(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

What we're talking about today is temperance. That is the last of the fruits of the Spirit, okay? Temperance. And I want you to see here in verse 24 it says, Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain. And what Paul the Apostle is doing is giving kind of a secular example. Kind of, for example, think of the Olympics and they have the 100 meter race. One person gets the gold medal. Not two people. Just one person, okay? Nobody remembers who got the silver medal, okay? Now, probably none of us remember who got the gold medal either, but in a secular standpoint, you know, people remember who won, okay? They don't remember who finished second, and what Paul is saying is run in a way that you may finish first in the race you're running, okay? It's not that we're competing against one another because we're not, but just consider yourself as running a race and you do the best you can to cross that finish line sooner than anybody else. You do the best you can to live for God. Verse 25, and every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now, at the end of this sermon, we're going to go back here and explain in more detail, so I don't want to kind of re-preach that right now. We'll talk about that at the end, but when it says striving for the mastery, you're thinking of a race. You're striving for victory. You're striving to become the best. You're striving to become number one, and in order to do that, you say, what's the secret? You become temperate in all things. That basically means that you have control in all things. If you're running a race, a hundred meters, and you're training for that race, every single meal you eat matters. It matters whether or not you're eating something healthy or whether or not you're eating pangimagas. It matters whether or not you're getting the right amount of sleep or whether or not. It matters how much you exercise, how much you don't. Now, I'm not trying to motivate you to run a race, okay? What I'm trying to tell you, though, is with a Christian life, this is the way it is, and if you want to be successful, you must be temperate in all areas. It says here, in all things, and so what we're going to do is look at a lot of different areas in our lives. Turn to Hebrews 12, Hebrews 12, a lot of different areas where we need to be temperate, which basically means we have control, so basically if you desire to eat something unhealthy, you choose not to because you're doing it for a purpose, okay? You're trying to win something. You're trying to accomplish something, okay? Now when it comes to the Christian life, the first thing we need to be temperate in is with our sins and worldliness. We need to be temperate. We need to have control over ourselves. Hebrews 12, verse 1, the Bible reads, Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. And the Bible tells us to lay aside every weight, okay? Now the weights are different than the sins in these verses. The sins are things that are wrong. They're transgressions of the law. You're breaking God's law. When it comes to the weights, those are things that are not sinful. They're not necessarily wrong, but they don't give you any sort of accomplishment. There's no eternal reward for them. They're basically kind of a waste of time. You think of various hobbies that you have in your life, okay? Now it's not necessarily sinful to have a hobby, depending on what that hobby is, but if your whole life is just entertainment and hobbies, then you're going down the wrong road. Because if you want to be successful to run that race, you lay aside every weight, okay? Now if you remember, we had an example here of Brother Ehrman and I a long time ago, where he was up here on stage, and I said, let's say we ran the exact same speed in a 100 meter race. Now obviously, I'm a lot faster than Brother Ehrman. We all know that, but let's just say, you know, we're the same speed, you know, just kidding. But let's say we're the same speed, and let's say, for example, though I put on a book bag with a lot of weight inside, and then we had a race. Well, who's going to win? Obviously him. You say, why? Because I'm carrying a lot more weight, okay? What I want you to understand is when it comes to the Christian life, it's really not about how talented you are. It's really not about how amazing your gifts are. It really matters how much weight are you putting on yourself, because you're going to make it very hard. You're running a marathon. Good luck when you're carrying 50 extra pounds, right? If you're running a race, then obviously you need to be in shape for that race, and in the Christian life, it's the same way. If you want to be successful, but you're carrying all these extra weights and these things that are going to drag you down, you're going to be like running like this, like slow motion trying to get to the finish line. And sadly, isn't that how most Christians are running the Christian race? They're running with so many weights, so much sin, so many weights, so much worldliness, they're not going to be very successful running that race. They're barely even going to be moving, because they're making it very difficult on themselves. Notice what it says here in verse one. Notice the distinction, because it says, and the sin which thought so easily beset us. So there's a difference here. Obviously if you've got major sin in your life, you need to just get rid of that sin. Things that the Bible says are wrong. Sin is the transgression of the law. So when God says, thou shalt not steal, obviously that's a sin, okay? But there's a distinction between the weights and the sins, and if you want to be successful and you want to say, I want to come to the end of my life and say I fought a good fight, you're only going to be able to say that if you're temperate with your sins and worldliness, okay? But when it comes to the music you listen to, the things you watch, the things that you see, the things you hear, all these things, you must be temperate in those areas. You must have control. You say, Brother Stuckey, but I really enjoy listening to that music. Okay, yeah, we all have fleshly desires. But you're not going to be successful running the Christian race if you give in to those fleshly desires. That is what temperance is, where you basically say, it doesn't matter what my flesh desires. I'm going to put an end to that desire and decide to live for God. Look, when I got saved, do you think all the music I listened to was perfect when I was 18 years old? No, I listened to Aerosmith, I listened to Guns N' Roses, for some of you that's probably before your, that's before my time, Aerosmith, they're like way back. But when it comes to that music, I used to like Aerosmith, Guns N' Roses, Led Zeppelin, people that just hate God, they don't care about God, most of them are probably reprobates, they're filthy, wicked people, but that's the music that my flesh enjoyed to watch, listen to. And when it comes to what I enjoyed to watch, you know, I liked a lot of movies that were wrong, you know, things that were, you know, a lot of violence, you know, gangster movies, things like that. That's what my flesh desired to watch, okay? But so you have to make a decision. If you want to be successful, you've got to put an end to this. You're not going to be successful preaching sermons when you're watching The Godfather in your free time. You're not going to be successful preaching sermons if in your free time you're listening to Guns N' Roses, okay? You're pulling up here, then you turn off Guns N' Roses, you get up and preach a sermon. It's like, look, you're not going to be very successful. And in your lives as well, whether you're preaching sermons or not, if you have this worldliness and sin in your life, it's going to prevent you from running that race successfully. It's going to make it difficult. It doesn't matter what your flesh desires, because all of us are flesh desires certain things that are wrong. You just must put an end to it. It doesn't matter whether it's music or movies or whatever it is. You must put an end to it no matter what it is in your life, because we all have things we would love to do in terms of our flesh. But the Spirit wants to read the Bible. The Spirit wants to go to church. The Spirit wants to pray. You must just decide, I'm not going to give in to the desires of the flesh. Look at Hebrews, or look at verse 2, Hebrews 12, verse 2, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. The Bible gives us Jesus as an example, and it says, who for the joy that was set before him. Look, in our lives, you must understand there is a lot of joy living the Christian life. You say, Brother Stuckey, I've never experienced that joy, because you're not temperate in all things. That's the context. You have sin and worldliness in your lives, then maybe you haven't experienced that. But if you want the joy of the Christian life, you must put an end to the desires of the flesh. Look, I want you to understand that when I used to play soccer a long time ago, back when I was in high school, I ran 50 miles a week. I would run like an hour plus every morning, and I grew up in the mountain state, West Virginia. It's all hills. It's all mountains. So basically, when I'm running, I'm just running up steep hills, up and down, up and down. You say, why did you do that? Did you just really enjoy running up hills for an hour a day? No. What I wanted was the last 20 minutes of a soccer game, I would have energy and the other players wouldn't. My goal was that last 20 minutes, I would have the energy to go past the other people and score goals. I wanted to become very good at playing soccer. I'm not recommending you going down the road of just fulfilling your fleshly desires or whatever. I'm not trying to promote saying, just go and play sports and do all this stuff. Here's what I'm saying, though. If I wanted to become the best at that, I had to work out a lot and stay in shape. Look, I was very thin at the time. Because to play soccer, you have to be very thin. You have to make choices. Yeah, of course, I would have wanted to do other things at 6 in the morning, but I woke up at 6 o'clock every morning and just ran for an hour. You say, why? Because my goal was to be good at soccer. What I want you to understand is I had great joy in that. The last 20 minutes of the game, I was very excited because I was in very good shape back then, even for a soccer player. I took great joy in the fact that at the end of the game, I was just running around people because I was in very good shape. I want you to realize that that's nothing compared to the Christian joys you could have. If you become temperate in all areas, the joy is not just of soul winning. But if you become temperate in all areas and you read the Bible, and if you're temperate in all areas, you're living for God, God's going to show you things in the Bible and you're just going to be like, man, that makes sense. You don't have to just wait to hear these things in a sermon that's preached. You can read the Bible for yourself and learn great mysteries from the word of God. I've learned many things that I've never heard preached before, and I just read it and I'm like, wow. You say, why? Because when you're saved, the spirit of truth is inside of you. You don't need someone to show you everything. If you learn the Bible for yourself, you're going to see these things. Quite honestly, it's pretty exciting when you find something from the word of God. It's far more exciting than if you hear it preached if you find something. You say, what's the secret? Well, the secret is lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us. Realize there is a joy that's set before you. Verse three, for consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest he be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted onto blood, striving against sin. Notice how it talks about fighting or striving against sin. We as Christians, we tend to give in very easily to the desires of the flesh. The Bible speaks about striving against the sins of the flesh, striving against sin. When you desire to do something, you fight against that. You fight not to make those mistakes. Why? Because there's a joy that's set before you. Because you want to live for God. There's eternal rewards, but just the joys in this life, you experience that when you strive and fight against sin. Every single one of us, we have to strive and fight against sin. Nobody's just born. Do you think Pastor Jimenez just was born just, oh, I just don't have any desires of the flesh. I just want to live for God and pray for an hour every day. No, everybody's got to make choices in their life. Look at what it says in chapter 11, verse 24. Chapter 11, the hall of faith. Notice what it says in verse 24. By faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. See, you have to realize that Moses was born with a pretty good life. He was born, put in the river, he was away from his parents, but then he was basically raised as Pharaoh's daughter. He would have had a pretty nice position in the kingdom of Egypt. But what did he decide to do? He decided to cast away everything he had gotten because of who he was, because of who he was raised by, and say, you know what, I'm going to live for God. It said than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. See, I want you to understand that living a sinful life, it has pleasure for a short time. And then you always regret it. You always regret it. It's never worth it. It's never worth it. You have this desire to do this, your flesh wants something, you give in, and then you're just like, man, why did I do that? That was so stupid, okay? And look, what the Bible says here with Moses is he decided to suffer affliction rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Rather than just have a nice life and pretend to be who he wasn't, he said, I believe in the true God. I believe in the living God, and so I'm going to reject the desires of the flesh and decide to live for God. You say, Brother Stuckey, is this an easy thing to do? Of course not. If this was an easy thing to do, I probably would just say, wow, we finished our series last week. You guys got number nine temperance under control. No, of course this is difficult, because we all have a sinful flesh that desires certain things. Verse 26, esteeming the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had to respect under the recompense of their word. Now keep in mind the treasures of Egypt are probably the best treasures that there were. A long time ago I preached about the Assyrian empire, and I proved from the Bible that the Egyptian empire was more powerful than the Assyrian empire ever got, okay? And you say, what's the point of that? My point is this, that the treasures of Egypt were probably the best treasures that there were. The number one. And Moses could have had anything he wanted in life, but he says, you know what, I don't care about that. I don't care about worldly desires and fleshly desires. Why? I would rather just serve with God's people, okay? Now look, this sermon is not about, we'll turn in your Bible to Ephesians 5. It's not about covetousness as we just talked about, but realize in your life that even if you don't live a rich life but you get to serve God, you should be happy with that. See Moses said, instead of living a rich life, I'd rather just serve God. Now look, Moses lived a pretty tough life from an earthly standpoint. He's wandering in the wilderness until he died when he was 120, didn't even get to go to the promised land because of just the sins of the people who were basically always bugging him, always complaining. But I want you to realize he didn't live the greatest life here on earth, but do you really think there's going to be a lot of people getting more rewards in heaven than Moses? I don't expect to get more rewards in heaven than Moses. I mean, he's probably one of the top five men who ever lived, I would say. And so I want you to realize that, yeah, it's not easy to be temperate with your worldliness and your sins, but there is a greater joy or reward on the other side. Not only with this though, but also we need temperance with our time, temperance with our time. Notice what it says in Ephesians 5 verse 15. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. And the Bible says we need to redeem the time. What does that mean? Basically don't waste all of your time. Don't be a fool. That's what the Bible is saying. Don't be a fool and just sit around with nothing to do. You have a day off from work and you say, man, I'm just going to sit around and just do nothing all day. Just hang out and just, I don't know, do whatever. Do something worldly, just play games all day, just listen to 20 sermons all day and everything like that. It's like do something with your time. Don't just sit around and do nothing all day. Actually do something with your time because realize your life is really not that long. The Bible speaks about your life being 70, 80 years and quite frankly, I'm halfway to 70. I'm already 35. Your life just flies before your eyes. And once you have kids, time somehow accelerates. All the parents are going to say, yes, it does. Time just flies by as you get older, it goes faster and faster and faster. It's just the way it is. And let me tell you something, you don't want to come to the end of your life and realize I haven't accomplished anything I wanted to accomplish. I had this checklist of things to do and I never accomplished it because I just woke up in the mornings and was just sitting around on YouTube all day. It's like do something with your time. Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 12. Ecclesiastes chapter 12. Quite honestly, this might be one reason why God doesn't always give us a lot of free time because often when we have free time, what do we do? Nothing. Isn't that true? It's like, man, I've been working so hard. I'm so tired. I just want one day off. You get that day off, then it's 8 o'clock at night. I haven't even opened my Bible yet. It's like I haven't even prayed yet. It's like what have you done all day? Man, I don't know. I was on YouTube and it was like 10 in the morning and I just missed lunch and dinner. It's like, man, literally that's how people live their lives. From a worldly standpoint, the average person, they sit around and watch television for five hours a day, six hours a day. All they do is just waste all of their time. There's no purpose in it. It's just a waste of time. Us as Christians, we ought to be peculiar. We ought to be different people. Sitting around just with nothing to do all day is a waste of your life. You're going to come to the end of your life one day and you're going to regret the fact that you've accomplished nothing. It says in Ecclesiastes 12 verse 1, remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them. In Ecclesiastes 12 verse 1, the Bible talks about remembering God in your youth when you're a young person. You say, who needs to hear this message? People that are under the age of 10 years old, they need to hear what I'm saying. I say, why? Because kids at a young age tend to basically do nothing with their lives. Now I'm not saying it's wrong for them to play and have fun and stuff like that, but I want you to realize in today's world, that just always permanently stays. People are college age doing nothing with their time. People are under 25, they're doing nothing with their time. The world literally accomplishes nothing. Sometimes people will ask you, because you'll tell them, I don't watch TV, haven't watched it in like 10 years, and they're like, man, what do you do with your time? What do you do for fun? And I'm just thinking, I don't have time to watch TV. I mean, how in the world do you have time to sit around for five hours a day, unless you're accomplishing nothing? Because look, not just serving God, but accomplishing something in your jobs and work, if you want to be good at it, you've got to work hard at it. But if you want to just sit around and do nothing all the time, then I guess you do have time for four hours of TV a day. You know, you have a Sunday, you just sit around, you recorded all your favorite shows during the week, and just a marathon every Sunday of this show, this show, this show, this show, this show. In America, every Sunday, just the NFL. You go to a church, most Baptist churches in America, and what do they talk about after the morning service? Man, did you watch that football game. And look, and it's not like that at Sure Foundation, but at other Baptist churches, that's the way it is in America. It's like on Saturday, or on Sundays, you know, when you're in a college town like West Virginia, all they talk about is the West Virginia football game for like four hours every Sunday. And it's like, no, I didn't watch it, no, I don't care, but that's all they talk about at Baptist churches. You say, why? Baptist churches really aren't a whole lot different than the other people out there. That's the reality. They're sitting around and doing nothing with their times. And honestly, when it comes to watching TV, I really personally don't think it's a matter of the sinful things you're watching. I think the biggest problem is just you're wasting your time. No matter what you're watching, you're basically just throwing away your life. You have better things to do with that. And the Bible says to remember God when you're young. Remember your creator in the days of thy youth. Then it says the evil days come not. If you remember what we just read in Ephesians 6 verse 16, it said, redeeming the time because the days are evil. When it's referring to evil days, what it's referring to is the process of aging. Where you're going to say, I have no desire. I don't desire to do these things anymore. I don't have any energy. I have no pleasure in them, it said in Ecclesiastes 12 verse 1. What the evil days are referring to is as you get older, it's just things are difficult. They're not as easy as they used to be. You get older, you don't have the same energy you used to have. When I was in college, I'd sit around and play basketball for a couple hours every day during the week. Six days a week, a couple hours of basketball. I'd wake up, I didn't stretch, and I felt great. If I played just for an hour and a half today at basketball, then I'm going to wake up tomorrow if I was driving. I don't drive here in the Philippines, but in America, I'd be like, oh, I can't even turn around anymore. You say, why? That's the process of aging. As you get older, things are more difficult, and you're going to regret the fact you didn't accomplish something when you were young, especially things I regret. I wish I read the Bible more when I was young and had more free time. I wish I memorized the Bible more when I was young and had free time. I wish I was more zealous with going soul winning when I was in college because I'm not going to get a chance to preach the gospel to those kids anymore in college, which are very receptive to the gospel. Probably the most receptive part of America is at the colleges. When you get them as freshmen and sophomores, they're young, they listen to the gospel. I wish I had done more when I was young, and the sad reality is that's probably how everybody feels as they get older. But what you're really going to regret is if you accomplished nothing, because I wish I had accomplished more, but at least I accomplished something. A lot of people, they're literally accomplishing nothing with their lives. Turn to Psalms 90, Psalms 90. I look at people that I went to school with or grew up in Bridgeport, West Virginia, and you see pictures of them my age, 35 years old, and it's like, man, you could pass for 55. It's like, why? Because they just drink away their life. Just Friday nights, let's just drink some booze. Friday night, let's just do some drugs or whatever, and it's like, I've had people ask me before, they're like, you don't really look 35. It's like, well, that's because I don't do drugs. I mean, that's because I don't drink alcohol. It's like I just eat normal food. I just don't do these crazy things, and guess what? You're not going to age as quickly. That's the way it works, because living a sinful life, it ages you. And the Bible speaks about your beauty being a fading flower. I mean, the Bible speaks about this in Isaiah. Drinking alcohol literally makes you lose your attractiveness. That is what the Bible speaks about as a fading flower. You will lose your attractiveness. You will age because of that lifestyle. That's the reality. Living a sinful life, it's going to age you, okay? And I want you to realize that young people, they waste their time. They do these things, but even God's people, even if they're not doing these crazy sins, they're just sitting around doing nothing with their time. The Bible says we need to be temperate with our time. Psalms 90, verse 9. Psalms 90, verse 9. For all our days are passed away in thy wrath. We spend our years as a tale that is told, okay? So when it's saying a tale, it's basically talking about a story, a quinto, right? It's talking about basically a story that's going to be told about your life, okay? And so you've got to ask yourself this question. What story do you want people to tell about your life? If you die when you're 75 years old, what do you want people to talk about about you once you're passed away? Do you want them to say, man, this guy was like, this guy was the most zealous person to watch the TV show Seinfeld. Nobody loves Seinfeld more than this guy. Man, nobody played Sudoku more than this person, right? Nobody did whatever more than this person. Is that what you want people to tell about your life? Or do you want people to say about so-and-so, man, he loved reading the Bible. That person knew the Bible, he talked about the Bible. Man, that person, he was at like every soul-winning event. Every soul-winning event, man, he was zealous, he loved to go soul-winning. That person, man, he preached some great sermons, that person did this, that person loved his family, he brought people to church, got people baptized at church. What do you want them to tell about your life? That is your choice. You basically get to write your own story in life. What you decide to do is going to determine what people are going to talk about you, like what have you accomplished in your life. And it says we live our lives, we spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are three score years and ten. Score is twenty, so three score is three times twenty. Sixty years and ten, so sixty plus ten, seventy years, and if by reason of strength they be four score years. Four times twenty is eighty. So seventy to eighty years, in general, people live. Yet is there strength, labor, and sorrow, for it is soon cut off and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of thine anger, even according to thy fear? So is thy wrath. So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. The Bible says to teach us to number our days. There's roughly three hundred sixty-five days in a year. Three hundred sixty-five days, ten years, that's three thousand six hundred fifty days. Twenty years is seven thousand, you know, three hundred, seven thousand three thirty. It's not really that many when you look at it. I mean a hundred years, if you live to be a hundred years old, it's only thirty-six thousand five hundred days. Now I don't know if that sounds like a lot to you or a little bit, but you know, me and my friends a long time ago in college, we actually wrote down how many days we had left to live based on seventy, eighty years, and all of a sudden you start seeing, man, it's really not as much as I thought. I thought I had a lot more time than that, especially because one third of our day, one third, one fourth is just sleeping, right? And then a lot of our day is just stuff where we're busy. You work a job, you must do certain things. You can't get around it, okay? In your free time, what are you accomplishing? If you spend four hours a day watching TV, on average, four hours a day, okay, that is one sixth of your life. If you live to be seventy-two years old, you spent twelve years watching television. Is that really what you want to be said about in your life, that you spent twelve years watching television? If you live to be seventy-eight, that's thirteen years of your life watching television. And it's not just watching television, just wasting your time. Sadly, you know, most people are going to, at the end of their life, say, man, I spent like fifteen years just doing this, this, and this. Is that what you want to do with your time? Look, I'm not saying every bit of your time needs to be reading the Bible, going so-and-so, but why not spend time with your wife? Spend time with your kids. Do things that actually matter, but do you really want twelve years of your life to be the story told about your life? Because so-and-so, man, he never stopped watching TV. Just loved watching TV. Every time we'd visit, he was just always just TV, TV, TV. Just always listening to music. Is that what you want to be said about your life? Look, we spend our years as a tale that is told. Teach us to number our days. Turn to 2 Samuel 10. Why is it people aren't temperate with their time? Why don't they have temperance with time? Because it's a lot easier just kind of sitting around doing nothing. Our flesh likes to be lazy. We just want to relax for a little while. And in today's world, it's a lot more difficult. Because in times past, lives were just difficult in general no matter where you live. I mean, in times past, you had to work really hard just to provide your needs. You don't have all the free time in the world. In today's world, though, with YouTube, it's very easy to get on YouTube and say, man, this is an interesting video. And then they give you eight other options for videos. This looks interesting as well. Then you click on that one. Man, this is interesting. Let's check out this one. And before you know it, oh, wow, I've spent three hours. And look, that happens all the time. I knew somebody in college. And my friend who led me to the Lord, this was his older brother. And his older brother, he really loved to play Starcraft. Starcraft became World of Warcraft. And I don't know if World of Warcraft has sequels now today or anything like that. But he basically would always play like Starcraft and Warcraft when it came. And there was one day he woke up to go to his engineering class. He had an, I think, either 7.30 or 8 a.m. class, because that's when engineering would start. And you'd have to kind of walk to the engineering campus like 20 minutes. If you're an engineer, you lived on the engineering campus, because I was there my first couple of years. And you'd have to walk up to class. You'd have these early classes. And there was one day that he woke up. And then he said, you know what, I just don't feel like going to class today. And he decided, I'm going to play Starcraft or World of Warcraft, whichever one it was. And literally, this is the story that he told. That he basically stayed at his computer and all of a sudden, because he had Dr. Peppers beside his computer, which was like his favorite drink. And he literally drank like 16 Dr. Peppers, didn't even get up to use the bathroom one time, and it was like 8 o'clock at night. You say, Brother Stuckey, I don't believe that story. Well, I hate to break it to you, but there's literally a lot of people that die from playing video games. You say, how do they die from playing video games, the story I just told? They're basically sitting around, and then look, it's not healthy to stare at a screen for hours and hours and hours and hours. And literally, people have died from playing video games for like 20 straight hours. And it's just like, wow, what a stupid way to die. But that's what people do. They want to just have free time and just relax, and before they know it, they're wasting their entire life. Okay? Notice what it says in 2 Samuel 10, verses 11 and 12, but also temperance with emotions. Temperance with emotions. We need to be able to control our emotions, not just our time, not just our sin and worldliness, but also our emotions. Verse number 11, 2 Samuel 10, verse 11, and he said, if the Syrians be too strong for me, then thou shalt help me. But if the children of Ammon be too strong for thee, then I will come and help thee. Be of good courage, and let us play the man for our people. What does it mean by play the man? Well, it just said be of good courage, and it's basically talking about being in a fearful or scary situation. Basically, don't act afraid. Play the man. Pretend like there's nothing wrong. Okay? And look, this is good advice for men in general to just play the man. You're a husband. You've got to play the man. Things go wrong in your life sometimes. You've got to be the person in that household to help your wife through that emotional time. You've got to play the man. Okay? That's what the Bible's speaking about. Look, I want you to realize that all the pastors you enjoy watching and listening to, I promise you there's times they got behind the pulpit and preached sermons, and they were going through major storms in their life. They didn't want to be there, and they just got up and pretended like nothing was wrong. And you're not even aware of it. You say, why? Because they learned to play the man. Say, how do you know that every pastor's gone through that? Because I've preached behind the pulpit before, and I didn't want to preach because of whatever going on in my life. Did people know about it? You know, as far as I know, no. Why? Because you just get up and you play the man. That is the reality in life, that sometimes you've got to just decide, you know what, I'm going to pretend like I'm okay. And look, there's a reason why it focuses on the men, because honestly the Bible says men are the stronger vessel, women are the weaker vessel. And look, when you go through various struggles in your life as guys, a lot of people are newly married and going to be married here soon, and quite honestly it's real advice for you. Like if you have problems in your marriage, because people do have fights, whether you're saved or unsaved, everyone goes through problems, you've got to just play the man. And if you get in an argument and your wife's emotional, you have to just play the man and pretend it doesn't affect you, even if it does. You say, why? Well, turn to Proverbs 16, Proverbs 16. Because when you don't play the man, it's going to cause even more problems, okay? Proverbs 16. Now, look, the way most people live their lives, you know, most marriages, you know, when husbands and wives get in a fight, I mean, look at David in the Bible. David and his wife, Michael, they just go war to war. One just throws a bomb to one side, then a bomb to the other side, and then they're never together anymore. Why? Because they just couldn't control themselves. And look, as great as David was, you know, he just didn't get up and play the man when it came to his marriage. Okay? He was a great man of God, but he wasn't a great husband, and he wasn't a great father. Okay? But notice what it says here in Proverbs 16, verse 32, he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit, then he that taketh the city. And the Bible says that we need to be able to rule or control our spirit, control our emotions. It's talking about being temperate, having temperance with our emotions. Turn to Proverbs 25, Proverbs 25, Proverbs chapter 25, Proverbs chapter 25, verse 28, the Bible reads, Proverbs chapter 25, verse 28, he that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls. Now, the Bible says if you don't have rule or control over your spirit, you're like a city whose walls are broken down. What does that mean? Well, the walls are up for protection, and if you have no walls to defend you, what's going to happen is they were going to shoot arrows and just destroy you. See, the wall blocks an arrow from getting through, but what if all the walls are down? Well, your city is going to be taken like that. And when it comes to our personal lives, it's the same way as well if we don't get control of our emotions. Now, this is not just something for guys, because I said get up and play the man, but look, obviously wives need to work on this because of the fact, not just wives, but just ladies in general, because wives tend to be a little bit more emotional. Women tend to be a little bit more emotional. And look, when it comes to your lives, if you can't control your emotions like the Bible's speaking about with temperance, you're going to lead to a lot more problems in your life, okay? It's just going to make things worse. Turn to James 1, James 1. I mean, most people, their lives are 100% based on emotion. I mean, people tell us they're going to come to church all the time, don't they? But what they really mean is I'm going to come to church if I feel like coming to church. If I wake up and I've got that little tingly feeling of happiness, like oh, I want to go to church, right? And so basically, they never come to church. That's the way most people live their lives. I'll read the Bible if I feel like reading the Bible. I will pray if I feel like praying. Now, I don't have time to go into it, but in a sermon a while ago, I proved during this series that it actually works the other way when you start doing something that your emotions follow it, okay? That's what the Bible teaches, that if you start going soul winning, your emotions follow and you enjoy going soul winning. You start reading the Bible, your emotions follow. That's what the Bible teaches, okay? But I want you to understand that that's how people live their lives, though. They do everything based on emotion, and in fact, a lot of false religions are based on emotion. I mean, the Pentecostal church is a whole movement 100% based on emotion, and people love that church because they get this tingly feeling. They love listening to Joel Osteen because, man, they feel really good when they leave church. You say, Brother Stuckey, I listen to Joel Osteen on TV, and I feel like, man, I'm such a good person. I feel really great. I leave Verity Baptist Church Manila. I feel like I fought Manny Pacquiao. I just got, boom, just beat up and everything. I feel terrible. But actually, that's the feeling that makes you make changes in your life. And look, you know, if you're perfect, if you have no problems, then yeah, sure, don't even come to church then if your life's perfect. But last I checked, none of us have a perfect life. And the reality is we need preaching to make changes in our lives, okay? Don't just live your life based on emotion. Live it based on what the Bible says, okay? And this is part of the fruits of the Spirit. But not only temperance with emotions, but something that kind of goes along with it is temperance with our words. Temperance with our words are a speech. The Bible says in James 1, verse 19, Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. I've always found this verse interesting because we're supposed to be swift to hear, like really quick to basically hear, but slow to speak and slow to wrath. But usually the way it works is people are slow to hear and swift to speak. And as a result of speaking quickly, they get in arguments or whatever, and then they're quick to wrath, okay? It's like the opposite of it. But the Bible says we should be slow to speak. You say why? Well, turn to James 3. James 3. And I'm not sure when, but I'm planning and thinking about preaching a series on the sins of the tongue because I think it's something that we all struggle with, especially because James 3 basically talks about how it's like the hardest thing in the world to control. It's controlling your tongue. But if we would learn to control it, man, our lives would be a whole lot better than they are. James 3, verse 1, My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. Now verse 2 is interesting when you preach sermons because the Bible says in many things we offend all, and you must realize that my sermons are not short sermons. I preach 50 plus minutes on average. That's two and a half hours plus of preaching a week. Two and a half hours of preaching for 50 weeks during the year. Let's just say 100 hours, even though it's more than that. If I'm preaching for 100 hours, the reality is in many things we offend all, there's going to be certain things, either what I said or what I believe or the way I said it, that somebody's going to get offended. Every single person. And you must realize that in church, there are going to be times you get upset about what I say. It's just the reality. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. Behold, we put bits in the horses mouths that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body. Behold, also the ships, which though they be so great and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. Even so, the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth." Okay? Now in the grand scheme of things, our tongues are not that big. It's a little member, isn't it? I mean, it's pretty small, and yet it's pretty powerful. And the Bible's saying the fires that you can start with your tongue, basically you say something and it spreads a fire, okay? When a fire starts, oftentimes, usually, it starts off very small. When you look at the biggest fires that have ever existed, you know, I preached about it recently in a sermon, talking about the fire that was like a year ago in Paradise Valley in California. It started off small. Small fires, they start small, and then they just spread, okay? And the Bible speaks about with your tongue, that's kind of what you do when it comes to like gossiping and things such as that. It starts a small fire, and then it spreads. But in today's world, it's a lot easier to gossip. You say, why? Because we have our cell phones. See, the Bible talks about, you know, women going from house to house to gossip. Look, in today's world, you can get in like 20 houses in like five seconds. See, you had to use to make an effort to gossip, you know, so it was actually probably difficult. But now in today's world with this little thing here, I mean, you can easily just get in like 20 homes overnight. And you know, honestly, it's a much bigger problem in today's world because of the opportunity where basically we make mistakes, okay? Verse 6, and the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity, so is the tongue among our members that it defileth the whole body and seteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beast and of birds and of serpents and of things in the sea is tamed and hath been tamed of mankind. But the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. See, the Bible says every single kind of beast we're able to tame. Every single kind of beast we're able to tame. The blue whale, as far as I know, is the largest animal they know about for sure on earth, and yet you can tame every kind of beast. I mean, even look at dinosaurs that really don't exist anymore, you know, unless there are some scattered around still in areas that aren't really discovered or in the ocean, you know, that's a whole other topic, you know. People got to have opinions on both sides. But look, there's a reason why, because man's more powerful than a dinosaur. We can control anything, but you know what we can't control? We can't control this thing here. It's like we can control this massive Tyrannosaurus Rex, but then this little thing here, it's like no, we don't have control over that. Now turn in your Bible to 1 Corinthians 9. We're going to close up here, 1 Corinthians 9. When it comes to temperance, we can name a lot of things. Temperance with your health and your diet, temperance with your finances, many different things. You look at your diet or you look at health, and look, if you're trying to go on a diet, you must make an effort to say, I will not eat these cookies. I will not drink this pop. You say, why? Because otherwise you're going to fail at your diet, okay. You must put in an effort, because all of us, yeah, we like the taste of Oreo cookies. We like the taste of chocolate chip cookies. We like the taste of things that aren't that healthy. But if you want to have good health, you're going to have to be temperate with that. You've got to make choices if you want to accomplish something, okay. Now obviously common sense would be if you go on a diet, then you basically remove the cookies from the house. You remove the pop from the house and things such as that. But all of these things, they're not easy to do. If it was easy, then we wouldn't have to preach a sermon on it. But the reality is with our finances or our health or any of these things, we desire certain things and quite honestly, those things oftentimes destroy our life or even run our lives, okay. But how is it that we overcome this problem, okay? Because I gave you various areas, but we could go on and on about being temperate with this and this and this and this. But how can you be successful? Well, I'm going to give you three quick tips that will kind of teach you some lessons of how you can learn to have more temperance or more self-control in your life, be more disciplined in various areas. Tip number one is found in verse number 25. First Corinthians 9 verse 25, and it says, and every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. First Corinthians 9 verse 25, First Corinthians 9 verse 25. Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. And the first point is that is going to help you have more temperance is to seek to be the best at things, seek to be good at things, seek to learn your Bible more, seek to live for God more, seek to get in better shape, seek to be smarter with your finances, seek to be very good at things. Because what it says is the reason why someone is temperate is because they're striving for the mastery. They're trying to become very good at something. If you want to learn your Bible really well, guess what the secret is? You learn to read the Bible a lot. And to do that, you become temperate with your time and you don't waste it and spend it on things that are pointless. And it's to realize you have certain goals in life and you say, I want to become good at this area. You say, Brother Stuckey, I'm kind of new at church. I'm kind of new to the Christianity thing. I don't really know the Bible that well. You must decide to say, I'm going to become very good at this then. And that doesn't magically happen by listening to 50 sermons. It happens by actively reading the Bible yourself. See, people have this idea that if they listen to lots of sermons, they're going to know the Bibles really well. But ask yourself this question. Look at Pastor Mendez. How do you think Pastor Mendez learned how to preach how he does? He learned it through a lot of hard work and practice. You don't learn to become good at something by listening to someone do it. Look, if you sat around and watched Michael Jordan highlights all day, are you going to become like Michael Jordan and be really good at basketball? You know how you become good at that? You go outside and you dribble for like a couple hours every day with both hands. You become very disciplined. You do that. You practice jumpers for hours and hours and hours. That is how you become good at basketball. You don't become good at basketball by watching someone play basketball. You don't learn to preach sermons by watching or listening to someone preach. Honestly, how you learn is you practice writing sermons. You read the Bible so you have more knowledge. You're going to gain more knowledge by reading on your own than just listening to sermons. Sermons are great. They can help motivate you. You can learn things. You can be taught. But you should learn more in your free time. I've learned more things about the Bible from personally reading it or memorizing it than listening to sermons. People are just waiting on sermons to revolutionize their life. No, starting on January 1st, before January 1st, but starting January 1st, I hope that everyone in this church gets involved with our reading through the New Testament in one month plan. I hope everyone at the church says, you know what? I want to do that because I want to learn the Bible better. Every single one of us, we're going to learn a lot about the Bible if we're reading it every single day. Number one, seek to be good at things. When you have a goal in mind to get very good at something, it can help you, force you to make good decisions. If you have a goal, you say, in January 1st, I want to get in better shape this year. I use that example because weight loss is a very common thing that people have as a New Year's resolution. But if you say, I want to basically lose 25 pounds, that will motivate you to say, you know what? I'm going to make changes in my life. But if you don't have any goals of what you're trying to accomplish, you're never going to get there. Basically, set a goal like this. I'm going to read through the Bible cover to cover in six months. By having that goal, it's going to force you to say, I need to read this much of the Bible per day, or however much. If you don't have any goals, you will never accomplish anything, though. You must actually set goals in your life, and it's going to help motivate you to become temperate in all things. Not only that, though, tip number two, it says, now they do it, verse 25, now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we in incorruptible realize that there's a crown or an accomplishment on the other side of it. You want to become good at something, but the reason why it's worth it to read the Bible for an hour every day is that at the end of three months, you can say, I read the Bible cover to cover. Now I'm not saying bragging about it. I'm not saying going around church saying, I read the Bible cover to cover, but in your personal life, you can say, I have a goal to read the Bible cover to cover. I want to read it in three months. I'm going to spend an hour every day, and realize that even though it might not always be fun every single hour, at the end of the day, it's worth it. When I used to play sports, I would set athletic goals of things I was trying to accomplish. When I was young and I ran a lot, I had a goal of running a five-minute mile. The reason why I had a set goal is because it motivates you to run more and more. I ran in four minutes and 58 seconds a long time ago. You say, Brother Succy, how fast could you run now? I have no idea. Not in five minutes, not in six minutes. I have no idea. The reason why I accomplished that is because I actually had a goal, and I said, this is my goal. When I was running in 519, it's like, okay, that's not fast enough. I got to run more. I got to eat healthier. Your goal gets lower and lower until you get to that goal. When it comes to people lifting weights, when people lift weights, they always set goals. If you're trying to get stronger, you don't just lift with no purpose. You lift and say, my goal is to bench 250 pounds by November 14th or whatever. You set goals, and that motivates you to keep going as you get closer and closer to that goal. I'm not telling you you should just set all these athletic goals in your life, but I'll tell you, with the spiritual life, though, you should set goals. You realize when you get to the end of that, it's worth it. It might not always be worth it while you're doing it, but at the very end, it's going to be worth it. You should set real goals in your life. This is not really like a New Year's resolution sermon, but honestly, for New Year's, it's not a bad idea to set new goals in your life. It might not be fun every day, but when you get to the end of it, you could say, man, I accomplished what I wanted. Once you accomplish this goal, you say, man, I read the Bible cover to cover for the first time. I'm going to try to read the Bible cover to cover in a little bit less time this time. Instead of eight months, it's going to take me six months. You keep setting new goals in your life because if you don't set goals in your life, you're going to live with no purpose. Where there is no vision, the people perish. If you don't have any vision or goal in your life, you're not going to accomplish anything. It's worth it because there is a crown on the other side. When it comes to spiritual things, it's not a corruptible crown. It's not that trophy that you get that has no real purpose. When I was a kid, just giving you an example, I have one sibling. I have an older sister, and my sister is a lot smarter than me. My sister is very, very intelligent. She skipped a lot of grades in school. She skipped second, seventh, and eighth grade, and she's very, very intelligent. My sister never really had to try hard stuff. My sister, she did the spelling bee when she was young. They had it starting in second grade. My sister finished second place in the school. The only reason why my sister finished second is because she read books for 10 hours a day. I was in my room all day. I had this little plastic basketball hoop. I was just shooting hoops for hours every day. Whenever we got in trouble, my sister would go to a room. We'd be sent to our rooms, and my sister would just read books. For me, five minutes was a long time. It's like five-minute punishment, and you're sent to your room. I'm like, five minutes? Five minutes? I want to redeem the time. I want my basketball to play. I would just be in my room all day, and my parents would say, you're not allowed to play basketball when you're in your room if I was sent there. For me, that was like torture. My sister would always try to get me in trouble, so she could just read, and I'd get in trouble, whatever. Anyways, my sister read books all the time. She finished second in the spelling bee because she just knew all the words. They actually give you a list of the words to memorize. If you want to win, what you do is you just memorize them. Other people are actually competing. My sister was just good. I wanted to beat my sister at something because I know she's more intelligent than me, so I said, I am going to win the spelling bee. That's my goal, is to win our spelling bee. We didn't have a big school. It was like 150 students or whatever, but I said, I'm going to memorize every single word on the list. Now, this is a few years later when I'm in second grade, but that's what I did. I memorized pretty much every word on the list. The neighborhood kids were going to come around and say, hey, you want to play basketball? It's like, no, I'm memorizing words. I'm studying for the spelling bee. It's kind of embarrassing, but I'm studying for the spelling bee. They come around, you want to play basketball or football. When I was a kid, the game we played was called Smear the Queer. I told some of you guys about that recently. I'll tell you later about that. Basically, there's one person with a ball, and everyone just tries to hammer them as hard as they can. It's called Smear the Queer. I'm sure it's not politically correct in today's world. When I was a kid, everybody called it Smear the Queer, though. I was just like, no, I can't play Smear the Queer. I'm memorizing words for the spelling bee. You say, what was the purpose of that? I did win the spelling bee that year. I got a pointless little trophy that really means nothing to me, and it was burnt or thrown away 20 years ago. I had a goal, and I was trying to accomplish something. It motivated me to just sit around for hours memorizing words. Is that a pointless goal? Absolutely. There's no real purpose to that. I do think it's good for kids at a young age, though, to get goals in their life that parents can help them with that will motivate them to work hard and have to fight against the flesh and learn to be temperate. What I want you to realize is that when you live the Christian life, the end result is not just this pointless trophy that means nothing. The end result is rewards in heaven that never perish. When you set spiritual goals in your life of reading the Bible cover to cover, you're going to learn things that are always going to be with you. You're going to have rewards that you can take with you. It's going to help improve your life. I want to show you one other tip, not only to seek to be the best at stuff, not only to realize that there's a crown or an accomplishment on the other side, but also so you do not fade out as a Christian. Notice what it says in verse 26. I, therefore, so run, not as uncertainly, so fite I, not as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. Now, Paul the apostle says there's a possibility he could become a castaway. Now, look, people that are not saved, they would look at these verses and say, well, see, Paul said I could lose my salvation. He didn't say he could lose his salvation. He said he could become a castaway. Don't add to the word of God. Don't change the word of God. I myself should be a castaway. What is he talking about? He's basically talking about Demas. People like Demas. Say, who's Demas? Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world. Demas basically was a great soul winner who basically just threw in the towel. This is in the context of being temperate, having control over yourself in all areas. You say, what areas? It said in all things. I only gave you a few things to hear today. We looked at four different things, but in all things, because if you don't learn control or temperance in your life, it could destroy you, and Paul said, yeah, there's a possibility. If I don't make it an active point to be temperate, then yeah, I could be a castaway. You say, Brother Stuckey, why is it I need to control the music I listen to? Because do you want to one day just be out of church and not soul winning anymore? Is that what you want for your life? Do you want to basically just quit church like a lot of people do and just not be serving God anymore? Or do you want to just decide, even though my flesh desires to listen to this music, I'm going to choose not to because I don't want to be a castaway. Even though I desire to do this thing, even though I don't feel like reading the Bible, I don't feel like praying, I don't want to become a castaway. Realize there's not only a reward on the other side, but there's also a penalty if you don't become temperate at stuff. In my life, I've been soul winning since I was 19 years old. I'm 35 now. I've been soul winning for a pretty long time. Do you realize how many people I've seen come and go and come and go? They come, they're soul winning, they love the Lord. They're out three times a week, then they end up quitting church a year later. You say, why? Well, I mean, honestly, in the context here, a large part of it is probably because they become a castaway, because they don't learn to be temperate in their life. And you say, what areas, Brother Stuckey? Well, didn't it say in verse, what was it, verse 25, temperate in all things? And here's the reality in this room. Every single one of us has certain things that we can think about right now that we need to make some changes in our lives, that we need to get out some worldliness, including myself. That's why we're going to have a big altar call here at the end, and you can get right with God here. No, I'm just kidding. It's a whole other sermon. But all of us have certain areas right now. And honestly, my area is probably not the same as your area. Your area is not the same as my area. There's no reason to compare and say, well, so and so doesn't read the Bible, because what is it that you don't do, though? What are the areas that you have problems with? Because it says become temperate in all things. And look, the reality is, as much as you say you love this preaching, you love this church, and there's no other church like this in town, the reality is you're likely to become a castaway if you don't learn to become temperate in all things. Now we're never going to be perfect, but there's a difference between not being perfect and at least striving to reach that level, to become better and better every single year. We're coming up on a new year here pretty soon, and for our church, we've been around for basically one year, roughly one year. And this first year, I mean, it's exciting for a new church, right? You know, many of you came here, and you came here either because your pastor wasn't saved or because your pastor got mad that you went soul winning or whatever reason why you came to this church, right? And the first year was exciting because, like, man, we got a church like this in Manila, very similar to Verity Baptist Church and everything like that. But then the newness just kind of fades away after a little while. The excitement's kind of gone, but here's the reality, a lot of people, they live their lives based on emotion, and once that excitement's gone, they could be out of here. And look, in your life, if you're feeling like you're fading or you're struggling, you need to kind of hit the reset button in your life. And you really should hit that reset button now, but let me tell you something, you know, on January 1st, I really hope every single person in this room says, you know what, I'm going to read the New Testament in January, or at least strive to do that. Because here's the thing, let's say you set a goal of saying, yes, with Verity Baptist Church Manila, I will read through the New Testament, cover to cover the New Testament in January. And we're going to give you an outline of what you need to read each day so you know exactly what you need to accomplish. But it's roughly going to take you probably 40, 45 minutes, depending on your reading speed per day. But if you set that as a goal, and let's say, for example, in January you have that goal to read a cover to cover, and then all of a sudden you get to January 31st and you're just like, man, I didn't hit Jude, I didn't hit Revelation. You still accomplish something, even if you didn't fully accomplish your goal. If somebody has a goal to lose 50 pounds and they only lose 38 during the year, they accomplish something though. If you don't finish it, at least you accomplish something. So don't just say, well, you know, man, I'm a few days behind, I'm not going to make it, I just throw in the towel. Just have that as a goal and keep striving to do it and get at least as close as you possibly can. And even if you don't reach the final goal, at least you reach somewhere. Look, we all should be doing that because honestly, you know, in our lives, we live our lives based on excitement. The excitement fades off, okay? We need to learn to become timbered in all things. And I hope this series has been a blessing to you because honestly, yeah, there's false religions and various things, but we all need to work on our own personalities and our character as well. Let's close with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and I ask you to help us apply this to our lives, God. Help us to learn to be timperate in all things and everyone in this room, including myself, we can think of various areas right now that we're struggling with, that we're not getting the victory in, God, and you know, honestly, we can't really blame anyone else. It's our own reason why we're not doing it, God. Help us learn to be more timperate, timperate in all things so we can accomplish the goals in our life. And I ask you to continue. Bless this church, God, and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.