Pulling Down Strongholds

God has — God is preparing us for this service. I have had this message since my family took our vacation. While I was in Hawaii, I was praying on the balcony of the condo we were staying in. I felt like God began to deal with me about the word that I have today. And I was fully under the impression, my first service back, that God would allow me to preach this thought. But he has held it. He's held it until this week. I felt released to finish the message and preach today. So I feel someone is here on purpose today. I'm going to — I want to preach a very specific word as you make your way back to your seats. But it's, it — this, this subject matter is something that stirs up the spirit world. I'm going to preach about pulling down strongholds. Specifically, I'm going to be preaching about the battle that rages in our minds. What about you? But more often than not, the daily fight I have is right up here. It's not so much a physical thing, but it's up here in my mind, where I feel like the enemy attacks. And I, I, I say this, that, that I want to pray before I read my scripture, and I want to pray a very specific way today, for God to work in our minds. In my years of ministry, in my years of being a lead pastor, what I have found, more often than not, is I work with individuals one-on-one — what we often have to fight is a stronghold in their mind. But our God is victorious on all battlefields, including your mind. So I'm going to pray that God's Spirit does a work at the very beginning of this message, so that you're not distracted, that you have the ability to, to receive this word today, because I feel very strong, there are some individuals that you are here today because God knew this word was for you. Now I just need a few to agree with me in prayer, that God's gonna do a work, and there is going to be a breaking at the end of this service, because strongholds are coming down today. Today. Today, in this place. Help me pray right now, Jesus.

God, I humbly come before you in this moment. Lord, I know what your desire is to do in this place. I submit myself. I pray, God, use my voice to deliver your word to your people, your church. The authority that's in the name of Jesus, I bind every hindering spirit at the door, that there would be no distraction in this place, that there would be no lies believed in this place. The truth would prevail today, here. And God, we would see our strongholds fall. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Second Corinthians chapter 10, if you would like to turn there in your Bibles, it will be on the wall. I would like to say just two quick things before we launch in this message. Number one: you want to be here next Sunday for Bishop's birthday celebration. It's going to be a great time to celebrate a great man. If you're looking for him, he and Sister Priest are down in Alabama at the Stewards church. There's anniversary service they're participating in down there. But they will be here next Sunday, and so happy, to excited to honor our great Bishop. And you're going to get to — some of you may not know him very well, and I haven't had a chance to hear him speak. We're going to do a little bit of a history recap of why he's so important to us at this church. And then we're super excited to have my good friend, Brother Scott Armstrong, is going to be preaching next Sunday here in the service. And I know a lot of you don't know him, but he was here for many years, before he started the daughter work over in Mount Juliet, and then he got called up to headquarters in St. Louis. And now he pastors Solid Rock Church in St. Louis, Missouri. But he is excited to be, and we're happy to have him and his sweet wife going to be with us next Sunday. And then I would encourage you, if you're a married couple, you want to be a couple's retreat. I know that picture, Brother Osborne looks like he's Methuselah's younger brother, but I promise you he is a mighty man of God, and he is one of my favorite couple retreat speakers. This guy will have you in stitches, but he brings such a good word every time. So don't delay, the

setting is amazing, up there on Center Hill Lake. It's a wonderful venue. We're going to feed you good. We have a lot of fun. So don't delay. We have limited space. We've got some rooms left available, so I would not hesitate. Be sure to sign up, and bring your sweetheart, and be a part of that.

Second Corinthians chapter 10, verse number three, says: "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh." Pay attention to what he's saying here. "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds." Say "stronghold" with me. Verse number five: "Casting down arguments in every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience" — say "obedience" — "obedience of Christ."

I'm going to read it to you again. I'm going to read it in the New Living Translation. It's a little bit more of our language, how we speak today. So listen to this, in New Living, verse number three: "We are human, but we do not wage war as humans do. We use God's mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning" — oh my — "and to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ."

When I read this passage of scripture, I don't know about you, but I immediately get this overwhelming sense: I'm in a fight. I'm in a battle. I don't know how you can read this passage and not feel that way. And the reality is this: we are in a fight every day of our life. It's the good versus evil, but it's a war that's not fought physically, but it's fought in the Spirit. It is a war that oftentimes finds itself being fought out in our minds. The word that is translated here in this passage for stronghold is also translated elsewhere as a castle, or often as a fortress is there in the word of God. And I begin to think about the great battles and wars that have taken place in the history of mankind. I, I love reading about war, and, and I find it fascinating how things play out during a battle. Paul is using here what I would call military language, to talk about a spiritual war that transcends the natural world. When he says things like I just read to you, "We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God," he's talking about an army that rushes up against, and tries to meet us on the warfare and the battlefront of our minds.

I don't know about you, but there are times when I have faced things, and I could, I could feel as if the, the — I could hear the, the enemy's horses just beating there, coming up, and, and feel the, the army shouting, raging against me, as I was trying to do my very best to stand firm, and what I knew was truth, and what I knew was true. Yet I seemed to be having an overwhelming feeling, as though I was seeking — uh, sinking down, as if hope itself was being pulled out of my life. It's a feeling that I don't like to experience.

When I read this — when I read what Paul is writing — he's, he's referring, I feel like, to people like myself that are in ministry, who, who are trying to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. What's taking place right now in this room, while I'm doing what I'm doing in this moment, is — is there is a fight that's taking place. As I am preaching, I'm trying to destroy the argument and every high and lofty opinion that raises itself up against the knowledge of our God. We, we are trying to take those things into captivity, bringing them into obedience to God. That's what's taking place right now in this room. You may not be aware of it, but there's a spiritual fight that's taking place. As we begin to worship, and as we were singing, as the choir was leading us in worship, and as we were engaging with our God in this present place right here, there was a spiritual warfare that was moving on, because the enemy doesn't give up easily. And he tries to do his best to get inside your mind and tell you what's going on in this room isn't real — this is just emotion that's taking place, and there are people around here living in a hypocritical way, and that they're not as good as they think they are — or tries to convince you

"Why are you here? You've, you've disqualified yourself long ago. That God doesn't care about you, that he doesn't love you." All of these things are taking place in the middle of a worship service. This leads me up to the moment we're in right now. That's why we put such an emphasis on preaching the word of God, because it's in this moment, as the word of God is being preached, that all of a sudden the ability for strongholds to come down is possible. Why? Because the word of God gives us the ability to counteract the lies with truth. That's why it's important to have the word of God and it being preached in your life.

I love this: Paul is painting this picture of those who preach the gospel, that we're battling against those strongholds. And when I preach to you, what I'm saying is coming up against strongholds that are in your mind here today. Because there are some of you — I don't know, I'm not here to point anybody out — but there are some of you who have already had your mind made up before you came in the back doors of this sanctuary today, that there was nothing going to change in your life. Some of you are here because someone asked you, and you — you're just being a good friend or a good family member, and you came. Some of you, because of a habit, you've got up and you've come here today. But you have convinced yourself that nothing's going to be any different when you leave this place today. That's a stronghold. That's what I'm talking about. Some of you have said to yourself, "I've prayed many times, and, and I have sought after the Lord, and I've tried my best to, to have my life line up with what is good and what is right, only to leave and fail, time and time again. Today's not going to be any different." That's a stronghold. I'm coming up against strongholds that are in all of our minds today. And I'm going to counteract those by preaching to you the truth out of the word of God.

If I'm preaching about money, what I'm saying comes against the way you think, your worldview, how you see things. In fact, while I'm preaching right now, this is going on: the word is trying to storm up against the fortress that has formed inside your mind, is trying to counteract what culture is saying is right, and what your friends are saying is right, in your environment you was raised in, with sanders, right? I'm trying to come up against all those things with the word of God today. What I know is inside your mind, your thoughts, those things are being held captive. And Jesus wants to liberate those things today in your life. His desires, to come into your mind and to counteract those worldly views, those opinions, those social exposures, and to take them captive, to lead them into the stronghold that is the truth that is in Jesus Christ. When he said — amen — and was being preached, that "up on this rock I'll build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." I'm preaching against strongholds by placing your thoughts inside the safety of the will of God, where they can be transformed, where they can be renewed, so that you take on the mind of Christ in your life. And that, that point, you can truly begin to live according to his purpose.

Listen to this definition: "Stronghold is a persistent state of mind that is manipulated by our enemy or others to control your behavior." See, the enemy knows: "If I can ever get in their mind, if I can ever get them to doubt, if I can ever get them to second guess for just a minute — I got them. I got them in that moment. If I can get just a toehold, just a little bit right there, just a beach head inside there, that would cause them to think maybe — miss, just maybe it's not completely true — and I've got them going backwards."

Think about this with me for just a minute. This all started in the Garden of Eden. This all started with the enemy, that serpent, that, that smooth talker, came in, and, and he did not outright take and form his own opinion. Instead, he caused them to question God's words, just by simply rearranging the phrasing of a sentence. Caused them to second guess: "Is God really something I can trust?" This boggles my mind. They had had no other encounter in the entirety of the human race, no reason to question that God was less

than truthful in everything that he had said. But yet somehow, the enemy caused them to have a moment of doubt. And in that moment, a stronghold was formed, and mankind fell. And that enemy continues to do the same thing today: to cause you to second guess in your mind.

We could start with many things. I can name off stuff that gets on all of us. I could talk about anger, or I could talk about having a, a, a, a state of mind in which everything you look at seems like it's impossible. But, but even if you've undergone behavior modification — which really is just a way of controlling yourself in the public eye — what happens when you get stressed? What happens when you get frustrated? What happens when things are going out of control? In that moment, we often, often find ourselves resorting back to our base form of coping mechanisms. So just because you learn how to behave in public doesn't mean that in private you're any better than you ever was. See, I'm not talking about behavior modification, because behavior modification doesn't get me anywhere.

Now, now please listen to me: there's a lot of — a lot of positive talks that are going on today, all around our city. There's a lot of places that'll have a moment of worship in God, and there'll be a man or a woman who'll stand behind a lectern or a pulpit, and they'll, they'll give you a little positive reinforcement, and, and make you feel good in a moment about yourself. But I'm here to tell you, it takes more than just me telling you it's going to be okay. It takes more than me just pumping you up just a little bit, and giving you a few candy stick verses you can take with you, and you can glue on the dashboard of your car. I'm here to tell you, we're in a spiritual fight, and we're against an enemy who's really good at his job — who's not necessarily intimidated by you — unless you learn how to take your thoughts captive, unless you learn how to take what the good, good book says to you — the whole book, not just a verse or two — that you understand the mighty God in Christ, and you understand the authority that's in the name of Jesus, that you understand that God puts his power inside of you, not just so that you speak in tongues, but that you can live an overcoming life, no matter what hell tries to throw at you. You have the ability — even if you sing by yourself, you're not alone. Your God stands there with you, fighting to break strongholds.

Anyone here know what I'm talking about? Anybody in here been good for a few months, and then somebody looked at you funny, somebody had the audacity to cut you off in traffic, some barista messed up your drink, and before you know it, your good behavior fell apart, and you find yourself almost as if you were not even the same person, losing your mind for a minute? Does anybody know what I'm talking about? For some here in this room, you've changed up all the edges around your castle, and you've cleaned up and dressed up, and it looks good from the inside — but that persistent stronghold inside your mind is holding you captive from any real change. It's not just about looking the part. Hello. It's not just about knowing how to behave in public, because all those things can be taught, but they don't take away strongholds in your minds. They'll keep you pinned down. That persistent stronghold inside your mind is holding you captive from ever, ever being any real change in your life. And as soon as things don't go well, as soon as life gets a little bit rocky, the reality of that stronghold comes crashing down, and you find yourself falling back into that same pit, time and time again. It could be the pit of anger, the pit of depression, the, the pit of lust, or pride, or envy, or jealousy, or fear, or that stronghold of alcohol, or drugs, or sex, or pornography. If that stronghold stands in your mind, it has a way of dominating the entirety of your life. You cannot leave it there, because it doesn't just stay in one area. It doesn't stay neatly tucked away, and, "As long as I don't walk to that area of my mind, I don't have to worry about that." It creeps into every aspect of your life. That's why it's important that you identify where the stronghold is, and you take measures to counteract that stronghold, because if you don't, I promise you

it'll bring your life crashing down all around you. Strongholds are put in very strategic places. They're built to consolidate control over entire regions. When they would build castles way back in olden days, they would find key strategic locations to place those things. The position — and their goal was to dominate the entire region. When you have a stronghold in your life, it doesn't just dominate one behavior. It will, ladies and gentlemen, spill into the other areas of your life, because the way our mind works, everything is interconnected. So a stronghold in one area will show up in other regions of your life.

Think about this with me: the drug addict — the drug problem turns into being a faithful to the family problem, into a late for work problem, into a lying problem, into a stealing problem, into a — and it goes on and on and on. It never just stays in one spot. That stronghold is put there by the enemy, because he knows, "If I can put it right there, it has the ability, if they don't take care of it, to dominate the entirety of their life." That's why you have to do something. We all know that this is true.

Think about the stronghold of lying. What about those people who are addicted to lying? I recommended that book last month by John Mark Cohen, "Live No Lies." I don't know how many people have read it, but it's a phenomenal book — how that our culture embraces and admonishes lying. After all, isn't that what social media portrays? You and I all know that that picture that gets posted every 25 minutes is not a capture of their real life, because we've all been there, as we took 75 pictures to get the one picture that looks perfect, and that's the one we want to represent. "Why doesn't everybody just post real life? Well, your guts hanging out, and your hair is not writing, the kids are acting like complete fools. Why does anybody post those pictures?" Because I'm going to tell you why: that's what your life's like, and that's what my life is like. It's just all messed up. But yet we want to portray — and we all look, and everybody's like, "Oh, look at that." And then everybody else is like, "Man, why can't I be like the islands? Why can't I be like so and so? Wow, I can't, because their life is just perfection. They don't live in 115 Bring Gale Lane, do they?" No, you see where I'm at? And before you know it, lying takes over, and nobody's truthful anymore. You know, when's the last time you just admitted you had a bad day? What we do in the South: "How you doing?" "I'm doing good." "Yeah, you're doing good? Man, you're limping, your car's on fire." "Um, that's hard. Yeah, yeah, we good. Pretty good." Because that's what you do in the South: you just polite. The truth is, we don't want to know about your problems. And this vicious cycle — it's a stronghold. It messes with us. Culture's embraced it. It's pushed us on us. And guess what the enemy's doing? Yes, he's just dancing in the background, going, "I got him, I got him, I got him. I'm got him. They're living this fake life. I've got him."

I'm here to preach to somebody today, that things aren't going perfectly. Is there any imperfect people in the room today? Because if there's some imperfect people, I got a message for the imperfect people today: that we serve a perfect God, who was a perfect sacrifice, who did a perfect thing on Calvary's hill. He died a perfect death, so that I have the ability to live an overcoming life, that I have a opportunity, and you have an opportunity, to have a relationship with a God who's willing to step down in the mess of your imperfection and pull you back up to where he — whoa.

Anybody ever had a stronghold in your life? Listen to me: when you can break a stronghold in your mind, it liberates an entire region. It's not just one area. It affects everything in the negative, but breaking it affects everything in the positive. It'll set you free. It has a much further reach than you have ever realized. Let's go back to people who are bound by things — whatever it is, bitterness, of jealousy, or lying, or, or anger, or whatever it is. It liberates you to have the ability to be kind and tender and joy and love, and all these things are being held captive right now. And for some of you, it has been — I'm talking to somebody right now, I'm feeling so

strong in the Holy Ghost — somebody, it has been years since there's been genuine joy inside of you. Somehow the enemy has backed you into a corner and placed you in, in a stronghold, and convinced you, just because of the things that are not right in your life, that God doesn't love you. He's not concerned. You look around and see other people that seem like everything they touch and their lives are perfect and perfection, and the enemy loves to pounce on those moments and tell you: "Look, God doesn't care about you. It's never going to change. Your kids are not going to be right. Your marriage is going to be messed up. The job's never going to come through. Your health is never going to be any better than it is right now." Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie. The devil is a liar. He can't say anything but a lie. If his mouth is running, he's lying. So whatever the opposite is, true. If he says it can't, then it can. If he says it's always going to be broke, get ready — get ready, it's fixing to be healed. I'm telling you, he cannot tell the truth.

I'm way behind in my notes. We got to learn how to identify strongholds in our life. Kind of slow down and teach for a minute: you got to learn how to identify. I'm going to give you some, some, some techniques here, and how you can identify. If you're a notetaker, I encourage you to take notes. Rifle through your neighbor's purse right now, get a piece of paper out. We got to learn how to figure out where the strongholds are, because it's more than just acknowledging "I got a stronghold," but you need to identify with it, because if you can't identify it, you can't take care of it.

For whatever reason, at our house we've had an — in just an insane amount of water leaks. Come to find out, we had some bad piping. It was just like, it was one of those things: you fix this problem and go this way, and it pops down, down here. You're going to fix it around the pop, then to the point you're just like — one point I'm like, "Let's just dig a well in the backyard. We don't need water we need to bring in the house. They did it for years. This is getting outhouse, and we'll go." Now here's the deal: I'd get the letter from the water department that would tell me I had a leak, or their word is, "We have noticed you have had over 24 hours of activity." Which means, "Hello, dummy, you got a water leak." Unless that got the faucet on, nobody's noticing. Now, it's one thing for me to say "I have a leak," but it doesn't do me any good. So I'll go find where the leak is, okay? So it's not just identifying we have a stronghold, but we need to figure out where that stronghold is, okay? So I'm gonna give you some techniques, and how you can find, how to identify your stronghold. You all ready?

Number one: you need to make up your mind. Now, what I mean by this — let me, let me unpack this. You came into this world with some stuff already programmed on your hard drive. Everybody with me? Like it was already there. You didn't ask for it. It's like when you go buy a new laptop, and you open it up, and inside this thing, like, "Why is that on there?" "Why?" "Well, I didn't ask for that." "Well, it was just, it came pre-packaged." You came pre-packaged with some stuff already there. Think about this now: I — Chasti and I've been blessed. We have three daughters, and each one of them is unique in their own way. So what works with one doesn't work with the other, doesn't work with the other. It doesn't. Because they, they came pre-hardwired with some things in them, and they — and it's not all — it would be great if there was little cookie cutters, you know, but they're not. They're — what works, this is — they're different. How many you've had multiple kids and know that to be true? Yeah, that's right. And you're just like, "Lord, help us." If you don't believe God has a sense of humor, have kids. Just, just have kids. It's proof God has a sense of humor. You come in this world with stuff already there. You already have personality traits. You already have tendencies. You already have things that you're drawn to, things that are there. All right? They're already hardwired there. They were, they were with you from the beginning.

Tendencies are a world's full on embracing right now, the feelings we have, feeding we were born. And we have these feelings already, you know. It starts little bitty, a little bitty. Now, our world is big on embracing and allowing, from the youngest of age in society, to be able to decide everything that's good and right in their life. I'm sorry that this doesn't, doesn't go very well. Okay, now remember, I'm talking about things that are already there. I'm going to come back to it, but they're, they're already there. This can be very difficult to break, because they've been there from the beginning. Look at your neighbor, say, "They're hard. They're hard. But they can be broken by God's help." Okay, so that's, that's number one.

Number two: moods. Ooh. Anybody ever been in a mood? Some of you've been in the mood for 12 years. These are partly shaped by your nature — we just talked about that — but they're also partly shaped by your nurture. Let me explain: the way you were raised, the environment that you grew up in, plays a huge part into the strongholds and how they get formed in your mind. Some of it is the way you came into the world already pre-programmed. Some of it was what happened as you were being nurtured: the people around you, how they took care of you. Did your parents allow you to get mad and stay that way? Did they allow you to be depressed and not care about you? Was your dad an absent man? Was your mom an enabler in your life? These things could strengthen already natural strongholds that you may have been born with. So that's the second one.

Third one: memories. Things that have happened to us. We have these memories from the past, like bitterness or unforgiveness or resentment or fear or shame or guilt, and we could go on. But something happened to you, and, and whatever it was that happened to you forms a stronghold there, that you struggled with from your, the entirety of your life. It could have been — it could have been an abuse situation. It could have been something that happened to you. You didn't ask for it. You, you were just living your life, and, and whatever the case may be, there's, there's so many scenarios that happen into those memories that are there. Some people struggle with that because of what is happening — that memory is always there.

Number four: mindsets. These are strongholds that come to us from the collective mind of our society, from our culture, from environments, in the quote-unquote social norms. This is where prejudice come from. Okay, they didn't come from births, no. But it comes from being exposed in environments where things have been, you know — you think about this: there's the one time there was the North versus South, and then there was the English versus the Irish, and then there was, you know, the Yankees versus the Red Sox, and Tennessee versus Alabama, or whatever. And you're the product of that environment. There, it comes onto you. See, here's the deal, people: the, the, the prejudiced stuff is not in you from birth. You take, you take two kids from two different races, two different colored kids, and you put them together as babies and play, and they just play. There's nothing there, because they're just innocents. It's the kids — nothing, nothing's been inundated then, then. But it happens in society. These things happen to us in our world, and we got to be careful, because sometimes the things that we've been around environmentally in our society have, have all of a sudden come on us, and it causes us to push everything else out. It's a stronghold. You guys still with me? Yeah. Everybody okay? All right.

So that, that mindset, we got to be careful with. Last one in this is you got to learn to identify the — because there can be things like mind-altering substances, these addictions, these habits, and they cause the way you think to be skewed. And these lead to some of the most difficult strongholds to conquer. First one I want to talk about here is food. Boy, it's quiet now, isn't it? Like, "Man, pastor, long as you're talking about drugs and anger and lust and all that, but why you got to get on food?" Well, because we're fat. We're literally eating ourselves to death. I'm sure my wife's phone's blowing up right now — are you all texting her? But look, here's — I love you enough to tell you, you need to be better. We need to be better at what we're doing, because we're addicted to food. I'm gonna leave

that alone, so you don't throw anything at me. Well, I ask you a question: has your, has your mood ever been altered by food? Yeah. And what do we do? We put words on it, like "I'm hangry." "You're hangry." "Yeah, I'm so hungry, I'm mad about it." You know, if that's a real thing, you might have an issue — just maybe. There are some people in this room today who are dominated by what they eat. You got to break that stronghold. Alcohol, drugs, prescription drugs — hello, it's an epidemic we're dealing with right now in our country. Now I'm talking about strongholds. Y'all still with me? I'm talking about identifying strongholds of there. I know we've got quite a total — just going to tease for — man, I'm going to get to preaching in a second — but I got to teach. We got to learn to identify these strongholds of the air. We got that — I have to, that — I got to make up my mind that I may — it may have been, come pre-programmed this way, but if it goes contrary to this — I may have a mood, I may have memories, I may have a mindset, I may have alternating substances that are trying to take me one way or another, but I gotta make sure that myself is not getting hooked to something that's less than true. That's why you need the word of God there. So let's — let, we've learned that those are some ways, those are some areas — you've got to learn to identify: what is it? What is that stronghold? Is it attached to one of these things, or is it multiple of those things? Because I got to break that stronghold.

How do we break those strongholds today? Part of what we have to do is learn to retrain our brains. And say — we'll go back to this. I'm going to tell you right now: just because you feel that way doesn't make it right. Is that okay for me to say that? Just because you feel strongly about it doesn't make it right. Just because you've been feeling that way since you were old enough to remember how you felt doesn't make it right. You can feel since the time you were two that you could fly — I mean, you can believe it with every fiber in you, that you, you, you can fly — and you can get up on the pinnacle of this building, and you can flap them arms as much as you want to flap them, but I promise you, honey, when your feet leave the roof, you will fall. And unless you call the fall flight, you're not going to fly. I don't care how much you believe in everything. "That's really silly, Pastor Kevin." I know that's silly. And so many other things are silly too. They don't make sense. But our culture is coming in and embracing. I'm telling you, these are strongholds that the enemy has placed inside our society, to shape and form how we think. And it all goes contrary to what the word of God says. That's why you need to have a checks and balance system in your life. And part of that is going back to, "What does the word of God say about this?" And if God's already spoke about it, there's no point in us arguing about how you feel, how I feel, what your opinion is. It's still relevant today. I'm telling you — none of us — I'm gonna get into it just a minute and preach a little bit, but I'm telling you, your feelings will mislead you. And the majority of that are in this room today know that to be a true statement. Your feelings have misled you multiple times. So be careful how you get your emotions wrapped up into the decisions you make and the words you use, because how you talk about it matters. It does. How you speak about things matters, because here's the deal: the end of me — listen to me, listen to me — I'll give you, I'll give you some insight here. The enemy, it does not have the ability to read your mind. He cannot read your mind. But he can read your lips. He can read your post. That's why you need to be very careful about what you utter out, because you end up giving it a whole lot more power than it was ever intended to have. Because the enemy is listening to what you say. He is watching what you do. And the moment he feels like, "Um, there's an area right there. There's a place I can post a little doubt, just put it right there. I can cause them to

have a little insecurity, a little bit of this." Before you know it, you have found yourself locked up inside your own mind. And that's where you find yourself. Man, I feel the Holy Ghost right now. Strong. Whoo. I'm fighting a spirit right now. That's where people get into their identity crisis — is because the enemy comes in and convinces you, you are not who God says you are. You are what you feel right now. And my feelings, left unchecked, will trump reality.

Let me get back over here, because I'm going to get ahead of myself. And if I get out of order, it may get messed up. Did you know that your mind is both physical and spiritual? This is why physical substances can control your spiritual mind. Can — they'll have a direct effect on you. They'll come against you. They'll, they'll fight against where you are. So we're going to look at allowing God to work in us, because we have to make some physical changes, along with God making spiritual changes in us, to overcome these strongholds.

Now let me say this: I have been in services where I've seen people come in here that they were just out of their mind on — what — on some substance. It could have been alcohol. Could have been drugs. I mean, they are just out. And then they get into the presence of God, and all of a sudden God will bring clarity to them. I've seen it. I've seen it. But here's the deal on that: God will never force you to do anything. So he's not going to force you to be sober. If your desire is to stay in an altered state, you'll stay in an altered state. But what I've seen is individuals come in, and they are so sick and tired of the circumstances they've been in. Even though they are in an altar state, the inside man is crying for help, and God will meet them where they are. Now many of you have been in this services — you've seen that happen. Boom, God will just do it right there. Right? But the person has to be — there has to be desire in them. It's the same way with demon possession. If a person don't want to be free to their demons — yeah. Now, does God have the power to cast him out? He sure does. But this person's got to want it. Gotta want it. You gotta be wanna be free to those things. So there, there's, there's an aspect. So here's the first thing: faith has to operate in this room now. I'm — my Holy Ghost meter's on 10 right now. I feel like God's going to do a powerful work in just a minute. But I got to convince some people in this room that that's the truth. Now, for some of you, I have to convince you. You're on board with me. You was on board the moment I walked up. You didn't know I was going to say — he's on board with me — and I'm thankful for that. But there are some in this room I'm having to convince, that God wants to do something — that's not just preacher talk. It's not just, "Why, Pastor Kevin's going to say that, because he has to say that. If he didn't say that, then it wouldn't work." No, it's true. The only limitations to God are the limitations we put on God in our minds. We will limit him. So faith has to operate today. Faith must — we, we, we must allow God to use our faith. They got to be connected.

So here's, here's one of the first things you got to do: you need to recognize that strongholds in your mind are spiritual. It's a spiritual thing. All right? You have to acknowledge that. Then why is that important? Because acknowledging that means there's — that it's beyond my control. It's a spiritual thing. It's beyond me. It's bigger than me. If it's a physical thing, I could take care of it. But it's not a physical thing. It's a spiritual thing. So strongholds are spiritual. What's going on in your mind is not just going on in your mind. Your mind is subject by you, by your spirit. Our enemy, the adversary of our soul, knows exactly what buttons need to be pushed right now, and he's pushing him in this room. I feel it. He's pushing the doubt button. He's pushing the override button. You're wanting — you want to let some things go right now, but he's pushing the button. He knows where we are the most vulnerable. And it's not a coincidence when you try to get right, things go wrong. Do you notice

that — moment you try to get right, man, it just all breaks out? Why? Because the enemy knows then. He knows he can't just let you go out here. And I think that's why a lot of people have the mind said, "Well, I've come down — I've come down." You guys okay? The guy — we come down to the altar, and we, we, we, we, we confess all of our faults and everything. We feel good. We feel like we can just go back out there, and we're not gonna have to — we're not gonna have to change anything about our lives. It's just gonna be grand. I'm telling you, we can't cast you out of your flesh, right? That means we'd all walk out of here a bunch of bones. That's kind of funny, with the truth. I can't cast the flesh out of you. And your flesh still does a whole lot of determining what you will and won't do, unless you bring it under subjection to the Spirit. Y'all okay? There's not a coincidence when trying to get right, things wrong. Do not be ignorant concerning these things. The devil's going to fight you. That's why having the word of God in you is so very, very important. It's important. I'm going to come back to this in a minute, but the word of God is important. In fact, say that out loud: "The word of God is important." You got to have it in your life. You can't be ignorant. You're going to contradict — or you're going to counteract — all of the lies. Whoo, big word there. You're going to counteract the lies that come unto you by, by going back to the word of God. The enemy is going to lie to you, but the word works. The word works.

So we've got to identify that they're spiritual. We gotta also identify the fact that strongholds are personal. You notice that they're deeply rooted in who you are. Oftentimes these things have been there for years. They've become a part of your persona, a part of your personality. They're who you are. It's almost as if you have taken on the identity of those things. There, sometimes people know about them. Sometimes it's a very private thing, but you know about them. You've convinced yourself it can never be any different, because that stronghold has convinced you of that. Remember, it never stays in one place. It goes into other areas. It's always trying to control entire regions of your life. You must be willing to change some of who you are. Strongholds, they come at you. They come against your will, your emotions, and your thoughts. Your will, your emotions — you're never just going to attack one area. They're never just going to attack your thoughts and leave your emotions alone. They're not. They're going to do that. They're always there. And then, because of that, you must attack all three areas: your emotions, your will, and your thoughts. You got to get in there and be sure you're counteracting what the enemy is trying to do. You must be willing to change some of the things about you. You cannot just say, "Well, I can't help being the way I am. I was just born that way." Well, you need to be born again. Be born again, and let God's Spirit fill you and help you be obedient. Remember, I talked about obedience. It's obedience. Bring it back, and be obedient. In order to break some strongholds, it will change your personality. It will change your habit pattern. It will change how you process information.

Do I have just one person today, just one, who would say that "I had to change the way I thought about life when God got a hold of me, because had I stayed in that mindset, I would have been stuck there"? And he didn't just have one person that had to change. Now before that encounter with God, nobody can convince you it was any different. But you come into an encounter with God, and God changed how you thought. Let me tell you, if you had an encounter with God that was just a momentary experience — you didn't get the God I had. The God that is in my life, it changed how I think, how I talk, what I do, what I say, how I behave. It's a constant process with him. It's not just a one and done. It's not just "I had that in my life." It's not just "I attend church because that's what I'm supposed to do, because I'm a Christian." But every week of my life, I'm trying to be a better man than I was the week before.

Every day I get up, I have to determine, "God, I'm going to live for you today." Because if I don't make my mind up, I'll slip back into the old man that was there, and I would drift back into those things that God took me out of.

Third thing: strongholds are social. Ladies and gentlemen, it matters who you hang out with. It matters. It matters what Christians you hang out with. Is that all right if I say that? I'm going to say it anyway. It matters what Christians you hang out with, because just somebody says they're Christian doesn't mean they're obedient to God's word. I mean, you know, if this is just about having a bumper sticker on your car and a T-shirt that you wear, that — I don't think that qualifies you as being a Christian. Just because you actually know how to say a prayer, that doesn't mean you're a Christian. That means you may know some things about God, but that doesn't make you a Christian. What kind of fruit are you bearing? Yeah. How obedient are you to the scriptures that is there? It's not going to judge, and we're not going to be judged mattered off of our good deeds. This isn't about getting into the Boy Scouts or the Girl Scouts. This is about "what thus saith the word of God." What does he ask us to do? You know, we're being obedient to those things that are there.

Strongholds will tell you it's about how you feel. "Well, I'm just doing okay. I mean, I feel like —" I've talked to people all the time, like, "How do you know?" "Well, I just feel like I'm good with God." "You feel like you're good with God? You feel like you're good with God? I feel like — I mean, I feel like I'm seven foot tall." "Well, you're just being silly." "How can you prove that I'm not seven foot tall?" "Well, we'll get a tape measure out." "Oh, well, it makes the tape measure right." Yeah, you see it. This is being silly now. I get into these conversations with people. I talk about what — and now I say, "But the word of God says —" "Well, I mean, I mean, I know that's what the Bible says, but —" Hang on. You know what the word of God says, but I don't know what you say after that conjunction. After that, it doesn't matter, because you have just nullified everything. You should say, "I know what the word of God says," and just stop there, because anything you add after that is your opinion. I've got an opinion. You've got an opinion. But it doesn't really matter. What does this say? What does this say? Because at the end of the day, I'm not going to stand in front of him and say, "Well, God, I just felt like you should do this. I just felt like, you know, you ought to — I was being pretty good. I mean, I didn't kick any cats today, and that's a hard thing for some of us." Seriously, I'm sticking on this point for a reason, because I'm telling you, the majority of Christianity right now won't preach this way. And Jesus himself is pretty specific about, "Broad is the way that leads to destruction, and narrow is the way that goes to heaven." Now if Jesus said there's a narrow gate, that means getting in is kind of tough. And anybody that's praying in a really broad picture, I'm a little leery about that. Because those are red-lettered words still. Okay. Yeah. All right.

Second Corinthians 6:14: "Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers." Now this is where a lot of pastors are like, "Well, when that, that guy wants to date that girl, and she's just not living right, I'm going to pull that out there and be like, do not include yoke one another." Now, is that applicable in that situation? Yeah. But it's got a lot more meaning than that. All right: "Pastor Kevin, if I'm not going to be unequally yoked together unbelievers, then how can I be a witness?" Glad you asked. You guys are smart. Good congregation today. Good questions. You can be a witness. It doesn't say anything about you being a witness. What does it say right there? What is the terminology? Somebody tell me what it says you're not to do. Be unequally — what — bound with an unbeliever. Now what I see is, a lot of people want to keep a friendship that is detrimental to them. And here's the deal: it is hard for you, in a spiritually inferior position, to bring somebody up. If you're going to be yoked

to somebody, you need to be yoked to somebody who's spiritually superior to you, because those superior people will pull you to where they are. But if you're in a vulnerable state — if you're, if you're drifting away from the truths that are in the scriptures that you should be anchored to — what happens is, you yoke yourself to an unbeliever, they'll pull you away. They will. They'll pull you out. And before you know it, you're way further out in the deep water than you ever dreamed you would be. And I promise you, I've seen this happen more often than I care to. You cannot win someone to God from a spiritually depleted state. It's an impossibility. You can't.

Four — I'm getting ready to come to an end. In fact, musicians can already come in, because I know God is desiring to do something today. Number four, we're talking about breaking the strongholds: are habitual. Their habits. Which means they're not going to be broken overnight. For some of you, the moment I said that, you resisted me. Some of you have habits that must be broken. They must be broken. And the only way you can break a habit is to form a better habit. For some of you, you, you have a coping mechanism that you go back to, and it's this habitual thing that you can — if, if everything is perfect, Joey, if it's a perfect world, and I don't have any stress in my life, and everything is going good, then I can maintain that level. But, but here's, here's the deal, guys: you don't get to live in a bubble. Okay, it'd be great — wouldn't it be great if, for just a thought, for just a minute, if we could just, just hang out in here, just be here, right? Just be in this place. Because his presence is here, and we, we have a lot of liberty in this room, and a lot of freedom. It'd be great. We feel good here. You know, we, you know, everybody looking nice, and we just — but here's the deal: we can't stay here. Okay? We were never meant to stay here. We were meant to go out there. Now what we try to do in church is, we come back in here, so that we get a refreshing and a renewing and an encouragement, that we together — we come in, and, and, and if, if I'm low today, but you're doing okay, then you, you bring me strength and encouragement. You, you help me out, and we both live together better. That's what we're doing here. We're learning from the word of God. We're being taught. But we're never meant to stay here. We have to leave. But here's the problem, is — is we get in this place right here, and we'll make the commitments. Anybody made a commitment in the house of God you didn't keep? I'll bring both my hands and at least one foot up on that. All right, I have. It's this pastor talking to you. I have made commitments to God that I didn't keep. And it broke my heart. Poured my heart out at an altar, told God, "I'm not going to do that again," and I went out and did it again. And after a while, it messes with you. I know, I know, in my own mind, there were things that I struggled with early in my walk with God, that I felt like, that I just wish were different — I wish were — and somehow convinced myself that I was just always going to be that way. Habits are hard to break, but you got to be intentional.

There were some things I had to change about my routine. See, when I came in — and just gave me a little transparency here with me — when I came in and really, really, really acknowledged the call of God in my life, when I was just coming back to him, I laid a whole lot out on the altar before him, because I realized that if I don't do a wholesale change, I'm never going to be any different. So I had to bring it all in. I had to bring in my pride. I had to bring in my relationships. I had to bring in my habits. I had to lay it all out there, and said, "God, whatever of this that is no longer good for me, please help me. Please help me walk away." And there are some people in my life that I am an acquaintance with, but we're no longer friends, because I couldn't — they were no good for me. They kept, they kept pulling me back to a place where I didn't

belong. There, there were some things I just couldn't do anymore. For some of you, it may not be a big deal, but for me, I couldn't do it anymore — not, and be in a good place. I couldn't. And God was revealing those things to me. Now here's the deal: I came down saying to God, "Lord, if I don't wholesale change — not just part — then this stronghold is going to take me down. I'm never going to be what I know you said I could be."

Strongholds — my last one — they're so spiritual. They're broken by declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ, by going back to the word of God. When I think through what Jesus did in the, in the garden, as he's facing the enemy — and I'm late, like two minutes. You keep playing. Doing a good job. — I go back to the garden, as he's, he's been faced with the devil himself. Everything — we know this. Most everybody knows, every, every instance — they, what, what, what was Jesus's response to, to every lie the devil said? Well, how did he do it? What'd he respond with? "It is written." It's written. He went back to the word of God. Now I'm going to sell this with you. And I know we're on — we're not on a high. I'm not like on 11. I'm not swinging off that light bar up there. But please know, God's fixing the move. All right, are you all ready? We're going to end, and there's going to be a deep move with God here, because there's going to be strongholds broken in this place. But here's the deal: there's something about going back to the word of God. The psalmist said in Psalms 119: "Your word have I hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against you." It's part of my daily prayer, is this verse, as I pray. Because right after I pray, I read my Bible. And my prayer is this: "God, I'm fixing to read your word. Will you please let me hide it in my heart, so that I might not sin against you." I'll also go further down in Psalms 119, which is the longest chapter in the Bible, to verse 105, when it says, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." "God, please allow your word to illuminate where I'm walking today, so that I can see, so that I can avoid all of the, all of the potholes and the pits that are around me. God, please help me." Because the word of God is important.

You know, we — Job gets preached about a whole lot, and he went through an un- — just unfathomable, and you can't even think about what he did. But he said this in Job 23, verse 12: "I have not departed from the commandments of his lips. I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food." Have you placed the word of God in your life above food?

And here's my last scripture for you. I'll leave this one with you. Malakai's — he's writing Malachi, this old prophet. He's writing because he's foreseeing things that are taking place in his lo- — in, in, in, in history — is that God moves on him. He writes these words. This is God speaking directly to us. He says this in verse number six: "For I am the Lord, I do not change. Therefore you are not consumed." And it hid me, as I was sitting on that condo balcony: God can't change. Because if God changed, it would nullify the word. His word is forever settled. He's the same yesterday, today, forever. He's not going to change. And it's because of that knowledge right there, I'm not consumed. What am I saying? It's that knowledge that brings me hope, that my God is true. What he said will come to pass. What, what he has spoke through his word to me is the truth that I can build my life on. And, and if he says that I can be free — if, if those strongholds can be broken down — then those things can't happen in my life. So go back to my opening scripture, when I read Paul again: "We walk not in the flesh, nor do we war against the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. I want to cast down imaginations" — catching arguments — "and every high thing exalted itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of God." I know this without any doubt in my mind, that there are several in this room

who have been held captive in your life by a stronghold that he desires to break. But the breaking of that stronghold is going to change who you are. And your hesitation is that truth. Let me say it this way — maybe this is the better way to say it. There are some of you today that can leave this place completely victorious, and freed from a stronghold, if you will come down here with this mindset: "God, I don't want to go back and be who I have been." Now that's not just you saying it. It's your mind made up: "I don't want to go back and be that per- —" If you're willing to do that, then that stronghold will break. But if there's any hesitation — what I mean by that — so please listen to me, and this is all I'm going to say, and I'm going to make the altar call: that means when you leave, very well, it may mean the majority of the way you've lived, you may never live that way again. You may never live that way again, because you can't. If you constantly stay, or go back to that, that stronghold keeps its domination in your mind. But if you're willing — who — if you're willing to step out today, there's a God who's willing to meet you, and he's willing to break that stronghold and break that mindset. Otherwise, you may have to deal with this — I don't know how much longer. But this altar is open right now. They're going to sing.

I feel like there's somebody in this room who's so desperate for a change, who's so desperate for God to do something in their life, who's willing to step out, push past a little bit of shame, push past a little bit of guilt, and allow God — the God of all, the creator of all — to make a change in your life. Yes, church, it's prayer time right now.