Battle Drill #32:

Get a Grip on your Appetites before they take hold of you!

Proverbs 23:1-5 (NAS95)

Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the next battle drill – “Get a Grip on your Appetites before they take hold of you!” Appetites come in many shapes and sizes. Speaking of which, so do we! Soldiers of Jesus Christ are a diverse group of people, and, in fact, often it is our diversity that highlights our unity in Christ more than anything else. Often what threatens our unity is when our appetites take hold of us, and we no longer want what God wants for us. We are to desire holiness above all else, but what happens when our appetites for sensual pleasures, worldly success, or wealth take over our agendas and calendars? What happens when congregations lose their focus on godliness in the name of the mission, or for the good of their community, and pastors drift away from their first love as they strive to serve their people, or their careers? We must get a grip on our appetites before they take hold of us! Let’s turn to the Field Manual and take the first step of a soldier’s training routine to live on mission.

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.

When you sit down to dine with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are a man of great appetite. Do not desire his delicacies, for it is deceptive food. Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, cease from your consideration of it. When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.

This is what the Field Manual says, let’s now take the second action step to learn how to apply it to our everyday lives as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.

Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness.” Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Paul taught Timothy that if we are to be “useful to the Master” then we must “flee from youthful lusts and pursue faith, love and peace.” In the same way, a good soldier of Jesus is not to be distracted from the mission (2 Timothy 2:4). The Christian life is not one of sin management! That is a frustrating and distracting way to live, one that doesn’t lead to fruitfulness and effectiveness! Quite the opposite, the life of a good soldier of Jesus is a positively focused life, as Galatians 5:16 states as an introduction to the fruit of the Spirit, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”

What are you focusing on – your sin or God’s Spirit? We are to walk in the freedom of the Spirit, not in slavery to sin. Both seek to rule your every impulse and thought, but only one for your good and God’s glory! Allow me to further demonstrate from 2 Peter 1:2-11, the supernatural reality of how self-control works in the life of a good soldier of Jesus:

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

Did you hear that promise? “As long as you practice these things, you will never stumble!” We must train the promises of God into our lives, such as 1 Corinthians 10:13-14:

No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

Are you stuck in a negative sin-management mindset? Have you allowed your appetites to take a hold of your life? Do you have idols you need to flee from today?

What are idols in our culture? We do not normally go to a pagan temple and serve the pagan god by making offerings. But, what do we bow down to (or submit to) when it makes a demand on our lives? Is there something that belongs only to God, that we give to someone (or something) else? To help you understand, here is a parallel question: Is there something that belongs only to our spouse, that we give to someone (or something) else? Idolatry is spiritual adultery! Just like with adultery, an idol overpromises and underdelivers. Idols, and the sin that manifests from them, hold no power except what we feed them. Therefore, as Paul said, make no room for idols in your life – Flee from idolatry! There is a better way to live and that brings us to the third action step of a good soldier of Jesus.

Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.

When someone struggles with addiction they habitually and repeatedly expose themselves to a substance or behavior that alters their brain chemistry, until the brain and body become dependent on either that substance (e.g., drugs, alcohol, or other chemicals) or the effect of that behavior on their brain chemistry (e.g., dopamine release from screens or activities). Addiction causes that substance or activity to become rooted into the physiology and psychology of the person, and that must be addressed wholistically – spiritually, but also emotionally, mentally, physically, and many times with body chemical adjustments that should be provided and monitored through your medical provider. Today, I’m addressing the spiritual reality of it.

There are two areas of addiction that many people in our culture struggle with and are named in today’s chapter from Proverbs: sensuality (specifically food and drink) and wealth. Both, your senses and wealth, are gifts from God when they under the blood, but without the mastery of the Holy Spirit they can destroy your life. Let’s deal with sensuality first. In this category we find the issues of food and drink as mentioned in our battle drill, Proverbs 23:1-3, and throughout Proverbs 23, such as in verses 20-21, “Do not be with heavy drinkers of wine, or with gluttonous eaters of meat; for the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe one with rags.” This calls for self-control, just as we see prescribed in Proverbs 23:29-35:

Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long over wine, those who go to taste mixed wine. Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly; at the last it bites like a serpent and stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things and your mind will utter perverse things. And you will be like one who lies down in the middle of the sea, or like one who lies down on the top of a mast. “They struck me, but I did not become ill; they beat me, but I did not know it. When shall I awake? I will seek another drink.”

In the same way that God calls us to self-control in our food and drink for our own good, He does in our sexuality. Paul teaches in 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8:

Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more. For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.

Please realize that God is not trying to rain on your parade! Quite the opposite, He is wanting to reign over your life so that you can experience abundant life of Jesus Christ through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit (John 10:10).

The second place God calls us to self-control is with our wealth, as our battle drill teaches us in Proverbs 23:4-5, “Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, cease from your consideration of it. When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.” Jesus made this clear in Matthew 6:19-24:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

The only solution is to get to the heart of the problem – mistrust of God! John says in 1 John 5:21, “Little children, guard yourselves from idols.” While this seems to come out of nowhere in his triumphant letter, it is the perfect conclusion because idolatry is a lack of faith in God. Because we don’t believe God will keep His promises on time every time, we put our hope and faith in lesser things to meet our needs. For example, an ungodly desire for wealth reveals a lack of faith that God is Jehovah-Jireh. This is a faith issue, the root of idolatry is not money, but the love of it (1 Timothy 6:10) – it’s the failure to realize that everything we own has been given to us by the grace of God. God is the provision, and He meets our every need. We rest and live in an effective and fruitful life when we trust that this is true, when we believe God; that is saving faith! This leads us to the final action step of our soldier’s training regime.

Action Step #4) Live on mission.

But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place – unless you repent.

You must invite the refiner’s fire – the Holy Spirit – to purify your heart and lead you into repentance! Paul taught his protégé in 2 Timothy 1:7, “For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline [sound mind, self-control].”

The mission of God requires the soldiers to be focused on the mission. In combat, a distracted soldier is a dead one! You must train yourself to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit who gives you all you need for life and godliness, from love to self-control and everything in between so that you can live on mission – “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3a; cf. Romans 8:29). James 1:12-17 teaches us how to do this:

Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

Outside of Jesus’ nail-scarred hands, your sin will take hold of your life and keep you weak and ineffective. To be useful to God, you must crucify you flesh and walk in the freedom of the faith God has given you (Galatians 2:20). Are your appetites under the blood of Jesus Christ or are they still wreaking havoc on your mind and heart, distracting you at every turn? Get a grip on your appetites today by bringing them to the throne of grace and know that in God’s hands you are forgiven of your sin and cleansed from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9; Hebrews 4:16).

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016), Pr 23:2.