Alright, well there was a handout tonight. I hope you got that when you came in the door. If not, feel free to pick one up there. 2 Corinthians chapter number 10 tonight. 2 Corinthians chapter number 10. Hope to be a help with you tonight. As we take a look at some things out of scripture this week and also for couple of weeks probably to come. I know at least one more week we'll be dealing with this and probably maybe two or three after this. But anyway, I just began tonight to look at this matter of dealing with strongholds. 2 Corinthians 10 verse number 3 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. There's the strongholds that we're talking about. Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Understand that even after we're saved, we all still have to walk around in this old sinful flesh. Amen? We know that. The Apostle Paul spoke of his struggles. In Romans 7 verse 18 he says, For I know that in me That is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. In the flesh, that's the way that things are. If it wasn't for the help of the Lord, we wouldn't have any help with strongholds in our life. We know that many times, even though we may have a desire to do what is right, we oftentimes battle against some overwhelming strongholds in this sinful flesh that we live in, that sometimes just seem to get the best of us. You know, we think we got it whipped. And you whip it that time, and then it comes back to get you again. Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 26, 41, he says, watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. And we know that to be the case, don't we? Now, I'm not asking for an outward response. I'm gonna ask you a question, but just respond in your heart. Do you have a sincere desire to live for God and to please God in everything you do? I hope that you do. If you're a child of God, saved by God's grace, that ought to be the case. Because if you don't have that desire, then there's something genuinely wrong in the heart. Every genuine believer should have the desire to live for God and please God, even though we know that we all still fall short of God's glory each and every day. But these strongholds are what we want to look at tonight. You know, if I was to ask again, and again I'm not looking for an outward response, I just want you to give it some serious thought. How many are, how many of you have some stronghold in your life that you seem to continually have to battle? It's like it's a continual over and over again. If we're honest, I took time to think about it, and I believe we all would find that we have some area in our life that just seems to keep coming back up and causes us problems. Now, when I refer to strongholds, I'm talking about habits or recurring patterns of behavior that keep manifesting themselves in our lives. And not only manifesting themselves, but we find that they are also destructive in our lives. They're not good for us. Understand that these things may be destructive to others that are around us as well. We might think that we're not harming anything, but sometimes it harms others. We often refer to these strongholds as easily besetting sins. You've heard that, easily besetting sins. In fact, Hebrews 12, 1 mentions that. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us. We might even refer to these strongholds sometimes as bad habit or an addictive behavior. When we think of strongholds or addictions in folks' lives, we don't like to think that we have anything like that. We don't like to think of ourselves in that light. But more likely than not, we all have some areas in our life where we need help in overcoming some sort of bad habit or addictive behavior. So this message, or I should say a series of messages, I don't know how long, but it's going to be several, is designed to help each of us with the strongholds in our lives. Now, a lot of times when we think of addictions, we normally think of ones that may not affect us, but ones that other folks have. You know, they got addictions of alcohol and drugs and cigarettes and food and all of that. The surfaces more and more in our technological world is one called pornography. Sadly, we live in a time when that one is probably at the top of the list in a lot of areas. What about some of the other things that can have a strong hold in our lives? Like, you know, we can have a bad attitude. Yeah. We just have a stinking attitude and we have a bad temper. We can have uncontrolled anger. We might have a tendency to gossip. Well, that's a stronghold in your life, and you know you ought not to be doing that. Filthy communication, even lust might be there. The question is usually not if we have a problem with strongholds, because most folks do. The question is what can we do about the things that have a stronghold on us, and so I want to begin tonight to take a look at some things And this first message and the second message will help us understand what we're dealing with a little bit better. I think we understand, like this first one, know where sin originates. If we know where sin originates, we can work on that area of our life. Sin originates in the heart. It was that way with Satan's sin, the original sin. Isaiah 14 verse 13 of 14, the Lord said, For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. That sin of pride that Satan had, it was in his heart. It was in the center of his being. mankind's sin originates in his heart as well. In fact, Jesus pointed to this in Mark chapter number 7 and verse 21 through 23 where he said, For from within, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness, all these things come from within and defile the man. So know where sin originates. We know that the world says you ought to follow your heart. Have you ever heard anybody say, just follow your heart? Well, but the Bible says that our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked. So it's not a good idea to just follow your heart. Jeremiah 17, 9, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked who can know it. Now that word deceitful means it's fraudulent. In other words, your heart will lie to you. Okay, your heart will lie to you. That's why you can't trust it. Proverbs 28 verse 26 says, He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool. is a fool. But whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered. Now how do we walk wisely? Walk according to God's Word. Proverbs is full of the language that talks about the wisdom and the Word of the Lord. We're to walk in God's wisdom, not walk in our own wisdom. The world says also live and let live, but the Bible says that our hearts are to be guarded with all diligence. Proverbs 4 verse 23 says keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. And Paul, he said in Romans 13 verse 14, he said, But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. And what he's talking about is guarding our hearts. Amen. The world says take life as it comes, but the Bible says that our hearts are to be guided in the way. We don't just take things as they come and respond. We must, on purpose, develop our hearts, in our hearts, something that will help us to make the right choices. Proverbs 23 verse 19 says, Hear thou my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way. We need to guide our hearts in the way of God, don't we? Psalm 139, verse 23 and 24, often we sing this song, the song Cleanse Me comes from these two verses, where it says, Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Lead me. We need the Lord to lead us. We need to seek him and ask him to lead us and do what needs to happen in our life for us to be led in the right way. So know where sin originates. Second thing, we need to take God's attitude towards sin. Too often, folks make light of that which God hates. They just do. I'm not going to turn there tonight. Galatians 5 verses 19 through 21 has a list of some evil stuff that comes out of the heart. It calls it the works of the flesh as opposed to the fruit of the spirit. The works of the flesh are manifest in folks' life who are not guided by the spirit. That's why it's so important for us to be led by the Spirit of God and walk in the Spirit. Our attitude ought to be, if God is against it, then I'm against it. That should be our attitude. One of our biggest problems is that we don't hate sin like we should. If we don't hate sin, it's more likely we're going to wind up embracing it if we're not careful. What is God's take on the matter of sin? Well, He wants us to abhor and hate evil. We are to abhor and hate evil. His Word is full. of admonition in that area. Romans 12 verse 9 says, Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good. Abhor means to utterly detest. Don't want to have nothing to do with it. When you abhor something, it's the exact opposite of loving something. We need to make sure that we abhor that which is evil. Proverbs 8.13 says, The fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride and arrogancy in the evil way, and the froward mouth do I hate. God hates certain things, pride and arrogancy in an evil way. Psalm 97 verse 10 says, Ye that love the Lord hate evil. If I ask you if you love the Lord tonight, I'm sure every one of us will say, yeah, I love the Lord. Do you hate evil? Even when it manifests itself in your life especially, do you hate it? That ought to be our attitude. Psalm 101 verse 3 says, I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. I hate the work of them that turn aside. It shall not cleave to me. We ought to make, in our lives, make it a point that we're not going to allow sin to gain a stronghold in our lives. Psalm 119 verse 104, the psalmist wrote, through thy precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. If you immerse yourself in God's precepts, you will have that attitude towards sin. You will come to understand how much that the Lord hates sin and how much that we need to hate it as well. The prophet Amos penned these words in Amos 5 in verse 15. He said, Hate the evil, love the good, and establish judgment in the gate. Hebrews 1 verse number 9 says in reference to Jesus, it says, Thou hast loved righteousness. The Lord Jesus loved righteousness. He hated iniquity. Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. as He became flesh for us. He came to understand in all points. He became like us in all points, but yet without sin, no sin. We need to take His stance there. We do whore evil and hate evil. and that you would abhor it and hate it, you're going to depart from it. We're to depart from evil. Psalm 34, 14 and Psalm 37, verse 27 both say the same thing. Depart from evil and do good. You know, when God says one thing, says something in his word one time, we ought to pay attention. If he says it more than one time, we really ought to pay attention. Amen. It means it's emphasized. And Proverbs 3 verse 7 and 8 says we're not to be wise in our own eyes. It says be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It shall be hell to thy navel and marrow to thy bones. When we depart from evil, it is good for us, our physical lives. It's good for our emotional lives. It's good for our lives in general, especially our spiritual lives. Isaiah 1, 16. It says, Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes. Cease to do evil. That's the Lord speaking to His people. He wanted Israel to change their ways, put away their evil doings, and to cease to do that. They were good about clinging to those things and forsaking the Lord. 2 Timothy 2.19 says, Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his, and let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Sadly, there are folks who name the name of Christ, who have not departed from iniquity, and they give Christianity a bad name. We ought to make sure that we're not part of that crowd. When folks think of us, they don't think of us as being opposite of the way that Christ would have us to be. Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. 1 Peter 3.10 So he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. Let him eschew evil and do good. Let him seek peace and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. I don't know about you, but I like having God on my side. And I like the Lord hearing my prayers, being open to my prayers, and not being against me. That word astute, when he says the Lord astute evil, it means to deviate from, to shun. That word with Job comes to mind. He was one that feared God and astute evil, the Bible says. We need to make sure we have Job's attitude in that. Now, when we think about sin in the life of a Christian, we need to understand that the Lord wants us to get things right with Him and to keep short accounts with Him. We're going to sin. We're going to fall short of God's glory. But we need to bring 1 John 1, 9 into play in our lives on a regular basis. You know what the word confess means there? 1 John 1, 9 says if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Well, the word confess in verse John 1-9 means to say the same thing. It's more than just to admit that you've sinned. It's to say the same thing. You say the same thing that God says about your sin, what the Savior says about your sin. It's taking God's attitude. And the Lord, when we take His attitude, He wants us to forsake sin. Amen? He wants us to do that. So take God's attitude towards sin. And then thirdly tonight, understand that it's better for us to keep our heart clean than it is to try to clean it after it's been defiled. Sadly, in the Christian world, we find folks who sin presumptuously. David talked about presumptuous sin. That's where you sin, you know, well, I'll just 1 John 1, 9 it. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and sin, I'm going to go ahead and do this, and I'll confess it later to the Lord. Taking an attitude, well, I can sin now and confess later, is not wise. Proverbs 22 and verse 3 says, A prudent man foreseeeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. None of us, we need to realize none of us can sin with impunity. Proverbs 6 verse 27 and 28 says, Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burned? We need to realize. We can choose to sin. Y'all have heard me say this many times in the last sixteen and a half years. We can choose to sin, but we can't choose the consequences. The consequences are up to God. And there are many examples in scripture, and we're not going to turn to these. Let me encourage you. I've given you the chapters there and the notes, and many of you know, you've been in church long enough to know the stories behind these, and I'll remind you. But we can learn lessons from the examples left by various Bible characters. And I believe that's one of the reasons why we're given the stories in scripture. And so we can see what not to be. We can see how we can get ourselves in a whole lot of trouble if we're not paying attention. There's some lessons from the life of Lot. Lot was Abraham's nephew in Genesis chapter number 19. Lot would have been a lot better off had he never pitched his tent towards Sodom. That's what the Bible says that he did when he separated himself away from his uncle Abraham. He separated himself and he pitched his tent towards Sodom and before you know it, he found himself in the gates of Sodom. Sin can have a powerful effect on us personally. And Peter talks about that powerful effect that it had on Lot. He says in 2 Peter 2.8, for that righteous man, he calls him a righteous man. Lot was a righteous man. That righteous man dwelling among them and seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. So he allowed the sin to vex him. It had a powerful effect on him personally. Sin can also have a powerful effect on those that are near and dear to us. We know that none of us live to himself, no man dies to himself according to Romans 14 and seven. The things that we do affect others that are around us. Things that I've done, the things that folks have seen me as, my wife and children, you can't live before them. and live wrong without having some effect there. And we know that that was the case with Lot. Lot, even though maybe he was trying to live right in front of his wife and children, his wife turned her back and became pillar of salt. You could take her out of Sodom, but you couldn't take Sodom out of her. It affected his children. His daughters were very wicked. We'll talk about that in just a minute. Sin can have a powerful effect on those that we love. Sin can have a powerful effect on what we have materially. When Lot moved to Sodom, he was a wealthy man. He and Abraham divvied up. He was a wealthy man. When he left it, he left it just with the clothes on his back. Sin can have a powerful effect on what we have materially. I've known of folks who, they were doing well financially in this world. They had a great job, had plenty of money in the bank, and then all of a sudden they got involved in drugs. got involved steeply in alcohol and wound up costing them, not only their family, but also cost them their material things that they had. They wound up out on the street without anything left in their lives. And you think about Lott, when he left, he left just with the clothes on his back. sin can have a long lasting effect. This is where I want to get back to his two daughters. They got their dad drunk and committed incest with dad. Two words, Moabites and Ammonites. Two of the most wicked groups of people came out of that incestuous relationship of Lot and his two daughters. Sin can have a long lasting effect. We can take some lessons from the life of Achan. In Joshua chapter 7, we know that the children of Israel were told that when they went into Jericho, they were not to mess with any of the accursed things. If they got something, it belonged to God. They weren't to take it personally. And Achan decided he was going to take something for himself. And one of the lessons you can learn from Achan's life is be sure your sin will find you out. Achan took and hid a nice garment, 200 shekels of silver, 50 shekels of gold, and thought nobody would know. God always knows. The gain that sin may bring is not worth the loss that it brings. Achan did, think about it, he didn't even get to enjoy what he took. He didn't get to wear the garment, he didn't get to spend any of the gold or silver, But it cost him dearly. And our sin may cost us our lives and or the lives of the loved ones we have. And it cost him both. He and his family were killed because of his partaking of the accursed thing. We can find some lessons from the life of Samson in scriptures. In Judges 13-16 we read about the life of Samson. It would have been much easier on Samson if he had kept the power of God on his life than it was to get the power back again after he lost it. After he laid his head in the lap of Delilah, He had the haircut that cost him his power. He started going downhill there in a bad way. Sin is binding. He was bound. And Romans 6.16 tells us, Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey. He allowed himself to be bound. He had his eyes gouged out. Sin can be blinding and sin is grinding. Proverbs 13 verse 15. says, good understanding giveth favor, but the way of transgressors is hard. Samson was a transgressor there toward the end, and it was hard. He was used to having the power. He was used to having the power of God in his life, not only the physical power, but to have the power of God in his life, and he threw it all away. we see lessons from the life of Jonah. In the book of Jonah, we know that the Lord wanted Jonah to take and to go in a certain direction, preach to Nineveh, Wicked City, And we can kind of understand and sympathize a little bit with Jonah, because the Ninevites were terrible to the Israelites. They were a thorn in their flesh. And nevertheless, God told him to go. And he didn't want to go, so he decided he was going a different direction. Sin will take you where you don't want to go. He had no plans to go into the belly of a whale, but that's where he wound up. I know folks who, they didn't set out to be on Skid Row, but the drinking got them that way. I know folks that didn't set out to be a drug addict, that was living life out on the streets, but there are many that are out there right now. How many people with STDs became immoral to get those diseases? Nobody does. But it's part of what happens. Sin will take you where you don't want to go. Sin will keep you there longer than you want to stay. Don't you imagine when Jonah got into the belly of the whale when he was cast over and swallowed? He probably was ready for the Lord to deliver him right then and there. Three days. Three days. He stayed there longer than he wanted to stay, I guarantee you. And sin will cost you more than you want to pay. Sin has consequences. We can choose the sin, but we cannot choose the consequences. I wonder tonight, as we talk about strongholds, what kind of strongholds do you have in your life? I want you to think about it because we all have different things in our life. What's your attitude toward those things that God hates in your life? What are you doing to guard your heart from sin? Are you taking any steps to guard yourself from being drawn in to sinning in the area of your strongholds? If not, my friend, you're playing with fire is what you're doing. Why not spend more time on the front end, keeping yourself from sin, rather than trying to pick up the pieces of your life after sin has shattered your life. We know that help is available to us. Amen. to guard our hearts. I'm so thankful for the Word of God. Let me say I'm thankful for folks who encouraged me at a young age to memorize the Word of God. Verses of scripture that come to mind that I've memorized as a child certainly have come into play in my life many times to keep me away from evil. We need to realize the power of God's Word and the power of sin. The power of God's Word in our life can overcome that power of sin, but if you don't have God's Word that you're leaning upon, you're more susceptible to being held by those strongholds. Let's pray.