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And then finally, the cultivation 
of self-control. I think this is undergirding 
all of these relationships between the husband and the wife, between 
the parent and the child, and between the slave and the master. 
Self-control. I listen to a podcaster. He's a political guy, and he 
sometimes makes the observation He professes faith in Christ, 
I have no reason to doubt that, but this observation, I'm not 
sure if he ever has specified it's from the Bible or it's my 
biblical worldview, but when he sort of surveys the political 
landscape in the US, he says, we have a people problem. Oh, 
if we just get a new president, we just get a new vice president, 
we get a new prime minister, okay, we still got a people problem. We have put up with abortion, 
we have put up with maid, we have put up with drug abuse on 
our streets, we have put up with an open border, we have a people 
problem. And that speaks specifically 
to another emphasis that you find throughout Solomon, self-control. Federal government, provincial 
government, familial government, and ecclesiastical government 
is only as good as self-government. In other words, if the people 
are a mess as individuals, guess what else is gonna be a mess? 
Church, family, society. See, we need to get back to this 
idea where we're not dependent upon the nanny state, but we're 
dependent on our own hard work. We're dependent on our own efforts. 
We're dependent upon our own sort of pushing through the muck 
and mire of this present evil age and seeking to do the best 
that we possibly can.