To find some popular examples of this, I looked up various historians' rankings of the top 10 greatest military achievements of the ancient world. Now on that list, you'll find some famous examples with names like Cyrus the Great, Hannibal, Julius Caesar. But two of the top three slots are taken by Alexander the Great, with his highest achievement often being attributed to the Siege of Tyre, the Siege of Tyre. Now Tyre was the famed city north of Jerusalem. And it is mentioned multiple times in the Bible, if you're recognizing it. During the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, Tyre actually celebrated the destruction of Jerusalem. Apparently thinking that they would be able to profit in some way from Israel's downfall. We read of what God thought about that in Ezekiel 26, starting in verse one. Here is the word of the Lord to Ezekiel. The word of the Lord came to me, son of man, because Tyre said concerning Jerusalem, aha, the gate to the peoples is broken. It has swung open to me. I shall be replenished now that she is laid waste. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will bring up many nations against you. As the sea brings up its waves, they shall destroy the wall of Tyre and break down her towers, and I will scrape her soil from her and make her a bare rock. Well, God did this partially through the power of Nebuchadnezzar. He raised him up against Tyre in that same day. Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre for 13 years. That's the third longest siege in world history. And he finally destroyed the mainland city of Tyre pretty completely down to the rubble. However, the Tyrians had their cities split in two. Half was on the mainland, and half was on an island just a few hundred yards off the coast. And on that island, supposedly the walls were 150 feet tall, just sheer down to the water. It's almost impossible to get to that. And so Nebuchadnezzar, in all his might, the Nebuchadnezzari, Redob and Daniel, the head of the golden statue, he, after 13 years, could not crack into that part of Tyre. But years later, Alexander the Great came to power, and he turned his armies against Tyre's island fortress. He used many audacious and unconventional tactics. The first was just taking the rubble from the old Tyre city and hauling it by brute force to just build a landmass bridge out to the island. He's like, I'll just build a road to you. He also put battering rams onto boats, floated them near the wall to crack in. The Chariotians would toss down boulders and blocks to bulk out the space from the wall so the ship couldn't get close. So he built cranes on top of his boats to remove all the boulders and then send his battering ram boats back. So between that and many other tactics, in seven months, he broke through and conquered the city. He destroyed it completely, killed many, sold most of them into slavery, and then took 2,000 of the fighting men and lined them up and crucified them on the beach. A victory fought impossible, and a city unbreakable was done in record time, ultimately fulfilling Ezekiel's prophecy. Now the wisdom of this world and its historians look at that and say, now that's an accomplishment, that's impressive, that's power that should be remembered centuries later. And it is, because we're still talking about it. Yet the Bible tells us that God is impressed with a different type of grace and greatness. Compare Proverbs 16, 32. Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city. Let me say that another way. Alexander the Great was great and all, right? But what's more impressive, more rare, is a man or a woman who has self-control. The ability to conquer cities is powerful, but more powerful is one who conquers his own passions. Ephesians 1 tells us that the power of God, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, is powerfully at work in us too. Now some Christians want to see this manifested in dramatic ways. Maybe the power to heal with a touch. Or maybe the power to speak in tongues. But Proverbs indicates that controlling your tongue is the greater demonstration of power. Galatians chapter 5 shows what God's power looks like as the Holy Spirit bears fruit in us. Paul starts his famous fruit of the Spirit list with love, the fountainhead from which all the other qualities flow, joy, peace, patience. But then he ends the list with self-control, bookends it. See, self-control is like the protective wall around a city that allows all the other spiritual fruits to flourish. Now what happens if you don't have self-control? Proverbs 25, 28 says this, a man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls. So you know how it does not say with walls that have a few weak spots, a few gaps here and there, maybe a weak gate. Now those would be vulnerabilities, but maybe with some special attention, you might be able to defend those. No, this is without walls entirely. At that point, you're open to all attacks and any attacks of any type from everywhere. Evil can just waltz right in. Lack of self-control is not a chink in the armor, it's to have no armor, right when we're heading into spiritual battles. Now, no wonder in Titus chapter one, where Paul gives about 17 different requirements for our elders and our pastors, he emphasized most that they must be known for self-control. Now he continues in Shida's chapter 2 that older men, not only the elders and leaders, but older mature men must likewise be self-controlled. Then he says the older women must likewise be self-controlled. And then he says the older women should be teaching the younger women. Well, what is one of the things that they're supposed to be teaching? For the younger women to be self-controlled. And then so that no one is left out, he then says in verse six, likewise urge the younger men to be self-controlled. So young or old, male, female, everyone is included in this charge. Now for urge to exercise self-control, what does that look like? What parts of life does that cover just very practically and very specifically? We may default to thinking of a few easy, common examples of self-control. The bag of potato chips that we want to devour the whole thing, but out of restraint, we only have 3 quarters of the bag. And definitely how much we eat and what we eat is in sight. That is part of self-control. What about self-control over what we say, how much we say, what we listen to, what we watch, what we click on the internet or tap on our phones, what we think about, what we want, our desires? What about self-control over what friendships, relationships, or social situations we put ourselves in, how we spend our money, how we spend or commit our time, who and what we praise, or the things and people we criticize. For all these areas and more, we should ask the Holy Spirit to help us to live lives of self-control. See, in God's economy, the greatness of conquering our words and our tempers and our every attitude is a greater achievement than any military victory. Let this be the kind of greatness that we seek. This reminds us of our need to confess our sins. So let's do so now, silently remembering that our God is a gracious, merciful, and forgiving God.