This is week three in our series, “Operation Enduring Freedom.” If you missed either of the first two messages, you can obtain a copy of the audio tape, or find the sermon manuscript at our home page on the internet. We are seeking out God’s word to find out how to grab hold of a lasting, enduring freedom.
Have you been memorizing our key thought? Freedom starts with the name of Jesus on our lips. It is completed with the nature of Jesus in our hearts. Let’s say it together – Freedom starts with the name of Jesus on our lips. It is completed with the nature of Jesus in our hearts.
Last week we looked at how in the midst of exhaustion, fatigue, frustration, fear, challenge, whatever the case, we may desire to avoid the battle. We may be confronted with an area of our life where God desires to bring victory, but we attempt, and continuing to try skirting the issue. And we explored how God just might bring about circumstances in our lives to ensure that we face the enemy, and allow Christ through us to bring about a complete victory.
The challenging quote for the week came from Erwin McManus, “Often it is God who forces circumstances upon us in which it becomes necessary for you to rely on God’s goodness.” Like Moses with King Sihon, God may orchestrate your life in such a way as to force you to face that battle that you have been looking at throughout your life and saying, “Maybe I just don’t want to fight this battle.”
A number of you raised your hands during our prayer time, acknowledging that such areas existed in your life. I’m praying with you that God will bring about that victory in your life. Don’t back down. Don’t shrink away. Follow God’s call to engage the enemy. And I am here to help if you desire to share more about those areas of your life.
For many of us, those areas of struggle center around something that Paul refers to in the book of II Corinthians. Turn with me to II Corinthians 10 (read through verse 6).
In this passage, Paul is talking once again about how we do not wrestle with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers, rulers of the air. And since our battle is not with flesh and blood, Paul wants us to know that our weapons our not earthly, fleshly, physical weapons. This isn’t about swords, and shields. This is a spiritual battle.
And Paul utilizes the word “strongholds”. Those spiritual fortresses that Satan can build in our lives. Those road blocks, that if not eliminated, will make true enduring freedom impossible. That’s what our spiritual weapons of warfare are for. For pulling down these strongholds.
So what is a stronghold? Way back in the book of I Samuel, David is on the run from King Saul who is trying to kill him. And we read in I Samuel 23:14 that, “David stayed in strongholds in the wilderness.” These were physical places, such as caves up on a mountainside which were very difficult for an enemy to access and attack. Protected places. Fortresses.
David wrote about such places in the 18th Psalm when he writes, “I will love You, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”
So you have this Old Testament picture of this place of protection. This place of safety. But Paul is clearly taking that word “stronghold” and flipping it for us to show how these same fortified places can be places of defense for the enemy. Strongholds that are bastions for Satan and sin, and all kinds of demonic activity in people’s lives.
So Paul defines these “strongholds” in II Corinthians. Verse 5, “casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.” And then he tells us how our weapons are victorious, by “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” Kind of sounds like the nature of Christ in our hearts, doesn’t it?
Where do these strongholds come from? Maybe not all of them, but many of them are formed in one of three places. One of three sources –
A. THE WORLD
Francis Frangipane writes, “The steady stream of information and experience that continually shaped our childhood perceptions is the greatest source of strongholds with us. The amount of love (or lack of love) in our home, our cultural environment, peer values and pressures, as well as fears of rejection and exposure – even our physical appearance and intelligence, all combine to form our sense of identity and our view of life.”
And depending on the source and nature of that “steady stream of information and experience” you may have built within your heart and mind Godly strongholds, or place may have been given for the enemy to build his strongholds.
Let me give you one example of this: astrology. You don’t have to raise your hand, but how many you know what your sign is? How many of you read your horoscope? Even just for “fun”. Have many you have read your horoscope, and allowed that to influence your personality, actions, or outlook for the day?
Ever found yourself saying, “Well, I tend to respond that way because I’m a Pisces.” Or, “I’m not surprised that happened, my horoscope said this was going to be a bad day.”
That’s the influence of the world, not God, in your thought life. And it can lead to a stronghold against what God would want you to think and believe.
Are you superstitious? Don’t walk under ladders. Don’t like Friday the 13th. Guess what? There is nothing in the Bible about either of those. If you find yourself fearful, gloomy, or expecting the worst on a Friday the 13th. . .that’s the influence of the world, and it can lead to a stronghold against what God wants you to think and believe.
Much of the doom and gloom that I see in people’s lives is due to the overload, the overwhelming messages of the world, which have created strongholds in their mind. Another source of strongholds is. . .
B. OUR EXPERIENCES
We tend to often define truth by reality. God defines truth by His word. But we tend to define truth by what we have experienced. The reality around us. We let that become truth.
So if we don’t get healed, we define truth as “I am not going to be healed.” Or worse yet, “God doesn’t heal.” But God’s word is the truth regarding His power, ability and provision for healing. We don’t get to change truth based on our changing reality.
If we sin, and stumble, we define truth as “I can’t be like Christ. I can’t live a holy life.” But God’s word is the truth regarding sanctification and holiness, and the ability to be a new creation. Our realty doesn’t change that truth.
Experiences have a powerful influence on our belief system, and can be an incredible source of strongholds against the truth of God’s word, and the freedom that can be found in Christ.
As you search for true freedom, it is so important to remember that our experiences do not change who God is, and do not change the truth of His word. But they often lead to the third source of strongholds. . .
C. WRONG DOCTRINES
Jesus knew this would happen, so He warned His disciples, “See to it that no one misleads you.” Paul wrote, “Every fact is to be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses.” (II Corinthians 13:1)
As you will see in a moment, most of the strongholds that hamper our freedom our based on wrong doctrines. Poor interpretation or understanding of God’s Word.
I read this last week, and the more I think about it, the more I will probably agree with it, “Every battle we face in life is over the Word and whether or not we can build our lives upon the faithfulness and integrity of God.” That’s heady stuff. Listen to that again, “Every battle we face in life is over the Word and whether or not we can build our lives upon the faithfulness and integrity of God.”
The next few moments may bear that out. If we know what a stronghold is, and have a good idea of where they come from, what are the strongholds that can keep us from experiencing true, enduring freedom? Let’s look at some of them together.
1. PRIDE
This is probably the starting block for all of us. Because until we are willing to admit that we need to be set free, until we are willing to recognize our condition and helplessness without God, the stronghold of pride will keep us bound up.
David, at one of his highest moments, and Job at one of his weakest asked the same question. . .”What is man?” The question is answered in Hebrews chapter 2. Turn there with me. Hebrews 2:5 (read through verse 9).
The writer of Hebrews says that when you look at man, you have to wrestle with this lowliness of man, and at the same time this position that God has given us. There is a strange dichotomy or seeming oxymoron when you think about who we are.
Kind of like some of these things. Ever thought about these strange contrasts?
- Why does the sun lighten our hair, but darken our skin?
- Why doesn’t glue stick to the inside of the bottle?
- Why don’t you ever see the headline "Psychic Wins Lottery"?
- Why is "abbreviated" such a long word?
- Why is a boxing ring square?
- Why is it that doctors call what they do "practice"?
- Why is it that rain drops but snow falls?
- Why is it that to stop Windows, you have to click on "Start"?
- Why is it that when you’re driving and looking for an address, you turn down the volume on the radio?
What is man? What is man that he is in this position of being lowly, and yet raised up in authority. The writer of Hebrew says that when you wrestle with this, you are drawn to Jesus. When you try to figure out “What is man?” the answer God has given us is verse 9, “But we see Jesus.”
Jesus, who Paul describes in Philippians, as the man “who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.”
Again, this is why freedom begins with the name of Jesus on our lips, and is completed with the nature of Jesus in our hearts. Because as the nature of Jesus moves into our hearts, the stronghold of pride is demolished, and our utter reliance upon God in the battles of life brings the victory.
Let me ask you something this morning. Do you think you need to be set free? At least in some area, or place of your life. Because if you answer that, “Nope. I’m good. Everything is cool. I’m as free as could be.” The odds are that you are being influenced by the stronghold of pride.
You may be one of those rare people that have found complete, utter freedom and peace in your Christian walk. But if you are like most of us, there are areas where you know you are not free. And until you set your pride aside, and tear down that stronghold of pride, you will not experience the true, enduring freedom God desires for your life.
This automatically leads us to a second stronghold. A second argument against the knowledge of God. It is the stronghold of. . .
2. UNBELIEF
This is that stronghold that tells you that achieving true freedom, experiencing the nature of Jesus in your heart is impossible. It can’t be done. Holiness, sanctification, Christian perfection. . .those are all just pipe dreams. It is the stronghold that tells you that you can never be like Christ.
The results are we excuse the sin in our life. “Well, I’m just human, and there is no way for the nature of Christ to be completed in my heart, so I’ll just have to keep falling short.”
The results are we figure we just have personality flaws. “Well, I’m just a worrier. I will always worry. It is not something that I can be victorious over. There just isn’t anything God can do to help me.”
The results are an ever increasing stronghold of unbelief. Our language becomes littered with what “can’t be done”, victories that “can’t be won”, things that “can’t be changed.” That is a stronghold from the enemy, because God’s Word says that with God, all things are possible. Including complete victory, including complete freedom, including the ability experience the wholeness of the indwelling nature of Christ in our hearts.
I want us to stop and pray for a moment. If you struggle with unbelief. If one of the greatest battles you are having to face in your life is the sense that “it will never get any better than this anyway.” I want you to repeat this prayer after me. You can do it silently, or out loud, but pray this with me. . .
“Lord Jesus, I submit to You. I declare, according to the Word of God, that because of Your power to subject all things unto Yourself, the weapons of my warfare are mighty to the pulling down of strongholds. I repent for using the lie, ‘I will never be like Jesus,’ as an excuse to sin and compromise my convictions. In Jesus’ name, I renounce my flawed, sinful old nature and, by the grace of God and the power of Your Spirit, I pull down the stronghold of unbelief that exists in my mind. Because of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, I am a new creation. And I believe that I will go from glory to glory, being continually transformed into Christ’s image as I walk with God. Amen.”
Stronghold number three. These are places, the fortresses that Satan has built in our lives, in our thought processes, that are arguments against the truth of God’s Word. Places that God has given us weapons of warfare to tear down. Pride, unbelief, and the third. . .
3. FAILURE
This often plays right out of unbelief. It shows itself in thoughts like, “I will always be a failure,” “I’m just a sinner,” or “I tried walking in the Spirit, but it didn’t work.” Have you ever said any of those things about yourself? Have you ever thought them?
Paul says to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. We need to capture the thought, “I am a failure!” We need to repent of it. We need to tear down that stronghold with verses like Philippians 4:13 that says, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” That is hardly the verse of a failure.
We need to capture the thought, “I am just a sinner.” We need to repent of it. Tear it down with a verse like I John 1:9, “Though I was a sinner, now I am a beloved child of God and, though I occasionally still sin, the blood of Christ cleanses me of all unrighteousness.”
We need to capture those thoughts of defeat, those thoughts of oppression, those thoughts of failure, and replace them with scriptures like Romans 8:29, “Whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren.”
Are you seeing the pattern here? Satan builds strongholds in our minds and in our thoughts by twisting, and argumenting, and convoluting the word of God. So we destroy these strongholds by speaking the truth of God’s Word. “Freedom begins with the name of Jesus on our lips. It is completed with the nature of Jesus in our hearts.”
Another stronghold. . .another thought pattern that must be taken into captivity. . .
4. FEAR
Many of us have almost allowed ourselves to become wired to believe that if we try something new, we will be embarrassed or rejected. Maybe as a child you were ridiculed, and you fear experiencing that again, so you just withdrawal. Fear can be debilitating for individuals, and for churches. The stronghold of fear can keep us from freedom and victory.
Believe it or not, I have struggled most of my life with fear. Especially as it relates to the other stronghold of failure. They have combined together in my life as a fear of failure. Talk about a stronghold!
(Story of preaching class at seminary & other places where I have run or quit due to fear of failure.)
The stronghold of fear can be so debilitating. It can leave us so bound up. So paranoid, that we are frozen in time. And God’s Word wants to tear down that stronghold as well, so it says in I John 4:17, “Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.” See the contrast there, not fear. . .but boldness. Not failure. . .but as Christ is, so are we.
Verse 18, “There is no fear in love; but prefect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment.” We can all testify to that, can’t we? “But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” If we fear, it is because we haven’t been made perfect in love. In other words, if we struggle with the stronghold of fear, it is because we haven’t allowed for the freedom that comes with the nature of Christ love to be the dominate influence of our heart.
Verse 19, “We love Him because He first loved us.” Take that Satan. God loves me. His love wasn’t predicated on my loving Him. Quite the contrary. I love Him, because He first loved me.
Which leads us to our last stronghold.
5. COLD LOVE
The stronghold of cold love. In Matthew 24:12 we are told, “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.”
Cold love is a major stronghold in our lives, and can be in the church. I John 4:20 says that “The one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.”
If Satan can allow our love to grow cold towards each other, he knows that he is simultaneously influencing our love towards God. And he is building a stronghold against our freedom.
When Jesus was asked the greatest commandment, what did He say?
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” He said the second was very similar to the first, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
A key to enduring freedom, is keeping your love from growing cold. Your love for God, and your love for others. If you have sensed your love growing cold. In your relationships with others, in your walk with God. . .in your spirit you find yourself more and more detached from the church, and fellow Christians. Don’t miss this warning. . .the stronghold of cold love may be building in your life, and it must be taken captive quickly or it will bind up your freedom.
(Application Exercise - Review three sources of strongholds, and five key strongholds. Walk through having congregation prayerfully select the greatest source in their life, and the greatest stronghold in their life. Pray for freedom from this influence nad stronghold.)
(Extensive inspiration for this sermon taken from "The Three Battlegrounds" by Francis Frangipane.)
