Over-Throwing Strongholds

Overthrowing Strongholds

2Cor 10:3-5

INTRO: Watch the evening news & see our gallant soldiers & marines attacking Insurgent & Terrorist Strongholds in Iraq & Afghanistan

1. Those in charge of waging this war against the tyranny of these

thugs realize these fortress, strongholds bases of operation can not be

allowed to remain. a. They must be overthrown, destroyed

2. Paul the Apostle also realizes there are strongholds in life

that also must be dealt with must be destroyed & overthrown

3. In this life those placements of pain, suffering, hardships,

evil & problems in life

a. The world, (society, the system) has its own weapons to

deal with them

b. Every time a new problem, crisis or situation arises out

comes the human ways

1. Investigations, studies,, reports from committees

2. Educational Programs, psychological advice & assistance. Self-help

programs

3. Cultural upheavals, protests, boycotts, strikes, pressure

4. New legislation, Social programs, new taxes

c. Yet when we really get to the bottom of it, our world is

unchanged

4. Though man is modern, has new technologies, new toys &

has advanced in many areas

a. man is still the same: immoral, greedy, selfish, sin sick

5. Paul is ultimately saying that human means of attacking these

strongholds of pain, problems & evil don’t accomplish much

a. Not that they can’t be part of the solution

1. But they are NOT the primary means of cure for what ails man

2. Human effort isn’t effective, in fact most of the time they compound

the problem

6. But Paul declares OUR Christians weapons are mighty

powerful they are like dynamite

a. They are effective in solving the knotty & difficult

questions we face in life

1. Those strongholds that continue to rub mankind raw & irritate us as

we try to life. Begin with…

I. Weapons of Victory

A. Four basic weapons we have to our disposal as Believers

found in scripture

1. Truth: The Revelation of Reality,

a. Exposure to things as they really are

1. not as we perceive them to be, or as we wish them to be

2. not from the human perspective but heavenly

b. God who knows all, sees all, understands all

c. His revelation of Truth, His Illumination of our minds to

see what He sees is what man needs desperately

d. Truth turns on the light: Ro 13:12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

e. The light dispels the darkness & the works of darkness

2. Love: Truth and Love are forever linked, inseparable

a. Throughout scripture you find them together, connected

1. Truth & love

b. Paul tells the Ephesians to speak the truth in love Eph 4:15

1. of course Jesus tells us to love our enemies, the best way to defeat

those who appose us, love them & convert them

3. Righteousness: Moral rectitude, Right behavior & living

a. Our conduct, lifestyle is of the highest standard

2Co 6:7 By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,

b. On the right hand and on the left must refer to our public &

private life.

1. What the world see must be the way we are at home also

4. Faith/Prayer: the life of faith as expressed in Prayer

a. Eph 6:16-18 Faith is linked to Prayer

1. Shield of faith can stop the evil darts of Satan is connected with the

prayer for the saints in every situation

B. These are the weapons the church is to employ the believer is

to be armed with

1. We fight in a totally different dimension than the world &

society does

a. These weapons have the greatest effect on the burning

issues of life & the hot topics of our day

2. When the church neglects these weapons, it always results in

weakness & makes the church irrelevant, useless, shunned & ignored

by the world.

a. Why is the church no longer the central player or the force

to be reckoned with in our society

1. We have laid down our weapons, & are using the weapons of the

world

a. When we swap for the world’s ways we are no longer the salt &

light we are called to be

Mt 5:13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

3. History confirms, when the church of the Lord Jesus Christ

uses it divine arsenal

a. It becomes a irresistible force that begins to destroy the