Good morning! I’m glad to welcome you to worship today at Hillcrest Baptist Church. 

Today we come to the last of the 9 Virtues of the Fruit of the Spirit– self-control. The virtue of self- control is desperately needed in our culture today, and the only way that will be evidenced will be through followers of Christ that are overflowing with the Fruit of the Spirit.

If we would be honest, many believers desperately need the virtue of self-control just as much as those that do not follow Christ. We are living in a society that is increasingly out of control financially, emotionally, physically, and without question, morally.

Proverbs 25:28 states, “Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls.” In Solomon’s day, a city had walls for fortification, and the main line of defense for any city was its walls. This proverb teaches us that without the walls of self-control, an individual, just like a city, is totally defenseless and easy prey for the enemy.

Aristotle called self-control ‘’the hardest victory.’’ But it really is the difference between victory and defeat in the game of life. Today, we will learn about SELF-CONTROL from Galatians 5:22-25.