Todd Smith taught about the sin of a lack of self control, as part of our series on the book Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges.  

 First, he pointed out that there is so much to be concerned about the culture in the United States, with respect to the bedrock institutions of the family, the church, and government, as prescribed in God’s word. 

  These institutions have been damaged and eroded by divorce, co-habitation, same-sex marriage, multiple genders, abortion, by-choice single family parenting, and even a materialistic-consumer culture within the church.  All of this cultural and moral decay can tempt us to fail to exhibit the self-control we need to follow God’s standards. 

 So how did Todd tell us to ensure that we exhibit godly self-control?  

 He told us that we need to have uncommon convictions, meaning convictions consistent with God’s word, not “common” convictions consistent with the immoral culture. These convictions will tell us, in advance, what we can or cannot do BEFORE a temptation or moral or cultural challenge comes. 

 We need to have unimaginable courage, meaning absolute resolve to follow those convictions when the challenge comes, whether we feel like it or not, despite the negative repercussions that can come from not following the culture.  He gave a couple illustrations of such convictions and courage in action: 

• In Daniel 1:8-15, we see that Daniel had the uncommon conviction that he would not eat King Nebuchadnezzar’s food sacrificed to idols. Daniel also had the unimaginable courage to stand up and tell the guard that he would not eat it, even at the risk of loss of his position or potential death.  
• From Todd Smith’s own life, we heard about how, when on business trips where his associates would suggest immoral activities that Todd had resolved against, he held his convictions.

He reminded us that, despite all this darkness we see, we need to be thankful and joyful. Be glad we are believers in this era. Either Christ is close to coming back or we are about to experience a magnificent revival. We need not curse the darkness, but shine the light, through self-control that contradicts the culture.