

Kids, today we have another sermon especially for you. I want you to listen carefully. I’m going to ask questions along the way and—if you pay attention—you’ll know the answers. But that’s not the main reason I want you to listen.

This is the Word of God! Listening to it will bring a great blessing to you. Not listening—or listening without believing it or wanting to obey it—will bring a curse. Maybe not now, but one day, you’ll wish you had listened, believed, and obeyed the Word of God.

So listen carefully and the love of God be with you.

For the last several months, we’ve been studying The Fruit of the Spirit. The Fruit of the Spirit—please remember—is not what you do to be saved, but what you do because you are saved. No one has ever been saved by love, joy, peace, or patience. No, you are saved by repenting of your sins and believing in Jesus Christ.

But, when you do repent and believe, the Holy Spirit comes into you and produces His holy fruit. He makes you loving, joyful, gentle, good, and so on.

Today, we’ll look at the last Fruit of the Spirit. It is…what? Self-control.

What is self-control? It’s just what it sounds like. It is controlling yourself. Have you ever been so mad that you’ve said or done things you wish you hadn’t? If you have, it’s because you’ve lost self-control. Self-control is the opposite of that.

It assumes three things:

1. You know what you ought to do.
2. You don’t always want to do it.
3. But, you do it anyway—even if you don’t feel like it or your friends don’t want you to do it.

The best example of self-control is the Lord Jesus Christ. God wanted Him to die on the cross and the Lord knew it. But this doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be hard. No, it was very hard.

• His best friends did not want Him to die. After saying He must be crucified, Peter said, "Far be it from you, Lord! This shall not happen to You!"

• He too was scared and wished there were some other way for Him. He said, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death". Praying to His Father, our Lord said, "If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me, nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done".

And so, the Lord was scared of dying and His friends told Him not to. But when it became clear to Him that God wanted Him to die a terrible, painful, and public death, He got a hold of Himself, and obeyed.

That is self-control at it’s best. Doing what you ought to do—even if you don’t feel like it, and no matter what others want you to do.

Does Jesus Christ want you to control yourself? Sure He does. The Bible says so. Many verses teach that, but I want you to think about two in particular—Luke 9:23, Acts 5:29.

To "deny" yourself means "to say no!" to yourself. You want to do one thing—but the Lord wants you to do something else. You disobey yourself so that you can obey the Lord. That is self-control.

This means when your friends or others want you to do something—but the Lord wants you to do something else—you say No to your friends so you can say Yes to Jesus Christ. That, too, is self-control.

The Bible not only praises self-control, but it criticizes or condemns the lack of self-control. One verse is especially helpful, Proverbs 25:28,

To "rule your own spirit" means to control yourself. The person who won’t do that is like "a city broken down without walls". Now, what does that mean? In those days, "walls" protected a city against enemies. As long as the walls were high and strong and locked up tightly, the city was safe. But, knock the walls down, and the people would be attacked, robbed, killed, or carried into slavery.

In the same way, the kid who has no self-control will be attacked by Satan and used by the devil to do his hurtful and wicked ways.

The best example of this in the Bible is getting mad—and staying mad. Ephesians 4:26 says,

By staying mad—this means—you open yourself up to the devil.

So, if you want to do God’s will—and not Satan’s—you have to practice self-control.

In what parts of your life should you control yourself? In every way, of course! I Corinthians 9:25 tells us to be

Every person has a different temptation. If you eat too much, you need to control your eating. If you sleep too much, you need to control your sleeping. Some kids need to control their temper. Others need to work harder. And so on.

But let me name two things most kids need to control better than they do (and not kids only!)

• Talking.

The ability to speak is one of the best gifts God ever gave us. But, like other gifts, it can be put to good use. Or bad. It all depends on if you control your talking or not.

Controlled speech is a wonderful blessing—"Wholesome words are a tree of life" (Proverbs 15:4a).

Uncontrolled speech is a great curse—"A perverse tongue crushes the spirit" (Proverbs 15:4b).

Your tongue is something like a car. Under control, it is safe and helpful. But out of control, it’s very dangerous.

How do you control your speech? Three things help you:

1. Don’t talk so much—"In the multitude of words, there does not lack sin, but he who refrains his lips is wise (Proverbs 10:19).
2. Think before you talk—"Be swift to hear, slow to speak…" (James 1:19).
3. Keep your mouth shut when you’re mad—"Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God" (James 1:19-20).
4. Pray—"Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips" (Psalm 141:3).

• Spending.

Very few kids save their money. Most kids spend everything they’ve got as soon as they get it. This is not right—even when you’re a kid. And, it’s getting you into a habit that will be very hurtful when you grow up—and hard to get out of!

You’ve got to control your spending. Here’s some advice on helping you do it.

1. Listen to your parents. They know better than you. Three years ago, moms and dads knew Beanie Babies were a silly fad—and way too expensive! But many kids didn’t listen to their parents—and now, where are the Beanie Babies you couldn’t live without?
2. Don’t believe everything you see on TV. Advertisers can make products seem far more exciting than they really are. Remember, they’re spending millions of dollars to make a scooter seem faster and cooler than it really is. They never mention that you get tired pushing it or that if you fall off it, it hurts, or that it’s much less practical than the old bike you’ve got in the garage.
3. Pray for wisdom.
4. Before spending you money, wait a while. Many things you can’t live without today, you won’t even want tomorrow. If you just wait a while, you’ll save a lot of money.

If the Lord wants you to control yourself, you ought to do it. Let me close now, with a few ways to do it better.

• Remember you belong to God.

The reason you ought to say No to yourself is because you belong to Someone Else. Whom? God!

I hope you know this, but the problem isn’t knowing it, but remembering it. Get up in the morning and say, "I belong to God". Say that to yourself all through the day. When tempted to be selfish, just remember—you are not your own Master, the Lord is your Master. You’re here to please Him—not yourself or other people! Memorize I Corinthians 6:20.

• Name those parts of your life where you’re lacking self-control.

It’s not that hard to do. You know if you get mad all the time or if you’re lazy or if you eat too much or if you say things or look at things you shouldn’t. Be honest with yourself and be honest with God. When you find parts of your life where you’re out of control, confess them to the Lord, ask Him to help you, work at it, and ask your parents (or someone else) to help you too.

There’s no shame in admitting you have a problem. No! The shame is pretending you don’t!

• Pray for self-control.

You know the Lord wants you to control yourself. That means you can pray for Him to help you do it—I John 5:14.

What is self-control?

Does the Lord want you to be self-controlled?

Who had the most self-control?