Slaying the Giants: (Part II)

STRONGHOLDS

Corinthians 10:3-5

Sometime around August last year, Christians all over the world were shocked when a former pastor of Planetshakers, Australia's biggest youth churches, and singer, Michael Guglielmucci, was exposed to making up the story that he was diagnosed with a rare form of terminal blood cancer and multiple secondary cancers for the past two years. As part of his elaborate deception, he even composed a song entitled, "Healer," which was released in one of the latest albums of Hillsong Church. According to Michael, God gave him the lyrics of this praise song the night the doctor diagnosed him of cancer. In one of his concerts, he even sang this song with an oxygen tube in his nose and told the audience that he had broken bones and other unexplained symptoms. Finally, when he came out confessing, he openly admitted that the reason behind his fictitious cancer story was to hide his 16-year obsession with pornography.

It is always disturbing when we hear stories like this because we know it impacts the causes of Christ in negative ways. And it is so easy to pass judgment on people who have been disgraced without being aware of our own struggles of living double lives. Think about it, Michael tried his best to hide his 16 years obsession with pornography. Is it possible that we are also doing our best to hide our own obsessions or addictions?

This morning, as we continue our series on Slaying the Giants, I would like to talk about this very sensitive topic about strongholds. For most people, these are commonly known as obsessions or addictions. Just like what we have said when we started the series, we need to confront and defeat these strongholds if we want God's best in our lives. We cannot ignore them, or allow them to continually intimidate us. We must believe we can conquer them. Let me remind you again with Romans 8:37:

The apostle Paul is almost on the same tone when he was writing the Corinthian church. He alluded the fact that believers are engaged in a spiritual war, and that we have the power to be conquerors. But he opted to say it differently - they have divine power to demolish strongholds (v.4). He uses in this passage the word strongholds. This is the only place in the New Testament that this Greek word occurs, but it is an easy word to understand because it simply means "a place of strength," a place which is essentially and inherently strong. That is, it is a place where evil is entrenched, where it is fortified, protected behind strong defenses.

Do we face situations like that today? Are there situations in your experience as an individual, where evil is entrenched like this? In the life of Michael Guglielmucci, the strongholds are pornography and lying. For others it may be drugs, alcohol, or another type of sin that refuses to budge. Against these strongholds we are not helpless. We should confront them. We should never allow the devil to convince us that there's no way we would overcome them. Let's learn together this morning how we can effectively demolish our strongholds:

I     ACCEPT PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY:

In our war against the Devil, the most critical battlefield is the mind. Paul uses in verse 5 the word arguments, which is another word for reasonings. Then, he also referred to thoughts. In other words, we often fail to demolish strongholds in our lives because we have crafted some false arguments or excuses in our minds so we can regularly give in to some specific sins. Here are some very of the most common excuses:

• "I am just human" or "It's really my weakness"
• "Got it from my environment"
• "My friends made me do it"
• "God made me do it" Or "God made me this way"

We literally need to recognize the absurdity of these excuses and begin taking some personal responsibility for our actions and behaviors. We can never blame God for what we do. If we sin, it is because of our sinful nature; therefore, we are responsible. This truth was addressed by James in his epistle:

We must guard our own evil desires because Satan will definitely tempt us according to our weaknesses. Of course, Satan cannot just tempt us without God's approval. Similar to the experience of Job in the Old Testament, God allows Satan to tempt us within certain limitations. And He allows it due to the following reasons:

A. To Display our Love and Loyalty:

The experience of Abraham in Genesis 22, whereby he was commanded to offer Isaac was a clear test of love and loyalty:

God asked Abraham to make a choice between Him and his favorite son. I'm sure Abraham could have come up with many reasons to disobey, but he decided to obey. And his obedience brought about these words from God:

B. To Develop our Character:

Secondly, God also uses our temptations to help us climb the ladder of spiritual maturity. This is consistent with what James has said:

With these words, we literally need to identify the area where we are being tempted because that is the area where God wants to grow us. Dr. Tony Evans wrote, "Each and every time we are tempted, it is a God-allowed opportunity for growth, because it is an opportunity to choose God over the devil, and righteousness over sin" (A Whole New You, p.107).

C. To Demonstrate God's Great Grace:

Lastly, God can also use our temptation to show us His amazing grace and power. There is a verse that jumps out of my mind in relation to this:

Paul wrote this verse to explain that whenever we commit sin, God's grace is more than sufficient to offer forgiveness and restoration to us. We should never allow the Devil to convince us that our sin is too great for God to withhold forgiveness. He is always faithful to forgive and purify us.

Once again, we must stop making excuses for our sins. We must take personal responsibility for our actions and behaviors. We should not blame anyone except ourselves.

II    APPROPRIATE GOD'S PROVISIONS:

One major lie from the enemy that we should not believe is the idea that we will not overcome our strongholds. The truth is: God in His goodness has provided sufficient help so we can demolish them. In our text, Paul made a reference to the divine power that is at work in the lives of believers (v.4). This power translates to the various spiritual weapons available for us. Before I mention some of these weapons, I believe 1 Corinthians 10:13 is a great passage to start with:

Looking at this, I believe the key phrase is - God is faithful. Why is God's faithfulness significant in times of our temptations? There are three important truths here:

A. He knows exactly how to help you - The devil has not come up with anything original. His temptations are the same for all men, and God knows how to help you with them.

B. He limits the intensity of it - God sets the limit according to our ability to handle them.

C. He always provides an exit door - God will not allow the devil to tempt us without an escape route. For every temptation, there is a solution.

Aside from the faithfulness of God, we also have received God's word as an offensive weapon. This is perfectly illustrated by Jesus Christ himself in Matthew 4: 1-1. After he was baptized, the Holy Spirit led him to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. If you carefully examine the text, for every temptation that the Devil threw at Jesus, He repeated responded by saying, "It is written . . ." (vs.4, 7, 10). In which the Devil had no power over, and so He fled from Christ. Now, think about this, If Jesus needed to use the Word to repel the Devil, how much more you and I?

Practically speaking we can also connect this with Romans 12:2 - "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. . ." Remember again that the battlefield field is in the mind. Therefore, in order to win, we have to replace our thoughts with the Word of God. We have to fill our mind with God's thoughts. I recommend that we find specific verses we can memorize related to our strongholds. This is how you learn to use it as a weapon against the Devil. For example, if your stronghold is fear, you should memorize 2 Timothy 1:7: "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."

I also need to highlight the need for prayers. You would find Jesus resorting to prayers in the garden of Gethsemane before facing the betrayal of Judas and the humiliation of the cross. On our part, we need to ask the Lord for deliverance from our strongholds and to give us a hedge of protection, so we can have victory over our temptations. When we neglect prayers, we won't have the strength to stand against our spiritual enemies. So be sure you pray regularly.

III   ASPIRE FOR CONSISTENT OBEDIENCE:

Lastly, I would like to emphasize the importance of a complete surrender to Christ that is demonstrated in consistent obedience. If you go back to our text, Paul encourages believers to bring all thoughts and imaginations under the control of the one who conquered our soul, Jesus Christ. Everything that is not in accordance to His will should not be a part of our lives. Paul reminded the Roman believers about this fact:

As believers, we are no longer slaves to any sin because Jesus has set us free. Today, we need to be servants to Christ. We have to surrender wholeheartedly to His will so we can obey Him consistently. We are cannot be dedicated one day and not the next. We are to develop consistency. We should obey when we are being watched or not; in good times and in bad; with small things and with big things; or when it's easy and when it's hard. We have to constantly believe that a life of obedience can bring us to the next level in life. God made this promise to all who will live in obedience:

It is possible to demolish our strongholds. Let me encourage you to identify them and use everything that God has provided for you to overcome them. Stop being a victim, and start being a victor. Slay your giant!