SELF CONTROL
Human beings have become so clever. We, in this age of advanced technology, have learnt to control many things. We control the sun to heat our houses; we control mighty rivers to produce electricity for our cities; we control the space through satellites to transmit communication; we have learnt to control deadly diseases through wonder drugs. We have learnt to control the universe, but have failed to control ourselves.
On the negative angle, through the same technology, we have also produced enough nuclear weapons to kill everybody on planet earth. We live in this city called Nairobi. It has a military base, a major University and an International Airport. I can assure you, there is a missile that's aimed at your city right now.
Today, there are an estimated 13,000 to 15,000 nuclear warheads in the world. About 95% of these arsenals are in the hands of the United States and Russia. The rest is shared by eight other nuclear weapon states. All these countries namely United States, Russia, France, China, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel, North Korea and now Iran. These 10 countries tend to conflict with each other. Just to name a few; the United States and North Korea are in conflict, NATO and Russia are in conflict, India and Pakistan are in an old conflict. We are just one misunderstanding, or one fanatic politician away from a nuclear conflict.
Talking about Russia and the United States; each have over 4000 strategic nuclear weapons. That's enough to attack each city or major town with more than 100,000 people in each country of the world with, not one, but 10 atomic bombs. Besides, these powers no longer require planes to carry the bomb. They now have intercontinental ballistic missiles.
We're all familiar with the image of Hiroshima wiped flat by the atomic bomb. This was one small weapon. An attack today on a large city would involve a nuclear bomb that is 10 to 50 times more powerful than the weapon that destroyed Hiroshima.
To understand what that would look like, let me use the model of a single 20-mile megaton explosion.
• Within a 1,000th of a second of the detonation of this bomb. A fireball would form covering a 7km diameter. Within that 7km diameter, the temperatures would rise to 11 million Degrees Celsius, which is hotter than the surface of the sun. Everything within that 7km diameter would be vaporized. The buildings, the trees, the people, the upper level of the Earth itself would disappear.
• Beyond the 7km diameter in all directions, the explosion would generate winds in excess of 1,000km/hr to a distance of 10km in every direction. The heat within that 17km radius would be so intense, and all would be gone.
• And to a further 26km in every direction, beyond and outside the original 17km radius i.e a diameter of 86km, the heat would still be so great that everything flammable would burn; cloth, paper, gasoline heating oil, plastic, it would all ignite. Within this entire area, the temperatures would rise to over 400oC; all the oxygen would be consumed, and every living thing would die. In the case of Nairobi city, we're talking about the entire Kiambu, Naivasha, parts of Muranga, Machakos and Kajiado counties; over 15 million people, all animals, all plants, all dead.
• But it would not stop there. The fires started by these weapons would put 150 million tons of soot or smoke into the upper atmosphere. And the smoke would be spreading. It would take about two weeks for the smoke to cover the entire Earth and it would rise to altitudes of between 30km and 80km above the surface. Now, here is the problem; at those high altitudes, it never rains. So, the smoke would stay there for years. The smoke would partially block the sun resulting into very cold temperatures. We would be in a nuclear winter. Under these conditions ecosystems would collapse.
• Given the smoke would partially block the sun, there would be no photosynthesis. Because of lack of photosynthesis, no crop would grow. The world would lose the yields of corn, wheat and rice for years afterwards because of the bad weather. Grass would disappear; both animals and human beings on planet earth would all die of starvation.
No one would be safe. Not those in countries with no nuclear weapons, not those in countries that didn't participate on the war. And not those on the other side of the planet from where the explosions occurred. No one would be safe. That is why, before Putin attacked Ukraine, he reminds America that he has the nuclear weapons. He does this to keep off America and NATO from the war because he knows no one is safe.
The sad fact is this; nuclear weapons are not a force of nature. They're not an act of God. We built them with our own hands. Saints, unless we exercise self-control, we will self-destruct.
Are you afraid? You should not be afraid. The Lord Himself said, He will purify this earth with fire. The fear of nuclear weapons is real, but the same fear will keep man away from using them. Why, because, our Lord Jesus Christ told us that in the last days, there will be wars and rumours of wars. This, therefore, MUST remain a rumour of war.
In the 1980s, the scientists told Mikhail Gorbachev – the then Russian Leader, and Ronald Reagan – the then American President about the dangers of a nuclear war. They told them a nuclear war would cause a nuclear winter that could end civilization as we know it. And they listened.
Ronald Reagan said, “a great many reputable scientists are telling us that such a war could just end up in no victory for anyone because we would wipe out the earth as we know it.”
And Mikhail Gorbachev said, “A model made by Russian and American scientists show that a nuclear war would result in a nuclear winter that would be extremely destructive to all life on Earth.”
Saints, our world needs self-control, but it starts with you. The worrying thing is that these weapons are under the control of human beings. Without self-control, we will self-destruct. Self-control is the only answer for our civilization to survive.
Now, let us climb down to you-the human being: If you lack self-control, you will destroy yourself. Your doubts is a traitor to your dreams; your fear strangle your hopes. Your habits, born of your free will, can lead you to heaven, or to hell.
Proverbs 25:28. ESV, “A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.
In the bible, walls were defence systems. No walls mean you are defenceless. Solomon is therefore saying, a person who cannot control himself is defenceless.
In the battle of self-control, the enemy is not across the street, but within. The war in the soul is a civil war. If you cannot control yourself, you are going to destroy yourself.
There is something within all of us that causes us to cry out with Ovid, the Latin poet, "I see and approve the better things of life, but the evil things I do." There is something within all of us that causes us to cry out with Plato that the human personality is like a charioteer with two headstrong horses, each wanting to go in different directions. There is something within each of us that causes us to cry out with Goethe, "There is enough stuff in me to make both a gentleman and a rogue."
The bible says in Jeremiah 17:9, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? The flesh is constantly pushing you to do something contrary to the word of God. We are at war with the world, the flesh and the devil. The world is the force outside of you. The flesh is what is inside of you. The devil is the prince of darkness whose key objective is to steal, to kill and to destroy.
Paul, writing in 1 Corinthians 9:27, warns us to be temperate. Paul said, “But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” Christians are expected to demonstrate self-control in their appetites; self-control in their passions; self-control in their affections, self-control in their thoughts; self-control in their moods and dispositions. We are taught to control our speech, to control our conducts,to control our habits and to control our companions; temperance in all things is one of the nine fruits of the spirit.
It is always easy to blame our situations or to blame somebody else, but you are responsible for you. Think about Peter. He was one of the most undisciplined disciples that Jesus had. But Peter tells us in 2 Peter 1:5-7, “Make every effort to support your faith with goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love…..” Peter knew the hell he went through, not because of persecution, but because of his lack of self-control. He is therefore shouting to Christians in every age, “make every effort to control yourself.”
And so I am asking, which sphere of your life is out of control? Is it your feelings, moods and emotions? Look at Moses for example, the lawgiver of Israel and a mighty prophet before the Lord. He wrote the first five books of the bible; he talked face to face with God. But imagine, despite all these accolades, he became so frustrated with grumbling of the children of Israel, (Numbers 20:8) that when God told him to speak to the rock to bring out water, he instead hit the rock in anger (Number 20:11-12); and when he was done, water came out, and the children of Israel praised Moses. Had he just tapped the rock and the water came out, they would have praised the Lord.
Because Moses got the glory for it, God said to Moses, “You are not going to enter into the Promised Land.”
How unfortunate for Moses! This was the thing he had worked for for 40 years; the thing that he had wanted to achieve most in life. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to do it because he couldn’t control himself. What area of your life is out of control? You are squarely responsible for getting it into control.
Do you have self control on your emotions, feelings and moods? Another man who failed to control his emotions was Aaron Burr. Aaron Burr, Vice President of the United States of America was involved in a political squabble with Alexander Hamilton. He missed being the president of the United States of America by just a few votes. Hamilton's maneuvering in the U.S. House of Representatives played a factor in Thomas Jefferson winning the presidency over Burr. At the time, the candidate who received the most votes was elected president while the candidate with the second most votes became vice president. So, he challenged Hamilton into a duel, which was by then legal; and he managed to shoot Alexander Hamilton in that duel. The American public became alarmed and hated Aaron Burr because of this, and his personal and political life never became the same again.
Because of this lack of self-control, when Aaron Bird died, a man that was almost the President of the United States of America; when he died, less than 10 people went to his funeral. His own family failed to show up. Why? Because he failed to control himself.
Do you have self-control over your passions and appetite? Think about King David. He was a mighty man. He killed a lion and a bear. He killed Goliath. He was a talented singer and a writer of most of the Psalms. And he was a man after God’s own heart. But his passions destroyed him. He lusted for Bathsheba and conspired to conceal his sins (2 Samuel 11:5-27). Upon failing in his schemes to conceal his sins, he organised the murder of one of his most faithful soldiers, Uriah. God saw it, and sent His prophet Nathan to David, to reveal his sin. And because David failed to control himself in that respect, God told him through Nathan, that the sword would never depart from his house (2 Samuel 12:9-14).
If you follow David’s history, immediately after this sin,
• Absalom, his own son, became a traitor to David. 22,000 men in David’s army lost their lives, trying to control Absalom.
• Absalom went to sleep with David’s wives on the roof top to shame his father, as the whole Israel watched and laughed.
• David’s other son Amnon, raped his half sister Tamar.
• David’s child with Bathsheba died.
• He was prevented from building the temple, something he had wanted to do all his life. Why? Because he could not control his passions.
He was brilliant; he was powerful; he was gifted, but he failed to control himself.
Samson could not control his passions (Judges 16). Yes, he had great strength.
• He conquered the philistines.
• He removed the gates of the city of Gaza that weighed tonnes and carried it to the top of the hill.
• He killed a lion with his bare hands;
But he was conquered by his lust for Delilah. She tempted him and discovered what the secret of his anointing was; his hair. A soon as his hair was cut, the Philistines came in and put him in chains. They took hot iron tongs and burnt out his eyes, and he was blind for the rest of his life. They led him into their capital city; tied him to a place where oxen grind corns; and he ground corns, walking in a circle for the rest of his life, as people mocked him every day of his life, why? Because he could not control himself.
Saints, what area of your life is lacking in self-control? Do you have self-control on your ambitions?
I think of Alexander the Great. He was truly great! One of the most brilliant minds the world had ever seen. His teacher was Aristotle, the great Greek Philosopher whose Teachers was Plato, whose teacher was Socrates! He was not only brilliant, he was also perhaps the Greatest warrior and Administrator the world had ever produced. At a very tender age of only 33 years, he had nothing but conquered the then known world; but he could not conquer himself. He died with syphilis when he was 33. But what were his wishes when he died? Alexander the Great had 3 wishes on his death:
• I want the best doctors to carry my coffin to demonstrate that, in the face of death, even the best doctors in the world have no power to heal.
• I want the road to be covered with my treasure so that everybody sees that material wealth acquired on earth, stays on earth.
• I want my hands to swing in the wind, so that people understand that we come to this world empty handed and we leave this world empty handed. So I ask, do you practice self-control in your ambitions?
Lastly, do you practice self-control in your wealth-building initiatives? A story is told by Russell Cromwell. Not far from Andes river, in 1870, there lived a farmer who owned a beautiful farm with orchards and grain field and gardens. He was wealthy and contented until the night a priest spent the night with him and told him about diamonds. Diamonds that would put his children on the thrones of countries around the world. Diamonds that could buy many firms much larger and more beautiful than his own.
That night, the farmer went to bed a poor man. Poor because now he was discontented for the very first time, with what he had. He became obsessed with the thought, “I must have a diamond mine.” He failed to exercise self-control, and so, the farmer sold his farm and began his pursuit of riches. Living his family in the neighbours’ care, he went and searched from country to country until his money was gone.
Finally, standing in rags in Spain by the Bay of Barcelona, he jumped into the bay and drowned himself.
But one day, the man who purchased his farm was digging in that garden that he left, and found a massive diamond. He continued digging, and to his amazement, diamonds were everywhere. Thus the diamond mine of Golconda was discovered. It was the biggest in the world, and the richest in the world. For decades, every shovel full revealed gems that would decorate the crowns of royalty around the world.
The point is this; had the farmer who owned the land originally been contented with what God gave him, and dug in his own garden rather than submit to greed-get rich quick fever, he would have discovered that God had given him more than he ever dreamt he could manage, that was right under his garden. In the same way, God has given you exactly what you need to fulfill your destiny.
What is self-control? When you harness and discipline your wild emotions, habits, fears and frustrations, and bring them under the surrender of the Lordship of Christ, then you are practicing self-control. Only Jesus Christ can give you the power under the anointing of the Holy Spirit to get in charge of yourself. The bible says, to them that believe, He gave the power to become the Children of God. (John 1:12)
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the gospel of Power. With it, you can control your tongue, your thoughts, your emotions and your deeds.
I think about Daniel, (Daniel 6:14-28) he is in the Lion’s den because he has refused to stop praying. He is in the den, praying and sleeping with the Lions, while the King who was tricked into taking him there cannot get a night sleep as a result of his own decree. He is pacing up and down the whole night, worrying over Daniel. Who among the 2 was in charge?
Think about apostle Paul before Roman Governor Felix (Acts 24:25). Paul is standing before him in chains, and he is preaching the word of God to Felix. Felix sat in his chair and began trembling. Think about it; a prisoner in chains, and a Roman governor who is shaking, Who is in charge? The circumstances don’t look good for both Daniel and Paul, but they are clearly in charge.
Think about Jesus on the cross. He had all the power. Just one word, and He would be free. But the God who had the power to crash His enemy, also had the power to save his enemies. He said father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing. That is self-control.
Galatians 5:22-23 - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Amen!
Sermon Presented at Mt. Olives SDA Church, Ngong during Health Sabbath of 7th September 2024.
