The Futility of Fleshly Effort: Finding Victory in Divine Power

[00:00:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:01] All right, 2 Corinthians 10, if you got your Bibles, 2 Corinthians 10, and would you stand with me as we have been doing for the reading of God's word together.
[00:00:13] You listen, you listen as I read it. Chapter 10, verse 1, Paul, I, Paul, myself entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ.
[00:00:25] I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold towards you when I am away.
[00:00:29] verse 3 for though we walk in the flesh we are not waging war according to the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but they have divine power to divorce
[00:00:41] destroy strongholds we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and we take every thought captive to obey Christ this is the word of God for the people of God Thanks be to God.
[00:01:00] You may be seated.
[00:01:01] Are certain times in your life when you really need to know how to call for help?
[00:01:11] One is when you're stuck on an elevator.
[00:01:14] I've actually been stuck on an elevator twice in my life.
[00:01:18] The first time was several years ago in Washington, D.C.
[00:01:21] An older pastor mentor friend of mine had invited me and something like a dozen or so other younger pastor friends to meet with some religious ambassadors from around the world up there.
[00:01:33] One of them was the ambassador for Muslim relations in the United States.
[00:01:38] He had an office in one of the U.S. Capitol buildings and we had an appointment to meet with him.
[00:01:43] But on our way to the Capitol, we had gotten stuck in that infamous D.C. traffic and so we were running a few minutes behind.
[00:01:51] So when we got there to the Capitol building to save time, all 14 of us mashed ourselves onto this one elevator car.
[00:01:59] No problem, right?
[00:02:00] We were only going to the fourth floor, and surely, if there's one place in the world you can count on things working properly, it's the U.S. Capitol, right?
[00:02:10] Much like a Republican Congress with a Democratic president, our elevator came to a screeching halt between the third and the fourth floors.
[00:02:18] So I need you to get this mental picture.
[00:02:20] I want you to imagine 14 grown men in full suits packed onto an elevator that probably would have comfortably fit six middle school girls in the dead of July.
[00:02:35] Now if that's ever happened to you, I can tell you your impulse in that moment is to yell help and start banging on the walls, establish a P corner and bang on the walls.
[00:02:45] That's your impulse.
[00:02:46] We did that, started yelling and banging, that is, and we got some people's attention, but honestly, what could they do?
[00:02:53] Somebody even ran and got the Muslim ambassador that we were supposed to meet with.
[00:02:57] He had a great sense of humor, by the way.
[00:02:59] He was from Turkey, if I recall.
[00:03:01] He came over to the door of the elevator shaft and he started yelling, oh, I know, you pray to Jesus, he resurrect elevator.
[00:03:08] I was like, well, that's pretty funny.
[00:03:10] After several hot, panicky minutes, this calm little voice spoke out this little call box speaker that none of us had noticed yet the voice said hey we heard you're stuck and we're sending out the fire department one of the pastors um that was with us said said
[00:03:26] hey listen we almost got the door open we can see the fourth floor right here we're probably just going to crawl out and she was like please do not do that if the elevator drops it could cut you in
[00:03:35] half um then the little voice went uh went quiet and one of the pastors was like you know why didn't and we'd just press that little call button to start with.
[00:03:44] We'd all been so jammed in there that none of us had even thought to look for it.
[00:03:48] My point is this, when you're trapped in a stronghold, like an elevator car, it helps to know where to turn for help because some types of help in those situations are futile.
[00:04:02] In 2 Corinthians 10, Paul discusses spiritual traps, spiritual struggles, specifically what works and what doesn't.
[00:04:11] In verses three and four, he explains that there is a way of fighting spiritual battles that is frustrating, ineffective, and utterly exhausting.
[00:04:22] The context for this passage in 2 Corinthians 10 is that Paul is once again defending himself, or rather, he's explaining why in general he doesn't defend himself, at least not in the ways that the Corinthians expect him to.
[00:04:40] You see, Paul's opponents defended themselves by asserting their authority, by boasting in their credentials and their accomplishments.
[00:04:51] Paul says he refuses to respond in kind because those things, his credentials and his accomplishments are utterly insignificant when it comes to true spiritual power.
[00:05:04] Paul explains the heart of his reasoning in verse four.
[00:05:08] Take a look at it.
[00:05:09] You see, the weapons, the reason I'm not boasting in my credentials, the reason I'm not asserting my will or my authority, the reason is that the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh.
[00:05:24] But instead, we've got divine power, spirit power to destroy strongholds.
[00:05:29] The weapons I use, Paul says, are not weapons of the flesh.
[00:05:33] They're not about my report card or my abilities.
[00:05:36] They are weapons of the spirit.
[00:05:38] And as such, they got nothing to do with the strength of my flesh.
[00:05:41] Therefore, comparing my credentials against yours or my talents against yours is useless.
[00:05:48] This chapter is an incredible study in how to engage in spiritual battles of any type.
[00:05:54] It will relieve you of the strain and the pressure and the anxiety that you feel when you assume everything depends on you.
[00:06:04] It will also cure you of the insecurity that comes from comparing the abilities of your flesh to somebody else's and feeling like you don't measure up or have what it takes.
[00:06:15] For example, even though this passage is not about parenting, Paul never one time mentions parenting in these verses.
[00:06:23] This passage has been immensely helpful to me and Veronica as parents.
[00:06:29] You see, if there's one thing that parenting has taught me, it's that my flesh doesn't have what it takes to produce righteous affections in my kids.
[00:06:39] And all God's parents said, amen.
[00:06:42] I'm sorry, I don't, neither do you parents.
[00:06:44] You parents of younger kids, it's easier for you now to go ahead and learn this now.
[00:06:50] There's a limit to what I can do and striving or the stress that comes from feeling like I'm the one who has to shape their hearts so that they learn to love the right things.
[00:07:00] Or there's feelings of inadequacy that come from comparing yourself to others.
[00:07:05] And I know you're like, J.D., you feel inadequate as a parent.
[00:07:10] Listen, every parent I know feels inadequate.
[00:07:13] I think that's why God gives us kids.
[00:07:15] So like if life hasn't otherwise defeated you, this is like the coup de grace.
[00:07:20] I always tell people, if you want to hear the most eloquent, most confident sounding sermons on parenting, just listen to the ones I preached at this church before I had kids.
[00:07:31] 24 years ago, when you guys called me as pastor, I had no kids and four amazing messages on parenting. Now I got four almost grown kids and no amazing messages on parenting. As a parent, you feel this worry that you don't have what it
[00:07:46] takes. And so you're always comparing yourself to other parents. But when you do that and you feel that insecurity and that anxiety, it shows that you have fallen back into trying to wage this battle in your flesh. Look at verse 1. Paul says that he carries himself with meekness and
[00:08:03] gentleness. The meekness and gentleness of Christ. Meekness, gentleness, patience would be another word that would go along with those. Those stand in contrast with the pushiness or the boastiness or the anxiety that comes from assuming that you're the one responsible to bring about change.
[00:08:23] The principle that is taught in these verses is so foundational to the Christian life that I wanted to do a deeper dive on them.
[00:08:31] See, we've been taking mostly whole chapters in this series, but I wanted to zero in on three or four verses today.
[00:08:37] In some ways, today will be a little bit like a Christianity 101, but see, this principle has enormous implications for every relationship that you're in, any spiritual battle that you're trying to fight, whether you're leading a church like Paul was
[00:08:52] in 2 Corinthians 10, or whether you're trying to parent kids, or influence a friend, or even simply trying to grow yourself spiritually. And by the way, it is a perfect insight for us to meditate on during our 21 days of prayer and fasting, because it explains why we devote so
[00:09:09] much time to things like prayer and fasting. Verse 3, Paul says, we are not waging war according to the flesh. We're not waging war according to the flesh. Write this down if you're taking notes.
[00:09:20] is true spiritual victory can only be supernaturally supplied.
[00:09:25] True spiritual victory, it's only supernaturally supplied.
[00:09:29] Why is that?
[00:09:31] Because your flesh and my flesh, however impressive you think it is, simply does not possess what our spirit most needs.
[00:09:44] Throughout Paul's letters, Paul diagnoses our spiritual condition as consisting of two primary problems.
[00:09:50] He says, number one, we're spiritually dead.
[00:09:54] Number two, we are satanically bound.
[00:09:57] And against both of these battlefronts, the power of the flesh, again, no matter how impressive your flesh is, against both of these battlefronts, the power of the flesh is useless.
[00:10:10] In this passage, Paul talks more explicitly about this second one, but implied in this passage, underlying Paul's assumptions in this passage, is this first one.
[00:10:20] So let me take you to the book of Ephesians, where he really spells this one out.
[00:10:24] Okay, Ephesians 2, verse one, Paul says, "'You were dead in the trespasses and sins.'" Not sick or weak or confused, you were dead.
[00:10:38] Watch this.
[00:10:39] "'According to which we all once lived "'in the passions of our flesh, "'carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind.
[00:10:45] "'And we were by nature.'" That is deep in our heart of hearts.
[00:10:51] We were by nature, the real us in our core.
[00:10:55] We were children of wrath, just like the rest of mankind.
[00:10:58] By nature, in the core of who we are, the unfiltered us, we are children of wrath.
[00:11:07] That means by nature, we turn away from God instead of turning toward him.
[00:11:12] Instead of trusting God, we doubt him.
[00:11:15] Instead of depending on God, by nature, we want to be independent from him.
[00:11:20] instead of prioritizing him we by nature elevate idols in his place now that manifests in different ways for different ones of us for some of us this nature manifests itself through a lascivious lifestyle whereby we throw
[00:11:39] off all restraint and we give ourselves to reckless living maybe that's been your way and maybe that's you this morning for others of us our desire for independence from God manifests itself in our pride over how well we've kept all the rules.
[00:11:54] Because we think that that shows that we're morally superior and we're morally sufficient and that thus we are not in desperate need of God's grace and his power.
[00:12:06] They look different, different approaches, but they're both ways of trying to be independent of God. By the way, it's interesting here in verse three, Paul says, we all once lived in the passions of our flesh. Paul had been a fastidious rule keeper all of his life. He was
[00:12:21] always the honor roll guy. He was always the school award guy. He had never been a prodigal son or a party boy. And yet Paul still says, we all lived in the passions of our flesh. You see, one kind
[00:12:33] of sinner shows their desire for independence from God through rule breaking. The other shows it through rule keeping, but the core desire is the same, a desire for self-sufficiency and independence from God. What God wants, listen, is not a mere reformation of our behavior. Talk about a
[00:12:52] revolutionary truth. Talk about a gospel one-on-one truth. What God wants is not a reformation of your behavior. What he wants are people who by nature love and depend on him. People who don't need to
[00:13:04] be coerced to obey him or trust him through the promises of blessing or through the threats of punishment, but who by nature want to do his will.
[00:13:15] Here's an illustration I've used.
[00:13:17] I haven't used it in a long time.
[00:13:18] In fact, you can track how long you've been at Summit by how many times you've heard this illustration.
[00:13:24] Because I tell it about every four and a half years.
[00:13:26] I think it's like the rings on a tree.
[00:13:27] You can tell how long by how many rings there are.
[00:13:29] You can tell how long you've been at Summit by how many times you've heard this story.
[00:13:32] I look back, last time I told this story, 2019.
[00:13:35] So we're way overdue, okay?
[00:13:37] My senior year of high school.
[00:13:40] I had started dating a girl who was a cheerleader at our rival school.
[00:13:44] She lived about an hour away from me and our relationship was fine, okay?
[00:13:50] I'm sure she felt fine to negative five, whatever.
[00:13:53] But we were just missing the magic.
[00:13:55] You know what I mean?
[00:13:56] I mean, we dated for most of my senior year and then after graduation, I went off to my first year of college in Upper State, New York.
[00:14:03] Now, this was in the days before Snapchat and Instagram.
[00:14:07] So I was like, really sure what this means about our relationship do we break up I wasn't even totally sure that we were dating I didn't know what my obligations here were so I did the very cowardly thing and
[00:14:20] I just left for school I am still embarrassed about that by the way I was a teenage boy through and through I wasn't good at the determine the relationship conversation so I just left we talked a couple times on the phone and you guys remember this back in those days before cell
[00:14:34] that stuff was expensive.
[00:14:36] You made a phone call like that, it's costing you all kinds of money.
[00:14:39] And so we talked a couple of times, we never discussed the status of our relationship.
[00:14:43] And then I came home for Christmas break and I called her and arranged to go see her because it felt like the right thing to do.
[00:14:50] I remember where I was on I-40 as I was driving to her house.
[00:14:55] I remember where I was when it occurred to me that it was the 22nd of December.
[00:15:00] This was a girl that I might be dating.
[00:15:03] And I remember how embarrassing I thought it would be if I showed up at her house and she had a Christmas present for me and I didn't have one for her and I might be dating her.
[00:15:16] I thought if she's got one for me and I don't have one for her, I'm gonna look really, really bad.
[00:15:20] I'm gonna be a story that she tells.
[00:15:22] But on the other hand, I'm a poor college student and I cannot afford dropping 100 bucks on some girl I got no future with, right?
[00:15:29] So what's a brother to do?
[00:15:30] You understand the dilemma?
[00:15:32] And so on the way to her house, I swung into a shopping center and ran into it.
[00:15:36] Basically it was a Dick's Sporting Goods.
[00:15:39] And there, right there in the very front on the sale rack, y'all, I saw it.
[00:15:43] I think it had like a heavenly glow around it or something.
[00:15:46] It was an Adidas neck warmer.
[00:15:48] You wore it when you were skiing to keep the snow out of your jacket.
[00:15:51] It said Adidas and great big letters on it.
[00:15:53] So you knew it was quality.
[00:15:55] It costs $7.
[00:15:57] And I thought, y'all, this is perfect.
[00:16:00] Because if she gives me something for Christmas, I got something to give to her.
[00:16:03] and if she doesn't have a gift for me that puppy's mine right i mean wasted seven dollars so i bought it i put it in this little bag and i put it in the back seat of my car i get to her house i knock on
[00:16:14] the door she flings up the door open she gives me the biggest hug and the first thing out of her mouth is oh jd it's so good to see you and she walks straight over to her christmas tree and
[00:16:23] she says i got you a christmas present and i was like yeah i got you a christmas present too thinking about that little treasure in the back seat of my car thankfully however i did not go
[00:16:32] and get it she grabbed up the gift she hands me my gift i can remember opening this thing y'all i would definitely went into clothing back then but i remember opening this thing and my heart
[00:16:42] dropped to the floor because it was this jacket that i could tell cost at least a hundred dollars i've got a seven dollar neck warmer in the back seat of my car for her and i was she was like
[00:16:52] well where's the gift you have for me and i was like oh i just remembered i totally left it at home thinking i can go back home and you know buy her something and mail it to her um she said well
[00:17:02] You know, I mean, my parents aren't here tonight, so we can't really stay at my house.
[00:17:06] She said, I haven't seen your parents in a long time.
[00:17:07] Maybe we should just go back there.
[00:17:09] And I was like, oh, the judgment of God.
[00:17:11] So, drive an hour back to my house.
[00:17:14] This is the day before cell phones, so I can't be texting anybody.
[00:17:17] We get in there, I'll say, hey, why don't you wait here in the foyer for a minute?
[00:17:20] Let me go prepare my mom and dad, make sure the house is okay.
[00:17:23] I go find my mom, and I'm like, mom, do you have something, anything that you were gonna give to Christie?
[00:17:28] That's my younger sister that she doesn't know about yet, that we could, you know, my mom was like, why?
[00:17:33] I was like, please, no questions.
[00:17:34] Just do we have that gift?
[00:17:35] We went under the Christmas tree.
[00:17:37] We pulled out a gift to my sister, took her name off of it and put this girl's name on it.
[00:17:43] I walked into the foyer and I'm like, here's your gift.
[00:17:46] She starts to open it.
[00:17:47] She's like, oh, what is it?
[00:17:47] And I'm like, I don't know.
[00:17:49] You know, I mean, like, I was like, just open it, just open it.
[00:17:52] And so we opened it.
[00:17:53] I'm curious to see if she pulls out this.
[00:17:55] It's like a sweater.
[00:17:57] It was an equivalent gift, okay?
[00:17:59] Now, to my knowledge, to this day, unless she happens to be here this morning, she does not know the circumstances around which I gave her that gift.
[00:18:11] Here's my question.
[00:18:12] Ladies, you can answer this one.
[00:18:13] If she had known the circumstances of that gift, do you think she would have been flattered to receive it?
[00:18:21] She would have been like, oh, goody, what a great guy you are that you went and made this happen so that you didn't look.
[00:18:26] No, no girl wants to be pursued out of a sense of duty or obligation.
[00:18:30] I compare that story to just a few years later when I dropped more money than I'd ever spent in my life on anything, on a ring that now sits on my wife's finger.
[00:18:40] And I remember at the time wishing I had even more to spend because I was so in love with her.
[00:18:45] What's my point?
[00:18:46] God doesn't want people in heaven who love him out of a sense of obligation or because they're trying to prove they're good people.
[00:18:53] He wants people who by nature love and want to obey him.
[00:18:58] and it's why we say God is not just after obedience.
[00:19:03] He's after a whole new kind of obedience.
[00:19:06] He's after an obedience that grows out of desire, an obedience where you seek God because you crave God, an obedience where you pursue righteousness because you love righteousness.
[00:19:17] Here's a million dollar question.
[00:19:19] How does God produce that kind of change in us?
[00:19:24] And the easy answer to learn, but the hard answer to actually learn in your soul is it doesn't happen through weapons of the flesh.
[00:19:32] Your flesh, I don't care what your New Year's resolution was, your flesh doesn't have the power of resurrection in it.
[00:19:39] That's a power that only flows from an empty tomb, from the tomb of a savior who conquered death in the flesh and was raised to God by the spirit.
[00:19:47] And you access that power, not by striving in the flesh, not by education, not by willpower, not by talent, not by accomplished it, You access it by trusting in simple faith.
[00:20:00] One of the best Old Testament pictures of this is Numbers 21.
[00:20:04] Israel had disobeyed God and God sent in fiery serpents as a punishment.
[00:20:08] And when the snakes bit the people, a bunch of them got really sick.
[00:20:12] So God had Moses fashion a bronze image of the serpent, hoisted up on a pole and told Moses to tell the people that if they would simply look at that bronze serpent in faith, they would be healed.
[00:20:25] Y'all, what a picture.
[00:20:27] No human remedy could heal the disease.
[00:20:29] You couldn't work your way out of it or educate yourself out of it or medicate your way out of it.
[00:20:34] You had to simply look with faith to God's provision and you would be made whole.
[00:20:39] Look and live.
[00:20:41] The apostle John tells us, John 3, that that is the picture of how Jesus now saves us.
[00:20:46] Just like that serpent, Jesus was lifted up on the cross so that when we look to him, all who look to him, his healing life flows into them. The simple gospel message, friend, is look and live.
[00:21:01] So our first problem is that we're spiritually dead. Our second problem compounds that one, and that is we are satanically bound. Look at verse four. Look at it. Paul says we are subdued by strongholds. That's imagery from ancient warfare. In those days, when an enemy took over
[00:21:18] a city, they would erect walls around the city. They would build a moat around those walls. They would put out booby traps. They would put soldiers in the battlements around the walls, and those soldiers would attack anyone who tried to approach the city. That was a stronghold. Paul says we are
[00:21:34] not only spiritually dead, the enemy has set up strongholds around our hearts and our minds.
[00:21:41] Earlier in this same letter, 2 Corinthians 4.4, Paul says the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers. As unbelievers, we are not just confused. We're not just under instructed.
[00:21:57] As unbelievers, we are enveloped by a supernatural, satanically induced blindness until the Holy Spirit wakes us up. In Ephesians 2, Paul said that people in the world, go back to that passage, follow the prince of the power of the air. Watch this. The spirit that is
[00:22:16] is now at work in the sons of disobedience.
[00:22:23] When you're not living in submission to Christ, there is a literal spirit at work in you.
[00:22:33] And I know this is starting to make some of you nervous.
[00:22:36] You're like, satanically bound, demons at work in us?
[00:22:40] I knew this church was too good to be true.
[00:22:42] This is where things get weird and they start bringing out the snakes and identifying various Hollywood personalities and political figures as the devil.
[00:22:50] And let's be honest, church, a lot of Christians, a lot of Christians in this church talk about demons in ways that are, to put it mildly, unhelpful.
[00:23:01] I know people who attribute every annoyance in their lives to the devil.
[00:23:05] Knee pain, the devil.
[00:23:07] Traffic on I-40 or 540, the devil.
[00:23:11] Kids acting up, the devil.
[00:23:13] Lady at the DMV tells you that you're missing one form that you swear was not listed on their DMV website under documentation required to get your real ID, the devil.
[00:23:21] That last one might have some merit, but that is not what Paul is talking about here, okay?
[00:23:27] Furthermore, I know that sometimes people use demon talk as a substitute for getting medical or psychological help, or they've labeled other people demonic in ways that were really hurtful.
[00:23:39] So yeah, I get it, I get it.
[00:23:41] There's a lot that can go wrong here.
[00:23:43] But when Paul uses the word stronghold in verse four, He's pointing to a reality that he really wants us to know about.
[00:23:53] Get this, demons or the demonic realm is mentioned 250 separate times in the New Testament.
[00:23:58] That's almost once per chapter.
[00:24:01] And if you don't understand the nature of the opposition you're up against, you're gonna be totally ill-equipped to do battle.
[00:24:07] You're gonna have the person showing up with baseball bats and rocks to take on an army equipped with tanks and machine guns.
[00:24:14] Now, if you're skeptical, let me ask you to at least consider this, okay?
[00:24:18] Before you just wave all this away as some kind of naive, archaic superstition.
[00:24:23] Just consider this.
[00:24:24] When you take an honest look at the history of the human race, or even what's going on right now, doesn't it at least suggest the presence of some dark or evil at work in the world?
[00:24:36] I mean, honestly, how plausible really is it that at the root of the Holocaust is just a man with an inflated sense of national pride, a good speaking ability, and a wounded ego from flunking out of art school?
[00:24:52] Or how plausible is it for you to look at the brutishness and savage cruelty of the slave trade in otherwise educated and enlightened countries and say that it was just greed?
[00:25:02] Or I read recently how social media algorithms pick up on when a teenage girl slows down scrolling her feed to look at other girls in pictures, and if she slows down and looks at other girls in pictures,
[00:25:13] it starts to populate her feed with diet and weight loss products in ways that lead to body image issues and eating disorders.
[00:25:20] Now I know humans design the algorithm, but don't you see the hand of our enemy in that?
[00:25:26] In the face of enormous, heinous, senseless evil, most of us sense there are dark and powerful and evil forces at work.
[00:25:33] And that's probably why the vast majority of people throughout history, we call this the democratization of history, the vast majority of people throughout history and the vast majority of people in the world today recognize the reality of supernatural
[00:25:45] spiritual forces at work.
[00:25:47] And if you're one of the enlightened elite who think that all the evil in the world can be explained away by merely physical factors, market forces gone wrong, the survival of the fittest instinct misapplied.
[00:25:59] Well, no offense, but maybe you're the naive one.
[00:26:03] Paul says that Satan is literally at work in disobedience.
[00:26:09] But here's the important caveat.
[00:26:10] When Paul says this, he's not talking about demon possession per se.
[00:26:15] Like we typically think about, you know, exorcist style where a demon takes you over and you go crazy and start scratching people with your fingernails and destroying stuff and floating six feet above your bed.
[00:26:23] I'm not saying that stuff doesn't happen like that.
[00:26:26] I'm just saying that's not primarily what Paul is talking about here.
[00:26:30] Following the prince of the power of the air, that's not possession language, that's influence and oppression language.
[00:26:37] What it means is that you are influenced and captivated by the demonic.
[00:26:41] It's what Paul is talking about in our passage, 2 Corinthians 10, four, when he talks about strongholds.
[00:26:48] Your disobedience to Christ allows Satan to set up a stronghold in your life in that area.
[00:26:56] He takes you captive in that area and he uses that stronghold to unleash spiritual destruction into your life.
[00:27:04] Think of a stronghold as very simply, any area of your life that has not been brought under the dominion of Christ.
[00:27:11] Any area of your life that is not flying his flag.
[00:27:15] Paul defines stronghold for you in the next verse in our passage, verse five.
[00:27:19] A stronghold, he said, consists of arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God.
[00:27:28] Think of your life like a large house with a lot of rooms.
[00:27:32] And because it's such a large house, you can sublet a bunch of those rooms to other tenants.
[00:27:40] And some of the tenants you sublet to turn out to be really bad tenants.
[00:27:44] They play music way too loud at night.
[00:27:46] There's these really awful smells coming from the rooms make you wonder what is going on in there. That's what a stronghold is. Any room in your life, the family room, the boyfriend room, the money room, the self-image room that is not under
[00:28:00] submission to Christ is subject to demonic influence, manipulation, and oppression.
[00:28:09] In Ephesians, to go back to that book for a minute, Paul uses a different metaphor to describe the same phenomenon, a metaphor I find extremely helpful. He calls Satan's lies or his temptations flaming darts, Ephesians 6, 16. A flaming dart was one of Rome's most feared weapons.
[00:28:28] A flaming dart was basically this long, hollow javelin filled with flammable oil, and then it was set on fire before they launched it. The worst damage caused by this flaming dart was when it hit, the oil inside the shaft here
[00:28:42] would explode out onto everything around it and catch it on fire.
[00:28:47] That's a good picture of a satanic attack.
[00:28:50] He gets you to believe a lie and then uses that stronghold to spray out a bunch of destruction into your life.
[00:29:00] A flaming dart is a lie or temptation that just forces its way into your consciousness and brings destruction with it.
[00:29:10] The ancient Christian mystic, Evagrius, who lived around 370 AD.
[00:29:15] I love this.
[00:29:16] It's the best definition I've ever read for a flaming dart.
[00:29:18] A flaming dart, he said, is a thought with a will behind it.
[00:29:23] Does that resonate with you?
[00:29:25] An idea that's trying to take you over.
[00:29:28] Thoughts you can't shake.
[00:29:31] I pick up on these when somebody believes something that just seems so absurd that it's absolutely wrecking their lives.
[00:29:38] There's a voice they just can't shake.
[00:29:39] a voice inside them that says, you're ugly. You're unattractive. You'll never have any friends.
[00:29:47] You're a failure. Or this sense of utter insignificance. Nobody sees you. Everybody's forgotten you. Nobody's concerned whether you live or die. I was listening to an interview with a Christian comedian, John Crist. He's one of the funniest people out there. Some of you know
[00:30:04] this. Five or so years ago, he had this big crash where it came out he was living this double life involving substance abuse and engaging in a lot of destructive and really hurtful behaviors that led him to depression and suicidal thoughts. In this interview, after going to rehab, he was
[00:30:21] explaining what led him to that dark place. Not excusing, just explaining. He talked about how at the Christian rehab facility, they helped him identify all these lies that he had started to believe about himself in childhood. Things that just didn't make sense. What I found most fascinating
[00:30:39] in the whole interview was this point where he said to the interviewer, he said, I don't know why these lies were so convincing to me. I can see now that they weren't accurate.
[00:30:51] I was taking random events and comments to weave a narrative that said I was forgotten or that I had no value unless I could make people like me through humor. That fear drove me to despair
[00:31:03] that led me to alcoholism and abuse and serious depression. Friend, that's a flaming dart.
[00:31:10] He drives destructive lies into our consciousness and uses them to set our whole lives on fire.
[00:31:18] Let me just ask you, have you experienced this?
[00:31:20] Are you experiencing it now?
[00:31:22] A thought that just kind of presses its way into your consciousness?
[00:31:27] It doesn't usually take the form of an audible voice, just to be clear.
[00:31:30] Usually it's just a driving thought that seems to pursue you.
[00:31:34] You're a terrible father.
[00:31:35] Your family would probably be better off without you.
[00:31:37] Everything you do, you fail at.
[00:31:39] Nobody could love you.
[00:31:40] You don't have any friends.
[00:31:42] You're ugly.
[00:31:42] People don't like you.
[00:31:44] Right now, it's saying to some of you, you don't belong in here.
[00:31:47] God's not interested in you.
[00:31:48] You're not savable.
[00:31:50] Who do you think you're fooling in here?
[00:31:51] Everybody here is looking at you right now.
[00:31:53] You should get up right now and leave.
[00:31:55] All Christians are hypocrites.
[00:31:56] God's not real.
[00:31:57] Jesus is a hoax.
[00:32:00] Friend, those are fiery darts, thoughts with a will behind them.
[00:32:03] Satan is trying to set up strongholds so that he can use them to consume you.
[00:32:09] Others of you experience these lies in a more subtle way.
[00:32:12] he's just convinced you not to believe Jesus's word in some area you think it's part of you just developing your own belief system but it's more than that for example some of you haven't believed
[00:32:25] Jesus's words about forgiveness or the importance of letting vengeance belong to him instead you've nursed that grudge that's what felt good to you has nursed that grudge you've grown resentful and demonic powers are using that stronghold to darken and poison your soul or you've not
[00:32:44] believe what God says about money about trusting him with it putting him first with it being generous with it and that stronghold is corrupting you it's turning you into a different person you don't believe what he says about sex so
[00:32:57] you want to do things your way this is part of you just becoming like this got to figure out who I am this is one of Satan's most effective weapons and he's using that stronghold he's gonna use it to bring all kinds of sorrow into your
[00:33:07] life for years for me it was a tendency to focus on what others thought about me instead of what Jesus says about me.
[00:33:17] And that's been a gateway through which Satan has been able to bring all kinds of problems into my life.
[00:33:22] Maybe for you, it's that you can't be satisfied with how you look or how Jesus has made you.
[00:33:26] And so now you're obsessed about your weight and how you compare to others.
[00:33:29] And that's causing deep insecurity, relational problems, and even bringing things into your life like eating disorders.
[00:33:37] You don't believe what the Bible says about God's wrath or the way salvation comes because those things seem unpleasant to you.
[00:33:43] and you just think, yeah, I'm just formulating my own belief system, but the enemy has established a stronghold in your life from which he is sowing confusion and disorder and eventually resentment of God himself into you. I could go on and on. Any argument or lofty opinion that you have not
[00:34:02] brought under submission to Christ has become a stronghold for the enemy. And how does Paul say we battle strongholds?
[00:34:10] Verse five, we destroy arguments.
[00:34:13] Every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God.
[00:34:16] We take every thought captive to Christ.
[00:34:18] In other words, we infuse every part of our lives with God's truth and we bring every part of our lives under submission to Christ.
[00:34:26] To the good news, friend, if you're a Christian, is that Jesus owns your house now.
[00:34:31] And that means at any point, you can go to any of those unsavory tenants in those rooms and you can just declare, this is Jesus's room.
[00:34:38] You don't have to shout it.
[00:34:39] You just got to say it.
[00:34:40] And you just tell that person in there, that thing, that force, you got to get out of here.
[00:34:45] And the demon's like, well, who are you?
[00:34:46] You're not strong enough to throw me out.
[00:34:48] And you're like, well, maybe I'm not strong enough to throw you out, but Jesus is.
[00:34:51] And this room is now under his authority.
[00:34:53] Bringing every thought captive to Christ, you are establishing his rule in that part of your life.
[00:34:59] When I was a kid, several of the boys in my neighborhood were older than me.
[00:35:02] We used to all meet up to hang out together.
[00:35:05] And a couple of them were real bullies.
[00:35:07] One of them was like 16 when I was about 10.
[00:35:10] One day we had our BB guns, you know, out shooting squirrels or whatever.
[00:35:13] And he told me that you could shoot your foot with your BB gun and you couldn't feel it through your shoe.
[00:35:20] He said, watch.
[00:35:21] And he shot his toe, his shoes right where his toes were.
[00:35:24] And it didn't seem to hurt him.
[00:35:26] What I didn't know is that he curled his toes back.
[00:35:29] So I did it.
[00:35:30] And it sent me into these convulsions of pain, which is kind of funny now.
[00:35:35] And maybe you could draw some conclusions about my general lack of discernment back then.
[00:35:39] But that's just kind of how these guys were.
[00:35:41] Well, one day we're out playing football in my yard and a few of the older boys getting all pushy and mouthy and really taking advantage of us younger kids.
[00:35:48] And I remember my dad just walked out on the porch.
[00:35:52] He didn't have to say a word.
[00:35:54] But at that moment, their terrorizing of me was done.
[00:35:57] His presence on that porch, just standing there, said, this is my house and my yard and that's my son and you will not terrorize him.
[00:36:05] That's what Jesus does when you surrender to him.
[00:36:07] He just shows up and his presence says, that's my son, that's my daughter, that's my property, hands off.
[00:36:13] And that battle's won.
[00:36:14] The way we establish his reign in an area of our lives is by bringing every thought captive to Christ.
[00:36:20] That puts him in charge of that room and his power and that power alone destroys that stronghold.
[00:36:26] By the way, this is one of the reasons you gotta be active in a church because it's only by knowing the scriptures that you can do this.
[00:36:33] You can't destroy false arguments or take thoughts captive to Christ if you don't know his word in those areas?
[00:36:40] That's what Jesus demonstrated for us when he did his battle with Satan.
[00:36:43] He quoted scripture.
[00:36:45] You know what he was doing?
[00:36:46] He's bringing every thought captive to Christ or to his father's authority.
[00:36:53] Here's good news, bad news.
[00:36:54] If your view of relationships is shaped more by Taylor Swift on the Hallmark Channel than Titus and Song of Solomon, you're in trouble.
[00:37:02] I don't mean any disrespect toward T on that one.
[00:37:05] I'm just saying that her words and her music, no matter how uplifting you find them, they are unable to deliver you from satan's oppression and unable to bring jesus's spiritual life to that area tony evans talks about a rehab clinic he'd recommended to a lot of people in his
[00:37:21] church who struggle with addiction at this particular clinic if the person was a christian the clinic would tell them you are not a drug addict you're a blood-bought child of the living god who already has been given victory over drugs that's who you are every time they ran into
[00:37:36] somebody else at the clinic it's a little hokey but they had to introduce themselves not just by their name. They had to follow it up with, I'm a blood-bought child of God who already has victory
[00:37:45] over drugs. After a week or two, he said they began to believe it. And this particular clinic boasted a 72% success rate after six months, which is really high. Now, I'm not trying to be
[00:37:57] simplistic. I'm not trying to say overcoming addiction is easy. Just change your view of yourself and all your problems go away. No, I understand sometimes there are all kinds of things tied up in addiction and you might need professional or medical help. All I'm saying
[00:38:09] is that you will never find true victory if you skip the most foundational element.
[00:38:16] Satan begins his stronghold in your mind by making you believe wrong things about God and yourself.
[00:38:22] And you gotta destroy those strongholds by bringing those thoughts captive to Christ.
[00:38:28] Maybe you're sitting here this morning and you're overwhelmed by guilt.
[00:38:31] And there's this little voice inside you that whispers to you, hey, you'll never be good enough.
[00:38:36] You're disqualified.
[00:38:38] That's not just guilt, that's your enemy's voice.
[00:38:41] And right now, you gotta hear Jesus' words to you who is saying a lot more loudly.
[00:38:46] He's standing on that porch saying, no, though your sins are as scarlet, I made them as white as snow.
[00:38:51] I put them away as far as the east is from the west, and when you believe his word, that destroys that stronghold.
[00:38:58] Insignificance says to you, you're not important, you'll never amount to anything.
[00:39:02] Jesus says with a louder voice, no, I've seated you with me in the heavenly places.
[00:39:07] Every promise of God for you is yes in Christ Jesus.
[00:39:10] You are fearfully and wonderfully made.
[00:39:13] And as you believe that, you can feel that stronghold coming down.
[00:39:17] Anxiety says to you, you know, it's all gonna go bad.
[00:39:20] Everything's gonna fall apart.
[00:39:21] And then what's gonna happen to your kids?
[00:39:23] What's gonna happen to your family when they do?
[00:39:25] And Jesus says in a very calm but commanding voice, no, no, no, my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in Christ Jesus.
[00:39:33] Not a hair falls from your head without your father's knowledge.
[00:39:35] So you can be anxious for nothing, but in everything with prayer and thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God and the peace that passes all understanding will guard my heart and your heart in Christ Jesus.
[00:39:45] I'm telling you, believe this and you'll feel that stronghold crumble.
[00:39:48] Despair says to you, this is the end.
[00:39:50] There's no way out of this one.
[00:39:52] Life is over.
[00:39:53] And Jesus says, yeah, but nothing can ever separate you from my love.
[00:39:56] And I'm a God who got out of the grave.
[00:39:58] I can pull you out of it too.
[00:40:00] Neither height nor depth nor principality or power or anything in all creation can separate you from my love.
[00:40:05] and I know the plans I still have for you.
[00:40:08] Plans to give you a future and a hope.
[00:40:10] You're not condemned.
[00:40:11] You have hope.
[00:40:12] You have a future.
[00:40:13] I'm gonna use you for blessing and for good and not cursing.
[00:40:19] Joshua 6.
[00:40:24] Joshua 6, Israel has just crossed over the Jordan River into the promised land.
[00:40:29] The first thing they come to is the fortress, the stronghold of Jericho.
[00:40:36] By the way, do you know this?
[00:40:37] You're supposed to read all these Old Testament stories through the lens of the New Testament.
[00:40:42] And when you do that, you recognize that the promised land in the Old Testament is a picture of the Christian life.
[00:40:49] Crossing the Jordan River represents our conversion and our baptism.
[00:40:54] So in other words, these people already belong to God.
[00:40:57] They're already saved, they're already believers.
[00:40:58] And now after becoming Christians, the first thing they come to is a huge satanic fortress.
[00:41:06] See what it's teaching you?
[00:41:07] And against this fortress, they can't use the weapons of their flesh.
[00:41:11] They got no experience tearing down fortresses.
[00:41:13] They don't have any battle siege equipment.
[00:41:16] These walls are insurmountable.
[00:41:17] So they ask God, what do we do?
[00:41:19] And God's instructions to them are crazy, right?
[00:41:24] Put the Ark of the Covenant in front of you.
[00:41:26] Walk around the city once a day for six days.
[00:41:28] On the seventh day, do it seven times.
[00:41:30] On the seventh time, lift up a shout of victory.
[00:41:32] Like, shout of victory.
[00:41:33] All we're doing is walking.
[00:41:36] What kind of military strategy is that?
[00:41:38] It doesn't make any sense.
[00:41:40] They do it.
[00:41:42] And the seventh time when they shout, God brings the walls down.
[00:41:47] Basically, he makes them walk several miles just to declare to themselves and everybody and you and me many thousand years later, where they were just declaring to us through a lot of steps, we can't overcome this stronghold, God can.
[00:42:03] And when they shout that truth to the world, God unleashes through that simple statement of faith, the power of the Spirit.
[00:42:13] Friend, hear this.
[00:42:14] the greatest needs of your life right now, the greatest needs of your life, whether we're talking about your own spiritual growth, the spiritual development of your kids, and all those things, the weapons of your flesh
[00:42:26] are all but useless in producing change.
[00:42:29] To go back to our original story, you can bang on the walls and yell at the top of your lungs for help, and it's just not gonna bring any.
[00:42:37] Gotta press the call button of simple faith in Christ.
[00:42:41] It's the power of the Spirit that you need.
[00:42:44] And that's released, not through your striving, not that you're yelling. It's released through simple faith and obedience, the declaration of victory in Christ. That's what makes these 21 days of prayer and fasting so important,
[00:42:57] by the way. Some of you think, well, what kind of strategy is this for starting the year? I mean, we've got a lot to do. Shouldn't we be planning and fundraising and recruiting volunteers?
[00:43:07] Yeah, we'll get to that. But see, starting with 21 days of prayer and fasting is a great strategy if you understand what kinds of weapon these battles that we're in call for.
[00:43:18] Friend, listen to me.
[00:43:18] I've been meditating on this promise all week long.
[00:43:20] Luke 11, 13, Jesus said he would never, never, never, never, never deny the Spirit to any of his children who asked him for him in faith.
[00:43:33] Never.
[00:43:35] That means he'll give them to you this morning.
[00:43:38] Why don't you bow your heads with me if you would.
[00:43:44] I wanna give you just a little bit of space to deal with these things as the Holy Spirit wants you to.
[00:43:50] And just a minute, our worship teams are gonna come up here.
[00:43:54] I'm gonna ask some of our pastors, elders, Prayer team leaders, I want you to go stand off to the side, okay?
[00:43:59] Down toward the front, but off to the side.
[00:44:02] Church, listen to me, all campuses, some of you got a stronghold that you need broken this morning.
[00:44:07] You may not know all you're up against, but the best word to describe this situation you're in is stronghold.
[00:44:14] And I wanna invite you.
[00:44:16] I wanna invite you to come up here and pray for God's power to break that stronghold.
[00:44:20] I wanna invite you to ask for the Holy Spirit in simple faith.
[00:44:25] You know what you're dealing with is bigger than flesh and blood.
[00:44:28] It might be something in your life, the life of your kids, your marriage, your friends, that you know that what you're wrestling with is a human time for you to recognize this battle for what it is and engage the right weaponry.
[00:44:41] That's what this altar, that's what these altars at our campuses are for.
[00:44:44] Hey, bring somebody with you.
[00:44:46] If you wanna pray with an elder or pastor or one of our church leaders, they'll be off to the side, okay?
[00:44:50] You can go off to the side if you want somebody to pray with you.
[00:44:53] They can help you pray and break that stronghold.
[00:44:54] Otherwise, I'd invite you just to come down and seek God's help here.
[00:44:58] That's what this altar is for.
[00:45:00] it's why we say this is the most important part of our service because the kingdom of God doesn't consist in preaching lessons and good notes. It consists of encounters with power. And that's what I'm giving you an invitation to do right now. Father, I pray in Jesus' name. Lord, I know that
[00:45:18] you want to set some people free this morning. So God, God, give them the ability to believe and obey, to embrace victory, and to run to you. We pray in Jesus' name. In Jesus' name. Church,
[00:45:30] at all campuses, stand to your feet if you would.
[00:45:32] Stand to your feet.
[00:45:33] Stay and keep your head bowed.
[00:45:35] Let's just keep this prayer moment going for a second.
[00:45:38] I invite you to come at your campus and seek help here if that's what is going on.
[00:45:44] In just a minute, our worship teams will come and they'll lead all of us.
[00:45:47] You obey as whatever the Holy Spirit has put in your heart to do.