Well, again, let me say good morning to you.
You know, something that I have realized about myself and as I've talked to people over the
years I realize is a pretty common thing is that I think most of us like to think of ourselves
generally as open-minded people.
You know, most people like to think of themselves as open-minded, as pretty neutral, as pretty
much in control of what we think, what we believe, what premises we accept, and generally
unbiased.
We think of people who are biased as being other people, people who maybe lack the self-awareness
that we possess.
And yet what we find as we look at the research is that research consistently shows that's
not in fact true, that we as human beings are not nearly as open-minded as we like to
think.
We're not nearly as unbiased.
As we like to think.
Turns out there are all kinds of constraints and all kinds of limitations on our thinking
that mean we, generally speaking, are much more likely to remain entrenched in our views
and to be very resistant to contrary arguments.
And so it's really hard to change people's minds on things, one way or another.
And this is partly because of something that the Bible refers to as strongholds.
If you, certain Christians, if you grew up in the church, you grew up in churches where
you heard all about strongholds all the time.
Other people, you may have been in the church your whole life and you have no idea, you've
never come across this word before and you don't know what we're talking about.
So what I want to do this morning is spend some time looking at strongholds.
We're in a series in 2 Corinthians and this is the only place in the New Testament where
this word is used.
Paul uses it in chapter 10.
Now there's a number of themes going on in chapter 10.
We're not going to have time to get to all of them.
The theme that we're going to focus in on is the theme of strongholds, the problem of
strongholds and then the answer to strongholds, how we respond to and deal with strongholds.
And as we proceed, my hope is that you'll come to see more clearly why I think this is so
relevant for people like us.
Let's pray and then we're going to open God's word together.
Lord, we thank you for your word and we thank you for the ascension which reminds us that
you're seated on the throne and we thank you for the fulfillment of your promise to send
the Holy Spirit.
And all of that means that your word isn't just ink and paper.
It means that our hope is not resting on human insight and wisdom.
Lord, that we are here because we know that through your word, we have an opportunity
to encounter the living word, to see you face to face, to be embraced by you, to be known
by you, to be changed by you.
And that's why we're here, Lord.
Pray that in the power of the Spirit, you would meet us where we are, be the king that we need,
do your work in us, Lord, for our good, but ultimately for your glory.
We pray this in your Son's holy name.
Amen.
So first of all, the problem of strongholds.
In the ancient world, a stronghold referred to a heavily fortified structure.
A stronghold was very hard to access and thus it was very easy to defend.
In some cities, some ancient cities, more prosperous cities, you might have the outer wall and then
you would also have a stronghold that was built somewhere within the wall.
The idea being that if an enemy breached the outer wall, you would retreat into the stronghold
and there you would make your final stand because strongholds are, by definition, very
hard to tear down because they are very well defended.
So that's the image that we need to have in mind as we read Paul's words in verses 4 and 5
of 2 Corinthians 10.
He's using the word stronghold as a metaphor to describe something else, something internal
in our hearts and minds.
He's referring to basically core beliefs, core attitudes, core values that take up residence
in us.
We may not even be aware that they are in us, but they shape how we think.
They shape how we feel.
They shape what we are likely to accept as truth and what we are likely to reject as false.
They ultimately shape how we live.
So they're extremely important.
And what we see in Corinth is an example of what we might think of as a cultural stronghold.
When he's talking about a stronghold, he's talking about, he's diagnosing the issue in
the Corinthian church that has caused massive tension between the members of that church
and Paul.
It's the reason why so much of this letter is devoted to Paul trying to repair the relationship
that he has as the founding pastor of the Corinthian church because many of them have rejected
him and rejected his ministry.
And he says the reason is because of these strongholds that have taken up residence in
your hearts and minds.
So the Corinthian culture centered around power and strength and honor.
The Greco-Roman world held those things to be in very high esteem, power and strength
and honor.
And what has happened in the Corinthian church is those values have infiltrated the church.
They've infiltrated the hearts and minds of these believers.
They've become deeply internalized such that they are now unexamined assumptions about the
way life works.
And what that has done is it has distorted the way that these Christians live out their faith.
They came to see everything in the Christian life through the lens of these cultural values
of power and strength and honor.
What does that look like?
Well, for one thing we know from the context they were obsessed with spiritual gifts.
But not spiritual gifts like serving or giving or comforting.
Gifts like speaking in tongues.
Making grandiose prophecies.
Healing people in dramatic miraculous ways.
They were obsessed with gifts that could allow them to make grandiose displays of spiritual
power.
And there was a culture in the church of spiritual one-upsmanship where people tried to outdo
one another with grandiose, impressive displays of spiritual power.
They preferred religious leaders who were highly charismatic, good-looking, highly impressive
public speakers.
At one point we see in the chapter that they criticized Paul because physically he's unimpressive.
You know, we imagine him as being kind of like short and kind of dumpy and kind of, you know,
just kind of somebody that you wouldn't even notice in a crowd.
And they say that his speech is of no account.
Oh, you write big words, but when you get up in front of us in person, you're boring.
Nobody cares what you have to say.
You're a bad public speaker.
We've already talked about that place in Acts where during a sermon a guy falls asleep and
falls out of a window and dies as a result of Paul's bad preaching.
So he's not a very good, impressive leader.
And so when they look at Paul, and they look at Paul's meekness and Paul's humility and Paul's
poverty and Paul's suffering, they fail to recognize those as marks of genuine, Christ-like,
countercultural ministry.
And instead, they say this man is pathetic.
This man is a joke.
There is no way the Lord can be with a guy like this.
And so Paul says this is a symptom.
The way you perceive me and my ministry is a symptom of strongholds that have taken up residence in you.
They've infiltrated your hearts and minds.
We also see cultural and political strongholds continuing to influence the church today.
This is why many churches in the modern West have deeply revised Christianity to essentially remove anything that might sound offensive.
It's why churches have aligned themselves with the most popular public opinions.
It's because of this.
This is why other churches have become so intensely nationalistic.
This is why nearly every church in our country is deeply divided along political lines.
You know, there's a major resort happening right now where people are shifting and trying to find churches that are filled with people who think like they think when it comes to politics.
People are wondering, we're all wondering, where are my people?
Who are my people?
Where are the people who think like I think?
These are all symptoms of cultural and political strongholds that have taken up residence in the church,
that have infiltrated the church, that have infiltrated hearts and minds,
because what we have is we have people who are viewing their theology and their faith through the lens of their politics.
You've heard me say it before, but it's interesting that, you know, that I can't remember who first said this,
but all the time you hear about people changing their church because of their politics.
I have yet to hear of anybody changing their politics because of their church.
These are strongholds.
Now, these are cultural and political strongholds.
Make no mistake, that's just one kind of stronghold.
There are other kinds of strongholds as well.
Let me just give you a few examples for the sake of time.
There's such a thing as a relational stronghold.
A relational stronghold.
Let me give you a couple of examples of that.
Loving and honoring your parents is a very good thing.
We all need to love and honor our parents.
There are some parents and children here.
I highly encourage you and pray that children, we would be able to honor our parents.
However, there are some people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, who simply cannot bear the possibility of disappointing their parents,
of disagreeing with their parents,
of making decisions that their parents don't agree with.
And so, with all due respect, we do have some marriages that are experiencing extreme distress
because one member of the couple would rather act in ways that please parents
than do what's best for their spouse and their kids.
And so, that can cause, in some marriages, a lot of tension, a lot of unrest, a lot of resentment.
Another example of a relational stronghold, romantic relationships, deep friendships, can be really good things.
In fact, that's what we were created for.
But for some of us, we can allow a relationship with another person to…
We can allow ourselves to become so deeply enmeshed, so deeply connected to that other person
that they start to become everything to us.
They start to become the only thing for us.
So, we come to a place where we begin to become deeply emotionally dependent on this other person
for our emotional well-being.
We lose a sense of where the boundaries are.
We feel overly responsible for them, and we put too much burden on them to be responsible for us,
and the boundaries disappear until we don't really know who we are apart from that other person.
That would be a relational stronghold.
There's also such a thing as emotional strongholds.
Just one example of this, a common one, is the example of anger.
You know, we all get angry sometimes.
The Bible even says there's a category for getting angry and yet not sinning in our anger.
So, anger is a part of being human.
The Psalms are filled with people who are angry and expressing that anger in honest ways.
But for some of us, anger can start to become a stronghold.
You know, bitterness and resentment can seep in and take up residence in us.
They sort of come to define us.
So, we tend to complain all the time.
We tend to criticize other people all the time.
There's always a fresh source of outrage.
Until we almost don't know who we are apart from our anger.
Right?
So, that's an emotional stronghold.
One final example, such a thing as personal strongholds.
Right?
These are beliefs about ourself, beliefs about the world that we internalize.
Often, we do this at a very young age.
A lot of what happens in pastoral work when you are with people and you start to get down below the surfaces,
you realize that the truths of the gospel are butting up against these deeply held beliefs that people have about themselves and the world that were internalized at a very young age.
Some of us had experiences growing up that led us to believe that we are ultimately unworthy.
That we are ultimately not good enough.
Or that we're tainted.
Or that we're ultimately unlovable.
If they really knew the truth about me, they would run.
Some of us came to believe that our needs don't matter and that the way we contribute value is to be the strong, even-keeled person who doesn't have needs.
And as long as we are that, we are valuable.
Some of us came to believe that we can't really trust anyone.
That if you trust somebody, that ultimately they're going to let you down.
And so, I need to look out for number one.
I can't really trust anyone to come through.
Now, imagine these core beliefs and the way they would play out in friendships.
The way they would play out in dating relationships.
The ways they would play out in marriages.
The way they play out in multiple spheres of our lives.
Right?
So, these are some examples of strongholds.
Cultural, political, relational, emotional.
There are many others, right?
We didn't talk about addictions, for instance.
There are lots of examples that we could give.
But it's crucial that we understand what Paul is really saying here.
Here's what Paul is really saying.
The reason that we are not nearly as neutral and open-minded as we like to believe we are
is because over time, certain attitudes and assumptions have infiltrated our hearts and minds.
So, this isn't a stronghold that we have built to defend ourselves.
This is somebody has invaded us.
These things have invaded us and they have built a stronghold inside us.
They have become like these well-defended structures of belief inside us.
Meaning, they are heavily fortified.
They are nearly impossible to get rid of.
In other words, to sum all of this up, Paul is saying,
you need to understand your heart is occupied territory.
Your heart is occupied territory.
You've been taken captive.
And the biggest problem with strongholds is this.
They ultimately end up controlling us.
Because our strongholds shape how we see the world.
They shape how we see ourselves.
They shape how we see God.
They determine our priorities.
They determine, as I said earlier, what we are likely to see as true.
What we are likely to see as false.
They become our plausibility structures.
They determine how we live our lives.
They determine how we feel in response to our life experiences.
So, in essence, we end up serving them.
They're the ones calling the shots.
We live our lives in service to false beliefs and attitudes.
And this is the thing that Paul is trying to get through to these Corinthians and to us.
So, this is the problem of strongholds.
Now, how do we deal with strongholds?
What's the answer?
Well, philosophy, and you all know that I love philosophy and spend a lot of time reading philosophy.
Philosophy can be very helpful for understanding and naming our cultural and our political strongholds.
But it cannot tear them down.
Psychology can help us understand our personal and emotional strongholds.
You know, I have a background as a therapist.
And I see a lot of value in the world of psychology to help us understand our personal and emotional strongholds.
But it cannot tear them down.
It cannot tear them down.
Because ultimately, you cannot think your way out of a stronghold.
You cannot think your way out of a stronghold.
You cannot argue somebody else out of a stronghold.
If you have a deep, and some of you do.
Some of you do.
Some of us do.
If you have a deep stronghold belief that you are ultimately unlovable.
It doesn't matter how many times people tell you that they love you.
It doesn't matter how many times someone like me tells you God loves you.
It's not going to penetrate.
It's going to bounce off.
Because there's a stronghold there that is heavily fortified.
It's almost impossible to penetrate something like that.
Because strongholds are very well defended.
Now, what if you try to confront somebody else's stronghold?
What if you say something like,
Hey, you know I love you.
You know I care about you.
I've been thinking a lot about the last few conversations we've had.
And I actually really think that you might have a political stronghold.
And I think that that's something that you need to take seriously.
Here's the thing.
If you're not dealing with a stronghold, that conversation might go well.
That person might say,
You know, I think that you're right.
I should probably spend less time on Twitter.
I should probably take more walks.
I should probably get a more balanced perspective on my life.
But if you are dealing with a stronghold,
chances are direct confrontation is only going to make it worse.
In other words, people are much more likely to just further entrench themselves,
build the walls higher, and push you away.
That's kind of one of the ways you know you're dealing with a stronghold.
You know, one of the books that I love that I encourage people to read
is the book Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands.
And I love the analogy they use of the lawyers.
That when you get too close to somebody's sin,
when you get too close to a stronghold in their life,
you don't encounter them.
They send the lawyers out.
And so the lawyers,
their job in the conversation
is to discredit the witness,
is to attack.
Right?
The best defense is a good offense.
And so anytime you realize,
I'm not having a conversation with this person's actual heart,
I'm dealing with their lawyers,
you're probably dealing with a stronghold.
So strongholds are so deeply rooted
that they take on a kind of spiritual power.
And so they require a spiritual solution.
This is what Paul says in verses 3 and 4.
For though we walk in the flesh,
we're not waging war according to the flesh.
For the weapons of our warfare are not flesh,
but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
So he says, we're not waging war according to the flesh,
meaning we're not going to rely on our persuasive arguments.
We're not going to rely on our charisma.
We're not going to rely on impressive public speaking
or any of the other things that you think matter in ministry.
None of that's actually going to work to change your mind.
That's what he's saying.
Paul's weapons are spiritual weapons.
And he's talking about the power of Christ
and the proclamation of the gospel.
And the work of the Holy Spirit.
That's what he's talking about.
And he's essentially saying,
you can't talk your way out of this.
You can't talk somebody else out of this.
It requires God invading that person's life.
A work of the Holy Spirit to set this person free.
And you know, the gospel ultimately says this.
It says that your heart was made by God.
And it was made for God.
And ultimately, it belongs to him.
But the gospel also says that ultimately,
we all serve someone or something other than God
because our hearts are occupied territory.
So when God looks at your heart
and he sees an invading force
that has taken up residence in your heart,
which is the metaphor,
and has built a stronghold on territory that belongs to him,
there's only one response
that a true king would have to that kind of situation.
Conquest.
He aims to take it back.
He aims to reclaim what he made
and what is rightfully his.
And so that's how Jesus responds.
And what the gospel tells us is
the only way to be free
is to serve our rightful king.
Because it says,
don't give in to the lie
that we are somehow neutral.
Right?
You're going to serve someone
you're going to serve something.
And so what the gospel says
is the only way to be free
is to serve the God for whom
and by whom we were made to serve.
In that we discover who we are.
In that we discover why we're here.
And so Paul's metaphor,
just to pull all this together,
is this.
Your heart is occupied territory.
Jesus is your rightful king.
And he has come to set you free.
To proclaim what is,
or to reclaim what is rightfully his.
And so we say,
well how does he do that?
How does that work?
The key verse for understanding
how this happens is verse 5.
Paul says,
we destroy arguments
and every lofty opinion
raised against the knowledge of God.
And so what he's saying here,
he's telling us what strongholds really are.
All strongholds are ultimately
lofty opinions
raised against the knowledge of God.
And that's the key term there,
lofty opinions.
If you look that word up in the Greek,
the word translated as lofty opinions
implies someone who has a posture of arrogance,
of presumption,
of self-aggrandizement,
ultimately of pride.
Right?
So here's what Paul is saying.
Ultimately,
all strongholds are powered by pride.
Pride.
Pride is the gas in the tank.
Right?
Pride is what turns the electricity on.
Pride is what activates
all of the perimeter defenses.
Pride is the thing
that makes the walls thick and high.
Pride is what fires the arrows
at anyone who gets too close.
It's all powered by pride.
All strongholds are powered
by an attitude that says,
I know best what is true.
I know better than you what is true.
I know better than God what is true.
I know best what is true.
That's what drives strongholds.
And you say,
well, what about negative strongholds?
What about if you have
horrible beliefs about yourself?
Here's the thing
that most people don't realize.
If I have a deeply held belief
that I internalized as a five-year-old
that ultimately I am unlovable,
and I am not willing to hear otherwise,
ultimately, with all due respect,
underneath that there is pride.
In other words,
there is the belief that
this belief that I have
is more true
than anything you have to say to me
or anything God has to say to me.
And that has to be rooted out.
So what's the answer to strongholds
that we're sort of closing in on?
Well, the only way
to take the power out of our strongholds
is for us to be humbled.
We need to be humbled.
We need multiple experiences
that humble us.
We have to be brought,
sometimes kicking and screaming,
to the realization
that our attitudes,
our assumptions,
our judgments
can be faulty
and unreliable.
And so when Paul talks about
divine warfare,
he's talking about Jesus
humbling us.
He says,
I'm coming,
and I'm coming as a part
of the army of Christ.
And Christ is really the one coming,
and Christ's aim
is to humble you
because He loves you.
So what he's saying is
when we have experiences
in our life
that are humbling,
when you have experiences
that show us our weakness,
or when we have experiences
that call our judgment
into question,
it very well may be
that Jesus is at work
in you
in that moment
to humble you,
to set you free
from stronghold beliefs,
to loose your hold
on unassailable,
unexamined truths
that you have a vice grip on.
To put all of this
another way,
the more lofty
our opinions are,
the more power
our strongholds have.
And so the only way
to be free from them
is for our own opinions
to come down
and for God's opinions
to be raised up
above everything else.
Right?
My take on things
needs to come down.
God's take on things
needs to be
exalted.
That's the only way
to do it.
So let me just apply this
in one way
just to give
a more concrete example
of what we're talking
about here.
Let's take this thing
that we've come back
to a few times.
I think this is an issue
for some of us
in this community.
A stronghold belief
that I am ultimately
unlovable.
Right?
How do you deal with that?
Well, the world would say
if you were to go
to somebody down the road
and ask
or ask your friend
or many therapists,
if you were to ask them
how do I deal
with this belief
that I have
that ultimately
I'm unlovable?
I can't accept love
from my boyfriend
or my girlfriend
or my spouse.
They say I love you
and I just don't believe them.
I can never believe it.
I go to church
and it drives me crazy
because I just don't
connect to that.
How do I deal with that?
Well, many people would say
well you just need to work
on loving yourself more
and here's how you do it.
You need to understand
that you're worth love.
You need to understand
that you're valuable.
And so what you need to do
is work on your self-esteem.
So write some words
of affirmation out.
Put them on your bathroom mirror.
Repeat them to yourself.
Give yourself hugs.
Right?
Treat yourself well.
You need to do these things
and work on loving yourself
and then you'll feel
more lovable.
But ultimately
that kind of thing
doesn't really work.
And I say that as somebody
who's actually tried that.
I've tried that.
I mean I'm not going to hug myself
up here in front of you
but I've tried this stuff
over the course of my life.
And it doesn't work
because there's always
this voice in the back
of your head
that knows that you're doing it
to try to manipulate yourself
into loving yourself more.
You always feel yourself
gaming yourself.
Right?
It feels like a technique.
It feels like a strategy
to look at a word of affirmation
for yourself
on your mirror
and to say it to yourself.
And you know what
you find yourself wanting
is you want somebody else
to say it to you
but whose opinion matters
so much
that it actually
convinces you.
That's what you really want.
And when you hear
your own voice saying it
somehow it lacks credibility.
It lacks authority.
And so we look
and we say
well what's another way
to get at this?
And I would think
that the answer
comes from a man
named Bernard of Clairvaux.
12th century
Benedictine Abbott.
And here's what he says
about love
and loving ourselves.
He says you know
we all start out
with lofty opinions
of ourselves.
We have a very high
view of ourselves.
And he says
you know
so he says
we love ourselves
for our own sake.
That's how everybody starts.
He says
but then something happens.
Some calamity
some crisis
and that humbles you.
And in that moment
of being humbled
you reach out to God
in crisis.
You reach out to God
for help.
But at that point
he says
we only come to love God
for our own sake.
I was in a moment
of crisis.
I prayed.
I felt better.
And we start following God
because we think
that God
can give us
what we need.
So he says
we start out
in a relationship
with God
where we love God
for our own sake.
You know
God provides for me.
God gives me
a sense of peace
when I'm afraid.
But then
he says
over the course
of our lives
living lives
of faith
we're going to
continue to face
more and more trials
and hardships
that are going to
humble us
even more.
And over the course
of life
if we're living
faithfully
we come to rely
on God
more and more
and more.
We come to reach out
to God
more and more
and more
and we're humbled
more and more.
He says
over the course
of time
we come to love God
not just for our sake
but for his sake.
God has come through
so many times.
He's done so many
things in my life.
I've had so many
experiences of being
in prayer with him
that I've come to realize
that God is worth loving
simply because of
who he is
regardless of what
he does for me.
And at this point
Bernard describes
a shift.
He says
at this point
what's happening is
my opinions
my lofty opinions
are being brought
down low.
God's opinions
God's take
is being exalted
in my life.
I'm coming to love God
for who he is.
His opinion
is mattering more.
And here's the key.
Finally
the ultimate
sort of the fourth stage
of love
according to his taxonomy
is this.
We come to love ourselves
for God's sake.
And you say
what does that mean?
We develop a love
for ourselves
that is not
self-focused.
We develop a love
for ourselves
that is not
self-aggrandizing.
We come to love
ourselves
because God's
opinion of us
has come to matter
so much more
than anyone else's
opinion
that it has come
to define us.
So my love
for myself
at that point
flows out of
God's love for me
because when God
looks at me
and says
you are infinitely
worthy
you are infinitely
valuable
and I was willing
to give everything
for you
I love myself
because of that love
because that has
become the stronghold
in me.
and he says
that's the sort
of end
of spiritual growth
that's it.
We get to the point
where God's opinion
is central
and so this is
how strongholds
are ultimately
destroyed.
God humbles us
so much
that we stop
relying on our
own opinion
as authoritative
and we come to
rely on God's opinion
as the thing
that defines us.
You know
this is what
Paul means
by the phrase
take every thought
captive to obey
Christ.
It means
Jesus becomes
our stronghold.
Jesus becomes
the lens
through which
we see
and make sense
of everything else
in our lives
and you know
the Psalms
are filled
with this idea.
Psalm 9
the Lord
is a stronghold
for the oppressed
a stronghold
in times of trouble.
Psalm 144
he is my steadfast
love and my fortress
my stronghold
and my deliverer.
So here's what
all of this means
just to kind of
bring this together.
because Jesus
made us
and because Jesus
loves us
and because our
hearts and minds
are occupied territory
he sometimes
uses hardship
to humble us
in order to set us
free
from our strongholds
because he wants
to be
our stronghold.
So in times
of suffering
and many of us
are in times
of suffering
right now
as it says
in the Psalms
we are called
to look to the Lord
to be our stronghold.
It's very tempting
to look to the narratives
in the surrounding culture.
It's very tempting
to look to politics.
It's very tempting
to look to our
formative childhood experiences.
It's very tempting
to rely on
our feelings
and our emotional world.
But the invitation here
is to recognize
where the true stronghold
the true source
of hope and peace
can be found
and that's Jesus Christ.
So the invitation
is to look instead
to God's word
to God's will
to God's love.
And in our suffering
if we're ever tempted
to doubt Jesus' love
if we're ever wondering
how could he let this
happen to me?
How could a loving God
want to humble me
through this experience?
If we ever doubt
his love
we need only look
to the cross.
Because here's
the divine weapon
that can truly
destroy strongholds.
It's this gospel truth
that Jesus loved us
so much
that he allowed us
to use our weapons
against him.
That in order
to set us free
he allowed himself
to be taken captive.
That in order
to destroy
our strongholds
he allowed himself
to be destroyed.
That's the kind of king
we can trust
with our hearts.
That's the kind of king
we need.
Let's pray.
Lord we thank you
for your word
and we thank you
that we have
more than spoken
or written words
to rely on.
We thank you
that as we
come before you
in prayer
and confession
as we come
around your table
that Lord
you offer us
yourself this morning.
That we have
an opportunity
to receive you
into our bodies
Lord.
And we pray
that you would work
through your spiritual
your Holy Spirit
and through
our prayers
and confessions
and singing
through the sacraments
Lord
to eradicate
the strongholds
in us
and to become
our stronghold.
We pray this Lord
for our good
and for your glory.
Amen.