Now matter how long we have been a Christian, we are still going to have battles. It may not be a heated exchange of words, or an out and out battle with someone…
But in the heart, the spirit, the mind are all battlegrounds where some pretty serious struggles are taking place.
Paul reminds us in our scripture today, that even thought we are human, even though we walk in the flesh, our real warfare is a spiritual battle.
Listen to this passage again… We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. 4 [a]We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. 5 We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.
Strongholds are the enemy’s fortresses… they are ideas, fears, habits, or lies that take root and resist God’s truth.
They live in our thinking, but they have a way of working themselves into our everyday lives. And because of these strongholds…
The devil doesn’t need to chain your hands if he can chain your mind. And my hope and prayer for you today, is that before you leave this place today…
Some of the chains that have held you bound for so long will break. Some of the strongholds that have held you captive for so long will come crashing down.
The Holy Spirit can break any chain that is holding you captive! So today… I want us to look at a few things that I think will help us to tear down these strongholds.
The first thing we need to understand is this… and this piggy-backs off of last week some.
1. Strongholds begin in the mind.
A stronghold in biblical times was a fortified city, a place of defense. In the spirit, it represents a fortified argument or mentality that resists God’s truth.
Strongholds are mental or spiritual fortresses. They are built brick by brick with thoughts, memories, and lies the enemy whispers over time.
Just like what we saw in the cartoon parable from Kyle Idleman.
Let me see if some of these fortresses might have been things that you’ve thought before… maybe you’re thinking them now.
“God can’t forgive me! I have done some really, really horrible stuff. There is no way a perfect, holy God is going to forgive me.”
Or how about this one… “I’ll never change, this is just who I am. There’s no hope fore me.” When you have those thoughts, that’s the devil building a barricade of lies around your mind.
And the reason he builds these barricades or this stronghold is so that he can limit how your live out your faith, so he can kill, steal, or destroy you.
This is the battle that we are in. In Kyle Idleman’s sermon on this same subject of taking every though captive, he talks about how…
we don’t just stop thinking certain thoughts… we identify certain things we wrestle them to the ground… and we interrogate them and we ask ourselves some thoughts about what we’ve been thinking.
Where did that thought come from? Why do I think this way? What’s the result of this thought in my life? Who do I now that maybe thought this way… and I picked it up from them?
We take our thoughts captive and we interrogate them. Otherwise, our thoughts form these neuro-pathways, that become stongholds.
And back during the time of this letter to the Church at Corinth that word picture that Paul uses would have been immediately understood.
A stronghold was built on the highest and most defensible point in the city, it had thick walls, re-inforced gates… it was designed to be impenetrable… and it was considered too strong to be brought down.
Those walls kept danger out… but if the city itself was wrong, those same walls would keep the truth out. And Paul uses this analogy to describe the thoughts that are on repeat in our minds.
Theses lies that Satan is feeding us are so fortified in us and so strong that they seem impossible to defeat.
Many people build walls around false beliefs to protect their pain rather than let God’s truth heal them.
And the problem with strongholds is that they’ve been a part of our lives for so long, it’s sometimes hard to recognize that we even have them. They just feel like they are a part of who we are.
Every stronghold starts as a thought. Before fear ever grips your heart, it starts whispering in your mind.
Before resentment builds that wall, it plants a seed of being offended and the need to retaliate. The enemy’s primary battlefield isn’t the circumstances you find yourself in… it’s your thinking.
Adam and Eve’s mistake wasn’t when they bit into the apple; the fall when they believed the lie from Satan: “God is holding out on you.”
And all these year’s later, the devil hasn’t changed his tactics—he still wages mental warfare with deception.
A stronghold is any mindset that accepts a lie as truth and builds its life around it.
For some, that lie says, “I’ll always be anxious.” For another, “God can’t forgive me.” Still another hears, “Nothing will ever change.” But no thought is too strong for the truth of God to demolish.
I think we have a tendency to forget just how much more powerful God is than the lies that Satan tells us.
Now… you guys may know this… but Kendall has a tendency to forget important dates in his and Sandy’s life… so he and an idea and thought he had conquered the problem of trying to remember his Sandy’s birthday and their anniversary.
So.. He opened an account with a florist, provided him with dates and instructions to send flowers along with an appropriate note signed, "Your loving husband, Kendall." Boom, problem solved!!
Sandy was thrilled by this new display of attention. And all went well until one day, many bouquets later, when he came home, kissed Sandy on the cheek, and said, "Nice flowers, where’d you get them?"
Hey… just because he’s not on staff at the church anymore, it doesn’t mean I’m going to let up!
I think sometimes, we forget what kind of power we have available to us and who that power comes from. And so we just stay in our same thinking patterns due to the neuro-pathways we’ve built in our minds.
We also cannot forget this truth.
2. God has given us mighty weapons.
God doesn’t leave us powerless. Paul says our weapons are mighty through God! That means the victory doesn’t depend on willpower… but on HIS power.
Here are some of those weapons: Now I didn’t get these printed in your outline but you might want to write these weapons down. The first one is…
• The Word of God
Most of us probably don’t think of the Bible as weapon. Some of us do know the Bible is a weapon but we use it as a weapon to judge condemn people… when that is not our job.
The Bible tells us that Jesus came into the world to save the world, not to condemn it. So… if Jesus didn’t condemn, I don’t know when or where we got the idea that it was our job to.
Now one day He is coming back and will judge the world… but let’s let Him do that at the appropriate time.
What Paul is saying here is that the truth of God will defeat every deception that Satan tries to destroy us with. Think about what Jesus did when He was tempted in the wilderness by the devil.
Every time the devil came at Him, Jesus defeated Him with Scripture.
Jesus… I know you’re the Son of God, but you’re human and you get hungry just like everyone else… so turn these stones into bread.
His reply – “It is written… ‘People do not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Then the devil took Jesus to the highest point of the temple and told Him to jump down and he wouldn’t die because angels would swoop down and catch Him.
He was tempting Jesus to make a huge spectacle and prove to everyone that He was God’s Son… but what did Jesus say.
“The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’”
Next the devil took Him to the peak of a really high mountain and said… “I will give all of this to you, Jesus, if you just bow down and worship me.”
And what was Jesus’s reply… Get out of here, Satan,” “For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’”
And Satan left Him. Oh, he pops up again later like He always does with us… but in that moment, in those temptations… Jesus defeated the devil by using the weapon of Scripture.
I believe we have the power to do that too. The next weapon He gives us is…
• Prayer
Prayer does far more than change our circumstances… it transforms our perspective. When we pray, we are not informing God of what He already knows; we are inviting Him to realign our hearts and minds with Heaven’s reality.
I think what happens when we pray is that God helps to take our eyes off what is visible and temporary and fixes them on what is eternal and true.
What once felt overwhelming starts to shrink, not because the problem disappears, but because God becomes bigger in our view.
Prayer moves us from reacting in fear to responding in faith. As we sit in God’s presence, His peace guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus
Again, like we discussed last week in Philippians 4:6–7. Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Those lies that once sounded convincing lose their power when exposed to God’s truth. Anxiety is replaced with trust. Confusion gives way to clear thinking. Hopelessness turns into hope.
When we prayer, we are trading our limited perspective for God’s unlimited one. We begin to see our situation not just as it is on earth, but as Heaven sees it…
And how does Heaven see it? Glad you asked… I believe Heaven see the situation covered by grace, guided by purpose, and held securely in God’s hands.
Prayer doesn’t always change the situation immediately, but it always has the power to change us, and align our thoughts, desires, and responses with the will and wisdom of God.
Prayer is powerful weapon against the strongholds we face. A third weapon is…
• The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit will give us discernment so we can recognize what is truly from God and what is not.
He gives us conviction, and lovingly exposes wrong attitudes, dumb thoughts, or hurtful behaviors that don’t align with God’s truth.
The Holy Spirit’s conviction is not given to shame us, but to lead us toward freedom and repentance.
Never forget this incredible truth from Romans 8:11
The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. Romans 8:11
Another weapon is…
• Worship
When you lift up praise, those lies that are holding you captive lose their grip… because worship centers your heart on God’s truth.
That’s why it’s so important to worship with the right mindset. It’s important to come into the house of the Lord with a right attitude.
If we come into the house of God to worship with our attention on Him… rather than our attention on some of the things that we have a tendency not to like about a Sunday morning… our worship experience is going to have more power.
Think what would happen if our thoughts were completely focused on the words we’re singing from the screen, instead of focusing on… “I don’t really like this song.” Or “this is too loud.”
What would happen in our worship experience if we came into the house of God, praising God for all He’s done for you, instead of thinking about what someone may or may not have done or said.
What would happen in our worship experience if we came into the house of God with out attention completely focused on… “We get to be in the presence of Almighty Creator of the Universe… instead of any other negative thought we might be thinking.
You see… These weapons at our disposal… they don’t just defend… they demolish. They don’t just resist…they reclaim territory the enemy thought he owned.
So here is my hope and my thought for you today and in the future… you’re going to have a breakthrough… and you’re going to tear down those strongholds because… we must.
3. We must tear down every stronghold.
And you say… I agree, let’s roll… but how do I do that. Well I believe God gives us the weapons, but we have to use them. These weapons are not going to do us any good if we aren’t willing to use them.
If you own a gun and a burglar comes into your house and you are in danger… if you don’t ever go get the gun and defend yourself you and your family are going to be in trouble.
You have to be willing to use the weapon to defeat the enemy. We tear down strongholds intentionally and repeatedly… and here is how.
• Recognize the lie
You can’t defeat what you won’t identify. Ask the Holy Spirit to expose the false beliefs shaping your reactions.
Maybe it’s the lie that your past defines you, or that you’ll never measure up, or you’ll never change.
When that thought rises, name it… and confront it with truth. Normally what we do… and Kyle Idleman points this our in his sermon on this same subject.
Instead of identifying the lie… we identify the behavior. We point out the way that we respond to people or an addiction that you’ve been struggling with…
And you think the stronghold is the behavior. But the Bible would point out that the behavior isn’t the stronghold… the stronghold is the lie that led to the behavior.
The second thing we do is this…
• Replace the lie with truth
The find the scriptural truth that directly contradicts the lie that you’ve been told.
It’s not about positive thinking it’s about finding the truth of God in the Bible and replacing the lie with it. So… recognize the lie, replace the lie with truth, and then…
• Rely on community
Here’s what happens to a lot of us. When we are in isolation, when we are not around people who will challenge you and love you and support you… those strongholds get re-inforced.
The moment you share your struggle with a good and trusted Christian friend or in a small group… that stronghold will start to lose some of its grip on your life.
And then make sure… like we talked about last week…
• Renew your mind
So rely on community and content. Pay attention to what you think about. Make it a daily goal to fill your head with the right stuff.
Pay attention to what you’re putting into your brain that winds up bouncing around in the 95% of our subconscious thoughts that we talked about last week.
So as we wrap this up today… I want to identify what this might look like for you. I want to call out a common stronghold and walk through how we might defeat it.
And trust me… I have no one in mind in particular. I’m using this example for 2 reasons… 1. It’s a way more common issue than we like to admit and 2. It’s an example that Kyle used in his sermon.
Let’s talk about the common stronghold of control.
Recognize the lie:
I believe the lie that I have to manage every outcome or everything will fall apart. If I don’t control it won’t work out.
You’re constantly concerned with the what if and what might happen. And all these things you don’t have control over… whether it’s circumstances in life, or things around the world, or the emotions of the person sitting next to you.
I don’t know where that lie came from. Maybe you’ve been let down so many times in your life that you just feel the need to take charge.
I don’t know where it came from for you but it’s a lie. So you recognize the lie and
• Replace it with truth
When that thought starts to take root, replace it with Scripture
Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
do not depend on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5
Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. 1 Peter 5:7
And we know that God causes everything to work together[a] for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. Romans 8:28
After you recognize the lie for what it is, and you rely on the truth of Scripture to expose the lie with truth, then you…
• Rely on community
What does that look like? That means that you share your control issues that often lead to anxiety… with a trusted friend who can call you on it… when they recognize that’s what’s going on.
Wanna do another one? Ok… let’s roll. I think a lot of us have this stronghold too. The stronghold of shame.
Recognize the lie:
I believe the lie that my past mistakes define my worth and that I’m too broken for God to use me or love me fully.
You recognize the lie that I’m too broken. Then you…
Replace it with truth:
So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1
But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
1 John 1:9
He took our shame upon Himself – Isaiah 53:4-5
I am a new creation in Christ Jesus. The old is gone and the new has come - 2 Corinthians 5:17
Reinforce with community
Find safe, Christian community where you can be honest about your struggles without the fear of judgment or condemnation.
Renew your mind
Maybe listen to the testimonies of other people who have had the same struggles as you and see how God has demolished their strongholds.
One more… the stronghold of victimhood.
Recognize the lie:
I believe the lie that I’m powerless to change my circumstances or responses because of what happened to me. I have no choice but to stay stuck.
Replace with truth:
But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. Philippians 4:13
He has given us everything we need for life and godliness
2 Peter 1:3
the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. 1 John 4:4
God causes all things to work together for good
Romans 8:28
Reinforce with community and renew your mind:
Surround yourself with people who will encourage you, and help you to grow… rather than enable you by listening to your excuses.
Get around people who will challenge you when they hear you start to make excuses. And then seek out stories of people who have overcome similar circumstances through God’s strength…
The word of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, will bring down strongholds in your life that seem impossible to tear down.
In his book, “Every Thought Captive,” Kyle Idleman says this…
Strongholds are built by repeated exposure to lies, they are demolished by repeated exposure to truth.
The truth is… no one is too lost to be saved. I don’t know what your next step is.
Maybe it’s a step to surrender your life to Christ, repent of your sins and be baptized into Christ today.
Maybe you struggle with one of the three lies we mentioned and you need to go through the process of recognizing it, replacing it with truth.
Maybe some of you need to rely on community more and become a part of this community at ECC. During this song of decision, whatever you need to do today… would you come and allow whatever chains are holding you captive to be broken?
Let’s pray!
