Show Notes
Titus 2:6
Pastor Stephen Lauer
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Do not remember our sins, the sins of our youth and the sins of old age, the sins that we commit from birth. Until you take us home to be with you.
[00:00:14] Lord. It's hard for us to imagine we can't remember all of them. But we thank you that you promised for Jesus sake to take them all away, to cast them to the bottom of the ocean, to take them away from us as far as as the east is from the west.
[00:00:31] And we know that you do this through Jesus, your son, through his death on the cross.
[00:00:37] We ask that you would wash us clean in his blood, that you would comfort our hearts, that we would know your peace, that we would be filled with your love.
[00:00:49] We ask that you would work in us now by your Word and by your Holy Spirit, open our minds so that we may understand the truths of your Word and open our hearts and fill them with faith that we might believe it and by your power, obey it. In other words, O God, we ask that you would change us from the inside out so that we might not merely bear your name, but that you would make us to be your sons and daughters, purified and living in a way that befits those who are in your kingdom.
[00:01:26] Grant us this blessing, O God, for Jesus sake. Amen.
[00:01:32] Sermon text this evening is from Titus chapter two.
[00:01:37] You want to turn in your Bibles to Titus two and we will read verse six together.
[00:01:43] This is God's Word, so listen accordingly.
[00:01:49] Likewise, urge the younger men to be self controlled. Please be seated.
[00:02:06] Suppose there's a couple things we could agree on at the outset as we start considering this idea of self control.
[00:02:14] The first one is that probably all of us, except maybe a few young men, probably pretty much all of us can agree that young men need to be urged to be self controlled.
[00:02:31] If there's anybody in society that struggles with self control, it's the young men. And no doubt that's why Paul says to Titus and to pastors that they need to exhort the young men to be self controlled. We can agree with Paul, this is a pretty obvious thing.
[00:02:53] But as we reflect on that idea of self control and we think about our own lives, whether we're young or not, probably all of us can agree that there are parts of our lives, little areas here and there, where we look at this verse and we say, boy, you know, there's a still maybe in this area or that area, it would be nice if I could have a little bit more self control.
[00:03:18] I bet all of us could agree with that statement in some way or another.
[00:03:26] If that's you then your picture, your vision of the biblical teaching on self control is prophecy, probably far too limited and far too small. I want to look with you this evening at the self control that the Christian, not just all young men, we'll start with then, but then considering it, expand out at the self control that Christians are called to live in.
[00:03:55] First, we'll define self control. So what is this thing that Paul's talking about, this self control business?
[00:04:02] Secondly, we want to look at the need for self control.
[00:04:05] Why do I need this?
[00:04:08] And thirdly, we want to consider how to grow in self control.
[00:04:12] So first we want to define it. Secondly, consider the need for self control. And finally growing in self control.
[00:04:21] What is this self control business? Well, if you look at some other translations, the older ones, you'll find they use other words to translate the idea that's captured here.
[00:04:34] They use words like temperate. Well, that's kind of an older word. We don't use that that often. But if you're familiar with the word temperate, that might be helpful in thinking about this idea from another angle.
[00:04:45] Another word that's used is the word sober minded. Temperate, sober minded, self controlled. If you look up the dictionary definitions of each of these words, you'll find that they all are talking about the same kinds of things.
[00:05:01] How our thoughts and our desires, our mind is governed and moderated in such a way that people around us as we speak and act, they could see that this person lives in a moderate, governed, self controlled way.
[00:05:20] I want to give you a definition here for self control that goes a little bit beyond what you would find in an English dictionary.
[00:05:30] Self control that Paul wants young men and all Christians to be exhorted in, to grow in, to learn and to practice. We can say that this is a moderation or a governing, a moderation of our mind, our heart and our will by the power of the Holy Spirit.
[00:05:54] So it's this governing of our heart, mind and will by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now that's where it very clearly goes beyond what you find in the dictionary. This is something that the Christian is called to do, not in himself, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.
[00:06:14] Let's look at each aspect of this definition in turn.
[00:06:20] It's a moderating or governing. What is that mean? Well, that's where the word self control is helpful. Control.
[00:06:28] It's to control or to govern our thoughts, our desires of the heart, our feelings of the thoughts of the mind. Right. But also moving to the heart, our feelings, our desires, appetites, and then Our will, how we make decisions governing all of these things in such a way that the words that come out of our mouth, the looks on our faces and our actions, all of these things are governed, controlled from the inside out.
[00:07:01] And governed in such a way that we please God.
[00:07:07] To put it negatively, it would be to keep ourselves from thoughts, feelings, and an immoderate, excessive thoughts, feelings that are inappropriate, in other words, that are sinful.
[00:07:24] God's given each of us made in his image with lots of good things. He's given us things that he didn't give the animals.
[00:07:33] We can think through things logically. We can make plans not just for our day or our week, but we can make plans going well into the future. And then we order our lives according to those plans. That's pretty remarkable.
[00:07:48] We can think and ponder all sorts of things. The capacity of the mind is a wonderful gift that God has given us. Same thing with the heart, right? The ability to love one another, to desire good things. It drives us. It can drive us to all sorts of wonderful experiences.
[00:08:10] God's given us these good gifts. And by this self control empowered by the Holy Spirit, God enables us to use those good gifts that he's given us made in his image in a moderate, controlled, careful way that pleases Him.
[00:08:32] Maybe an example here would be helpful to kind of illustrate how self control works with all of the different faculties, all of the different aspects of our being people made in God's image, how we're to control all of those things in a way that good things come forth that are pleasing to God and not the sinful, rebellious, bad things.
[00:08:54] And the thing that I thought about, as I thought about this, was a physical thing that pretty much all of us have some of it.
[00:09:04] And that's physical strength, the power in your hand, the power in your arms, the power in your legs and in your body. And physical strength can be used for good, good things, right? To work hard, to care for your family, to bless one another. And it can be used for all sorts of terrible evil.
[00:09:23] It's a good gift that God's given us. And what distinguishes, what makes it being used well or poorly is not how much power you have, right? It's not how strong you are or how much force you use in a particular activity that makes that thing good or bad.
[00:09:44] It's how controlled you are in using that strength in any given situation.
[00:09:51] In other words, using it in a moderate, governed, appropriate way.
[00:09:56] Think about the carpenter. The man has been a carpenter for 20 years.
[00:10:01] His hands, I don't Know if you've ever shook the hands of a carpenter, a known man who'd been a carpenter his whole life long, those hands, all of the little muscles in the hands stand out, they're strong and his arm is strong.
[00:10:16] And when he takes his hammer and he goes to drive that big, big nail, the 16 penny nail, he taps it in, he gets it set. And I've watched this. They can drive a 16 penny nail, those carpenters can, with one blow. That is incredible force. And it is well governed, well used, well controlled physical strength. It's remarkable to watch a carpenter work and use his far more strength than I have or ever will have and use it well. It isn't the degree of power, it isn't how much strength he's using, but it's that he's using it well, well.
[00:10:53] And if you get to know that carpenter, you can watch him take those same hands and arms and use that same massive, powerful force, but use it in a controlled way to lovingly, gently, delicately hold his wife or hold his newborn baby.
[00:11:14] There's something, maybe something of how when we are self controlled, we have this capacity to govern our thoughts, our hearts, our wills. We can learn by the power of the Spirit to use these good gifts God has given us in a way that pleases him. So there's that moderation or that governing. Think of someone using physical force really, really well, really appropriately. And all of the things inside of us God's given us, we're called to use them all well, moderation. It's a moderation, a governing of the mind.
[00:11:52] We're to love the Lord our God with all our mind, our thoughts. We're not to lean on our own understanding, but in all our ways, that is in all of our thoughts, to acknowledge God and to follow his truth. The mind and the thoughts of the mind are to be governed, moderated.
[00:12:12] What happens when we don't? Our thoughts race.
[00:12:15] We make all sorts of plans. Some of them may be foolish. As we're sitting there thinking through how we're going to do this or that.
[00:12:26] Our thoughts can be ungoverned and immoderate and go all sorts of places when they're driven by evil desires. Those unmoderated thoughts can lead to telling ourselves lies. And then as we walk around believing lies, we act out of them and we lead anxious lives, foolish lives, and so on.
[00:12:51] Our thoughts are to be moderated or governed according to the word of God and its truths by the power of the Spirit.
[00:12:58] It's not just the mind. It's also the heart that is to be controlled.
[00:13:05] Proverbs 4, 23 says, Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.
[00:13:14] Our hearts are to be kept carefully, diligently. What's in our heart?
[00:13:20] Desires, passions, strong ones, Ones that can drive us to do all sorts of good and wonderful things.
[00:13:28] But they can just as easily become immoderate and uncontrolled and go off into do evil, terrible things. Things. Right.
[00:13:36] A desire and love for other people is good, but unregulated. Immoderated, it can become a desire to control other people. Sinfully, it can turn into lust. Love for self is good. Love your neighbor as yourself. We're called to love ourselves, care for ourselves.
[00:13:56] That's a good thing.
[00:13:58] But immoderate, uncontrolled self. Love is selfishness, a desire for things.
[00:14:06] God made all sorts of good things for you to have. He gives you good gifts. But what happens when it becomes immoderate, Uncontrolled, it becomes covetousness.
[00:14:17] It's good for people to give you attention, to have friends.
[00:14:22] But what happens when we desire it too much?
[00:14:27] We begin to fear people and live in order to please people. And rather than God, we could go on and on. Any good desire and passion God has given us, we can turn and make it sinful and evil. When it's uncontrolled and we could go on, you could think of physical appetites.
[00:14:48] They can good things for food, drink for your spouse.
[00:14:53] All of those can become warped and twisted.
[00:14:57] Drunkenness, gluttony, lust and so on.
[00:15:00] We're called to live with self control. Not just of the mind, but of the heart.
[00:15:07] Love the Lord your God with all your heart.
[00:15:12] A moderation of the mind, of the heart, but also of the will. What is your will?
[00:15:20] Talk a lot about the will. Maybe we need to define the will.
[00:15:24] Your will is you choosing.
[00:15:28] That's what we mean when we talk about the will.
[00:15:31] It's our faculty, our ability to make decisions.
[00:15:35] And of course, that faculty, ability to make decisions is guided by our thinking and by our desires, right? They all three work together. This is kind of the. The inner life, the you that is you that's different from the me that is me, right? If you put all three of these together, the inner life of you is your heart and your mind and your will, you choosing. And we have to choose all day long and make all kinds of choices.
[00:16:01] But our will also needs to be governed or controlled.
[00:16:07] Sometimes we need to choose quickly, right?
[00:16:11] Almost without thinking again. Remember, sometimes physical strength can be used gently. Sometimes it needs to be used with great force, with moderation, control.
[00:16:23] Sometimes we need to choose quickly, like when your child is running towards the street that's busy with lots of cars traveling on it. You need to choose almost without thinking and yell at your child, say stop and chase him down. Right? Sometimes you need to choose quickly, but often we're tempted to choose too quickly. We call that being rash, right? It's an ungoverned, unregulated will. We need to slow down and practice what the Bible calls wisdom.
[00:16:55] To choose according to what's wise, what the word of God calls us to.
[00:17:00] We're to act in wisdom.
[00:17:04] So there you have it.
[00:17:06] The mind, heart and will, moderated, governed. This is self control.
[00:17:14] But it has to be done so by the power of the Holy Spirit.
[00:17:20] When you hear the term self control and it's helpful, this is a good translation, I'm not picking at it. But when you hear self control, you hear the word self and we might be tempted to think that the Bible is calling us to govern ourselves from ourselves by our own power and strength.
[00:17:42] And when we talk about self control, a lot of times out there in society, that is really what we're talking about.
[00:17:49] You just need to do better, you need to work harder, you need to be more disciplined at it.
[00:17:56] And if you do, maybe you'll be able to quit smoking or whatever the bad habit is, or eat less or exercise more. Those are the kinds of things we talk about when we talk about a person needing to grow in self control. But when the Bible talks about self control, moderation, sober mindedness, it is always speaking about something that flows from the power of the Holy Spirit, something God works in each of his people through his Holy Spirit.
[00:18:26] If we had to produce self control, the kind of self control that God calls us to, if we had to produce it from ourselves by our own strength, we could not do it.
[00:18:38] That's what the Bible teaches us, that we all fell in Adam. And when we fell, our heart, mind and will fell. They became bent and broken and, and corrupted. And by ourselves we can't fix them, we can't govern and control them. The only way that any young man and any Christian can learn self control and grow in it is if it comes from the Holy Spirit.
[00:19:05] If you look down a couple verses here in Titus 2, you find just this idea.
[00:19:12] Verse 11 says, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all men, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to Live self controlled, upright and godly lives.
[00:19:25] Where does self control come from? It's a part of our salvation.
[00:19:30] We could not produce self control in ourselves.
[00:19:34] We couldn't stop sinning. We needed God to come and in his grace and mercy save us. You see, the whole of the Christian life, all of this new obedience, the good things, the self control that we're called to, is something God gives us as a gift of his grace. It's a part of his salvation.
[00:19:52] And so that famous verse in Galatians 5 that talks about the fruit of the Spirit, it says these things are things that the Spirit produces in you. God by His Spirit gives you as gifts in your heart, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.
[00:20:14] Our hope is not that we can work hard enough, but our hope for having lives that are moderated, governed hearts and passions that are governed in a way that pleases God. Our hope is that God by His Spirit is working this in us.
[00:20:28] It comes from Him.
[00:20:33] So the Spirit then is the one who gives us this, governing this moderation of the heart, mind and will.
[00:20:41] Now, if you've been wondering in the back of your minds, why does Paul give young men only one thing to work on?
[00:20:48] Maybe now you see, is because this one thing, this self control includes everything.
[00:20:56] It touches the whole of the person and the whole of his life.
[00:21:02] Self control has to do with everything.
[00:21:06] So there's a definition of self control.
[00:21:12] Why do you need self control?
[00:21:16] Well, we all agreed young men need self control. Why?
[00:21:20] They're full of vigor.
[00:21:23] They have got.
[00:21:25] The world is their oyster, right? And they've got all the strength and all of the energy for it.
[00:21:31] I remember being young, I didn't have to sleep. I could go two or three days in a row, go, go, go without sleeping. I had so much strength and energy and passion and vigor for life. I would do anything at any moment, ready to go.
[00:21:46] That's young men.
[00:21:50] And young men do that with little to no self control. And part of that isn't just that they have all the strength. They have all of the strength and vigor and go, go, go with very little of life experience.
[00:22:03] They haven't been confronted with all of the consequences of life, all of the bad things that happen and what happens. There's a few young men, right, that take all of that vigor and energy and strength and they channel it in a good direction and they end up at the top of their field, big businesses, right? And then there's the other ones that channel all of it into uncontrolled sin and they end up in prison.
[00:22:27] Okay, we agree the young men need self control.
[00:22:31] But it's not just the young men.
[00:22:34] You need self control. I need self control.
[00:22:39] Now, most people will grant that they need some self control.
[00:22:44] You can look at some area of your life and say, I need to eat a little less, I've gained a little too much. I need to lose that weight for my health.
[00:22:54] Maybe you look at some area of your marriage and say, boy, if I would be a little more governed with the words, I would say I wouldn't irritate my spouse so much. Maybe if you're being really vulnerable, right, you can find some area where you say, I need a little bit more self control.
[00:23:12] If that's your view of things, your view is far too small.
[00:23:18] We just argued that self control touches every area of you and your life because it deals with the whole of the inner you, your heart, mind and will, and therefore everything that flows out of it.
[00:23:36] Lack of self control doesn't just lead to unwanted weight or even to an affair in a ruined marriage.
[00:23:43] Lack of self control in anything leads to sin.
[00:23:50] And sin dishonors God and his rebellion against God. In other words, lack of self control isn't just that I'm not governing me, it's that I'm rebelling against God and his good and righteous government.
[00:24:09] And all of us, all of us lack self control.
[00:24:14] You need it, in other words, because you don't have it.
[00:24:19] Now, if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ and your heart hasn't been changed by the power of his spirit, then you lack this kind of self control that the Bible talks about. You lack it completely. You have some kind of self control that you've learned in life. To get through life, you had to and has probably helped you in many ways. But it isn't a self control that touches every area of your heart and mind and will that proceeds from the power of the spirit. It isn't a kind of self control that results in a changed life that's repentant where you're now following the King. Again, if you don't know Jesus Christ, then you lack this self control completely.
[00:25:01] You don't have any of it and you need it desperately.
[00:25:08] If you do know the Lord Jesus, you still need self control.
[00:25:13] If you know the Lord Jesus Christ, if He's your King and your Savior, then by God's grace, the Spirit has entered your heart. He's changed you. He's made you a new man.
[00:25:24] And now by his grace, the Spirit is producing in you, that fruit of self control.
[00:25:31] And your life is little by little being changed.
[00:25:34] And if you really know the Lord Jesus, then you've experienced this. You know there are areas of your life where you were immoderate, where you desired things in a way that you shouldn't. You expressed your anger or your lust or whatever it was.
[00:25:47] And the Lord by His Spirit has given you some freedom, given you more control over that area of your heart and life.
[00:25:56] And if you've experienced that, then you know you need more.
[00:26:01] The more self control we grow in, the more we see areas of our life where we need more change.
[00:26:09] So you need self control either because you don't have it at all, because you're outside of Christ, or because you do know the Lord Jesus Christ and you know that there's more of your life to be lived in freedom and in service to Him.
[00:26:22] You need self control and you don't have it.
[00:26:28] Finally, I said that we would talk about how to grow in self control.
[00:26:33] That's what it is.
[00:26:35] It's a wonderful thing. We need it. How do we grow in it?
[00:26:40] Well, first of all, you need to know Jesus Christ.
[00:26:44] We talk about knowing Jesus Christ as Savior, but we also usually say Lord and Savior.
[00:26:53] And if the Lord Jesus has come and saved you, then he's become your Lord and your master and your King. That is, you've come not only under his salvation, but you've come under his reign, under his government, under his control.
[00:27:10] We argued that self control in the biblical sense doesn't come from self, it comes from God.
[00:27:18] We can say more. It comes from Jesus as our King.
[00:27:23] He came, and when he came, he came to baptize his people with the Holy Spirit.
[00:27:30] He came to put his spirit in the hearts of sinners, to take away their dead sinful heart and give them a new heart that was alive again. A heart that loved God, that loved God's Word and loved God's commandments.
[00:27:45] And the Bible tells us that Jesus does this through the power of his spirit.
[00:27:52] So do you want to grow in self control? First you need to come to know the Lord Jesus as your Lord and Savior. And if you've come to know him and you want to grow in self control, here's what you do. And it's really, really simple.
[00:28:08] Everything else we say is summarized in this one idea. If you want to grow in self control, look to King Jesus.
[00:28:16] Look to your King.
[00:28:20] What does self control look like? We've defined it, we've described what it is. What does it look like? To be a man or a woman whose heart, mind and will are governed by the power of the Holy Spirit.
[00:28:35] Look to the King.
[00:28:37] All throughout his life, Jesus bore the image of God with perfect moderation. He governed his heart, mind and will perfectly.
[00:28:50] He used physical strength as a carpenter, to drive nails, to cut lumber.
[00:29:00] But he used the gifts that God had given him in his heart, mind and will. He used them for perfectly in every area of his life. So you read the Gospels, you see this. He bumps up against all sorts of people with all sorts of problems.
[00:29:17] And just like we use physical strength with different degrees with to accomplish different tasks, Jesus used the gifts God had given him as a man to serve others perfectly and without sin.
[00:29:32] To those who came to him with problems, with sin, with lives that were messed up, how did Jesus respond?
[00:29:40] In compassion, mercy and love? He healed them. He changed their hearts. He set them free from demons.
[00:29:47] How do we respond when people come to us messed up, broken, with all sorts of sin and problems?
[00:29:54] What do we tend to do? We tend to look down on them.
[00:29:57] We tend to not want to be around them.
[00:30:00] We don't show them mercy, patience and compassion. But here you see Jesus doing that. He's our model.
[00:30:07] He was even patient with the Pharisees, right? The teachers of God's law who were leading God's people astray when they first came to him earlier in the Gospels. He deals with them directly, but he deals with them with gentleness. And as the unbelief of the Pharisees grows, as they see his miracles and they still won't believe him, eventually he begins to deal with them more sternly, as was appropriate.
[00:30:32] You see him in every situation, carrying himself with perfect self control.
[00:30:41] And you want to see amazing self control?
[00:30:45] Think about Jesus at his trial. Here's a man who had never done a single thing wrong in his life. He had treated everyone perfectly with the love and compassion that perfectly reflected the heart of his Father in heaven.
[00:31:02] What a beautiful thing it must have been to see Jesus in his humanity, living moderately and in self control. And here he is, accused falsely, over and over again.
[00:31:16] And what does he do?
[00:31:19] He doesn't say a word.
[00:31:21] Like a sheep before his shears. He was silent. He didn't open his mouth.
[00:31:28] I couldn't do that.
[00:31:33] And then he testified. The good confession, we're told, before Pontius Pilate.
[00:31:39] And then he went to the cross. He didn't grumble, he didn't complain. He cried out for help to his Father.
[00:31:46] He lived by faith, trusting his Father.
[00:31:50] Think of Jesus, your King, what does self control look like? Just read your gospels and say, now, how does Jesus respond here and there and you see Christ living it out for you.
[00:32:04] So first, what does it look like? Look to your king, but you respond as you should.
[00:32:12] If you've been listening up to this point and you understand what we're talking about, you should respond, Pastor, I'm out of control.
[00:32:22] I don't have this self control that you're talking about that we see so clearly in Jesus.
[00:32:28] I'm out of control. My heart, my passions, my thoughts, they run everywhere. I'm anxious. What do I do?
[00:32:36] Look to your King.
[00:32:39] Take that uncontrollable heart, that heart and passions and thoughts and will that you cannot govern. And take it before your King.
[00:32:50] Go to the throne of grace.
[00:32:56] As you bow before his throne in prayer, pour out your heart before him.
[00:33:03] You are hurt and you struggle with bitterness and anger.
[00:33:09] Pour that out before him.
[00:33:12] You're full of envy and you struggle with contentment.
[00:33:18] Pour your heart out before your king.
[00:33:21] Your thoughts are full of pride, of wanting to be liked by others.
[00:33:30] Pour out your heart before your King.
[00:33:34] Take your lust, your anger, your quick temper, your laziness. Take it all and say, jesus, I need you to govern my heart and my thoughts and my will. I need you to bend it all and change it and heal it and restore it and make it so that it reflects you and your love for the Father.
[00:34:03] Say, jesus, I'm out of control.
[00:34:06] I need you in control.
[00:34:10] I am yours.
[00:34:11] Save me.
[00:34:14] And your king will respond, Dear child, you are out of control.
[00:34:22] And that's why I went to the cross.
[00:34:26] I went to the cross and I hung there for you, so that all of that uncontrolled sin that flowed forth from your heart might be forgiven.
[00:34:38] And I went to the cross and I hung, so that sin nature that's in you might be put to death.
[00:34:45] I went and I died to change your heart, to deal with the problem of control.
[00:34:55] He came to baptize you in his Holy Spirit. He came to change your heart. And in order to do those things, he went to the cross and he died for you. And then he rose, and now he's the King and he sits on the throne of heaven.
[00:35:11] And he looks at you and he says, this is not too big a problem for me.
[00:35:17] All authority in heaven and on earth. Almighty God reigning as the God, man as your Savior who loves you and died for you.
[00:35:26] That's the one you're turning to when you struggle with sin.
[00:35:34] Take it all to him.
[00:35:36] He'll change you.
[00:35:41] Are you still struggling?
[00:35:45] There was a man.
[00:35:47] The same day that Jesus carried his cross up to Golgotha, There was another man who carried his cross up to Golgotha.
[00:35:54] And his heart was so uncontrolled. Not only did he commit awful crimes as a robber and a murderer so that he wound up on a cross, but his heart and thoughts were so uncontrolled that there, as he hung on the cross, he hurled insults at the sinless God, man.
[00:36:16] Hour after hour, he mocked Jesus.
[00:36:23] And then Jesus took his uncontrolled heart and changed it.
[00:36:30] And he turned to Jesus and he said, lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
[00:36:36] If you say, I'm too wicked, I'm too sinful, I'm too uncontrolled, remember that man.
[00:36:43] Because King Jesus, as he hung on the cross for that man, governed his heart and changed it.
[00:36:52] And he'll look to you the same way he looked to that man.
[00:36:55] And he'll say, you will be with me in paradise. Let's pray.
[00:37:06] Our God and our king, In the presence of your holiness and goodness, we consider how wonderful you are.
[00:37:25] We immediately realize how awful every area of our lives is.
[00:37:32] Lord. We take everything good you give us, and we somehow find a way to ruin all of it. Selfishness, pride, lust.
[00:37:42] Lord, so many things.
[00:37:45] And we have trouble letting it go because we feel like we need to be in control.
[00:37:54] We confess, Lord Jesus, our utter helplessness to control even our own thoughts.
[00:38:01] We ask that you would forgive us that in your blood you would wash away all our sins, that you would cleanse and purify our hearts, that you would help us to see more of you, more of your grace and your goodness, more of your mercy and kindness, more of your glory and power.
[00:38:22] And we ask that you would change our hearts, take away evil desires, take away the false thoughts that we have and how we give ourselves over to them, replace them with truth.
[00:38:39] Order our thoughts in a way that pleases you and help us. Help. Help us to devote ourselves to your word, where we know the truth is.
[00:38:49] And we ask that you would take those hearts that are so full of sinful desires and instead fill them with the things that the longings for. Good things that you give us.
[00:39:03] Help us to love you most. And first of all.
[00:39:07] And as we learn to love you, help us to learn to love our fellow man.
[00:39:13] And help us to learn even to love ourselves in a way that pleases and honors you.
[00:39:21] And we ask that you would do this not just for us as individuals, but for all your people so that your church, as your church we might shine as a light, a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden.
[00:39:36] That others may be drawn to your goodness and to your mercy, ultimately, so that the whole world might be filled with your glory and knowledge and that you might come quickly. Lord Jesus, amen.
