April 27, 2008
Sermon #730
Breaking the Strongholds of Our Mind
2 Corinthians 10:1 - 6 (NKJV) 1Now I, Paul, myself am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—who in presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you. 2But I beg you that when I am present I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. 3For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
2 Corinthians 10:3 - 6 (TMSG) 3The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. 4The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. 5We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. 6Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.
Introduction: The parents of a young man received a package addressed to their son and delivered to their home. It was very heavy and the mother decided to open it. Inside she found the fuel to make a bomb. The woman and her husband searched the young man’s room and found plans, detailed plans, to blow up his high school and kill many of his class mates. The parents called the police! The young man was intellectually at the top of his class and had a scholarship for a leading university. Why would he do such a thing? Is he demon possessed?
Warped Philosophies
Whosoever said that having brains made one wholly!
1 Corinthians 1:26 - 31 (NKJV) 26For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 27But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29that no flesh should glory in His presence. 30But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption— 31that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”
Secular Humanism (what the young man learned in school)– the philosophy of a massively corrupt culture
If there is no One to create the universe there is no God
If there is no God there is no moral law (if God does not exist sin cannot exist)
If there is no moral law – killing hundreds of students is OK. (This is a brilliant young man who has followed the teaching of his school to its logical conclusion)
Ecclesiastes 8:14 - 15 (NKJV) 14There is a vanity which occurs on earth, that there are just men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. 15So I commended enjoyment, because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry; for this will remain with him in his labor all the days of his life which God gives him under the sun.
Corrupt Religion (another problem in the news)
Romans 4:1 - 9 (NKJV) 1What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? 2For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 4Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. 5But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, 6just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: 7“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are covered; 8Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.” 9Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.
If Jesus is not the savior, He did not die on the cross for our sins then the religion of works is perfectly logical.
For a Moslem to blow himself, or herself up to kill the enemy and be awarded a place in paradise is reasonable.
1 Corinthians 13:1 - 3 (NKJV) 1Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
For a Fundamental Mormon to rape little girls is perfectly reasonable.
Joseph Smith said that God told him that polygamy was necessary in order to go to the “celestial heaven.” Spirit children are waiting to be born so that they can receive bodies and go on to exaltation to obtain godhood. In order for that to happen it is logical that men should have many wives in order to produce many children. It is also logical that the girls begin having babies as early as possible. What’s wrong with that? – I am being sarcastic but it’s the logical course of false religious teaching!
If God’s purpose for me on earth is to make me rich why shouldn’t I manipulate to take from you to make me prosperous?
The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture.
ILL: God gives us the tools for prosperity so that we can give and support the gospel- not so we can use it own our own excesses. Can you believe what our “public servants earn?”
Casting down imaginations
2 Corinthians 10:4 - 6 (NKJV) 4For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
ILL: Notice Paul did not say casting down Satan but bringing every thought into captivity –the battle rages between faith and fear right between your ears!
2 Timothy 1:6 - 9 (NKJV) 6Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 8Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, 9who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began…
ILL: What could fear cause Timothy to do? 1. Be ashamed to his testimony. 2. Be ashamed of Paul – because being connected to Paul could put Timothy into prison.
What do you fear?
Rejection?
Failure
Lack
Success
Divorce
Sickness – cancer
Demons
Death
Hebrews 2:14 - 16 (NKJV) 14Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 16For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham.
ILL: If death cannot defeat the Christian – what can?
How to cast down those thoughts
Think on other things
Philippians 4:8 - 9 (NKJV) 8Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. 9The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
Praise and worship
Acts 16:20 - 26 (NKJV) 20And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, “These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city; 21and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.” 22Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. 23And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. 24Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. 25But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed.
2 Chronicles 20:20 - 22 (NKJV) 20So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.” 21And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying: “Praise the Lord, For His mercy endures forever.” 22Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated.
Conclusion: I can hear you! “But Pastor the problems I have are real!” Yes they are but you cannot break free from the problems out there until you handle the problem between your ears.
2 Corinthians 3:17 - 18 (NKJV) 17Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Freedom from the problem comes when we take the veil off our minds and we truly see who we are and where we are in Him then the situation is changed – we do not go from mess to glory, but from glory to glory. There is liberty, freedom!
