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
strongholds of evil in this life
II. Life’s Strongholds
A. A closer look the problems the apostle is describing
1. He uses the terminology Strongholds, a few translation
might use fortresses
a. This is the ONLY place in the NT where this word is found
and it is easily understood
1. Grk is ochuroma (okh-oo-ro-mah) lit.. means a place of strength…
2. Hence Stronghold or fortress, or castle or fortification
3. A entrenched, or fortified, protected behind walls, a strong defense
a. Isn’t easily exposed, isn’t out in the open or easy to overthrow
2. Do we face situations like that today?
a. Are there situations, your life, in your experience as
individuals and society that an evil is entrenched, set up &
difficult to bring down?
b. Are there not long standing evils in our world & our life
that are protected, buttressed & defended
1. Protected by the attitude of the society, or traditions of the culture,
or habits of the individual who resist change
2. There are parts of our human nature and society that holds on to &
resist anything that might do away with evils, even those wicked
things that bring harm, despair & misery
a. We all know there are & can name some
3. The reason strongholds exist is the LOSTNESS of mankind
a. Man is eternally damned, condemned & a fallen condition
b. Problems of this life, when we dig deep enough, get down to the
true roots, we will find sin is the Problem & a Spiritual nature about
it all
c. The answer is always going to deal with the human heart,
1. man’s soul. Character can not be changed by outside means
2. only a supernatural life changing force from within
a. Christ must enter ones life to change that life
b. One life at a time, changes a family, a community & society &
nation & our world
B. Strongholds in our world & lives
* First name some world stronghold then some societal or
individual strongholds
1. In India a land of much despair, poverty & wickedness
a. But there has been a long entrenched beliefs that have
captured the lives and the culture of India
1. A place where demonic possession is a reality
2. Society divided by race, social level & superstition
b. Though the Gospel has been preached there for 100yrs+
1. The vastness of the land has greatly slowed the spread of the light of
the gospel
2. Islam: The world is facing the sword of this radical religion
that has very little to do with peace.
a. The Gospel can stand up & be victorious over the doctrines
of this religion
1. But the fear of loosing that power, of Christianity spreading the love
of God
2. They fight it with every ounce of hatred in them
*Societal Strongholds, been battling for years
3. Abortion: Hotly contested,
a. We see the defense of the freedom to kill the innocent
unborn everyday in every part of our society
1. From the education system, to the news-media, to politics, and the
judicial system, to religion & beyond
4. Alcohol Industry: almost had it defeat with prohibition
a. But has been given new life & is firmly entrenched in life,
though it kills & maims thousands annually
5. Pornography: The largest money making industry on the internet
a. An addiction that is devaluing women & children,
destroying their lives & tearing down the foundation of
society in the break up of homes
6. Homosexuality: The agenda is to not just gain freedoms, not
just acceptance & condoning
a. But to in control, to recruit & persuade and convert more &
more to this deviant lifestyle that is so abhorrent to God
b. It is as not only a stronghold but an aggressive force
7. Gambling is an epidemic: from the Casino all over Okla., to
horseracing, Lottery & poker promoted on tv
a. We are becoming a nation seeking get rich quick
1. The problem is only a tiny few win the rest loose
b. But don’t tell that to our Governor, cause the state of Okla.
is going to solve our Educational funding problems
1. Right. More in poverty, more addictions and few working to pay
their taxes
2. Yet OEA sues the state for more money
*Strongholds in individual’s lives
8. Materialism: the god of this world has been for the most
part successful in raising a new golden calf
a. Wealth, materialism, the things of this life. Money and the
things it can buy is our Lord
1. All else is sacrificed at it’s alter, truth, eternity, morals, godly values
& even family
2. Man has reduces itself to just being a comfortable animal, with no
higher goals, ambitions or values
9. Pride: Not honor, unless it is twisted by our pride
a. Honor is always tied to what is right
b. Pride, will warp & disfigure the good if it is the most
important thing to oneself
10. Self-Righteousness: Live where the standard of right &
wrong is now based upon us not truth
a. We take offense to be told we are wrong or have done
wrong or have sinned
1. Teaching, preaching on personal is an affront
11. Self-Centeredness: me myself & I that is what it is all about
a. Live for self, to please self
b. I am at the center of my world, all others including God
bows to me
1. If not who is #1? Who do you sacrifice for? Is it Jesus
2. Are the commands of Christ real & obeyed in your life
Lu 9:23 And he said to [them] all, If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
*These and other strongholds exists and can be defeated, destroyed by the weapons we have but we must NOT be passive
III. Assaulting the Strongholds
A. We are not Helpless to any stronghold or fortress in our life
or world
1. We must & are to Attack: remember our weapons
a. Are Not M-16, A-1 tank or Apache Helicopter or other
military armament
b. Neither are we as Christians to rely upon the tools of
society, human ingenuity, effort, intelligence, programs,
psychological adjustment etc..
1. not that God cant or hasn’t used any
2. But our reliance, trust is in Our Lord & what He has supplied
2. We are not to sit back, be passive or take an isolationist
view. We don’t wait till we are attacked or till we have no choice
a. Are job is to GO the great commission tells us
b. We are to prevail against hell Mt 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
1. Gates of hell, gates are on a fortress, fortification, stronghold they
don’t attack
2. The reference is to the assertive nature of the church
a. We are to go forward not giving the devil any peace and he can
NOT prevail. But we will
3. Jesus brought light into a dark world, now we are to spread
that light, Mt 4:16 The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.
a. Where are to take the light? Not to where the world is
already lighted,
1. But into the dark regions, where the strongholds of evil are
4. Jonah when arrived in Nineveh effected everyone from the
King down to the lowliest
5. The Disciples of the early church was said to have turn the
world upside down for Jesus. Ref Ac 17:6
a. Those before us changed our world for Christ by going,
doing, bringing the Light of the Gospel to a lost & dark world
6. How? Not smart, talented, fear
a. Remember it isn’t you that wins, it is Christ & His
weapons get Prayed up & read up on the Scripture
b. Afraid might ask question don’t have an anwer to:
1. Be honest, I don’t know but I’ll find out.
2. Read up biblical reason using tools like Josh McDowell’s book “A Ready Defense” or Any of book by Lee Strobel “A Case for the Creator”,… for Christ, … For Faith… For Easter (resurrection)
7. Folks, our generation has allowed our world to slip back into
darkness.. It is time we do something about it. ATTACK!
Eph 5:8 for you then were darkness, but now light in [the] Lord; walk as children of light. (LIT)
1Pe 2:9 But ye [are] a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
1. It is time we stand up & be counted
CONCLUSION:
1. Christians are you in the battle?
a. Do you care, has apathy taken over your life?
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.
2. Christians: The way to win is with the weapon we have
a. Truth/Scripture/Gospel
b. Love: always Love, motivated, moved by love
c. Righteousness, Holy living, if we are living for self,
pleasures, the world. We are quenching God’s Spirit
d. Faith/Prayer: we are dependant upon our God turning the
hearts minds of the people of this world
1. We must believe enough to pray enough
3. The only way to truly make a lasting impact is one life at a
time brought to Jesus
