Strongholds Must Fall

Why do I keep going back to the same thought patterns even when I hate them?

Paul describes the exhausting loop of wanting to do right and returning to the old route anyway. He is not describing a stranger to faith but himself, the man who wrote most of the New Testament. The mental trail is familiar and well worn, and the sermon insists a new trail can be laid over it.

For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I don’t practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do. But if what I don’t desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good. So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don’t find it doing that which is good. For the good which I desire, I don’t do; but the evil which I don’t desire, that I practice.

Romans 7:15–19

Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness, that the bones which you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.

Psalms 51:6–10

Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do: forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:12–14

How do I tell a lie I've believed from a truth I'm avoiding?

The sermon says the enemy rarely bothers with a spectacular temptation if a simple lie in the thought life will do. Jesus met every attack in the wilderness with what God had already said, not with a new argument. The lie loses its grip when it meets the truth.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry afterward. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of God’s mouth.’” Then the devil took him into the holy city. He set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and, ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you don’t dash your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again, it is written, ‘You shall not test the Lord, your God.’” Again, the devil took him to an exceedingly high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. He said to him, “I will give you all of these things, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get behind me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only.’” Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and served him.

Matthew 4:1–11

The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.

John 10:10

You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.

John 8:44

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having the utility belt of truth buckled around your waist, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having fitted your feet with the preparation of the Good News of peace, above all, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;…

Ephesians 6:10–17

Does my family's pattern have to become my future?

The sermon says generational patterns get handed down, and every family has them. Ezekiel confronted people who were sure they were doomed by their ancestors, and God told them otherwise. Someone in a family can be the first to say the pattern stops with them.

Yahweh’s word came to me again, saying, “What do you mean, that you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’? “As I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “you shall not use this proverb any more in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine. The soul who sins, he shall die.

Ezekiel 18:1–4

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6

In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah began to reign. He was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. He did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. However, the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places.

2 Kings 15:1–4

“Now therefore fear Yahweh, and serve him in sincerity and in truth. Put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, in Egypt; and serve Yahweh. If it seems evil to you to serve Yahweh, choose today whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.”

Joshua 24:14–15

Why is it so hard to say the real struggle out loud?

Shame says hide, and isolation reinforces the very stronghold we are trying to break. Confession is the doorway out, and the sermon says it starts with telling the right person, at the right time, and telling the truth. James and John both describe the freedom waiting on the other side of saying it.

Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.

James 5:16

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9

He who conceals his sins doesn’t prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

Proverbs 28:13

If a man prevails against one who is alone, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

Ecclesiastes 4:12

What if I have tried to change and it is taking longer than I thought?

The sermon says transformation works less like next day delivery than like a garden being replanted, and that real renewal takes time. David prays for a firm spirit and a willing heart after failure, and Paul keeps pressing toward something he has not yet reached. The process is not the absence of change.

Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do: forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:12–14

Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. Don’t throw me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit.

Psalms 51:10–12

Let’s not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season if we don’t give up.

Galatians 6:9

…but those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31