Breaking Free from Strongholds | Dr. Eric Mason | James River Church

[Applause] [Music] we're excited today to have with us kicking off our our Series in July a man of God who is really just a tremendous gift to the body of Christ a tremendous preacher when I heard him for the first time at our Men's Conference and listened to the message on Psalm 51 I mean I told him last night I said I've just never forgotten that every time I read Psalm 51 dr. Mason it just comes alive to me in a new way because I remember some of the illustration dr. Eric Mason is a tremendous communicator of the Word of God over 10 years ago he and his wife you bet moved to inner-city Philadelphia and started epiphany fellowship they're in the center of the city he has since God has used them to plant now eight different congregations in major cities in America in that awesome not only doing that but planting right now 11 churches on the continent of Africa so this guy has a heart for church planting he has a heart for investing in the next generation has a mentoring program to do inner-city ministry guys can come in people can come and spend two years with him being mentored by this great church he and his wife Yvette have four children he's the real deal would you join me this morning in opening your hearts welcoming dr. eric mason to james river church come on let's give it out for him and then it's an honor it's an honor to be here and be blessed to be able to share once again with you all I'm thankful for your passage let's give God a hand praise for your pastors y'all gonna do better than that y'all can do better than that give a got a hand pray for your pastor amen amen amen love the Liddell's love what God is doing here and expanding your territory and the opportunities for you guys to do phenomenal ministry in this sector of the Midwest and this vineyard that God has placed us in well let's go ahead and get down to business turn in your Bibles I want you to grab two passages for me I want you to grab a second Corinthians chapter 10 and I want you to grab Judges chapter six thankful for God's work here and praying as you guys move forward and doing what God wants you to do that he would continue to open doors provide resources develop leaders and expand his kingdom somebody should say Amen right there amen amen amen judges chapter six and second Corinthians chapter 10 you don't mind standing with me real quick do you well I read this I want to read this I mean we're gonna read this judges chapter six we'll read that second but second corinthians chapter 10 verses three through six it says for though we walk in the flesh we are not worrying according to the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power somebody say divine power to destroy strongholds to destroy strongholds we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ being ready to pursue every obedience when your obedience is complete judges 6 11 verse 11 it says now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Afra which belong to joash the abbe azomite while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites in the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him the Lord is with you o mighty man of Valor Gideon said to him please sir the Lord is with us why has all this happened to us and where are all his wondrous deeds that our fathers recounted to us and did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt but now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian the Lord in the Lord and the Lord turned to him and said go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian do not I send you and he said to him please Lord how can I save Israel behold my clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my father's house and he said the Lord said to him but I will be with you and you shall strike the Midianites as one man I would like to talk to you about briefly today in this time that we have breaking free from strongholds breaking free from strongholds father God in the name of Jesus I'm praying that you would throw your weight around in this place show the enemy who's boss there are already things that are arising in people's mind I pray that you'd break the spirit of fear as soon as I said strongholds some folks got scared break it over them in the mighty name of Jesus God I'm praying that you would help people to face stuff they haven't faced any ears or face challenges that they've ignored and God I'm praying that you would go into the uncharted places of their soul in the mighty name of Jesus and do what you can only do let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight Oh God our strength and our Redeemer and whom we trust and help us not to be just hearers deceiving ourselves but help us to be effectual doers and God may you be glorified and your Saints to be edified and your enemies to be horrified in Jesus mighty name we pray everybody who that said amen you may be seated in the presence of the Lord one of the most challenging things in pastoring where our pastor happen to Pastor in an inner-city context but our church is multi-ethnic and multi-religious socio-economic and one of the things that I've learned is no matter what color you are no matter which socio-economic bracket background you're from and no matter where you're from everybody has stuff that they need the Spirit of God to deal with and in having that reality it's interesting with all of the different nationalities we have Haitians we have Asians we have Europeans we have white folk we have black folk we have Latinos in our ministry and no matter what color they are we have men and women leading and it's interesting that no matter what sector or what a peg radio and everybody's dealing with something that they need the Lord to release them from one of the greatest challenges that we deal with is people not wanting to face the depths of what's in the way of them being all that God wants them to be if we would just allow the Lord to get in the way of our lives and us not see it as in the way but it's the greatest place of freedom then we find ourselves in some of the greatest in most deepest places of comprehensive Shalom and transformation and so we come to this first text and Paul is doing something interesting for the Corinthian church the Corinthian church was the high dollar a city church they were like a sort of a financially wealthy Center City Church with some type of socio-economic differences there but the challenges that the Corinthians were dealing with is one of the greatest challenges they were dealing with was spiritual end maturity and that spiritual immaturity was impacting the depths of what God had for them they had every single spiritual gift fully active in which we all believed in the power of the holy spirit the filling of the Holy Spirit the moving of the power of God in every single gift on steroids but there was something wrong in even the fact that there were spiritual gifts flowing the holy ghost was using them to edify people and people were coming to Jesus Christ yet there was still something in the way and Paul diagnoses it right here it's a stronghold somebody said stronghold yeah yeah yeah yeah a stronghold of stronghold a stronghold family stronghold based on his fastest look at what Paul begins to say as he begins to lay out to the corinthians what he wants them to understand a stronghold of me this is for the we for though we walk in the flesh we are not waging war according to the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy fortresses or strongholds a stronghold here is interesting a stronghold is a mindset value system or thought process that hinders your growth let me say this again a stronghold is a mind and sense some mindset value system or thought process that hinders your growth so what do we see what 1 1 1 preacher said a stronghold is a stubborn disposition it's what we were we were we in our lives as believers function in my mind in an unbelieving belief system in other words when you I like the way Wilkerson says that he says most of us think of strongholds as bondages such as sexual trespasses drug addictions alcoholism our sins we put at our top or worse senseless but Paul is referring to something here much more worse I humor than our human measuring of sins he says a strong is an accusation firmly planted in our mind by Satan to establish listen to implant lies in our mind falsehoods and misconceptions especially concerning the identity and work and goodness of God the first thing that happens when many of us go through a difficult thing and it's beyond our understanding of why the sovereign Lord would help us to allow us to go through something like that as we begin to doubt his goodness that's a strong whole because if the enemy listen can get you to doubt what God is like then what will happen is he can't work the good into you that he wants to work in you while he takes you through it and so the devil likes to likes to hijack the glory of God in your life it's and so and so Paul is challenging God's people he says God wants you to be free from this and why does he wanted to be free because we tear down everything that bigs itself up above Jesus Christ and who he is anything in your life that competes with Jesus as a stronghold it means anything that that tries to compete with God's passion for you God's plan for you God's purpose for you your identity in him is listen a stronghold that needs to be addressed and if you and I see this this is the weird thing about us God has already given us the victory so the question isn't whether or not he's giving you the victory he wants you to walk in the victory not just in walking in the victory but utilizing the power of the Resurrection and the work on the cross to tear some stuff down I wish I have some help in here that's something listen let me tell you something that God has anointed your hands with tearing down capabilities and so what he want you to do is he wants you to challenge somebody say challenge challenge that demonic speculation challenge it with who God is and so we see here that Paul really helps the Corinthians to let them know that your spiritual growth is being tainted because of your disposition towards the goodness of God because of the stronghold that you've allowed to take hold of you and what's interesting is strongholds aren't just the things that we that hold to us a stronghold is something that you hold onto and so now we're going to look at a case study in the book of Judges that lays out practically how in the world we've laid the theological if you will or the biblical foundation for what a stronghold is now we're going to see God working in a young man's life and his community's life and in his family's life to challenge him to face some things that he didn't want to face judges six judges six it says now the angel of the Lord came and set under the turban is at Ofra not Oprah but Oprah interestingly enough that this was a time based on judges 17:6 the Bible says that because there was a generation there was a generation based on chapter two the third generation after the Joshua generation and their children didn't properly convey the nutrients of the kingdom to the next generation what happen is is when people who've experienced the move of God when people have experienced revivals and the might of the Spirit in their lives and don't pass that down you destroyed the ability for the legacy of God to go to the next generation when you don't tell of the goodness of God to your children and your children don't catch it at they don't sell it to their children's children you open up a generation based on judges 17:6 this says and there arose people who did what was right in their own eyes and so what happened here in this passage is the children of Israel were losing their minds acting a plum nitwit like my grandmama would say and what they began doing is they began having a knowledge of God but not wanting to live into its power and so what happens is you have Gideon here functioning in a stronghold God is so powerful that what happens is is when we wile out he takes out his divine belt now I don't know if you know this but God gives weapons and spankings to its people when they asked the food and don't want to do what he wants them to do so but God decided he was going to do when they got their idols out he pulled out his Bell and listen when God gives you a spanking listen CPS can't help you they can't help you but what's happening is is when God gives you a spanking it's for your good and for your development not for your destruction it's so right here in the text God is about ish if God is about once to end the spanking whenever God wants to end the spanking that he's giving you he challenges you to join him and tearing down the reason why he's giving you a spanking in the first place and so look what it says here it says which brings me to my first and only point today the first one and one and only point one point I promise are much aware it starts wit and ends with an encounter with God they're going to break free from strongholds it starts and it ends with an encounter with God look what happens here in the text he says now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth about over not know what I like about this passage it shows the coolness of God God is watching getting in while out in his stronghold God who is the originator of cloaking technology okay shows up and it's chilling next to a terrible tree sitting on a tree watching Gideon in his stronghold and just looking at him he's present but not seen even though he's present Gideon doesn't know he's present but God is present and God doesn't let the stronghold and Gideon his in stop him from moving towards him that's what I love about God God does not let your mess that you're in stop him from moving towards you yeah yeah yeah that's that's that's that's what I love I love the fact that God has listened your mess isn't the worst mess listen that God has ever seen okay let me see if I can make it plain God has seen everybody's mess past present and future simultaneously what you would do actually and potentially in what you actually did and how messy it would have been if he let you go to that direction or how much he would let you been and all of the underlying conclusions and he can see those at the same time and he yet want you yet love you let become that big letting some be committed to you see the problem with many of us is we think the Lord loves some future us see many of us think that God loves me when I get it right God loves me if I'm perfect no no no no the Bible says I don't know about your Bible but my Bible says and while we were yet sinners Christ died for us in other words if you could have gotten it right you would have saved yourself but that's why God demonstrated his own love and so he's demonstrating his own love again in this passage by showing up and he's cloak all up and just watching getting in in this race like man what is this dude doing he don't even know I'm looking right at him I was looking at him when I was in heaven but I'm closer in the sense of my dwelling persons and the pre-incarnate form of Jesus Christ looking straight at him while he's Wilding out in the midst of his stronghold now look what he says right here it says which was would belong to joash the ABS right while his son Gideon was beating out Wheaton a winepress what does that have to do with anything why would you be wheat in a winepress wine presses for grapes you would take wheat of course we got some country folk in here when my country folk at Oh ain't no country folk ok y'all and the country folk in here ok and so what they would do was they would go out to the threshing floor and throw the wheat up and let the wind separate the wheat from the tares but this shows us something there Gideon is in a strong show because of Israel's idolatry because he's afraid of the Midianites he has to go into a secret place to do what would normally be used for something else you know you're in a strong hole if you're using something that was created to function one way for another way and see it as a normal I call that functional dysfunction okay let me see if I can make it plain y'all look at me funny my wife got me started to watching the home-and-garden TV and Food Network and now I'm addicted I admit it but there's another show and I think it's a and it's called hoarders y'all heard of that show y'all heard that show I grew up in a hoarding house and one of the things that you see when you're going I mean some of the people's house you trying to get an understanding how in the world they're functioning in a house like this one woman had 80 cats in one little tinkle pot I don't know how to even share that I mean then you got clothes everywhere mess everywhere and you can smell all of the messed up miss of the matter I'll just put it that way throughout the house man the people came over the house don't oh do they open the door there's a pole good God Almighty what in the world was that in there right and they were trying to win it there was and what was funny is that the woman came to the door chilling like she says how are you doing now for the person that's not in her mess you're like how in the world can you stay in a house that's this hoarded up this messed up and smells like this in other words she had been in there so long that the smell became the new normal for her let me tell you something some of you have been in some stuff in your life where the stitch is clear to everybody that's not in there with you but you're hoarding some stuff in your life and God is knocking at the door of your life saying I wants to come in I want to change it matter of fact I'll join you in the mess and that's what God is doing with Didion right now so many of us you need to let go of what you're hoarding because God has better for you then you have for you let me say that again God has better for you than you have for you therefore you must wage in your life the war are pulling down strongholds but you gotta have God's help with it because some of us are just paralyzed in our state you come to church every Sunday you shout and you praise you pray in the spirit you've got a big old Bible under your arm but no one knows the turmoil that you're working through and God says I love you enough to want to encounter you and tell you and proclaim you and prophetically speak to you beyond where you are look at what it says in the text it says in the Lord and the angel of the Lord appeared to him so he was standing there God uncloaked himself that would have scared the daylights out of me I'm just telling you right now he uncloaked himself and he says listen Church the craziest thing that you ever want to hear of somebody that's in the midst of a stronghold and running away from the presence of the Lord yet knows the Lord but doesn't walk with the Lord look at what it says and the Lord the first thing he says to him is the Lord is with you o mighty man of ala I'm confused hold on you and I should be very very confused right now because Gideon is functioning in his stronghold Gideon is running away from the Lord's presence Gideon is under the discipline of the Lord but interestingly enough is God doesn't speak to him based on where he is help me today God he doesn't speak to him based on the state that he's in because if cuz you already know you're in the state that you're in so God doesn't always necessarily have to give you every line item of your mass when he has to do because of the brokenness in your life and your commitments are holding to these things it's society beyond where you are so what God begins to say is he says the Lord is with you o mighty man of Valor now you're looking at me from him because you've got to understand what a mighty man of Valor is in Hebrew it's the word a so high oh hey so high oh Ohio is a terminology meaning a man or woman of worth and great value so so in the midst of him speaking in a way and functioning in a way outside of the value that God has given to him God get ascribes value to him even though he's functioning outside of the sphere of the value that God has for him and was interestingly enough was interesting ly enough here as well is that a mighty man of Valor or mighty woman of Valor is interesting because it was like the special ops team you know David had his his minions of dudes that were wrong with him but then he had a clique of just a few free warrior dudes now these dudes were crazy okay they would take 10 15 dudes and go up against thirty thousand by himself you know I'm saying they would a special ops team these were the crazy people that were differently trained then the bigger military warriors that he had the mighty men available going 15 like this and they go in and and nobody would know and they hit somebody like that and roll over here and then they get somebody here and hit him like that and do just dropping out you know I'm saying this drop is I mean just dropping up in other words it's like our Navy SEALs you know I'm saying a black ops and our Rangers that's that's it God calls him what he is not now this is what's weird to me God doesn't pick like we pick he's the worst picker of people I've ever met in my life now infinitely when we play a basketball you go to the courts about three of us you know we go to the court you know we need to go pick up games so what you gonna do is you're gonna look around and you won't see who plays a game decently so that when is your turn on the court you put them on your side and so you choose based on skill God doesn't even function like that see God God the Father God the Son God spirit they show up on the basketball court God has a headband on some long shorts and socks poured up to here some sneakers on he's showing some gum looking around on the court God the Sun says Jesus says pops she said you she says who you want to choose mm let me look around yo shorty over there come on that person been like out there for hours they just they just on the internet now there's nobody won't use them you understand what I'm saying but God is like being like okay he walking all crazy coming on over then he said yo young lady over there she said who me he said yeah come on let's play are you sure you want me on your team you said yeah come on my team right and then God the Father got everybody laughs and they're like we bought the one these cats man they don't know wouldn't know where they bout to do then God the Father get you on there to get the person on the team and then God the Father goes out he runs the point no-look passes it to you you like wow where did this come from and you know like this is like wow what in the world is happening on some you take pound you slam dunking are you going back yeah and then like why didn't we choose those guys and the reason why is because God is a bad talent scout on purpose God is a horrible talent scout because he doesn't choose you based on what you have for yourself he always chooses you based on you being in him and what you'll be like once he gets to you and starts working in your life and changing your life and challenge in your life and building up your life listen God doesn't shoes that way because he likes to choose people to work through and to work in who he can get the most glory out of their lives listen ha Jesus show this listen this is Jesus choice list of disciples of the hundred 20 let's listen who he chose he chose religious skeptics businessmen are a bad businessman horrible businessmen Hebrew fundamentalists a thief folks a shady government worker a radical Jew Mama's voice spoiled rich kids a prostitute a healed outcast aristocrats a legalist a licentious person and a formerly demon-possessed woman so you represent his reign I'm dizzy but that's us and if God can choose them you and I got a chance because I'm just telling you right now that God is in the business of choosing people powerful how God speaks to Gideon based on where he is but look what happened and look how deafened Gideon's ears has to become family of God so even hearing God's speak life to him look at what happens here says beautifully that's why I'm telling God is important and Gideon said to him please sir he didn't know he was he said if the Lord is with us why then has all this happened to us and where are all the wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us saying did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt but now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of many and it's interesting that first off he doesn't know that God is present right there in front of him as a matter of fact many times the enemy will make you think that God has forsaken you when God has been there all the time some of you have been raped some of you have been molested some of you have been taken advantage of and you're asking the question where are you God and God says I've always been there I didn't do that to you they did that to you now coming in charrette shop on the mess that has happened in your life don't you let what happened to you make you think I don't love you don't you let what happened to you make you think I'm not committed to you don't you let yourself ever ever ever think that my heart is that massive for you God comes in he begins challenging Gideon so I love him men some of you I like speed of zeros book he writes well when he talks about emotional health ISA virtuality he said one of the greatest things that the church deals with is allowing not allowing themselves to deal with their past issues and letting and forgetting and not working through the impact of the past on the present and that's what God is calling you to do God wants you to visit some places in your life family God that has broken your heart God wants you to visit some places that you haven't visited in a long time this is not just for the young person there are some bound up older people in here that God wants to break through the anointing of God he wants to break the yoke of bondage on your life he wants to challenge those places because there are things in your life that's inhibiting the massive 'ti of what God wants to do should glorify himself and some of you said I've gone too far too away God said it's not no one is never too far for me not to reach them Bible says is the Lord's arm too short to save no it isn't too short to say how dare we think that the Living God can't reach you there are some places in your life that you've closed off because you don't think anybody cares about you you don't think the church cares about you and God is saying to you based on this passage I am committed to you and now what I want you to do and this what you have to do applicational II you have to start opening up somebody say open up so look what he does in verse 25 this is crazy after Gideon realizes that he's had an encounter with God it's not until he has an encounter with God until he's encouraged to deal with the strongholds in his life look at verse 25 the same chapter it says that night the Lord said to him take your father's bowl and the second Bowl seven years old and pull down somebody say pull down or you can do better than that pull down so pull down the altar of the owl that your father has oh and cut down the Ashera cut down this Shira that is beside it and build an altar listen to the Lord your God on top of the stronghold here with stones late in due order this is powerful it's powerful because what God tells you to do is God tells you to go to the place where the stronghold is that means some of you guess what you're gonna have to do you're gonna have to get the cord and you're gonna have to trace back some of you may have to go through some therapy some of you may have to go through some things that help me trace back to the root of the mindset that maybe you think a particular way that was an unbelieving belief system that the enemy has used as a way to stop you from being who God wants you to be and so Gideon's stronghold was in his daddy's house in other words he had to go into his family structure it's believed that his dad was a priest of the L and a shara and what they began to do with the sheera and the bow is they beginning to trust them for rain and trust them for fertility and fruitfulness instead of the Living God and so God says I want you to stop trusting in nest to make you fruitful the thing that you trust and outside of me to make you fruitful only makes you barren and so what he tells them to do is he tell he says cut down and and pull down the work cut down in the Hebrew means to cut at its root literally means to uproot it from where it is now this is what I like what God had him do God not only called him to uproot some stuff and tear down some stuff whenever God takes something away from you he always gives you something better in his place so in the sang-hee he didn't tell him to stop worshipping he didn't stop tell him to stop trusting for fruitfulness he just told him listen I want you to build in all turn and altar is a place of sacrifice an altar it's a place of worship an altar is a place where the people of God in the Old Testament woody utilize as a place for them to be centered now that we're in Jesus Christ there is no physical altar now even though we use pulpits and stuff as altars the altar is now inside of us because the altar eventually became a physical temple and now that we're the body of Christ we are the temple so therefore the place where we have to go to get the mess out and then big-up God and build an altar to him it's in our hearts what is 1st Peter 3:15 says it's a set-aside Jesus as Lord we're in your heart and so now what's enthroned on your life that you're afraid for God to get to it I remember I remember one time my house was a mess when you have toddlers and stuff you know you clean one second then it gets messy again you clean one second I don't know how they do it they just have this knack of wreaking havoc on a clean room and so somebody knocked on my door why they come over now they're people always wait until you not in the best place with your house to knock on your door I don't like my people pop over my house calling me calling me it's like I say yes or no um so they're not going to door and I say yo how you doing and you know when you're trying not to let somebody in they're always gonna look over your shoulder I don't like when they do that I don't know you like that don't do that all right but when if somebody did I don't know how they feel about me I don't want to let them in but there's some people they can pop over anytime because when I open the door for them and I said oh it's just you come on in that's a message that I don't care about that and they'll come in and they won't judge my mess what they I'll do a good friend go front he'll come in and they'll just start picking stuff up and helping you clean up that's what Jesus wants to do today in your life Jesus through the work of work on the cross and his death and resurrection wants you to open the door to places in your life where you're scared to let anyone in - and what he wants to do is he wants to encourage you today just say if you open up that area of your life I know it's dark in there I know it's a bunch of skeletons in there I know it's some stuff in there that you're embarrassed by I already know about it but I need you I want you to let me into it because the only way the only way God I can work in your life is for you to open up that area of your life to me last thing I remember when we first got our building we have an old industrial building 32,000 square feet our first building right there by Temple University and when um we were there and got the building it was rat infested bad infested rat and roach infested so we had a guy come in and do comprehensive extermination and he says pastor this wood I need you to do and they just staff to open up every single door I'm like what do you mean he said anything that has hinges and a handle open it I was like okay he said the reason why I want you to do this is because if you don't open up everything and I exterminate this part that which has infested which you've kept close when it finally gets open we'll reinvest what I've cleaned up so what God what is God saying to you today open it up open it up open it up open it up open no matter how unclean it is no matter how embarrassed you are it's time I know it's been years open it I know it hurts you I know they hurt you open it I don't care where it is in your life you're not broken you feel about it open it because the balm of Gilead says I'm here to lovingly engage you and what happened with Gideon is this I'm a close on this is when Gideon got free there was some people that wasn't happy when God frees you because they're people that share the stronghold with you and they like you because of the commonality of the messiness of you two together but what happens is is when you get free everybody's not going to be excited but you can't worry about listen how people feel about you getting free you gotta be in this he who's the Sun sets free is free indeed for freedom Christ has set you free every head bowed every eye closed

Channel: James River Church

Views: 64,326

Rating: 4.7978725 out of 5

Keywords: Eric Mason, James River Church, Strongholds, sermons, church, christianity, 2 Corinthians, james river church sermons, james, river, online, best sermons, best, sermon, eric, mason, dr., strength, power, sermon on strength, church online, online church, dr eric mason

Id: ggWkFr32xo0

Length: 39min 20sec (2360 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 29 2017