It’s Time to Pull Down Every Strong Hold
Pastor Erickson preaches from 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, teaching that people were created to enjoy life and to have a relationship with God, and that strongholds are the spiritual roots behind addiction and repeated sin. He calls the church to fill their minds with the truth of the Word, grow a real relationship with God, and pull down every stronghold at the altar.
The message in 6 points
Strongholds and the time we give away
He shares how a few social media apps were taking time that belonged to his wife and children, and how the evening series on technology set him thinking about strongholds. He reads John 8:34, 1 John 1 and 2 Corinthians 10 and says it is time to pull down every stronghold.
1:06:00Created to enjoy life and know God
From Genesis 1, Psalm 8 and Jeremiah 29:11 he says people were made for two things: to enjoy the world God created and to have a relationship with their Creator. Jesus, the second Adam, came to give abundant life now, and the redeemed ought to be people of joy.
1:12:32The devil wants no relationship
In Genesis 3 the serpent leaves off the word Lord, the word of relationship, and sin first broke the fellowship in the garden. Satan has never minded religion, ceremonies or church attendance, as long as there is no relationship with God.
1:28:13What a stronghold is
He defines a stronghold as the spiritual root behind addiction, the sin that masters God's people. Like Paul in Romans 7 and Lazarus still bound in grave clothes, the born again must still overcome the flesh, and managing symptoms is not pulling the stronghold down.
1:37:10Tearing down the partition in the mind
The lofty thing in verse 5 is a partition the enemy raises in the mind so God's truth and the consequences cannot get through, which keeps people double minded and in a cycle. He says the truth of the Word makes us free and asks the church to read Romans 6, 7 and 8 every day.
1:46:19Free to answer God's call
Returning to where he began, he says the devil tries to steal both our joy and our relationship with God, and strongholds hold people back from the callings God has for them. He opens the altar for anyone caught in a cycle to seek God and pull every stronghold down.
1:58:18
In his words
“If anybody ought to have joy in their life it's somebody that's been redeemed. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.”
“What they don't comprehend is it without a relationship with God you cannot overcome strongholds.”
“If we allow strongholds to take over our life and to control the very thought processes in our mind we will never be what God has called us to be.”
Taken word for word from the video, with punctuation added.
Scripture
He reads
John 8:34
34Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
King James Version.
1 John 1:6-9
6If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
King James Version.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
3For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
King James Version.
Genesis 1:28
28And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
King James Version.
Psalms 8:4-6
4What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? 5For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. 6Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
King James Version.
Jeremiah 29:11
11For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
King James Version.
Genesis 3:1
1Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
King James Version.
Genesis 3:8
8And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
King James Version.
Romans 7:18-25
18For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 19For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 21I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
King James Version.
Matthew 6:24
24No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
King James Version.
John 8:32
32And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
King James Version.
He also points to
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