How To Break Satan's Strongholds - Part 1 - Pastor Ed Yount

I want you to suppose for a moment that you had about 50 acres of land and a man came to you and said to you that he needed a place to live and out of the goodness of your heart you gave him one acre of land right in the middle of that 50 acres and after a few weeks this guy started playing loud music all night long keeping you up and then you would drive by his house and you would notice that he had dumped trash in the yard and things were not looking so good and then he started to dump trash on your property and before you know it your 50 acres look like a garbage dump and suppose that you went to this man and you said now you've got to stop this this is not going to work out of the goodness of my heart I gave you this land and now you've turned it into a garbage dump and he would say to you that's not anything you can do you gave me the deed to this acre of land right in the middle of your 50 acres it is mine you can't get it back you can't take it back what would you do well there's not a lot I suppose you could do but spiritually speaking that's what's happened to many believers today we have been saved by the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ our sins have been washed away and then after we're saved the devil comes along and he knows that he can't have our soul so what does he do he tries to develop a stronghold in our life that will keep us from experiencing joy the abundant life that Jesus talks about and what do we do if we're not very careful we give place to the devil the Bible talks about giving no place to the devil we're not careful we give place to him and there's a sin that works its way in our life and we try not to do it but we find that it's taken us it's a sin that easily besets us and over and over and over we're bothered by it we committed it frustrates us it upsets it steals our joy it makes us depressed and we truly want to be rid of it but we just can't get rid of it that's a stronghold that's what the Bible talks about as a stronghold in the life of a Christian and God wants us to understand how to break Satan strongholds in our life because these strongholds keep us from being what God intends us to be now this morning we're going to work our way through some verses of Scripture but I want you to to really pray right now in your heart as I pray in just a moment and ask the Spirit of God to keep us from being distracted in here this morning because I can tell you that the devil does not want us to look at what we're looking at today in the Word of God some people are going to hear this and you're going to be set free of strongholds that have bothered you and plagued you for many years of your Christian life and the devil doesn't want that so he'll try to distract so would you bow your head with me and as I pray out loud would you pray in your heart and just ask the Spirit of God to help us focus today on the Word of God and what God wants to teach us father we thank you that we have the privilege to open your word and to know that we hear truth because you are truth and we ask you today especially to keep Satan from distracting our minds and our thoughts because what you have for us today it's so important and Lord across this room there may be believers who have struggled with these strongholds for a long time and today they can be set free so please speak to our hearts and keep us tuned in to your word help us to hear not only with our our mind let it be not only knowledge for our mind but application for our heart and our life lord I thank you for these folks I love them and you love them and I pray you bless them teach us together today from your word in the name of Jesus and people said I want you to stand with me and open the Word of God to second Corinthians 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 and we're going to look at just a few verses here second Corinthians chapter 10 beginning in verse 3 for though we walk in the flesh we do not war according to the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ now look back up there verse four it speaks of pulling down strongholds that's what we're looking at today how to break Satan strongholds in the life of a Christian would you please be seated just keep your Bible open before you now when we look at this word strongholds let's understand what God teaches in his word that this word means the meaning of strongholds that word actually is translated from a Greek word that means fortress so the meaning of strongholds is fortress it is something some part of something in our life that Satan has surrounded us with that Satan has built a wall in our heart that he has a grip on us something that we have tried to get ourselves rid of but we're unable to do it something that seems to hold us and it's a grip or its power now listen strongholds can't be reasoned away it won't work strongholds will not go away over time they just get worse strongholds must be broken down they have to be torn down they have to be demolished they are like a fortress that's what the word means a fortress where the devil has come in and set up something in the heart of the child of God where the child of God has given him room to do that and the only way they can can be destroyed is through the power of God and we're going to learn how to do that this morning as strongholds begin in the mind that's where they always begin strongholds always begin in the mind God created us and he created us with a very powerful mind the human mind is extremely powerful in fact somebody said if you could build a computer that could do everything the human mind could do today that that computer would have to be the size of the Empire State Building and would be one citywide city block wide in one city block deep now before we've come to Christ we have a carnal mind we have a carnal nature a worldly nature that is opposed to God in fact the Bible says we are at enmity with God we're enemies of God we have a carnal nature we're born with that and when we receive Christ into our life were given a spiritual nature a new nature we become new creatures in Christ now that old carnal nature does not go away it's still there it's there and so now we have the carnal nature and we've we've got the spiritual nature but Satan understands when Christ frees us when Christ saves us that Satan can never get our soul but Satan will try every way that he can to rob us of our joy to keep us from living the way that God intends for us to live to heat guilt on us to keep us depressed and joyless and frustrated and it all begins in the mind and he never gives up the devil wants to attack our mind he's trying to do like that man who has that acre of land in the middle of the 50 acres he's trying to make a garbage dump out of our life and it begins in our mind and he's got all the Arsenal's of Hell at his disposal and one of the ways that he tries to do that is to bring build a stronghold right here that's why if you look at verse 5 it talks about taking every thought if it begins in the mind in our thinking now it begins with a wrong thought and I'll talk a little bit about that more in a moment but strongholds begin in the mind and then they become sinful behavior a stronghold becomes a sinful behavior as long as we allow the thoughts to continue and and we move on into sin and I'll show you how that works in a moment but when we do that each time that we do that it gets harder and harder and harder to overcome and so we commit a sin and we commit it again and we committed again and then we feel guilty and convicted and we confess it and but the next day we're right back at it again and it makes us ashamed and guilty jot down Romans chapter 7 we don't have time to read the whole passage but you can look at it later Romans chapter 7 verses 7 through 19 listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote because he he struggled with this same thing I mean everybody does and he struggled with this in his own mind in his heart he said for the good that I want to do I do not do but the evil I do not want to do that I practice he's talking about dealing with this sin thing in his life and and the devil establishing these strongholds in his mind so get this fixed in your mind the meaning of strongholds is that the devil builds a fortress in a place in our life that we give over to him that should be filled with the Spirit of God and we'll look at how that happens but we see not only the meaning let's let's move into the method of strongholds and let's take a look and how these strongholds are developed in the life of the Christian it begins with permission every stronghold begins with permission the only way that the devil can develop a stronghold in your life and my life is for us to give him permission he can't do it unless we let him in the devil has no Lee authority to the mind of the children of Jesus Christ we have to give him permission to get in so Satan will try to plan a thought in our mind and when he does that we have to immediately take authority over him because we've been granted that authority through Jesus Christ now here's how it works the devil is constantly bombarding our minds with thoughts if you don't believe this let's take a survey have you ever had a thought that you shouldn't have had if you have raise your hands I mean that's all of us we've all had thoughts we shouldn't have had have you and I'm not asking you to raise your hand now but I know the answer to this because we're all human beings have you ever had a thought that was so vile so wicked that you just wondered where in the world did that come from why did I think something like that in my mind that's the devil and he's constantly bombarding our minds with his thoughts so what do we do we can't give him permission to get in so the minute we think a thought that that we know is coming from the devil a thought we shouldn't think we need I mean that very split-second we need to say no I'm not going to think that God helped me not to think that we just need to be sensitive to what we think and the very moment that that thought enters our mind we need to stop right there and say no I'm not going to entertain that thought and God please help me with my thought life so for the devil to establish a stronghold we we give him permission and that leads to progression if we think about those thoughts if we allow Satan to to infiltrate our mind with his his thinking and his wickedness there is a progression jot down Ephesians 4 and let me read something to you from the word it says who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness but you have not so learned in Christ put off concerning your former con the old man which grows corrupt and be renewed in the spirit of your mind so here's the progression it begins with a thought the devil fires a fiery dart of thought into your mind that's where it begins that's why you've had these thoughts that you should not have now if you entertain that thought it leads to a choice every time it begins with a fault and if you do not stop and deal with that thought if the thought is entertained every time it will lead to a choice that's what it means in our text when the Bible teaches us to take every thought captive that's what God's talking about if we begin to dwell on that thought and we don't take it captive it's going to lead to a choice now if the choice is pursued it's going to lead to a behavior it begins with a thought if the thought is entertained it leads to a choice if the choice is pursued it leads to a behavior that is contrary to God's will for life so here's how it works the devil fires a thought into your mind if you entertain it it leads you to a choice there's a war going on in your mind

Channel: Woodlawn Baptist Church

Views: 14,998

Rating: 4.6641221 out of 5

Keywords: breaking, break, satan's, satan, stronghold, strongholds, ed yount, pastor, preacher, sermon, woodlawn, baptist, church, conover, nc, north carolina, Christian, bible, gospel

Id: GLBHFHn7iPI

Length: 14min 40sec (880 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 18 2010