Self-ControlHeaven will be filled with only one kind of person: the kind that so desperately wantedto get there that he absolutely would not be denied.No one will accidentally get to Heaven. No one will just happen upon it one day, havinggone out for a leisurely walk down the path of life with no apparent destination in mind.No one will have the wrong address and mistakenly knock on Heaven’s gate.No one will just end up there.This is because we live in a sin-stricken world. As a result, we are bombarded bytemptations that constantly distract us from the path to Heaven. Because of this, fewpeople will get there. (Matthew 

-14)Heaven is reserved only for those who have developed the self-control to get there.Living Without Self-Control......is like letting all of your defenses down and begging to be overrun by the world. It’slike throwing the front door of your life wide open and saying to Satan, “Come on in!”“Like a city that is broken into and without walls is a man who has no control over hisspirit.” (Proverbs 25:28, NASB)Living with self-control, on the other hand, makes a man better “than he who captures acity.” (Proverbs 16:32, NASB) Self-DisciplineJim Rohn once said that, “Everyone must choose one of two pains: the pain of disciplineor the pain of regret.”He was exactly right.We cannot escape that choice. Either we will subject ourselves to the rigors ofdeveloping a disciplined life or we will suffer the true pain of having not developed adisciplined life.If godliness is our goal, self-discipline is a requirement.The Steps Of Self-DisciplineSelf-discipline is achieved by doing three things:1. Training our intellect. The first step toward a life of self-discipline is to gainknowledge. One cannot discipline himself unless he knows he needs to.“...Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge...” (2 Peter 1:5,NKJV) As Christians, we recognize that the knowledge we must seek is the knowledge thatcomes from God...the knowledge of truth:“This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to besaved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:3-4, NASB)In our quest for knowledge, though, we must guard against that which deceptivelymasquerades as truth:“And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge andall discernment...” (Philippians 1:9, NASB)This is imperative, because the knowledge of the world will fill our minds with nothingof substance. If we pursue this intellectual cotton candy, we’ll be “always learning andnever able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7, NASB).We must also avoid deceiving ourselves into believing that mere enthusiasm for seekingknowledge is equal to actually having knowledge:“For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according toknowledge...” (Romans 10:2, NKJV)2. Conforming our will to our intellect. The second step in achieving a life of selfdisciplineis to harmonize one’s will with the knowledge he has acquired.Assuming that the knowledge one has gained is the knowledge of truth (knowledge fromGod), this step will orient a person toward the right path.Gaining the knowledge is finding out which path is right. Conforming one’s will to thatknowledge is moving onto that correct path.If the acquired knowledge is not the knowledge of truth, conforming one’s will to thaterrant knowledge will only compound the existing problem. As Stephen Covey said, “Ifyour ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step you take gets you to thewrong place faster.”Step 1 is about discovering God’s will. Step 2 is about choosing to make His will our will. In the previous lesson, we began to explore the subject of self-control, as we took a lookat its first major component: self-discipline. This week, we finish our exploration of thetopic by considering the second major component of self-control: moderation.

At it's heart, this material is a study of the character of a godly individual. This should come as no surprise, since nearly all Bible study, at least in some respect, is a character study of the godly individual. One of the more fascinating qualities about the study of godliness, though, is its adaptability to a variety of study approaches. Only the base subjects of this life can be exhausted through a simple study that stems from one perspective. The more robust a subject is, the more times it can be studied and the more perspectives it can be looked at from...all without exhausting the subject.Take, for example, the kingdom of Heaven. In Matthew 13 alone, Jesus tells 6 parables, all of which start with, "The kingdom of Heaven is like...". The kingdom of Heaven is not a topic that can be described adequately with one analogy, one approach. In fact, were Jesus to have told a thousand parables about the kingdom of Heaven, He would not have said all there was to say about the topic, because its very essence surpasses our human comprehension.Godliness is similar in that it can withstand scrutiny from multiple perspectives. One can spend a lifetime--and indeed many have--studying what a Godly character looks like and still not learn every detail.