Strongholds

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good afternoon everyone. It is Sunday, November seventeenth, twenty twenty four. It is currently four five pm Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. How are you feeling today? Are you upbeat, positive, happy? Or are you discouraged, depressed, frustrated.

0:42 Maybe you're just kind of in between. Maybe you don't feel anything, Maybe you're comfortably numb. What are you feeling today? Well, for me, right now, I guess I'm feeling a little bit better. Maybe I've I've reached a level of acceptance, because if you've been listening to the broadcast, it's kind of been this downward trajectory from frustrated, to discourage, to depress, to defeated, to give up to all hope is lost. It's over. I'm done, I quit, I resign, I retire, I don't care. I'm walking away. It's nothing matters anymore.

1:26 It's meaningless, meaningless, it's hopeless, it's helpless. Who cares anymore? That's kind of where I reach, And that may sound a little bit hyperbolic, but there's a lot of truth to it. So maybe I feel a little bit better. I'm not so sure, all right, So as everyone knows, because I've been mentioning it a lot recently. December twenty twenty three, I turned on this very microphone and I was all excited, and I was positive, and I was upbeat, and I was energetic and I was hopeful. Right, I had a great idea. In twenty twenty four, we're gonna do the sermons two point oh the Sermon two point oh app Sermon Challenge, the Sermon two point oh app Sermon Challenge. Everyone download the sermon two point oh app, and then every single day you're gonna listen to one random sermon on the sermon two point oh app. It's got to you just choose it at random. It can just don't pick your favorite pastor favorite church or favorite denomination.

2:30 And each day you listen to a sermon, you write down the name of the sermon and the broadcaster, and then you write kind of a summary of what the sermon was about. And the goal is that you will have a notebook and at the end of twenty twenty four you will have one sermon for every single day of the entire year. What a great idea. It will be you listening to sermons, and I'll be listening to sermons, and other people will be listening to sermons, and we'll be discussing them. We'll be talking about them, and I'll be doing sermon reviews, and it'll be exciting, and we'll be learning and we'll be challenged. What a great thing to do for an entire year. By the end of the year, just think of all the sermons we have heard, Just think of all the Bible teaching, Just think of all the lessons we have learned, all the challenges. It will be amazing. It will be glorious. Okay, maybe I didn't quite present it that positive, but I really thought it was going to be a good thing, and maybe for a good portion of the year it was. But over time I started becoming very, very frustrated by the situation.

3:34 As I have clearly outlined and a lot of broadcast recently, right, I just felt like, what is going on the way the scriptures are being handled, This constant making claims that are just nowhere connected to reality and just bother and I'm not going to go back and review everything that I've talked about, but just, oh, what do I do? And so we've been talking about false comfort, fake comfort, fraudulent comfort, promises giving an illusion of hope where there is actually none, and we've been talking about that now for hours upon hours. So today I can't necessarily say what began to change. But as I was driving away from church, I kind of felt at least a little bit like a weight had been taken off, and I left the weight somewhere and a back road here in West Texas, right because I always take the back way home right out in the middle of nowhere, there's just yeah, cattle and whatever is out there. I felt like, in a sense, I stopped at the side of the road, took the weight and just left it there. And I feel a little bit better, a little bit better. And my philosophy, I think, moving forward, my ideology moving forward, is this, look, Christianity is going to do what Christianity does.

4:57 It's been doing it basically my whole Christian life, and I've always found myself at odds, frustrated and irritated by a majority of it. I've always felt like an outsider. I don't really belong I've always been. I feel in conflict with it. I've said so many times most Christians I don't really want to even talk the Bible with them. I just I just always feel at out like an outsider, and for all of the reasons I have outlined before. But I'm not going to be able to change that. I'm not. Maybe maybe there was a time that I thought, yes, there's got to be there's got to be a room, there's got to be room for there's got to be hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions, of people who are looking for something different, looking for an alternative. But at this point in my life, I realize there's not that many who want an alternative. People want just what you get in christian Oh, they claim they want to alternative, but and they'll try to they'll try to say that their church is so radically different than that church by emphasizing maybe a specific doctrinal distinctive. But churches basically operate as churches.

6:11 Oh. You may say, well, we don't help a praise band, but the overall things you do in church and the way preaching is done, it's far more similar than people would like to believe. It's very similar. In what people expect. So my idea of something different, it's never it's never going to be popular, it's never going to gain support. It's not like I'm going to wake up tomorrow and someone's going to be like, I so agree with what you're trying to do. I'm going to send you one hundred thousand dollars so your podcast is supported for the rest of your life. Like, nothing like that's going to happen, right, Okay, There's going to be a small group of people who at least appreciate what I'm trying to do, and even they may not always agree. And so what what should I do? Well, here's what I think I should do. I should just, I don't know for how long, continue to turn on the microphone and not so much try to fight it as much as just say, well, here's what they think, and here's here's something different. Like I can get frustrated, I can get angry, I can get mad, and it does bother me because I do believe a lot of this preaching leads people to false hope, false comfort, And we spent two hours yesterday talking about all of the negative consequences. I do believe it creates some serious mental and emotional issues. I do believe it creates a lot of negative things. But I can yell and scream about it, or I can just say, hey, I can turn on the microphone talk about what's going on in Christianity and

7:43 then do Bible studies, do devotionals, do things and just try to just try to offer an alternative and just try to move forward. It's all I can really do. Now. I've still got to work my way out of this pit and still dealing with the false comfort. I think we did. I think we did pretty at least at least for our study in Isaiah forty through fifty five. At least now we can actually get into Isaiah forty and we can move forward and just do Bible teaching and not have to correct all of the false comfort and people misapplying the scripture and taking out of context. So maybe that's why I feel a little bit better. Maybe I can't say for sure, but I can still just keep listening to what's going on in Christianity, and I can yell and scream, or I can just try to say here's how they teach it, what about this, and just move forward.

8:35 I don't know if it will work. Maybe my emotions right now are allowing me to do it. Who knows. Maybe by the time I'm done doing what I'm about to do, I'm going to be right back in the same pit. But here's what I know. It's November seventeenth. Before we know it, it's over, twenty twenty four is in the history books, ladies and gentlemen, before you know it, it's going to be twenty twenty five. Can you believe that? And whatever we accomplished, and the sermon's two point oh app sermon challenge, I don't know if it's going to be seen as a success, but I'm going to drive this to the end. So it's November seventeenth. I'm going to just try to maybe increase the sermon reviews, but try to approach it like, yeah, are these sermon reviews gonna probably do some of the things that I keep telling you is driving me crazy? Yes?

9:28 Are they probably going to drive me crazy? Yes? But I can just say, Okay, that's what they gave us. Now let's see what we can do and just just kind of just not really worry so much that just they give us their hypotheses, they give us their thesis, and just kind of say, all right, that's the Christianity that's out there. By all means, go and enjoy it. But for us, we're going to approach this text this way. I think that's what I'm going to try to do. I don't know if I can maintain such a an optimistic attitude, but yeah, the I don't know what happened. I think because Isaiah forty begins with comfort ye comfort yee. And I know people out there really need true comfort.

10:10 I know sometimes I've needed true comfort in life, and sometimes I believe Christianity has only given me platitudes, cliches, and empty, fraudulent, meaningless promises that are just lies. It's just a sham. It's just. It's all just just meaningless. So maybe that's why it hit me more. Maybe it hit me more because of my own personal feelings. I don't know, But here's what we're going to do. So here's what happened. I don't know what day it was. It may have been Wednesday, may have been Wednesday. I think I was trying to figure out do I record? What do I record? And so I went to the sermon's two point oh app and I looked at the live webcast, and I saw that a live webcast was beginning, so I just started watching, kind of had the volume time down because they were singing.

11:01 Then they did this weird I think a lot of these broadcasters don't realize if you're broadcasting, you got to remember your broadcasting, Like you don't need to start your broadcast until the sermon begins. If you're going to broadcast everything in your worship service, it's got to be understood that everyone's watching. Because they went to this weird thing where okay, then they stopped and they did prayer requests. So the person standing behind the pulpit, he's got a notebook. He's like, okay, brother so and so, you can't hear brother so and so speak. Really you can't hear him. So he kind of writes down the prayer requests. Hey, I don't know if he even repeats it, and then it'll access he so and so. So everyone gives their prayer request. You can't really hear half of the prayer requests because the audience isn't miked, so you really can't hear any of that. And then they just bring up like all these people just kind of come forward to pray, but nobody is miked, so if they're praying, you can't hear anybody. So it's basically like twenty minutes of silence.

12:02 The video camera's going and you've got someone with their head bowed, but you can't hear anyone praying, So it's twenty minutes. Of just silence. It's like, why would you be recording that? Why would you be live streaming that? And not to make it not only worse, when they uploaded their recording, they uploaded it with all of that, and I'm like, what, who, who's running your audio visual department? Someone take over, right, because you would think if you're going to upload it, you would at least delete all of that and then cut it. So it's just a sermon because everything else is not miked properly, you don't even know what's going on. So but I that was Wednesday, and then but when they started preaching, I was like, oh, okay, well this is a very famous passage. I wonder how they're going to approach it now. On Wednesday, I was still very much in my frustration, my irritation, and I'm like, you got to be kidding me. Here's another sermon doing the exane things that I'm yelling and screaming about. But I stated to myself, I do want to review that and do some work on it, because after the sermon, I spent thirty forty five minutes working on things about the concept.

13:12 I've got all of these notes right here. So I'm like, well, either I try to turn this into a sermon or we just do the review. So I kept waiting and waiting for them to upload it, waiting and waiting. Wednesday night, they didn't upload it. Thursday, they didn't upload it. Friday, they didn't upload it, Saturday didn't upload it. Finally on Sunday they uploaded it with this Morning sermon. So they uploaded this from Wednesday and then this Morning sermon. I don't know why they waited till Sunday, but okay, maybe someone came back to church on Sunday and realized no one uploaded it. I guess nobody in the church. It's sad. You know what's sad. So many times churches you do podcasting, you do broadcasting, you upload your sermons, and a lot of times it's the people in your own church who don't listen. That's one of the most discouraging things, because if if people go to that church and they pay attention, that would immediately contacted the pastor. I said, hey, where's Wednesday's message? You're ever going to upload it? But you know, I don't know. Maybe maybe people did call it and they just didn't feel like uploading it whatever, So I have it ready to go.

14:15 Now. I know going in that this is probably going to go really bad as far as I'm going to be disagreeing, but I'm going to approach it again. I'm just going to say, that's what Christianity does. I can't worry about it. I can't fight it. What I can do is say, hey, guys, you can have this Christianity that's being presented to you, here's an alternative perspective, and try to just do it in a much more Now. I'm still I mean, you know, I'm still dramatic. You know, I'm still going to be I mean, come on, I mean, that's never going to change, but hopefully it just won't lead me to the pit of despair wanting to just you know, I know when I say this it bothers people, but sometimes you just look at what goes on in Christianity and you just kind of want to say, you know what, between my own but if I consider my own sin, my own failure, my own weaknesses, my own problems, and then some of the crazy and just the way the scriptures are handled, sometimes it just makes you want to just say, you know what, I just walk away from it all. But on the other hand, well, here I am, so I guess as long as I'm here, let's see what we can accomplish.

15:24 Alrighty. So the text that's about to be preached on is Second Corinthians chapter ten, verses three through six, where we read these words, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh, For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God. To the pulling down of strongholds. To the pulling down of strongholds, here is your question in the context of Second Corinthians, chapter ten, meaning the entire book. So in the context of Second Corinthians, what would those strongholds be talking about? In the context of the book. I know you want to take strongholds, and I want to take strongholds, and preachers want to take and a stronghold can be this, and a stronghold can be this, and we just start making it whatever we want it to make. But obviously, in the writing of in these words and Second Corinthians chapter ten, writing to the church at court, those strongholds have to have some significance to them, right or do Once again, we don't worry about them. We just insert ourselves.

16:38 So that's kind of the question we're going to go after. What does it mean? How has church history interpreted this whole idea of strongholds, and what is he going to do with it? Well, we're going to find out, and we're going to try to take it again in a more positive way. I don't want to connect whatever he does here, want to necessarily connect it with all of the false comfort false piece. I don't want to necessarily connect it with that. I want to kind of move forward from that. All right, So we will see, all right, And I'm getting all kinds of weather notifications that the end of the world is about to happen. So but all right, I'm going to ignore what's going on. Possibly on that note, I think we're supposed to get some bad storms soon. I don't know, but we're just going to move forward. So if you hear the end of the world happening when I come back on It's just a storm, all right.

17:28 But in the meantime, as long as I got power internet connection, I got a Bible. Let's hear how at least some parts of Christianity handle tewo Corinthians, Chapter ten, Versus three through through five. Basically, I read three through four, and then we'll see if maybe you look at some different ways of approaching it. Here we go. And read down to verse number six, and then I'm going to jump to first Peter and read one or two verses and then give you the thought that the Lord laid on my heart. I'll be honest with you, this is more of a review than it is anything else.

18:13 I'm just coming at it in a different angle, I guess you would say. And the Bible says, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. Well, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down the strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought, to the obedience of Christ. And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. Now in First Peter chapter number five.

19:05 Okay, and he's getting ready to go to First Peter chapter five. I'm assuming he's going to go to First Peter chapter five, verse eight about Satan be a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. I think that's where he's headed. But before he gets there, let me make it very clear, because I want to. I don't know if you heard it. He's going to preach and share what God has laid on his heart. Now, I've told you to watch for this in preaching over and over and over. I know preachers don't mean. I can't speak for what preachers mean to do or don't mean to do. Whatever the intention is, it's manipulative, ladies and gentlemen. If I sit here and then I'm saying what I'm about to teach you is what God laid on my heart, what God gave me, then you cannot challenge it. You cannot question it, because how dare you question a message that God gave to someone. But preachers of all philological background say, God laid this on my heart. God laid this on my heart. Well, Preacher one says, God laid this on my heart. Preacher two says, God lead this on my heart. And the two sermons absolutely contradict one another, and one is saying that the other one is wrong, and the other one is saying the other one is wrong. Well, God could not have laid it on both of their hearts to preach something that contradicts one another and say that the other one is wrong. God is not speaking to one of them, or God is not speaking to any of them. And I will argue God is not speaking to anyone up outside of the pages of Scripture.

20:27 So God didn't lay it on your heart. God didn't give you the message. God didn't speak to you. You read, you studied your thought, and you came up with a sermon. God does not download the sermon into you. He doesn't give you the sermon, because if he does, it would be infallible. And if God has given us sermons and God is laying on our heart what to preach, then ladies and gentlemen, there would not be fifty bazillion different denominations and groups with all kinds of different theological backgrounds. There would be unity. There would be consistency, once again, that's Christianity making these claims that are just so contradictory to reality. But just keep that in mind, because I didn't listen to everything. But I believe he comes back in and says.

21:20 Something. I think he says something later in the sermon that's somewhat controversial, and then I think he basically says, he that's what God told me to say, meaning then you can't challenge him or or do anything. So I guess what I could do is any time I say something controversial, I can say, well, that's what God told me to say. I mean, I mean, you see how just manipulative that is. It's Oh, it's such a game. But I think he's getting ready to go to First Peter chapter five, if I remember correctly now that remember that was Wednesday. I've done lots of reading, studying, listening to sermons, preparing sermons. I believe it's on Peter five eight where he's going because yep, be sober, be vigilant, because you're at adversary. The devil as a roaring line walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Now he's going to connect that with the Second Corinthians ten. For though we walk in the flesh.

22:11 We do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not colonel, but are mighty through God. To the pulling down of strongholds. Now, is a satan that establishes the strongholds? Or do we establish the strongholds? Okay, lots of questions. Is Satan connected to this? For the weapons of our warfare? Do we is Paul referencing a warfare? Again, we always just assume that satan and spiritual warfare is the issue. Are we assuming that's what Paul is referencing. Well, let's see what he does here. In verse number seven, no verse eight. I'm sorry, we all know this verse very well. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring line talk about seeking whom he made a vow who resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. Peter reminds them that they're not the only ones that goes through this. Basically, what he said right there in verse number nine is that you had to keep in mind you're not all by yourself, and so don't get to that place in your life where you pity yourself because you think you're the only one that's got problems. The truth of the

23:43 matter is, if you're breathing, you got problems. Isn't that right? And so we know for a fact that we're all in this thing, and we're all part of the same old flesh, that we're all part of the same problems. I mean, your problems may be may look a little bit different than mine, but in the inn they end, it's a problem no matter how you look at it. Amen. But I want to preach just a little while on the on what a stronghold is does and all that other stuff. And basically, like I said, it's more of a review than it is anything else. So let's pray, and that's the Lord to help us tonight. Father, we love you, we praise you, and we thank you tonight that we have the privilege of being in the house of God. Lord. What a wonderful honor to be saved by the grace of God and have a place to come to worship and get out this world. Lord for a few minutes, learn about the Word of God. Lord.

24:54 I'm thankful for my Bible. I bless your Holy Name for it. Every time I open it, I'm reminded of the power of God and how you've preserved it these six thousand years. Lord, you put this thing together, and you have held it together by your spirit. And no matter what men may do or what the devil might try to do, it's still the Word of God. And Lord, it's forever settled in heaven. It'll never change. So tonight I give you glory for that, and I praise your Holy name. No matter how many times we may read a verse or how many times we may preach a message, that there's always something that we can glean from it that we didn't glean before. Word of God is alive and it's sharper than any two edges sword use it. Tonight, I pray, o, God, as only you can spirit touch us and help us give us that which we need. Lord, that which we cannot do for ourselves. Would you please, or God, we give you the glory for it in Jesus name, Amen, and Amen. I know that we we all understand that the very first step in having a

26:25 relationship with God comes by salvation. If you're not saved, you have absolutely no relation with God. As a matter of fact. According to the scripture, we're dead to God, we are separated from God, we are not his And according to Matthew chapter number seven, there will be many at the judgment seat that he looks at and says, depart from me, for I never knew you. And so there are a lot of people that don't understand the fact that you got to be born again in order to have any kind of relationship with God Almighty. Now that's the first step to relationship. It's salvation. The second thing is this, the very next step after God saves us by his grace, is the fact that we begin to be conformed to the image of His son. The Bible says in many places that we are to put off the old and put on the news. This is not a process that happens overnight. This is not something that you wake up the next day after you have made your profession of faith and boom there you are.

27:46 This is something that takes years and years and years to perfect. If you will, it takes years for you to get the junk out of your life. And that's what I want to talk about out and focus on tonight. Is that very thing. We'll say a bunch of different things. But I want you to keep that thought in mind, is that we, as God's children, need to be conforming the God's image or the God's Son's image a amen, every single day of our life a man. And when we're not conforming to His image, I can promise you this, we're building strongholds. Amen.

28:29 Okay, So there's a lot of emphasis on we we we we we we right, So we have to conform, we have to be It makes it sound like we have to conform ourselves to the image of God. We have to do it. We we we Now, the question is he says, it takes years and years and years to perfect it. Well, you're never going to be perfectly conformed to the image of Christ. I don't care how hard you work in no matter what you do, because you have a sinful nature. But the emphasis is on we have to do it. So then the question is do we conform ourselves to the image of Christ or does Christ conform us to His image? Are we doing it or is he doing it? Or is it a synergistic So is it monogistic synergistic? If it's monogistic, it's the work of God. It's a synergistic we're both involved.

29:19 And if we're both involved, and I mean, this is where it becomes very complicated. But he says, when we're not being conformed, we're building strongholds. So either you are you are conforming yourself to the image of Christ, or you are building strongholds. So we do the building of the stronghold, or we do the conforming to the image. It sounds like that it's all up to us. You are either building a stronghold or you're working to conform yourself to the image of Christ every day. You're either you're. Doing one because if you're not conforming, you are building. If you're not conforming to the image of Christ, you're building a stronghold. That is kind of his high hypothesis. That is kind of his argument. All right, you either are conforming or you are building. Wow, okay, all right, that's very black and white. Either or Okay. I don't know if it's that simple, but okay, So but just note you do the building of the stronghold, you do.

30:18 All right, let's see what he does with this, and so think about this. So the next step is conforming and I mentioned that here because this is where our strongholds really and truly begin to take root. If we fail to see and understand our responsibility as a saved individual, then there's going to be areas in our life that we don't work on and that we don't go to work on, and that we fight God over, and there's gonna be things in our life that we're not willing to give up and Listen, this is the big one, things that we just do not to change.

31:03 Now you can kind of see that his understanding of stronghold is areas in your life that need to be changed. It's about behavior. So stronghold seems to be the way he seems to be articulating it. A stronghold is a behavior in your life that you are not well allowing to be conformed to the image of Christ. In other words, here's a behavior. You need to conform that behavior to the image of Christ, which means it possibly you would stop doing that, and if you don't, now you've built a stronghold. So stronghold seems to equate to behavior. Just keep that in mind. You know you may not, I know you're going to be shocked by this. Not everyone agrees in Christian history what exactly the stronghold is I know that's shocking, Okay, I say that jokingly because so many Christians just seem to think, well, this is the way it is. Do you realize two thousand years of church history, there's only like setny different ideas of what it could be. I love how assertive and dogmatic we always think that we are, but it really is never that simple. So his idea is stronghold equals behavior behavior that you are not conforming to the image of Christ. If your behavior is not conformed to the image of Christ, then in your behavior you're building a stronghold. That seems to be how he's articulating it. Now he may expand on it, and it may just he may keep adding to it. So before you know it, you may not even really know what a stronghold is, or maybe he will not. Let's find out.

32:34 Amen, So we enter into a relationship with Christ with all this garbage in our life, one bit by bit, step by step, God wants us to grow in his grace, and we need to understand and realize that we have a responsibility Amen, to change the things that we need to. Everybody said, well, God changed my life. God changed you on the inside, but you have and I had a responsibility of change in things as God dealt with us. Isn't that right? Okay? So God changed us on the inside. So what so his hypothesis seems to be is that internally we've been completely changed. So I guess on the inside there's no sinful nature. I mean, if we've been complete like, this is always the weird. This is where Christianity does this double speak that we've been We've been struggling with this for all of twenty twenty four, all of twenty twenty four, we've been struggling with over and over and over.

33:40 Since December twenty twenty three, we've been struggling with it because sermon after sermon after sermon gives us this weird like, so exactly, could you just explain it? So on the inside I'm completely changed, Like if I'm changed on the inside, then that means there is nothing left of the old. That seems to be speaking of the eradication of the sinful nature. But yet I've got to change way wall whoah wah wait, I'm changed on the inside. So it seems like God does the changing on the inside. Now I have to change the outside. So the changing on the outside is up to me. God did the changing on the inside, but I have to change on the outside. But if I've been changed on the inside, what is there to change on the outside, Because then it doesn't the outside reflect the inside. How is there a disconnect between the inside and the outside. On the inside, ooh, I've been completely transformed. I'm a new creature, whole things are passed away all but on the outside, I'm still a sinner. Well, where what is motivating the outside? What is driving the outside behavior? If the inside has changed, why is the outside not changed. This is so.

34:50 That we all see I started off so. Positive and calm, but hey, that's okay. Look, look, I'm gonna try to state it in a positive way. This is the Christianity that you can go experience. Go to any church and you get this conflated, convoluted, an almost self contradictory idea of wait, so wait, I'm completely new on the inside, but yet my outside is wrong. Well, now said, this is what leads to. What it leads to is see the inside everything is perfect, but the outside is wrong. Why is the outside wrong? Because you listen to rock and roll and watch Netflix. So if you'll just stop doing that stuff, then then the outside will match the inside. Because so then it's the external things that drive the outside, and it's not the inside driving the It gets all confusing, and Jesus says, our sin comes from inside.

35:44 Well, why is there the outside wrong? If the he just said, the God has completely changed the inside completely. Well, if God changed the inside, I'm assuming he didn't do it fifty percent, forty percent, thirty percent, will I'm assuming he did it one hundred percent. Well, then that means perfection not only should be expected, it should just be assumed that you're gonna be perfect and I'm gonna be perfect because we've been changed on the inside. Oh, this gets all confusing. Amen. And so God don't just wave a wand at us and boom, everything's new. No, he gives us. New life a man, But you know what, we dragged that old nature along with us every step of the way.

36:31 Okay, No, wait a minute. God changed us on the inside, but we dragged the old nature along. So wait a minute. So God didn't change the old nature. Okay, now I'm confused. All right, So God changed me on the inside, but he didn't really change everything on the inside because the old nature is still there. So I'm changed, but not really changed. And God doesn't just miraculously change me on the outside. I have to do the changing. God changes on the inside, but he doesn't really change on the inside because the old nature is still there. God's not going to wave a magic wand and change me. I have to do something. But the problem is I continue to drag my old nature around. But I continue to drag my old nature around because God didn't get rid of my old nature. Why didn't God get rid of the old nature? And why are you telling me God changed me when you then turn around thirty seconds later and say, well, you're not really changed because you still have the old nature.

37:28 If I still have the. Old nature, then I haven't been changed. Now. You may say he added something to the inside, but he obviously didn't change the inside if the old nature is still there. And there are things that we have done before we got saved, Amen, that we didn't get rid of the day we got saved, Amen. And then all of a sudden we realized, you know what, God don't want me to do that, and we begin to wrestle with God over that, and the next thing, you know, we got a stronghold in our life. That right, hear me in y'all stay with me now. And so here we find out that the purpose of pulling down strongholds and casting out these imaginations is to help rent ourselves of the wrong kind of thinking and the wrong kind of activities that's in our lives.

38:23 So strongholds, and now he seems to add thinking to it. So stronghold is wrong behavior, though primarily he's focusing on behavior. So let me let him finish this sentence, and then we're going to do a little kind of just looking at how people and church history have understood this. Right, So let's just do a little bit of try. To get to a good point where I can kind of jump into some church history. Amen. And the reason we do that is so that the presence of God is not hindered in our life. And that's what a stronghold will do. It will hinder the presence of God in your life. Stronghold you have a man, Any negative stronghold you have is nothing more a man than the power of God killer a man.

39:12 So if you have a stronghold, it will kill the power of God, it will hinder the presence of God. So a stronghold is stronger than the power of God, and a stronghold is stronger than the presence of God. That is a radical concept. Hey, God, I thought God was omnipotent, So how can a stronghold kill the power of God. It's like, here's the power of God that could be in your life. I'm sorry, you got a stronghold bull boom. The power is gone. It got defeated. So I have to get rid of the stronghold so that I can have the power of God. But wouldn't it be the power of God that gets rid of the stronghold. But the stronghold kills the power of God. So then I get rid of the stronghold without the power of God, because the power of God can't help me get rid of the stronghold if the stronghold kills the power of God. Therefore I must get rid of the stronghold in my own power, because God's power is useless against the stronghold because it kills God's power. Do you understand the complete logical insanity that this is presenting. Hey, I need the power and presence of God to overcome the stronghold. I'm sorry, the stronghold hinders the presence of God, and the stronghold kills the power of God. So you've got to get rid of the stronghold in.

40:30 Your own power. Well, then why do I even need God. I get rid of the stronghold, then I get the power of God. But I need the power of God in order to get rid of the stronghold. And we have heard this flawed logic so many times in sermons, and every single time the people in the pew are going, Amen, Amen, nobody stops and go, wait a minute, how. Does this work? How does this work? It is a spirit quencher in our lives. And so you know, we we have talked about how how a stronghold can be positive or it can be negative. They can.

41:15 All right, So it quenches the spirit, and it hinders the presence of God, and it kills the power of God. You've got a stronghold. God is helpless, hopeless and useless and helping you. You've got to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps and you've got I'm tearing down this stronghold. God can't help you because the stronghold hinders the presence of God, kills the power of God, and quenches the spirit, oh man, the logic here. And what's so irritating is there was a time in my Christian life I would have just been eating this up. I'd have been writing all these I would have had a notebook book full of all of these notes, and I'd be like, Oh, I'm going to preach this. I'm gonna teach this. This is good stuff. No, now I'm like, this is the most Like how did I not catch the logical fallacies here? Like?

42:08 How do I not see We'll wait a minute. Then. What you're arguing is that I bring down strongholds and my own power because God's power can't withstand. A stronghold. Be a source of protection from evil and the enemy. That's why David said many times in the Psalm, and you heard it throughout the Bible, that God is our refuge. You know what a stronghold is. It's a dwelling place. It's a secure place. Amen. But then there's the other side of it. They can also become the means from which the devil's influence comes in. It is a place we use to justify and defend our wrong acts and our wrong thinking. I mean, think about this. We literally become sympathetic toward what we know is contrary to the will of God. We pet that thing and we protect that thing so that we can continue to practice that thing.

43:09 Help me, now, So a stronghold can be positive, a stronghold can be negative, and a stronghold negative is where basically it is where Satan can get influence into us, and it creates a situation where now we will protect and we will excuse, and we will justify our wrong right because it has such influence. Now, remember, it kills God's It hinders God's presence, kills God's power, and quenches the spirit. So you can't look to God for help here, You're gonna have to take care of it yourself. Now we'll get back to this. Let me just try to take you through this idea. Now, if you did not know this idea of strongholds has been elaborated, sign on.

43:52 It's been talked about, elaborated, preached, taught so much throughout church history, varying degrees of interpretation. Paul seems to use strongholds in this context metaphorically to describe arguments. Ideas are patterns of thought that stand in opposition to the knowledge of God. Please note, typically it's just a metaphor to describe arguments, ideas, and patterns of thought that stand in opposition to the knowledge of God. The immediate passage focuses on taking every thought captivity to captive and demolishing false arguments, indicating Paul is likely addressing intellectual or ideological barriers rather than demonic strongholds or psychological issues, as later interpretations of some kind suggested. He's saying a stronghold is where Satan gets your influence. What others have said in his no no, no, no, it's just a place where there's wrong thoughts, wrong ideas, and we got to fight against wrong thoughts, wrong ideas, and wrong teaching. This is not about Satan. This is about thinking. But over the centuries, many interpretations have broadened the term stronghold beyond Paul's context. If we look at

45:24 Paul's context, this is about thinking, This is about ideas, This is about ideology, this is about philosophy. But we've already already here. This is a place where Satan gets his influence into us. He's already brought Satan into this. Let's look at historical philological interpretations. Historical philological interpretations the Early Church Fathers and tended not and I mean, I can't be you know, unanimous here and say every single one, but they tended to interpret strongholds more in line with Paul's message, focusing on intellectual pride false teachings, but they did add entrenched sins. So they kind of stayed with, hey, it's the thinking, it's it's it's about ideas, thoughts, false teaching, but they said it also could involved entrenched sins. So now it goes from thinking to well, now that's where the behavior becomes kind of in They typically saw strongholds as internal, mental, or spiritual barriers within a person's mind that resisteth God's truth. A stronghold is where in my thinking I'm resisting God's truth. And now now in this sermon, he did a little bit of that, this is where we are are thinking, and we start now protect, but he still he goes right back to behavior. But it's where my thinking is contrary to God's word, which we

46:55 already know. We already struggle with that because God's thoughts are not our thoughts, His ways are not our ways. But primarily if you go to the early Church Fathers, they make it intellectual mental right. They do add the entrenched sins, but they kind of primarily stay with well where I think the focus should be. But then we jump to the mid evil period and we get mystical approaches. You see, in mid evil times, the idea of spiritual warfare grew to include a more elaborate system of thought around spiritual strongholds, and they sometimes tied this to demons or specifically territorial spirits. Some mystics began to describe strongholds as attachment to worldly things or patterns of sin that needed to be broken through esthetic practices or spiritual disciplines.

47:55 This took on him more mystical approach. Strongholds. That's satan demon and now you've got to you gotta do things like fast or or you know, get away your worldly possessions, join a monastery. You know, you've got to have spiritual disciplines to fight these strongholds. But again it becomes very centered about what you do. You do, you do, you do? You you have to fight it. It's almost like you fighting the demons. The demons have got a stronghold, and now you've got to fight it. Well, in this sermon, he's very much said, we have to fight it because the strongholds kill God's power, It hinders his spirit, it hinders his presence, and it quenches the spirit. So but it's the medieval time when you get the. Mystical approach, the mysticism. Now here's what drives me crazy.

48:40 Is Christians here a sermon except the teaching. They promote the teaching. In many cases they don't even know the origin of the teaching. See they'll think the origin of the teaching is Second Corinthians chapter ten. But no, in many cases, you're not. The origin of the teaching is a Second Corinthians chapter ten. The origin of the teaching you just heard is an influence from a specific part in church history, which they're borrowing that influence from, whether they know it, the demon Satan part more comes from mysticism during the medieval period, not the early Church. Now, when we get to modern times, in recent decades, specifically within the influence of certain strands of charismatic teaching, strongholds are sometimes interpreted as spiritual blockages created by demonic forces.

49:37 Generational sins are psychological patterns. This has led to practice such as deliverance ministries that focus on identifying and breaking specific strongholds in believers' lives in modern times charismatic theology. But guess what charismatic theology built on the mysticism of the medieval period. A lot of times I say, if you look at Catholic mysticism, Catholic mysticism in some cases I think gives rise to charismatic theology. I don't know if I can one hundred percent prove that historically, but man, sometimes when you study Catholic mystics, study Catholic mystics, study Catholic mysticism, you almost inevitably see to me the I'm not saying a direct line, but I think you see it.

50:28 So when you compare these interpretations to the actual text, much of what is taught today is arguably more of reading into than a direct drawing from the text. When you look at how most pastors interpret Tewod Corinthians, chapter ten, they read into it. They're not drawing from it. They're doing isogesis, not exo Jesus, which I say all the time. All right, Paul Focuses seems very quite practical and direct. He is identifying thoughts and ideas. Is that contradict the gospel and actively countering them with truth. Well, it's valid to consider maybe a broader application. It is clear that many teachings have layered additional interpretations over Paul's original metaphor, often extending it into areas Paul doesn't even directly address.

51:21 This interpretive expansion might be beneficial in some cases, as it applies the metaphor to broader life challenges, but it is crucial to recognize and here I'm quoting something that much of this is application, not exegesis. As with any passage, the line between interpretation and addition can be thin, so careful attention to the text itself is necessary if you want to maintain any form of balance. Now, let's see what he does here. He's kind of he's already kind of expanding this. I think he's starting to possibly read into it. Let's see where he goes.

52:10 Amen. And so we do this without realizing. Amen, that what we do not condemn, we condon't. What we do not change, we'll keep. Please note this is very if you're if you understand, if you were listening to this sermon and you were supposed to be identifying law and gospel, this sermon is law law law, law, law, law, law, law, What we do, what we do, what we do, what we do, what we don't do? We do? We do, we do, And he's already removed God from doing anything because once the stronghold, we build the stronghold by not conforming ourselves to the image of Christ. What's the stronghold is there? It hinders the presence of God, kills the power of God, quench the spirit. Then we we have to then fight against this. It's we we, it's all about it's all directed at what you do.

53:10 This is a law based sermon, isn't that right? A man? And so Paul tells us this that a stronghold comes from the wrong kind of thoughts and the wrong kind of things in our life. Amen. And it really pulls us down when we begin to think that what we think is better than what God thinks. Anytime you hear somebody say yeah, but. Or I know, but. They're getting ready to reveal the strongholds in their life. I know what you said, preacher, but don't even worry about what the preacher says. Was God say? When God says this way, y'all dress And you still say, but can I remind you saw only goats. But somebody helped me right there. Anyway, that's not truth, sheeple, but.

54:18 Too Hey, now, now he just turned this into how God tells you to dress? How God, because you know, when you read your Bible, it's just it lays out exactly how you're supposed to dress. See, I mean, now, oh boy, all right, you see this is becoming very behavioral focused. It's it's law based behavior moralism. This is becoming a moralistic, law based sermon. That's what this is becoming. This is not gospel. This is law. This is moralism, and it's reading things into the text that I don't know are there. Well, let's see if it if it turns and we get to a gospel idea.

55:02 Amen, most time they'll but harder and goats. Amen. But then you would think about that it is when we believe that we know better than God, Amen, that we have allowed the foundation for these strongholds to be laid. I know what, I know what the Bible said, but. I know, but. Isn't that awful? I think that's I think that's a sad statement to come out of the mouth of somebody who claims that they're a child of God. Amen. I just believe that's just wrong. If God said the world is round, then don't argue with and by the way he did, Amen, the world is rouned a man, and I believe it's in the book Job where he said that it's round. I don't know where that came from.

56:08 But anyway, if God says this is the way you should be, then why are you thinking that you can be otherwise? Why do we do that? Is that not direct rebellion? Why do we do that? Let's see if we could figure this out. Why do we do this? Because we are sinners by nature. We have a sinful nature. We are still sinners even after conversion. I know you told everyone you're changed on the inside, but what you just demonstrated is by saying that we're changed on the inside.

56:55 Now you're left with, well, why do we constantly go against God? Why do we constantly think opposite to God? Because we are still sinners. We have been saved by an imputed righteousness, but we are still sinners. Okay, I don't understand why do we still do it? It's as obvious as obvious can be. Because we have a sinful nature, we have a sinful heart, and we continue to sin and our think our ways are not God's ways, our thoughts are not his thoughts. Every part of us is still under sin. Other than our positional standing, which is perfect before God, but practical standing, we are sinners.

57:36 I don't understand why this is complicated. That's why we do this. Remember what we read over there in First Peter. It's an open door for the one that's a seeking whom He made the best that is, that is a Isn't it amazing that our opinion can I outrank God's opinion? Amen? And so when this takes place in our minds, and Amen, when we decide that, in spite of knowing the difference between right and wrong, we still choose wrong, we have laid the foundation for disaster and a stronghold in our life.

58:17 Well, if we lay the foundation for a stronghold every time we think wrong or do wrong, then ladies and gentlemen, we got more strongholds built in our lives. Then I can even count. Because we are continually not doing what God tells, We're in a perpetual state of sin. Perpetually. So all right, okay, let's well, I can't believe we're already at an hour let's see, we'll see if we can get a little like I got like twenty pages of notes here on strongholds and how it's okay, let's let's see, let's see if he let's see where he goes. Amen, and so so think about this. We have done what Paul tells us not to do in this same letter.

59:06 Don't give place to the devil. That's what strongholds do. It gives place to the devil. We give him a secure place. That's what a stronghold is. And you know what he does in that secure place. He begins to influence. Our lives. Now, please note this, what he's giving you is medieval mysticism. He is immediately saying that the stronghold we give it over, it's a place for Satan. And then Satan influenced my lives. In other words, without the stronghold, I guess Satan can't influence my life. But if I build a stronghold, then Satan influences my life. So now he's connecting the stronghold with Satan. He connected the stronghold with one Peter five eight. And we've already said that there's already that that's not what the text is about.

59:55 All right. That okay, but let's see I want I want to I could do a lot work on that itself. But let's see where else he goes. And as he's influencing our lives. Hey, man, you know what we're doing. We're digging. We're digging a deeper hole. That habit gets stronger and stronger and stronger, that act, that thought gets deeper and deeper and deeper, until finally, nobody's gonna get it down of you. And God's told you so many times that he's tired of telling you, and he's not gonna get it down you. Not that he can't, he just won't.

1:00:44 So you can get to a place where God will not even get the thought out of you. God will not even do anything. Now he says God can, but our earlier he made an argument that God can't, because he says strongholds kills the power of God, hinders the presence of God, and quench the space. Now he's saying God could get rid of it, but God won't get rid of it. Well, if God won't get rid of it, what he's saying, then you've got to get rid of it without God's assistance. This is insane. There's no way he's thought this through, this whole thing. I don't even know. I don't even know what to call this position. It's like, you don't need God to get rid of stronghold. Now you're the one who build them. You're the one responsibility to take them down because God can't take them down.

1:01:30 Because the stronghold kills the power of God. It hinders the presence of God, it quinches the spirit, and God gets tired of telling you. So God won't even do it. So you're on your own. I tell you, every stronghold, every stronghold, is a hindrance to our relationship with God. The reason they're there is because we have failed in conforming to the image of God's Son. Amen. Amen. So it's important that we realize that we aren't dealing. Now listen what I'm about to you. And by the way, it doesn't that prove how depraved our nature is. When we're saved by the grace of God and we steal, think what we think is better than what God thinks.

1:02:24 Okay, now wait a minute. Earlier he said God changes us. Now he's acknowledging how depraved our nature is. So is our nature depraved or has our nature been changed? Can someone explain any. Of this to me? We still oppose what God said. I don't oppose God. Well, if you ain't lining up with the book, you are, Isn't that right? I know this is simple preaching, and I know you've heard it before. Well, if you don't line up with the book, you're opposing God. You're perpetually opposing God. Because God's book says be holy as He is holy. You're never holy as He is holy. So you are in a perpetual state of opposition to God. He says, be perfect taus, your heavenly Father is perfect.

1:03:09 You're not. You're in a perpetual opposition to God. I can go on and on and on and on. So why does he keep acting like some none of you or all of you are in opposition to God? He acts like, well, some of you. No, every single person is in opposition to God perpetually. We are not positionally because positionally I am holy as God is holy. I am perfect because of imputed righteousness. But he's not offering any discussion about imputed righteousness. This is all action, action, action, action, And I think he's not even allowing the text to define what a stronghold is. But well, I'm going to try to wrap this up as soon as I can. We got to go a little bit further.

1:03:50 Just what God told me. So I'm telling you what God told me to hear that. This is what God told me to tell you. I'm telling you what God told me to tell you. So you can't argue with this sermon. This sermon comes from God. Even though we've already pointed out logical fallacies. We've already pointed out that some of this comes from medieval mysticism, but none of that matters because God told him to say this. So this comes directly from God. This is basically inspired scripture. Basically, you should go to the sermonadio website, get the text, print it out, put it in your Bible because it comes from God. Oh man, so I guess what I'm saying doesn't come from God. But what if I was to tell you that what I'm saying comes from God and he's saying what he's saying is coming from God. Because make sure you know all the other people who have different interpretations of this passage would say that that's what God says. And know what God says is what he says. So I don't have been Do we even know what God said anymore?

1:04:55 Who knows? I thought it was in the Bible, But what do I know? So it's important that we realize what we're dealing with here. Now. We're not dealing with just random thoughts. You have them all day long. We're dealing with something that you think on all the time. It's something that attacks your mind. It's something that comes across your mind, and you know what, you like it, You pet it, you take care of it. Amen, it doesn't bother you like the music that you listen to.

1:05:38 I mean, I've watched some people. I've watched some people. Man, they throw their records out, They throw their tapes out, their cassettes out, They threw it all out. Man, they throwed it all out. And now just go check the radio. And how in the name of bubblegum has music got involved in this? And throw throwed their records and take what year is this sermon preached? And to go to the radio. Who's going to the radio. It's twenty twenty four, for crying out loud, Well, what does music have to do with this? So if you listen to music he doesn't approve of. Then, ladies and gentlemen, you have a stronghold. Stronghold is when you like music that he doesn't like.

1:06:23 What I don't understand. I don't understand. Okay, let's just remember God told him that all this stuff. God told him all of this. Remember this all comes from God. This is like you know, infallible preaching, wonder where the. Power God went in her life? I wonder where the presence of God is in life. See, if you have wrong music, it kills the power of God, and it kills the presence of God. So your music is stronger than God. Now, if I open up right now any music stre app and I start playing music, if it's not the music God approves of, Boom, I just killed the power of God in my life. Boom, I just drove the presence of God out of my life because my music streaming app is stronger than the onipotent God of the universe. It's just he can't handle it.

1:07:18 He's like, that's the wrong music. My power, My power gets weak. Do you see the logic here? So if I get a stronghold, and what is a stronghold, stronghold could be wrong music? You have wrong music. That's a stronghold. Now guess what boom? Because you like it? Well, if you didn't like the music, I guess that would. I don't even understand how this even works anymore. This is just all right. But remember this is all supposedly comes from God. Amen, oh Bridger, you don't understand. I'm spiritual enough to handle it. You a fool. As foolish thinking all that is is an open door for the devil. Hey man, if he gets the foot in there, it won't just be a stronghold and become a stranglehold.

1:08:08 I wonder if he's quoting Ted Nugent. I'm joking. I'm making a music reference. Okay, never mind, never mind, never mind, Okay, a few music people will get what I'm talking about. Okay, all right. Music is a door to satan. If you listen to the wrong music, the doorpans. Not like I'm Thriller, the door opens and then here comes satan. Music is the doorway to the devil. Music. Now, your sinful nature that's inside of you. Music. See, you need to be worried more about music than your sinful nature. How come I've known lots of people who don't listen to rock and roll or rap. I think I know this person by the name of Kin And he killed Abel. And he never heard even Elvis Presley. He never heard the Beatles, Chuck Berry. I could go on and on and on, and he never even heard the architects of rock and roll.

1:09:11 He never heard Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden. He never heard Zeppelin. Hey, I could go all the way up to modern indie bands. He never no, I mean I could go, But he killed somebody. How come? And how come we had homosexuality before the village people, We had homosexuality before disco. I mean, I can go. What in the world? How come we have all these horrible how come we had a man going, hey, I know what I'll do. Hey, Hey, all the men in the city, you can have my daughters and do whatever you want with them. And how did the daughters like, let's get dad drunk and have sex with him. And how how come we have all of this stuff going on in the Bible? And guess what, we don't have rap, rock and roll. We don't. Oh no, wouldn't the doorway to the devil be the sinful nature that is in you?

1:10:04 Wouldn't that be the doorway to the isn't your nature the thing that opens the door to the devil? Not the music you listen to. That's why so many people struggle with it. Why can't you get some women out of their breeches? Why breach to them forty years and you can't get them out of their bridge? Why? Because it's become such a stronghold in their lives. What you can't get the women out of their breeches because their breeches is a stronghold. Hey, ladies, if you wear pants, that's a stronghold. You've got a demonic stronghold because I can't get you out of your breeches. That even doesn't even sound right. Robbie, he's been trying to get women out of their breeches for forty six years like that. I think that just sounds all incorrect. Okay, okay, I just need to stop ale on my head. Let's just continue.

1:11:03 I can't you get people that are say, by the race of God to turn the country music holf because it's become such a stronghold. Oh no, but I'm fair to left to take it. But you can't quit it. Country music is a stronghold. Oh man, I give up. Ladies and gentlemen, I give them. I don't know what to do anymore. I don't This is law, law, law, law, behavioral, moralism, pietism, medieval mysticism.

1:11:45 I don't know what this. Let me just help you. Here the stronghold mentioned and Second Corinthians ten I believe two me you know no verse three? Okay or four? Okay? Let me make it very here, all right, the stronghold mentioned in Second Corinthians chapter ten four, if I can read correctly, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God. To the pulling down of strongholds Second Corinthians ten four. Those strongholds mentioned there in ten four are effectively defined in verse five, because look at verse five, casting down imaginations and every high thing that casteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity.

1:12:35 All right. Paul provides a fuller picture of what he means by strongholds right. Verse five clarifies that the strongholds Paul refers to our intellectual are ideological structures, specifically arguments and lofty opinions that set themselves against the knowledge of God. These are not physical structures or necessarily even supernatural forces, but rather mental or philosophical constructs that oppose God's truth. Paul uses military language to describe a kind of spiritual battle where these strongholds are attacked and demolished through divine means. In other words, the strongholds are patterns of thought, entrenched beliefs, or arguments that resist God's revelation and truth. By defining strongholds in this way, Paul focuses on the need for spiritual discernment and the truth of the Gospel to confront and dismantle ideas and worldviews contrary to God's knowledge. This aligns with Paul's emphasis on taking every thought captive to obey Christ, showing that these are internal mental barriers rather than external or demonic entities. This is about wrong thinking.

1:13:47 And please note he says God can't help God may not even help you, and that the stronghold destroys God. But look what it says, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh, For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God. To the pulling down of strongholds, the text says, it's God who it's spiritual power that pulls down the stronghold. And he says that the stronghold kills the power of God, hinders the presence of God, and quenches the spirit. Well, then, according to him, it's me who pulls down the stronghold. It's not me, it's God. How because I go to the word of God, and the Word of God confronts the wrong thinking and the wrong ideology and the wrong belief.

1:14:28 It gives me truth, and truth fights these mental strongholds and tells me that thinking is wrong and that thinking is wrong. But let me get let me make it very clear. I can get all of my thinking right. I can get my thinking completely right. I can pull down every mental stronghold that my thinking is perfectly in line with God. But I'm still going to sin. I'm still going to rebel because the sin and the rebellion comes from a sinful nature that is still inside of me until glorification. Isn't that right? You so spiritual? Why can't you quit it? Well, for one, you don't want to, Amen, that's the biggest problem. Amen, you have never tried to quit it. You're one of them that goes. But but what you enjoy it? But what you like feeding the flesh? What did Paul say?

1:15:25 We're in the flesh, but we don't work after it? Amen, My goodness, I didn't mean to be this mean as tonight. I thought i'd be this is the Wednesday night grab. But you know what, I'm just gonna preach to night any So you think about this though. Strongholds deal with areas in our life that we have allowed ourselves. Amen. To be put in bondage by a stronghold is something that will keep you in prison. It's something that you no matter how hard you want or even if you want to, you will not why because it's your stronghold. In your mind, you will say I'm gonna get rid of this, But when the time comes to get rid of it, in your heart you just can't do it. Wait.

1:16:16 So in my mind I say I'm going to get rid of this, but in your heart you can't. Wait a minute. I thought the strong the stronghold is wrong thinking. If my thinking says I want to get rid of this, then that means there's no stronghold, because the stronghold is about our think. I don't understinking stand. All right, I'm just gonna play a couple more seconds, and then I'm just gonna stop. I think we've I mean, you hear their perspective. I'm offering you the history. I've offered you the history of views on stronghold, and I've helped you to understand that the strongholds are defined by the text itself.

1:17:00 Are y'all hearing me? You say, how in the world did it get there? Will listen to what I'm about to tell you. They are the result of an accumulation of uncrucified thoughts, unsanctified attitude, and an unholy activity. All this has been allowed, all these thoughts that enter into your mind. You didn't stop them. I didn't stop them. And because I didn't stop them or you didn't stop them, we've allowed them to become strongholds in our life. Amen. See now he's going back to the thoughts. But he just previously said that in your mind. You said you're gonna well, then that's not in my mind? So mind, Well boy, here we go. We're getting back to wait, is it my mind? Is it my heart? Is it my spirit? We're getting back to all member, we had all of those discussions. No, this is about wrong thinking.

1:17:58 I do agree that we can get thinking in our mind. But this is not about behavior. This is not about music. This is not about women wearing breeches, This is not about country music. This is about thinking things that are different. For example, love your enemy. My thinking says, I don't want to love my Not only do my feelings in my heart, but my thinking is, well, well you're going to justify well this and that you're gonna make excuses turn the other cheek. Well, God didn't really mean it that way. That When are we have a tendency to argue in our mind with what the scriptures actually say. We have wrong thinking, We may have wrong beliefs, We may have a wrong interpretation of scripture. Who knows we could be offering up a wrong interpretation of Second Corinthians Chapter ten, verses three through five.

1:18:47 Well, when you heard a preach or preach on it twenty five thirty years ago, why didn't you quit? Then? Think about it? If you to quit, then you wouldn't be having that the trouble you're having. And now twenty five years later. See his philosophy. Just stop. You don't even need God, just stop, just quit, Just stop, all right, ladies and gentlemen, just stop sinning, you'll never have a stronghold. Well, why don't we stop? He's already mentioned because of how depraved her nature is? So does my right thinking fix my wrong nature? No, my right thinking will help me be willing to acknowledge my wrong nature and be willing to acknowledge that what I'm doing is wrong.

1:19:33 At least let me see that. All right, we have to stop there. We're at seventy nine minutes. Thank you for joining me on this Sunday afternoon to Sunday evening, as we've had a very positive experience hearing someone present a different perspective of Christianity. I've offered you an alternative. You can choose whichever one you want. And I'm not going to get frustrated, and I'm not going to get angry, because ultimately it doesn't matter. Christianity is going to go the way Christianity is going to go. I will always be on the outside looking in, and that's okay. Someone there should be some room for people out there who may call into question that entire approach, or you may love that entire approach and disagree with mine.

1:20:16 I've tried to offer history. I've tried to offer a textual basis. I could go in two more here, but there you go. Just remember a lot of what you hear about strongholds is is of Jesus. It's being read into the text. It's not being pulled from the text. And it's very easy for you to think it's coming from the text because the pastor is telling you it's come from it, But it's actually being placed upon it. And we are all guilty of doing that. So that's his perspective. You can you can you can go with that one, or you can go with what I've tried to offer as somewhat of a alternative. That's the beautiful thing about it. Ultimately, you get to decide. All right, Thanks for listening. I'm getting weather or notification that rain is on its way, so and I think my food has arrived, so I think I'm going to go get food.

1:21:07 All right, Thanks for listening. Everyone, have a good evening. God bless