Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
you have to guide us you have to illuminate our minds you have to show us lord truth you have to give us discernment you have to sharpen us and show us where the enemy is working against us you have to guide our path lord even when we're not aware you have to guide us lord we're in big trouble lord help us to not let sin distract us or idols distract us or or the devil and the demons and their lying spirits distract us lord we worship you jesus you are the king of kings and the lord of lords god in the flesh our creator our savior our redeemer the soon-coming king and we worship you today in jesus name amen and amen you may be seated this morning hallelujah you might want to turn me up a hair if you can praise the lord praise the lord well i hope everybody has their bibles this morning if you're listening by blog talk radio this morning make sure you have a bible nearby because you're going to need to follow along with us this morning we're going to talk about strongholds in the mind um listen if i could get this across to you in one simple sentence i would tell you that 95 of your problems happen in your head because you either listen to yourself or you listen to the devil into demon spirits and i'm talking to christians this morning and i'm going to prove to you that the bible talks about christians born again spirit-filled christians who listen to the devil and let the devil build strongholds in their minds and i'm going to tell you right now that if you don't get a hold of this truth and then apply what you need to do to defeat the devil in this area and to cast down the strongholds in your mind you will as a christian be defeated you will be defeated and destroyed and may be ultimately carried away from the faith all of the battle and i when i say all of the battle this is true all of the battle with satan and the demonic forces and the fallen angels all of that battle that we deal with every day is going to take place in your mind and your mind once it gets convinced of something or believes something will act upon it
now we're going to look at these scriptures today and again this is something i've taught on and this is really kind of maybe part three of the soulish christian but we're going to dig into it a little deeper this morning because we're going to dig into definitions of these greek words and we're really going to spell it out so i ask you to do this if you have a problem being distracted in church bind the demons right now over you in jesus name and pay attention and take notes and learn something today because this is vitally important it's vitally important to your relationship with god as a christian it's vitally important to every relationship in your life it's vitally important at work it's vitally important between a husband and a wife and kids and trying to raise kids and everything else because what we allow into our minds and what we allow the devil to build strongholds and i'm going to show you this will affect everyone around us and i'm going to show you the ultimate goals of it so this morning first of all let's just turn to the book of second corinthians first and of course we've been on this subject on the radio talking about spiritual warfare the last couple of weeks on the prophecy quake our radio broadcast and this morning of course i really had planned to go another direction last night but this morning as i prayed the lord really laid it on my heart to to get into this in more detail but second corinthians i'm trying to get there myself second corinthians we're going to start chapter 11 first and then we'll back up to chapter 10 and i may put these notes up here so you can see them i don't know why it's not seeing what's on my screen because i'm about tired of these problems uh windows updated and changed what i've been using in my settings on this thing forever i don't know why he just plugged it in and it just changed on its own bill gates is evil and that's what he is and all more than one level let's see does it want to work on this one ah yes look at there plugging it in changed it here anyway let's read this this is a familiar passage of scripture we'll get on that in a second this is just an illustration of a point that i'm going to make today
but second corinthians chapter 11 we're going to read verse 1 and a few verses would to god you could bear with me a little in my folly and indeed bear with me for i am jealous over you with a godly jealousy for i have espoused you to one husband that i may present you as a chaste virgin to christ but i fear the apostle paul said lest by any means as the serpent beguiled eve through his subtlety so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in christ for if he that cometh preacheth another jesus whom we have not preached or if you receive another spirit which you have not received or another gospel which you have not accepted you might well bear with him meaning that if the devil can deceive your mind listen to me if the devil can deceive your mind he's saying like he did with eve you will end up believing anything okay but i want to focus on this phrase he says to christians that the church of corinth your minds could be corrupted oh boy he said i fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled eve through his subtlety so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in christ now before we dig into this much further i want to say something very clearly because our church gets a little friction we get a little flack from people because we actually talk about demons and how they work against people in their lives um you know we get the accusations well you know it seems that those kind of things only happen in churches that talk about this stuff well that's because your church is ignorant and has no discernment and they don't know the scriptures and wouldn't recognize demonic activity if it slapped them in the face right a church it actually gets a little teaching on what's in the bible about demons and how they operate actually begins to recognize when they're operating imagine that but that somehow among christians today that's somehow bad to actually learn about how demons operate and how to fight them and resist them and withstand them the whole church world is turned around it's upside down and backwards but that's just for the naysayers out there because i want you to understand the scriptures that i'm going to read to you today the first one i just read is a reference to how satan deceived eve in the garden so it's talking about demonic activity in the mind suggestions temptations in the mind that deceive you and corrupt your mind and get you away from simple devotion to jesus christ now when i say devotion to jesus let's be clear that i'm not just talking about there's a lot of people that say a lot of christians say that they're devoted
to jesus and they love jesus but because they've allowed satan to corrupt their minds they are departing from the faith of god's word in certain areas and if you depart from the word of god you're departing from jesus because jesus is the word of god do you hear me you must have the doctrine of christ to have god do you hear me there's people out there saying doctrine doesn't matter even people saying doctrine can be and be idolatry not the truth not true sound biblical doctrine the bible is clear in the book of ii john that if you don't have the doctrine of christ jesus meaning everything he taught and everything he taught his apostles and everything the holy spirit taught through the apostles if you don't have that doctrinal truth and you start departing from it you are departing from god himself and it says that if you don't abide in the doctrine of christ you do not have god you have to walk with god you have to walk in the truth of god's word and the doctrines of scripture it's that simple okay you hear what i'm saying and that covers everything that covers everything from how god feels about sin to what repentance is to what it means to be saved and born again to what it means to be washed in the blood how to have your sins forgiven confession of sin repentance of sin baptism of the holy spirit how to bind demons cast out demons how you're supposed to handle the relationship between a husband and wife and children and submission issues and discipline issues everything is covered in the scriptures and if you begin to depart from the doctrine of christ simple devotion to christ jesus the word of god then you have been listening to demon spirits it's that simple if you think it's not it's not right to spank your kids you're listening to demon spirits you get what i'm saying i'm going to show you this your mind is being corrupted if you think you can live in sexual sin and still go to heaven you're listening to demon spirits your mind is being corrupted if you can think you can pray to mary and bow to statues and still go to heaven and not be committing the sin of idolatry you're listening to demon spirits if if you wise think that you can disrespect and disobey your husband you're listening to demon spirits and you're in rebellion in the sin of witchcraft we got a lot of mental corruption going on
and you need to start recognizing it you know why pastor dean harps on you reading the bible meditating on the scriptures memorizing the scriptures what what you real you don't want to know why because if you don't do that you're not going to recognize when the devil is toying with your mind and you will give into it so the devil starts out with corruption and this is what i said and for those of you taking notes strongholds in the mind is what we're talking about today they start with the corruption of the mind through wrong thoughts ideas imaginations beliefs and perceptions brought by satan demons and our own sinful nature i'm going to repeat that strongholds in the mind and you can write demonic strongholds in the mind i don't care satanic strongholds evil strongholds in the mind they start with the corruption of the mind first through wrong thoughts ideas imaginations beliefs perceptions brought by satan demons or our own sinful nature in fact let me just go ahead and put this up here on the screen for you now let's look at some words in this we're going to look at it there it is what i just read to you so if you need to see that now let's go on let's look at the greek word here for minds okay this greek word here for minds is noema and it means a perception purpose the intellect the disposition itself device mind thought so it's it's a different word than even the word for soul um well let's see here maybe i can make it a little bigger that help all right and this is the reason i bring this up the devil is out to corrupt
he's out to corrupt your perception of things listen to me everybody listen to this the corrupting of your mind he's talking about is the corrupting of your perception of reality of truth amen it's your perception and he's out to corrupt your purpose what you purpose in your mind to do or how to think or how to live so he's after your perception of reality he's after your perception of truth after your purpose he's after your intellect he wants you to use human reasoning to get you away from truth he's after your mind and your thought life he's out to corrupt that this is why it's so important what you watch on tv what you listen to with music what you're filling your mind and your heart with day-to-day because everything out there in the world the movies the television the advertising the secular music is all about forming your perception and your purpose and your intellect it's after your mind and your thought life to corrupt it away from the word of god amen so he's after that of course the there's the other part of this word here i'm trying to get this to act right but i don't guess it's gonna scroll for me so he's also talking about he's trying to corrupt the exercise of your mind and what you observe what you comprehend what you consider what you think what you understand remember all of life your thought life will be built upon either god's word god's truth the bible the inspired word of god or it's going to be built upon satan and his worldly system that's the only two possibilities all right now let's keep going let's turn to our other passage of scripture here well oh i'm sorry let's let's look at the word oh this is going to act let's look at the word corruption just for a second i forgot about that one he says your minds will be corrupted and of course there's a good definition of perception the act or faculty of perceiving or apprehending by means of the senses or of the mind cognition understanding immediate or intuitive recognition as of moral or psychological aesthetic qualities inside intuition look at this discernment
you see the reason to the devil wants to corrupt your mind is because your mind your mind has got to figure out what your spirit's trying to communicate to it and if your mind is corrupted your discernment will be off okay let's just keep going here but here is the definition of the greek word uh corrupted and i believe you pronounce it fifth row but this is means to pine or to waste to shrivel or wither to spoil by any process generally to ruin by moral influences to deprave corrupt defile and destroy so paul's language here in the the english language kind of doesn't give the full description because what he's saying here i fear that satan will corrupt your minds that he will bring you to a place of where your mind begins to shrivel and wither through his moral influences until you are depraved and defiled and destroyed everybody see that because that's what this leads to all right remember we're talking about strongholds in the mind this is how it begins it begins by corrupting your thoughts now let me just say that this can happen through being offended this can happen through sin this can happen through listening to wrong people or wrong ideas or teaching this can happen through being hurt and then building up this these ideas but it can happen many different ways but the devil is after the corruption of your mind this is why listen folks it's simple to recognize if you're breaking a principle of god's word or a commandment or a way to do things it's simple to know that somewhere your mind's been corrupted by satan and you're believing something that's either not true or you're not dealing with something that might be true but you're not dealing with it correctly and what you don't understand is this is the beginning of the drift away from god you can tell yourself i love jesus all day long but you're drifting away okay i know a lot of christians that is they ain't just drifted away they say they love jesus but they've cranked up the you know the johnson outboard and they're gone right here's the next part of the process and we could just i mean i could just keep going on that but let's let's back up to chapter 10.
because i don't want to get too bogged down in these words i looked a lot of them up for myself here again studying this out but chapter 10 this is second corinthians chapter 10 everybody there all right stay with me we're going somewhere let's read this verse 3 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 now there's a semi-cold in my bible meaning the continuing thought when he's talking about here in the context of pulling down strongholds he says casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of god and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of christ now this is the picture here folks that we get that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through god to the pulling down of strongholds say this i must pull down strongholds in my mind listen you have to picture yourself as this let me give you a little picture of what you are before you were saved you were born again you made jesus lord of your life before that your entire being spirit soul and body mind will and emotions everything was filled with enemy strongholds and the as a matter of fact the bible says you were enemies in your minds by wicked works right you were enemy territory you were enemies of god to be a friend of the world is to be the enemy of god you were enemy territory completely but what happened and even the bible says in in second corinthians there in chapter um chapter four he talks about if the gospel is hid it is hid to them that are lost in whom satan has blinded the minds of them that believe he fully holds the mind of the unbeliever in a stronghold and the light of the gospel has to penetrate that fortress now what you have to understand is that this word stronghold means like a castle like a a a fortress built up with high walls and high towers guarded and defended with a strong foundation and and with demon soldiers all around it and in it defending it okay that was you but what happened in your life when the gospel of jesus came in the light came through and you received it god established a beach head in your life but you are still full of strongholds
all right so what we got now is where as you were fully on the enemy side before and thought all of your wicked imaginations and thoughts and desires were fine and dandy now we have a war going on inside of us god's established his beachhead in our spirit but our minds and our flesh our flesh of course wants to do everything still that it used to do before our minds is beginning to realize because listen a stronghold had to get torn down for you to believe the gospel of jesus christ for you to repent for you to be born again a stronghold had to come down but folks that's only one that's only one and the christian life is a process of tearing down strongholds in your mind and actually also casting demons out of you that's what deliverance is about but deliverance will not change the way you think and the stupid ways you think and the and and the lazy passivity that you practice to let strongholds be rebuilt in your head see this is why i can do deliverance i can take somebody through deliverance and cast the demons out of them but a lot of people got the construction crews of the devil waiting as soon as we tear them down and cast them out their wrong thinking their wrong beliefs their wrong ideas their own imaginations their self-will their idols that are in their heart they bring in the demonic construction crews and rebuild everything right back up and what the bible says about that too is a lot of times they can end up worse than before see this is part of the battle folks pastor dean cannot do it all for you in this area of strongholds in your mind i can't be with you 24 7. that'd be kind of weird but i can't be with you 24 7 preaching the bible right i can't be with you 24 7 having to get words of knowledge to reveal your stupid thinking that you hide try to hide but then comes out in behavior or that when i'm with you or sometimes in church i see your stupid thinking coming beaming out of your head i see it oh yeah sometimes i look at you i just see the all the thoughts that you're thinking i know that's kind of freaky too isn't it it is kind of scary it's not just me you know there are
times you do it too you just look at somebody and you just get a perception of what they're thinking that's called a word of knowledge as a gift of the holy spirit okay but these strongholds and i'm just going to read my definition are y'all ready for a definition let's skip ahead here you want to know what a stronghold is i'm going to give you a good definition of a stronghold in your mind i'm going to skip down to this and this was my point too here i said the corruption of the mind i.e thoughts ideas perceptions beliefs becomes a stronghold when these lies are meditated on rehearsed fully accepted is true or justified just go ahead and write that one down you need to remember that for those of you listening i'll say it again this corruption of the mind i.e the thoughts the ideas perceptions beliefs it becomes a stronghold when these lies are meditated on rehearsed and fully accepted as true or justified now let me explain what i mean by true or justified most of the time a stronghold is built in your mind because you believe a lie ladies here's one my husband doesn't love me when he does okay you believe a lie and then you begin to rehearse it what happens is the devil starts building this stronghold it becomes all kinds of things i can spend some time on that one or you justify something that god has told you to deal with i.e an offense or unforgiveness issue and you don't deal with it by forgiving the person and dealing with the problem so what happens is you justify that well you've been hurt or something happened and so you justify not doing what god's word says by forgiving and dealing with the offense so now you've built up a stronghold is built in your mind because you have justified something instead of dealing with it that's what's this this is what a majority of the church is doing right now instead of dealing with sin the way god says to deal with sin they are justifying it and therefore it remains a stronghold in them amen all right but let's look at this i wrote this definition down just to give you a definition of what is a stronghold in your mind we'll back up to some of these here
i said strongholds in the mind are castle fortresses that are built by the bricks and mortar you get that strongholds in the mine are castles and fortresses that are built by the bricks and mortar of both demonic and selfish thoughts oh boy see it's not all the devil i will agree with some of the critics out there yeah it's not all the devil but it's not all self either both scriptures we have looked at here are making reference to demonic influence okay we're going to back up here but it says that there are these fortresses these strongholds in the mind they are castle fortresses built by the brick and mortar of both demonic and selfish thoughts i.e arguments that are against the will and knowledge of god are against the word of god they can be offenses that a person refuses to forgive or an idol that they hold on to however they are usually beliefs or ideas that are not true strongholds are hiding places and a control centers of demon spirits they are satan's military outposts or bases of operation they can only be torn down by applying the truth of god's word and then casting out the demons those of you here can write that down those of you listening who can't keep up you can listen to it later did you catch all that are y'all still with me haven't lost you this morning's more like a college class than it is church okay now let's back up and let's look at some of these words here all right because you need to understand what's going on in your brain all right are you with me now the word strongholds where do i get that from the word strongholds in the greek is this rama i guess that's how you say it sounds like something from wow that is kind of close in it it's its meaning is to fortify through the idea of holding safely a castle or an argument oh boy there's a lot of people got arguments right reasonings you know everybody's got a reason
for the reason they do things then he says imaginations remember we talked about casting down imaginations it's important i think y'all i'm losing you need to this is what i'm talking about the devil's trying to distract you you need to pay attention this morning i know i'm i'm going to be firm about it i might even put somebody in the corner in a minute but you've got to pay attention this is life and death right here i'm going to be honest with you if people would learn to do this there'd be a whole lot less divorce in the church in the church we would lose fewer of our kids to the liberal academia if we would teach these things to understand that we are we are at a war in our minds with imaginations arguments that are against the knowledge of god i mean i'll give you i'll give you a good a good illustration of this real simple right here's a here's a passage that we all disobey we need to get a hold of do all things without murmuring and disputing complaining right right yet what do we do complaining complain complain complain complain complain complain you know i was in the car driving yesterday by myself complaining to the lord about something and you know what he did immediately he may not deal with you this way but here i am disobeying the scriptures and i'm talking to him right i'm complaining about something that's bothering me and you know what he tells me at least you're not in iraq with isis have a nice day stop complaining amen you know what a lot of divorces start out from simply complaining about the others about the spouse complaining they don't do this they don't do that and you end up in a to hear that divorce you had me faithfully doing that uh casting down the imaginations and also having it already just to reach all this obedience my business is fulfilled doing it and the way that he's young the problems i mean they came but i was in the bathroom because i was ready because i it says after right here that having getting registered against all disobedience when my obedience is fulfilled because my obedience was fulfilled if i do it every day all right and i
oh yeah you taught me that when you persuade me right it is it's it's a lifestyle right it's a lifestyle of controlling your thoughts right well yeah the devil and that's just it the demons the devils just run through it right do it in the battle the problems are going to come the lies are going to come the suggestions the imaginations all those things are going to come right pictures and it's not just about you know even for guys it's not about lust just lust sometimes you know what gel you know what the term we get jealousy and envy we get those two words confused do you know that they're not the same most of the time what we're calling jealousy is really envy do you know what what jealousy the term jealousy what the word itself is defined as being suspicious and making a judgment without a cause are the true cause of the true facts oh envy on the other hand is a resentful awareness of someone else's advantage okay but they are twins of destruction they're fraternal twins but they're twins they work hand in hand see a lot of times we start getting suspicious of people and envious of things that aren't even true don't even exist exactly you get you'll start getting mad your blood pressure starts going up and there's no reality in it whatsoever and this is what i'm talking about the devil when that starts happening a stronghold is being built in your mind now here's the end result the end result of a stronghold and i'm going to show you the end result of a demonic stronghold that is left alone to fester to grow stronger the end result of a stronghold is a departure from the faith of god's word at any point of christian doctrine or practice now how do i know this there's a scripture that goes with it right everybody with me hold your spot there in second corinthians 10 because we're coming back to something there but go to first timothy 4 1. we're going to look at first timothy 4 1 verse 1 and 2 okay now here's the process i'm giving you a process this morning first your mind gets corrupted by listening to demons and selfish thoughts sinful thoughts selfish thoughts and your mind begins to get corrupted
from the simplicity of god's word and commandments simple truth right then the devil begins to build a stronghold as you meditate upon those things and think on those things and rehearse those things and confess those things and speak those things what's happening is you're putting yourself in agreement with the devil you've hired the demonic construction crews and they're building the strongholds in your mind and what when a stronghold is fully built in your mind it becomes a belief system and this is why sometimes it's so hard to change what people believe because these things have been built up over time they have many bricks many pieces many reasons many many things that go into it but look what he says here first timothy four one and two now the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils now these words here are very very important it says here that people will give heed to seducing spirits they'll depart from the faith now this means they will begin to remove themselves from faith they will instigate a revolt boy how many times have i seen that you know i'm gonna be honest with you my own divorce that i went through and i don't talk about this in church too much but my own divorce that i went through in 2001 was simply a revolt against my authority as a husband and as a man of god and to do things the bible way my ex-wife she can come up with all the excuses and lies and justifications and everything else she wants to come up with but the bottom line it was a revolt against god's word god's authority and god's will it was rebellion it was a revolt and a withdrawing from the command of the scriptures simple because i wasn't cheating on her and i wasn't beating on her you understand she had no grounds for divorce biblical grounds word grounds now she'll get mad at me for saying that but it's the truth right because sometimes the truth hurts when you've got strongholds in your mind of lies that's why a lot of people don't like to get around me because if you've got a stronghold of a lie in your head i'm gonna bust it with the truth i'm gonna take a sledgehammer and put a nice big hole in it gonna hurt gonna make you make a mess make you miserable and you'll either run to jesus and get it right or you'll run away from me and curse me and hate my guts but i don't
care because i know the only hope for you is for that thing to be smashed and demolished that's why the bible calls god's word a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces and that true prophets carry a hammer around amen all right so he says they will depart draw fall away draw away withdraw self that's always a good sign see well i know when somebody's backsliding they start withdrawing from church i can't take the hammer got that withdrawal patrick used to be the worst i got to withdraw we'd see him disappear when he was struggling i love you but hey he's doing good now humbled himself see but humble himself come back to the hammer right our church is a hammer i don't mind saying it it is it's a hammer it's painful sometimes we'll smash your thumb your toe right here that's right he wants to do this now look what it says this is something that we don't when he says we'll depart from the faith let's look at the word in the greek the faith is the persuasion of god look at it says persuasion credence moral conviction of religious truth or the truthfulness of god or a religious teacher so what he's saying is faith is not just our faith in some big general sense that they'll depart from the faith it means they'll begin to depart from god's persuasion god's creeds their moral convictions the religious truth of the word of god they'll walk away from god they'll walk away from true pastors and prophets and teachers they will walk away from relying on christ and start relying upon themselves and their own ideas and their own belief system and their own strength they'll begin to speak things that are not conscious they're contrary to what god says they'll begin to believe things that are contrary to what god said they won't be faithful to the truth or the word of god or anybody who is faithful to the truth or the word of god and it's interesting when you dig a little dig a little deeper it's not just falling away from god there's a lot of people that there's a lot of people who've departed from the truth and they still go to church every sunday there's a lot of people who've divorced their spouses but they're still married but they've divorced them in their minds strongholds got to be torn down right strongholds torn down
he says and then he tells us why why are these people departing from the faith why once again yep the devil made them do it they had to yield but the devil was involved sorry baptist folk they try to act like there's devil only works in africa here's the word giving heed he says giving heed prosecco this means that they begin to hold their mind towards something oh boy see what has hold of your mind for a lot of people they can't the pornography has a hold of their mind or lusting a lot of people it's just rebellion i'm just going to do what i want sometimes alcohol sometimes it's drugs sometimes it's just you know i'm gonna i don't care i i can't tell y'all how many times as a pastor and minister over the last 27 years i've heard people say i know the bible says but that's basically saying what they're saying is i know what the bible says but i'm going to do what i want to do i'm going you're headed for the sight of the crash all right have a nice day but anyway we'll move on to this now that he says they will depart from the faith because they give he they begin to pay attention to and let their minds be taken hold of by what's the rest of the verse seducing spirits i didn't put those up there seducing spirits and doctrines of devils now these spirits the word seducing simply means deceiving spirits misleading spirits but these are evil spirits and he says they begin to pay attention to and exercise their mind toward and and and let the the seducing spirits get a hold of their minds and then what happens see it's different when you start listening it's different like for instance for instance let's just say you you and i had a quick two-minute phone call and i just suggested something to you and you hung up on me now that's the difference between somebody just making a suggestion that's a seducing spirit comes in and makes a suggestion but when you sit down and let them teach you an entire doctrine of satan and you believe it the stronghold is built and you will depart from the faith some will depart from their spouses
some people will depart from a good church some people will depart from reading their bible some people will depart from the place of prayer some people will depart from the truth that jesus is the only way to heaven some people will say i'm christian but i'm gay you see what i'm saying they will depart from the faith while claiming to be a christian while trying to justify their behavior well i know my husband didn't cheat on me and i know my husband didn't beat on me and i know he took care of her family best he could but but but i but i can't deal with it anymore well you're departing from the faith amen or or you know like i hear from men and women well well i know what the bible says about fornication pre-marital sex i know the bible says don't let it once happen not once in a christian's life should it happen that's what the bible ephesians 5 says not once not one time should it happen right but god knows i have needs god knows how my heart he knows i want to do right i just can't hold back and it's the same thing that happens in adultery i'll just tell you this though fornication and adultery are two different ball fields one is the minor league and the other one's the major league it's one thing to have sex before you get married it's another thing to have sex with somebody else's spouse and be a a marriage wrecker and a home record it's a different level oh yeah sins are different and we've talked about that before though right but again i know what the bible says i mean god we got pastors that all over the country doing this deacons elders we got probably more adultery and fornication in the church than we've ever had oh and to cover it up women having abortions christians having abortions well it you know god understands my wife she'll tell you she went and spoke when she was the ceo of the pregnancy resource center she wouldn't spoke in all these different churches and she would share her testimony and in church christian women by the droves would come for forward and admit that they had abortions while they were christians that even some of their husbands who were christians as well pushed them as well to have abortions this is in the church we're talking about baptist churches methodist churches charismatic churches catholic churches but it all starts
everything that happens starts in the mind you start believing things meditating on things speaking things and then what happens is the demons come in the demonic construction crews and they build a stronghold and you no longer believe what you used to believe for instance that marriage is until death do us part or that homosexuality is a sin that will damn your soul to eternal hell fire see that's why i had that up a minute ago this christian singer in britain right christian singer reveals i'm gay but it's it's what's more troubling is that she says i know god loves me just the way i am and that she feels that it's her responsibility now to tell others that you can be a christian and god accepts you and you can come out and be gay and be a christian folks this is so demonic but see don't think you can't end up here oh no it may not be homosexuality that you justify but it could be divorce it could be drunkenness alcohol it could be fornication it could be pornography it could be anger and unforgiveness and bitterness it could be a list of things but you will end up letting the stronghold stay and justifying why it should stay now here's where it gets dangerous this is the danger of a demonic stronghold and i shared this last week but i'm going to share it again look go to romans 1. the danger of letting your mind be corrupted the danger of letting wrong thoughts wrong ideas wrong imaginations things contrary to the bible the danger is this romans chapter 1 everybody there we'll start reading at verse 18 for the wrath of god is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness because that which may be known of god is manifest in them for god has showed it unto them so here's people he's talking about that the wrath of god will be revealed against them because they are in ungodliness they are in sinfulness they are in lifestyles of sin and unrighteousness yet they they hold on to certain truth i mean you can hold on to the truth yes jesus is the messiah the savior of the world died on the cross for the sins of mankind rose from the dead you can hold certain truths but it doesn't mean if you hold them while you're in unrighteousness oh boy don't shout me down now let's keep going he says for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and godhead so that they are without excuse because that when they knew god oh boy these are christian people when they knew god not those never been saved he's talking about when they knew god uh-oh but when they knew god they glorified him not as god neither were they thankful what happened they became vain in their imaginations oh that means that what happened is when they knew god they didn't they they began to drift away from glorifying them as god respecting him as the sovereign lord as the supreme commander his commandments and the fear of the lord they didn't glorify him as god they began to try to make him out to be like them this is always a sign a bad sign when you see a christian or a church or a pastor or a minister begin to try to bring god down to our level when they knew god they didn't glorify him as god and became vain empty worthless in their imaginations their thoughts their beliefs their ideas their perceptions they became empty that means they were getting away in their mind from things that are biblical sound true godly holy righteous even departing from the truth that there is an eternal hell and it says they became foolish vain in their imaginations and look what it says next their foolish heart was darkened now if you back up just to first timothy chapter 4 he goes on to say they will depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils speaking lies in hypocrisy having their conscience seared with a hot iron once your foolish heart
becomes darkened and your conscience begins to become seared you don't you begin to lose your ability to know and discern and feel what's right and wrong and once your your discernment of what's right and wrong and your feelings of guilt and shame when you do so when all those begin to be darkened and your conscience becomes seared or past feeling you're in trouble guess what he says because that when they knew god they glorified him not as god neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened professing themselves to be wise they became fools godly folks can i make you understand something that he's not talking about unbelievers in this chapter i can't tell you how many christians i know who think they're smart who think they know the bible who think they've got all of it down pat but they are fools it's everything i can do sometime to not look them get nose to nose and go you're the biggest fool i've ever seen in my life but they profess themselves to be wise i'm a sunday school teacher you know yeah they changed the glory of the uncorruptable god into an image made like corruptable man to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things wherefore god also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves who changed the truth of god into a lie how does that happen you believe the lies if you start entertaining them and rehearsing them and meditating on them you will change what you believe oh wherefore god gave them up right where's 25 who changed the truth of god into a lie and worshiped and served the creature or the physical being more than the creator see this is when when somebody begins to depart from the faith it all becomes about self and pleasing self self is treated as god not god but i feel but i want but this makes me feel good but this is
this is what i desire this is my dream that's why the popular preaching today is go after your dreams become your best you now have your best life now the purpose driven life is nothing more than your own dream driven life and it sells you know what doesn't sell crucify yourself deny yourself and take up your cross and do what's right well i'm not happy [Music] big deal obey god enough and you will be happy you you want me to prove it to you i'm gonna give you a verse proverbs 29 verse 18. he says where there is no vision the people perish but he that keepeth the law happy is he amen if you're not happy obeying god keep obeying you'll get happy because if you keep obeying and you keep walking with him the joy of the lord will fill your heart you say well i'm going through a trial i'm struggling i'm depressed well keep walking keep walking with him worship him honor him obey him when you don't feel like it and he will be pleased with you and then he will fill you with his presence and he'll let you know he's with you and that's joy it's it is beyond even normal human happiness but when you meditate on the lies on the wrong perceptions on the demonic ideas when you're going to be unhappy and that's why you can't be a lukewarm christian i remember charles finney talked about it in revival lectures the most miserable person on the face of the earth is a lukewarm christian they'll be the most angry the most foul the most difficult because they're not happy with god they're not happy with themselves and they can't be happy with anybody or anything around them all right goodness i need to finish this but he says in verse 26 let's keep reading for this cause god gave them up to vile affections for even their women to change the natural use into that which is against nature and likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burning their lust one toward another men with men working that which is unseemly receiving in themselves the recompense of their error which was meat and even as they did not like to retain
god in their knowledge god gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient and so because god gave them over their mind becomes full of satanic strongholds god quits pulling on them speaking to them they're given over to it and then it says they're filled with all manner of wickedness and sinfulness and evilness see let me come back to a script to the scripture we've we covered earlier second corinthians chapter four i mean chapter ten i'm sorry verse three four five he says this when he says the weapons of all warfare are not carnal mighty through god to the pulling down of strongholds and this is my final point you better listen close on this one when he says pulling down the strongholds casting down imaginations arguments perceptions ideas beliefs he doesn't stop there he added one more and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of god now it's very interesting because that word there means elevated place okay now here what i'm about to tell you in israel when the people were departing from god they had places of idolatry called high places they would find a hill they would go up there and they would build an altar to some other god and that's where they would secretly go away to worship their gods now i'm about to hurt your feelings many many many many many many many many christians have high places places of idolatry in their minds for some people you know also say this for single people you got to be careful that finding a spouse is not an idol for a lot of young people it's fun it's entertainment or it's a girlfriend or it's a boyfriend or it's i want to i want to go to this school or i want to do this thing but but hear what i'm about to tell you and listen closely an idol will always reveal itself because if there's an idol in your heart and you're a christian
god in his love and mercy is going to challenge that thing in your life he's not going to just leave you alone with it unless he's given up on you most people haven't reached that point yet so that means god is going to confront this idol in your life and you will do one of two things when he does that you will either cling to the idol and it will push you away from god and you will build a stronghold there and you will camp out there or you will turn loose of the idol repent and run back to god you know i'll never forget and this is this is a good lesson but you know i love my girls all my girls faith caitlyn and bethany and now even brittany i feel like so even though she's my stepdaughters i feel like she's my real daughter and we got little grandbabies running around but i remember in 2008 when god was telling me to go to washington dc and to take that job as a pastor of a church there and i knew he was telling me that but i was conflicted man i was miserable i was upset did i want to go to washington dc that's 800 miles from my girls at the time caitlin and bethany and i mean i was really wrestling with that even though i had worked out the deal to fly back and forth it was still wrenching my my heart out right i'll never forget i was really wrestling with it didn't want to do it depressed upset just like god why does it have to be this way and i remember he spoke to me very clearly and he said son for right now this is your cross even your children cannot come before me this is what i want you to do right now take up your cross it's painful it's difficult but take up your cross and follow me now see god knew the end of the story god knew i wouldn't be there very long maybe it was just a test like abraham and isaac will i lay them on the altar and obey most christians don't pass these
tests they would cling to their children they would not obey god they would make excuses well god expects me to love my kids and be there for my kids and all this stuff i'm just saying listen there are times that in a marriage ain't gonna feel good there'll be moments you really don't like each other but god knows those moments were going to come so what he wants is what he wants you to understand that being faithful to your spouse and i'm not talking about just what sexual that i'm not talking about that i'm talking about just faithful i'm not going anywhere that faithfulness you have to make a decision to take up your cross when it doesn't feel good right and can i just say it's not sinful right to not always have good feelings we're human we're bombarded by forces of darkness we're going to have times we don't feel it listen there's times i don't feel love for people the old dean wants to come out and right cross them and i'm not talking about make the sign of the cross you understand god has really even this past year had to work on me to love my enemies to bless those who curse me and to do good to them how much more should we our family our spouse our kids we're not always going to feel it right kids obeying your parents loving your parents respecting your parents you're not always going to feel like you won't obey but if you choose god's way there's a blessing always behind it you know i got to tell you all this story and i quit this is true this may help you on something but this just a simple command you know we forget i was a grown adult married had kids bible says honor your father and
mother and they're right i think that's in the big ten somewhere right honor your father and mother and i remember that this was in my previous marriage that the ex and my dad started having an issue and i remember hearing only one side of the story and i remember my blood pressure starting to rise right and i'm always one i don't care who you are i will have a talk with you all right but my blood pressure was starting to rise at my dad but this is a good illustration but then and i was going to give him you know a piece of my mind on the situation but then the holy spirit said honor your father and your mother and i sit back down in my chair same desk i got right now same chair i sat down and i said okay lord i won't say a word i'm sorry i will honor my father i will not involve myself in this do you know it was in the same month that she brought me the divorce papers it was in the same month that i found out the truth it was her not them and you want to talk about i would have burned a bridge because my dad ended up being really my best friend and my best helper through one of the darkest times of my life and the devil was trying to wreck that right before i would needed it the most so see this is why i'm telling you oh baby god's word even when you don't understand even when you don't feel like it it will always lead you to the right place always because you've got things coming your way that are going to be difficult you've got difficult trials and difficult tests and difficult attacks of the devil you better be in obedience to god's word that you know or you will not stand when the storms come why do you think jesus gave that parable of the storm one man built his house on the sand that's the man who
heard god's word but wouldn't obey it but the other one built his house on a rock and he said the storms came to both men and one house was wiped out and the other one was still standing if you're a person who hears god's word and his commandments and you will not do them you will not live them you will not you will not follow god's instructions the storm's coming to you and you will be destroyed and some of you listen in this church in this church i've seen people not listen and they're divorced right now of course they're not here anymore i've seen people not listen and marry the wrong person warn don't do it did it divorce less than a year turn loose just just just away why is that so hard do you know what you said when you said jesus be lord of my life what you were saying you were saying i will obey you from now on i've been obeying me all this time why are you gonna go back to obeying you your own ideas your own thoughts your own reasoning god's word god's commands god's instructions will not always make sense and they will certainly not always feel make you feel wonderful at that moment because sometimes it's a cross to bear sometimes it's a sacrifice sometimes it's a denial of your feelings and your flesh and your mind sometimes it's a denial of your pleasure basic truth or you end up like this christian singer reveals i'm gay no you you might be gay but you're not a christian singer you can't be both i'm sorry you believe the seducing spirits and the doctrines of demons but what i just read in romans says you're walking in spiritual death and you will die and go to hell and anyone that says and agrees with you that you're okay they're going to hell with you people want to say there's not a hell listen when you got islamic maniacs beheading children and cutting children in half with swords and killing everybody everybody that's not even the same kind of muslim they are when you got that going on listen you read that stuff you better know that's why there's a hell there's a hell for people who destroy other people this woman right here is going to destroy young people
she's going to encourage people she says it in this article she's going to encourage people these young people that's okay to be gay what does god's word say no it's not okay to be gay there are people who say that they have inclinations and feelings to want to molest children are we going to say that's okay next i don't care what kind of feelings you have you crucify them you know them to the cross of jesus christ you let the blood of jesus take those feelings away and you control your thoughts and you control yourself look at that that is the face of a devil because see listen to me once the demons get control of your mind and they build those strongholds and you change your belief systems you become an evangelist for the devil well i could just keep preaching this they did it on purpose do i think ray was right at one time i'm sure he was just that's sad don't even know you know right you know again the bible warned us there would be people who would give heed to these seducing spirits and depart from the faith all right married for years ray bolts was married for years that happens a lot what happens is some reason some reason somebody and this is another thing somebody ends up getting into something you see this with couples that divorce the one that's in the wrong getting in the divorce for the wrong reason an unbiblical reason you'll see people comforting them and christians tell them it's okay and they understand and all this stuff it's the same way it's like all of a sudden once you put a human face on the sin all of a sudden emotions get involved and oh it's okay and i've seen people change their entire belief we've talked about this before preachers pastors of churches nancy's former pastor i don't mind saying it in macdonald georgia oh yeah church of god church of god preaches against sin church of god's one of the foundational you know one of the main pentecostal denominations used to stand strong against sin but he finds out his son's homosexual and all of a sudden his views change
and i confront him at lunch one day and he won't even give the he won't even define repentance correctly gone my friends he began wavering on abortion and then of course you know we find out he's doing other things on the side but see once the stronghold comes in once you depart from god's commands anything goes after that you will slide down the slope that's why we got all these christians who are coming getting into homosexuality uh into pornography every single day just having one affair after the other dabbling with every pagan and a cultic thing that they can get their hands on while they justify them i mean i'm having a debate the other day with a woman on facebook who's defending young's living essential oils and all you got to do is read their own stuff and it's all new age wicca gobbly supernatural stuff they're talking about and i said do you understand that the man that you're defending is such a quack that he's killed people and had to leave the country and can't live in the united states he had to flee because they put him in jail and i said you're defending a new age occultic murderer and i'm trying to tell you what the bible says and you say you're a christian and that's what you're defending i'm defending the word of god you're defending a new age occult amen i'm serious now i'm not saying that i want to be clear as and i well it was wrong because i really thought and just some verses that i thought about it was twisted in my mind yeah well you'll believe anything once you once you go down that road of justifying something that's clearly unbiblical yeah relaxed yeah but that's why that's why a lot of people a lot of these christians end up suicidal that's exactly where i went to remember because they're saying something something conflicts in the brain in the heart you can't live that way yeah let's pray i we've gone a while on this but i hope you've learned something have you learned something today um anybody if you want the notes i i can just email them or send them to you it's fine just let me know send me emails say i want the notes i'll send them to you let's pray father in heaven we thank you we thank you lord for your word
god the word is truth lord and you said jesus in john 8 that if if we continue in your word then we would know the truth and the truth would set us free well the opposite of that is we don't continue in your word then we will believe lies and we won't be set free we'll become slaves to the devil so lord i pray that you wake up my christian brothers and sisters here this morning those listening those who will listen god we ask you to convict we ask you to show each and every person that they've got to begin to control and bring every thought captive and not meditate and rehearse and dwell on lies and things contrary to the truth of scripture lord we pray that you will strengthen us to change these things and to grow up and it's in jesus name we pray amen