Pulling Down Strongholds 8 2005 am

Pulling Down Strongholds

2 Corinthians 10:3-6

u “The term Stockholm Syndrome first occurred in 1973 at an attempted bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden. A man tried to rob a bank, and the police caught him inside. He took three female hostages and one male hostage and held them for 131 hours, during which time he terrorized them. He fired his Russian automatic assault weapon at them. He threatened to kill them on numerous occasions. He put nooses around their necks and threatened to hang them. But he didn’t harm any of them. When he finally surrendered, something very unusual happened. We expected the hostages to be antagonistic toward the hostage taker. But instead they said they feared the police more than the hostage taker. They also said they didn’t hate the hostage taker. They refused to testify against him. One of the ladies became engaged to this hostage taker, and as far as I know, she’s still engaged to him.

“The FBI analyzed thousands of hostage situations since that time. We found this happens very frequently. So we asked psychologists, “What happened? What causes this?” They said in hostage situations, with a high level of life‑threatening stress and positive human interaction, the people’s ego‑defensive mechanisms come into play. There is denial of what is happening and regression to a different emotional state. The hostage will eventually begin to transfer his hatred—This guy doesn’t really want to hurt me—and begins to hate the policemen. And something else very important begins to happen; a love relationship begins to take place. And this love relationship is like what happens between a young child and a mother. The mother is protecting the child from the terrifying world and providing all its needs. This love relationship occurs both ways.

u Jim, a Christian businessman, did well in a company and finally decided to hive off on his own. The situation was opportune, and his business began to take off. He began to make money. He began to be caught up in it. He threw himself into it with increased vigor—twelve and fourteen hours a day. The Sunday school class he’d been teaching had to drop because he didn’t have time to prepare. Then he found he could only make it to Sunday morning worship service, and after several months he wasn’t very faithful in that. His business made many demands on him, and often he had to play golf with some of his friends on Sunday or go out of town.

Soon things began to change at home. His attitude toward his wife and children became indifferent, and he had less time to spend with them. His wife remonstrated him, and he got angry and bitter at her. When she talked about going to church, he was critical of the church and then didn’t go at all. When his wife again remonstrated gently, he said, “Oh, they’re a bunch of hypocrites. They don’t know what’s going on in the world.”

 Jim had been taken hostage by the world.

u There’s a story about a man like that in the Bible. When Paul was in Rome and in prison the first time, he wrote several books. He mentioned that one of the men helping him there was Demas. He sent greetings from Demas to all his friends back in what we now call Turkey.                                    Then Paul was released from prison, and we assume Demas and the others were part of his team as they traveled.

In his second imprisonment, Paul wrote several books as well, the last of which was his letter to Timothy, one of Demas’ peers.                                In the last chapter of 2 Timothy—the last paragraph that Paul ever wrote as far as we know—there is one tragic sentence: Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world.”

Taken captive. Taken hostage. And lost to the cause of Christ.

In a similar way, Satan has invaded territory he did not create and does not own, bringing with him death, disease, and destruction.

 God has formed a coalition of His people, made up of all races, classes, and  cultures, who have one overriding purpose: to serve notice on the enemy that he must vacate the premises.

The whole of the universe is divided into two rival kingdoms-the kingdom of light or righteousness ruled by God, and the kingdom of darkness or evil commanded by Satan.

-------- He is our enemy and our world is the battleground where his efforts to compete with God are played out.

 The apostle Paul warned the early Christians about this: "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph. 6:12).

In chapter 10 of Second Corinthians, Paul is sounding a alarm. He wanted the Christian believers in Cor­inth to understand that they were, in fact involved in a "war of the worlds."

Though they hadn't yet perceived the danger, the invasion had already begun, and Paul was calling them to prepare for battle. Corinth was to be a battlefield in this cosmic war of the worlds.

Paul often described the Christian life in terms of warfare.

In 1 Timothy 1:18, he provides instruction so that his young brother in the faith can "fight the good fight." I

In 2 Timothy 2:3, he encourages Timothy, "Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Jesus Christ."

In Ephesians 6:11 and follow­ing, Paul talks about putting on "the full armor of God."

Why the military terminology?

Paul indicates that we are caught up in a cosmic struggle between good and evil, be­tween the forces of light and the forces of darkness.

Each one of us is faced with a decision: Which side of the struggle will we support?

In these verses, Paul suggests a strategy that we must adopt if we are to be true to Christ.

We trust in God's Power, Not the World's

As Christians our victory is not dependent on our own might or skills, but on the power of God.

 We can be confident servants and witnesses of the Lord Jesus, because we rest on His power.

Like Paul, we can go into a world in need as humble, loving servants. -----It does not matter what the world around us says or does, for we go forth in the power of the One who holds all of creation in his hands. We emphasize God's power, not our own.

We Walk by God's Standards, Not the World's

While he lived in the world, with all the difficulties and conflicts that involves, Paul wanted them to see that as Chris­tians we must not live according to the world.

****** Christ has called us out from the world's standards and values, to live at a higher level.

That is one of the great challenges we have as Christians:

to live in the world without being of the world.

 …..Jesus de­scribed it as being salt, giving seasoning to the world; being light, illuminating the darkness of the world; being leaven, making an impact on the world.

In the world but not living according to the world.

The battle of the Christian life is a battle for the mind.!!!!

 Who will control your mind and the minds of your kids?

 Whoever controls the mind controls the feet. So if you are walking wrong, you are thinking wrong. Satan keeps working on your mind until your feet start turning in that direction.

******That's the problem with believers who constantly feed themselves with junk and don't get fed with the Word of God.

·         If you are constantly being inundated by godless music, godless friends, and godless amusements, all of a sudden things you used to think were terrible won't seem all that bad.

Paul says we do not war against the flesh with the flesh. Instead, we tear down the strongholds and the false way of thinking of this world order because it's all in the mind.

The results of this are very interesting: The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace"

 (Romans 8:6).  “For the carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”

 >>This doesn't necessarily mean that the Christian who is living for the flesh is going to drop dead. ----------Death here is the opposite of life and peace-a spiritual impoverishment that sets in when the Spirit is not being obeyed.

>>In this condition you may be alive and well physical­ly, but spiritually withered.---------- Your spiritual life is ebbing away, and that leads to all sorts of emotional anxiety and depression, because your mind has been taught to focus on the flesh, and there is no peace, no joy, and no purpose in the flesh.

>>>This is when Christians start doing the same things non-Christians do to find peace because they are not get­ting it from the Spirit. There's emptiness, lack of peace, and anxiety because they are cut off from the Spirit's life.

Walking in the Spirit

On the other hand, if you set your mind on the things of the Spirit, you have life and peace. You have purpose and meaning and joy, and you are content.

 When the Holy Spirit is in control, you say, "Lord, it's in Your hands. Things may not be where I want them to be, but it's where You have them so I'm going to be content with it."

You have a relaxed mental attitude and you are at peace. External circumstances do not govern your life. None of that really matters because you are at peace.

TWO CONTRASTING IDENTITIES

Where do you draw your identity from?

 Paul suggests two possible identities in Romans 8:8-9:

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

Notice how Paul changes prepositions………… ……….Prior to this he has been talking about living according to the flesh.

Now he talks about being in the flesh. Why? Because now he's not talking about how you are living. He's talking about who you are.

Every person on earth is either in the sphere of the flesh-that is, unsaved;

or in the sphere of the Spirit-that is, saved. Remember, Paul's concern is Christians who are in the Spirit but who are living according to the flesh.

"First of all," he says, "let's get straight who you are." A lot of us are not acting like we should act because we don't remember who we are

If you forget who you are, you are going to forget how you are supposed to act.

Christian, do you know who you are?

Þ    You are a child of God.

Þ    You are a saint.

Þ    You are sanctified.

Þ    You are secure. You have royal blood flow­ing through your veins. That's who you are!

Christian brother or sister, when Jesus died, you died. When Jesus arose, you arose. When Jesus comes back, you will rise to go with Him because that's who you are.

 So you and I must understand who we are in Christ. We have a new identity now.

 So Paul says in verse 11: "If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.

The same power that got Jesus up out of the grave is the power that will get you up out of that sin: up out of someone's bed you don't belong in; out of that unholy lan­guage you are using; out of that temper you can't control; out of that jealousy that's overcoming you; out of that contradiction you are living.

*****With that kind of power at work in you, you don't have to live a dead life.

*****The Holy Spirit can turn the resurrection power of Christ loose in you.!!!!!

We Use God's Weapons, Not the World's

Paul says. He points out in verse 4, "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world   

What kind of weapons does the world use?

The world uses force, manipulation, propaganda, political pressure, legisla­tion, military power.

What kind of weapons does God provide? Perhaps the best summary is the one Paul provides in chapter 6 of Ephesians, where he outlines the "full armor of God."

There we see the kinds of weapons God's people have been given: truth, right­eousness, the gospel, faith, salvation, the Word of God, and prayer (Eph. 6:14-18).

What a tragedy that all too often the church feels the ne­cessity of abandoning the weapons God has given us in order to adopt the world's agenda.

What happens when we use the spiritual weapons God has given us?

We demolish the world's strongholds.

How can we ever overcome such strongholds?

Only through the spiritual weaponry God provides!

When we use God's weapons, we demolish strongholds.

I HEARD A story once about a man who had always wanted to go on an ocean cruise. For years, he put away a portion of his meager earnings and finally saved enough to pay the fare: $1,3OO every penny he had. In fact, he packed himself a basket full of peanut butter sandwiches because he knew he would not be able to spend another penny once he boarded the ship. As he enjoyed the swimming and the sun deck and the fresh air, he noticed how well the other passengers were eating. They seemed to do little else. Wherever he looked were lavish spreads of appetizers, salads, fruits, breads, and desserts. At the end of the long buffet tables chefs were carving mouth-watering slabs of beef, roast turkey, and rack of lamb. On the last day of the cruise, his curiosity got the better of him. He stopped a passing steward, who was carrying a particularly delicious looking room service tray

"Excuse me, young man," he asked. "How much does a meal like that cost?"

The steward was taken aback by such a question, but managed an answer. "Sir, you don't understand. Al the food you want is included in the price of you ticket."

How tragic to be given such a privilege and not use it!

THE PRIVILEGE OF PRAYER

If we were to take a survey of married couples, we'd almost certainly find that one key distinction that separated the strong marriages from the stagnant one is good communication. It's just about impossible to grow close to someone without clear, honest, two way communication.

Nowhere is that more true than in our relationship with God.

Prayer may be defined as regular communication with God in which committed believers develop a intimate fellowship with their Father.

The fact of the matter is the depth of our prayer life reflects the depth of our relationship with God.

 This is why prayer was so intrinsic to the life of Christ.

Mark 1:35 records the busiest day in the earthly life of Christ, a day He preached in many synagogues. Yet on that day He did not sleep in to get more energy; instead, He rose before daylight to pray. The busier His schedule, the greater His need for God. When He was on His way to the cross He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. When He was suffering on the cross, He prayed.

Most of us have checking accounts at our local banks. Our checks give us the power and authority to make withdrawals from the bank, based on the amount of money in our accounts. When we write a check, the bank stands behind the endorsed check and releases that amount.

God has deposited the riches and righteousness of Christ Jesus, which Paul called "every spiritual bless­ing" (Eph. 1:3), into the spiritual bank account of every believer The amount in the account is nothing short of staggering

**** Yet Chris­tians seem unable to write spiritual checks against their account. The check writing process for Chris­tians is called prayer.

The author of Hebrews summarized this unique privilege when he wrote, 'Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb. 4:14-16).

 God has set aside a place where we can come and freely receive His mercy. It's called the "throne of grace," a phrase which could rightly be transliterated

"the throne that dispenses grace."