Get Out Of Your Own Way | Matthew 12:22–29 | Pastor Levi Lusko

Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to discover other people's issues than your own? Right? I can see so clearly what you should do with your life. Right? It's funny, too. We're so soft on ourselves, but we're so hard on other people. Right? When someone hurts your feelings, right?

You might have said the same thing and someone got all like, you know, flustered and you're like, "They're just dramatic. I was kidding. They should have known I was kidding." Same thing said to you. They're like, "How insensitive that person is. I just can't believe it. They meant it.

They meant to hurt my feelings." Right? it we we're soft on ourselves. We're we're hard on on others. Um and sometimes tragically we're blind to our own blind spots, right? Until your eyes are open to see yourself as you actually are. Sometimes you don't even notice because you're you're just right there in your life and and you can become blind to what you see every day.

While back I got really excited uh about Alexa, you know, now I'm trying to like detangle my life from her. It's complicated, right? But she still is there, right? We're in a situationship now, but back in the day, I was like all in on Alexa. So, I bought these plugs.

You could buy a plug and put it on any outlet and turn anything that runs on electricity into Alexa, even if it didn't even have Alexa in it. And I bought a bunch of these. They were like $9 a piece. I was very excited about them. So, I was plugging every I was going crazy on Alexa.

And Christmas time came and I plugged my Christmas tree into it. I was pretty actually low-key like that's a move. You know what I'm saying? Because bending down, leaning around, you know, you get the itchiness on your arm. I was excited. I could turn the Christmas tree off and on just with my voice.

I would show that off to everybody. And and then Christmas came and went and the plug, someone I didn't do it, but someone plugged that Alexa plug into a floor lamp. And we didn't realize it till someone turned the Christmas tree and the lamp turned on. We laughed, but no one did anything about it.

No one went into the app. It would have taken like 16 seconds to change the the verbal prompt to to to turn the lamp on, you know, but no one did it. And I'm I'm not joking. It was like almost July, 4th of July, and and it was just like we didn't even notice it anymore.

We would turn that lamp on and off whenever we needed to by telling Alexa to turn off the Christmas tree. And I it never occurred to anybody in my family that's not normal human behavior. You know, it's the height. like look up dysfunctional in the dictionary. That's it right there.

Alexa, turn on the Christmas tree. Like the lamp turned on, right? Until until someone was in our house who had never been in there and someone came in the room and said, "It's awfully dark in here." And then they said, "Alexa, turn on the Christmas tree." And the guest was like, "Why why would you have a Christmas tree still?"

That's and and then and then and then none of us were uh at all phased by the fact that a lamp turned on and we just went about our business. And uh hold on, just a couple questions, please. Uh you're crazy, first of all. Uh, and we're like, that's not a question.

What else? What else you got? I didn't see it until I saw it through her eyes. >> I didn't see that this was abnormal behavior until I saw her reaction. She saw what I couldn't. And that's a huge first step because awareness of a problem is necessary for the problem to be solved.

You can't be helped with an issue you don't know you got. And if you created it, sometimes you're not going to be aware of the fact that it's even there. So what I wanted to do today and the title of this message is get out of your own way.

Get out of your own way is I want to teach you how to eliminate by identifying and then replacing the spiritual strongholds in your life. I want to show you in scripture the tools God's given you in his word to both identify then eliminate. And then this is vitally essential.

Don't skip out early. Replace the spiritual strongholds in your life. This is all as a part of a series of messages we've called it's about time. And we're beginning the new year uh by by listening to God who's saying hey it's about time. Uh you deal with some of these things that are holding you back.

We began by how we are to to see ourselves like who we are was the question first week, right? We needed to go like who I am is going to determine what I do. So if I understand that I'm holy, if I understand that I'm I'm royal, if I understand that I'm I'm loved, that's going to change.

My my self vision of who I am and who who God sees me to be is going to change how how I how I respond. It's about time we see ourselves as the vessel of honor that we are, not as the vessel of dishonor because we will treat ourselves dishonorably depending on how we view ourselves.

So we started then we talked about when we are, right? Because we said it's about time. Well, when are we in time? Time is something that had a beginning. Listen, time is something that's going to have an end and God is outside of time, but we live inside of it.

We needed to get our bearings on when we are if we are to know what we are to do. And this week, we're actually getting to, okay, what are some of the things that are holding us back? But of course, feel free to jump back in the YouTube or Spotify archive to listen to any of the messages maybe that you missed.

But it's going to build one on another all the way through this series as we go. So today we're talking about strongholds. And here's what I want to declare and here's what I felt so strongly in my spirit. God was saying for each of us. Listen to me.

It's about time the strongholds in your life get torn down. >> Do you receive that from God? It's about time. It's about time for the strongholds to go. Not one more minute of our lives needs to be spent with these strongholds in our hearts. And I don't know what it will be for you, but I pray the Holy Spirit will open your eyes and that you will have the faith to say yes when he calls.

Matthew 12, it is in verse 22 that we begin. And I'll just give you a quick um get your bearings moment. Jesus's ministry is powerfully being used to do what God prophesied it would do. People are coming to know him. People are are having their eyes open. Specifically, massive traction for Jesus, a Jewish Messiah in the Gentile world.

Okay? And it was foretold that when the Messiah came that there would be victory and justice sent forth and his his justice would break forth speedily and healing would would would be fasttracked and just all of this stuff and and that's what it says in verse 21 is and in his name Gentiles will trust in his name.

Gentiles are going to are going to find hope and healing. Now now that was a problem for the Pharisees and the religious leaders who hated the Gentiles. Okay, here's a challenging thought. God wants to touch and reach people you don't like. >> And what are you going to do about it?

Because they didn't like that at all. They didn't mind God working as long as it was in their life, right? Because they they they could see everybody else's issues, but guess who's they couldn't see? Their own. So, they didn't like they had a big problem not not with what God was doing, but who God was willing to do it to.

He's willing to eat with anybody, associate with anybody, touch sinners, hang with people who are broken reeds, and he won't break them. He smoldering fire, he won't put it all out. Right? That's our God. So it says, "Then was brought one to him who was demon possessed. That's a problem."

Right? You think that's good? That's not good. You need to know that the Holy Spirit is not the only spirit. There are other spirits, evil spirits, unclean spirits, demonic spirits who want to mess with you too. One was possessed uh by a demon. And what was the response of this man to the demonic influence?

He was blind and mute. And what Jesus do? Jesus healed him. So that the blind and mute man wasn't blind and mute anymore. He spoke and saw. Can we give God praise that God can touch a life? God can touch a heart. God can touch a body. God can who you were does not have to be who you are anymore.

This man was formerly blind, formerly be but amazing grace, how sweet the sound. He was blind but now he saw. He was me. Now he sang, he spoke and the response was powerful. 23 And all the multitudes were amazed. That word is not strong enough. Amazed because it's one of the most shocking words for speechlessness in the entire New Testament.

The people were shook that this man could see, this man could speak. And they said, "Could this not be the son of David? Could this not be the Messiah? Could this is it? Maybe this is God himself." And verse 24, when the Pharisees heard it, they had a different take.

Their take was hotter. They thought Jesus was the devil. They said, "This fellow, this is a great read, guys, does not cast out demons except by beub, the ruler of the demons." Jesus can cast out devils because he's filled with the spirit of the devil. But Jesus, who knew their thoughts, said to them, um, "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation.

Every city or house brought divided against itself will not stand. If I was Satan trying to cast out Satan, he would be dividing himself against himself, how would his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Bilbub, by whom do your sons cast them out?" Now it's personal.

Therefore, they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by, here's what really has happened. I cast them out because I'm full of the spirit of God. Spirit of God is upon me. He has ordained me. He has called me. I'm his anointed one. You don't want to accept it because you don't like who I'm reaching.

Surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. How can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man and then he will plunder his house? I got a pebble on my windshield a while back. It's a long time ago.

It's It didn't do me no harm. So, I just left it. I just let it be. The pebble hit my windshield. Tiny little It was a teeny little baby kind of cute crack. Like, I I didn't mind it so bad. It was so small. I thought it's You're not You're not You're not doing me any any any bad.

You're you're fine. I let it be. And then a couple months went by. And then I got another one, but it was far away. They weren't they weren't talking to each other. It was fine. They were I could still I most of my windshield was good. And And then I got one more.

And this one This was the straw that broke the windshield. This this crack it killed. Okay, this this was a bad crack. This this little tiny one, it decided to communicate with all of its friends and all of a sudden it was like geometry which I did not pay attention much for.

So I did not know what was going on. It was just it was fractals and lines and things and it was like, "Oh, this is a problem." It was it wasn't a problem until it was. But my windshield was cracked the whole time. I thought it was good.

The crack was it was always there ready to to go. So here here's the takeaway. And here's here's how God began to speak to me as I was as I was driving. It it it started small. It grew quickly and before I knew it, I could barely see where I was going and a danger along the way, both to myself and to others.

Big I a big idea we need to start with today. The devil wants to break you into pieces. Just just think on that for a moment. The devil wants to break you into pieces. My windshield is now all of these different sections. It's not one unified thing I can see through.

It's all these different pieces. The devil loves division. He's all about it. And that's Jesus's point because it is the Pharisees are like, "It was the devil that did this." And he's like, "Really? The the devil doesn't historically leave people better than he found them." You know what I'm saying?

Like like you see someone frothing, naked, chomping, like you and and and now they're sitting clothed in their right mind, speaking, singing. He's like, "Yeah, that totally feels satanic to me, guys. How how about you?" Like he he goes, "No, no." He goes, "The devil listen. The devil knows what you need to know.

A divided house cannot stand." It was these words exactly that Abraham Lincoln referred to in what has been called his divided house speech where he said, "Look, the nation is is is is not going to like, you know, it's going to be one of one or one of the other.

It's going to be it's going to be torn in two because because you can't serve two masters, right? >> You have to love one or hate the other, hate one or or love the other." That's why in his Gettysburg address, he said what he did. He said, he said, "Look, the civil war, this is a test to see if we or any nation can endure or if we will perish from the earth."

That's where the cracks are going. We're going to either be torn in two or we're going to have to to deal with this. Satan, Jesus is saying, would not cause division in his own kingdom because he's smart enough to know what division leads to. So, where where we hear Jesus saying is, why would Satan get in his own way?

And we should be asking a better question. Why would we get in ours? >> And yet we do it all the time. Satan loves division. He loves to get between, of course, most important would be you and him. He also wants to get between you and your spouse.

He wants to get between you and your church. He wants to get He loves factions in a team. He loves when it's us and them. He loves He loves strife. He even tried to get Jesus between him and his father, between him and the spirit, right? In the in the wilderness temptations.

What did he say? He said, "If God really loved you, if he really then this it would be this way. You have the spirit's power. You should use it for this. God, I know God gave you the spirit's power for this, but you should use it for yourself."

He was trying to get between Jesus and the father. He was trying to get between the father and the holy spirit, between the father and the son. And of course, Jesus refused and stayed united within the persons of the Godhead. This is why the trinity is so important because it shows unity.

God God bringing distinctly unique things together as as one with unity because God is father, God is son, God is holy spirit. There's there's three persons in the godhead. How many gods are there? There's one God. The uni he fiercely united even within himself. And guess what? God made you in his image.

And this is a crazy thought. The devil wants to get between you and you. And the only way for you to be in your own way is for you to allow him to break you into pieces. And a part of you actually now is obstructing the rest of you.

You tracking with me? You're like, "No, that that is weird. Um, gonna need more. All right. James 18, right? Twice in the book of James it comes up. Well, let's tackle the first one. James 1:8, the man can become a, look at it, doubleminded man, unstable in all of his ways.

And at the end of the book, he shows that this is the result of sin and confession makes it whole. Okay? So, so sin splits the self, confession makes it whole. You can end up of two minds on something. Literally, the two words double-minded with a hyphen in the middle in the Greek, it actually means a fracture that leads to two souls.

A fracture that leads to a split self. A shattering of the of the glass. It's not one windshield anymore. I got all these I got all these different windshields. Which one am I going to look through? Happens quicker than you think. starts with a pebble, grows quickly, and before you know it, you can hardly see straight, and you're a danger to others along the way.

Unstable in all his ways. Tell me this is not Paul the Apostle in Romans chapter 7 where he says, "What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things, look at it, I absolutely despise. I have a great intention to follow God and do all this.

It's me that gets in the way. If you see that guy, tell him to get out of here. He's the worst. And then I'm conflicted about the fact that I didn't do what I wanted to do. Right? Parker Palmer put it this way. He said, "The divided life is a wounded life.

And the soul keeps calling us to heal the wound." David prayed it this way. Lord, unite my heart. Just give me one heart. Right? So every time, listen, you sin, it splits yourself. Tim Keller called sin is an act of suicide against who God created you to be.

It damages you. It splits a little piece of you off. And and that's why you think like, I wish I hadn't done that. You're pulled into the past in shame. And then you start worrying. God didn't create us to worry. You're you're you're jumping to the future and you're worried and you're and you're fearful.

So you're in the past. You're in the future. You're not standing in the only place where God can actively bless you and be with you and that's the present. So, so all of a sudden I'm I'm now worried. I want hope hope they don't find out. Hope hope that they don't they don't do the accounting audit and figure out I this and that's technically embezzling on paper.

This is fraud. And all of a sudden, we're not just where we are because we're we're jumping to different timelines, right? We're we're we're in the in the fractal universe of of fear and and shame and covering our tracks and and and is this going to be discovered?

We're not just able to be there. were in so many different places trying to be so many different things because at some point along the way you got hurt and and and and your your your insecurities caused you to to create a coping mechanism to try and avoid getting hurt again so I can just be this.

I won't hurt that because it's what they want me to be that I don't feel like I am. And so now I'm I show up school this way and I show up to church this way and I show up to to to my friend group over that I hunt with over this way and I talk this way and I laugh at these jokes.

But we're always worried, am I wearing the right mask for the right situation? And we want God to bless us and we got want God to heal us. But which one do we want him to touch? We can even lose track eventually of who we are. This is why Jesus said, "You don't want to gain the whole world, but lose yourself.

Lose your own soul. Lose the uniqueness because the sin splits it off." And every time those little pieces get broken off, they become bricks that we hand to the enemy. and he uses them to build strongholds in our lives. You do his work for him. Do it long enough, he he can just sit back and watch you self-destruct.

The the little demons are like, "Satan, you're going to get him." He's like, "He'll take care of himself. Just watch." Cuz these actions leave the back door open for the enemy to mess with you and he's all too happy to do so. Now clarifying theological framework. Can a Christian be demonpossessed?

Answer, no. Jesus comes to live inside of you? The devil can't possess you. Okay? But just because he can't possess doesn't mean he's not going to mess. Just doesn't mean he's not going to oppress. Right? So So Jesus who lives inside of you is not willing to share you.

Okay? He's not comfortable with the devil on the couch. Like, hey, don't worry. I'm just here for the, you know, he he you're his temple. You're his dwelling place. But a Christian that can't be demon-possessed can be demonic oppressed, right? Can be messed with and can have strongholds built into their life that make it easy for the enemy to fire down temptation and trial.

In one of my books, I describe a stronghold. And if this piques an interest, I literally have a lot more about it in the book I declare war. I call a stronghold a pull in the wrong direction. What is it easy for you to do? What is it easy?

This can this can be proclivities, right? Stronghold can be formed from pain, something you've gone through, like I said, that causes you to respond to that pain in a different way. It it can be formed in that way, but it can make it easy for you to sin in a way that for other people wouldn't be so easy. that that pull can indicate the presence of a stronghold and and then it's almost like you're standing on a moving sidewalk.

You don't have to you actively do anything. You just find yourself pulled towards it and it's easier and easier incrementally. So, and the longer you live with them, the easier it is to become blind to them to do what will take you away from where you want to be.

This is Paul. What the heck? What I want to do, I don't do. What I do, I don't. This is crazy. Who's going to who's going to help me? This is madness. This is insanity. Now, strongholds are of course fundamentally military. And this analogy of a of a of a bunker or a fortress that an enemy can have that they can utilize and it's always elevated, right?

An elevated stronghold you can use to rain down arrows, rain down hot oil, right? In a in a military sense, if the enemy has a stronghold in your territory, it makes it impossible for you to enjoy what's actually yours because they have this ability to mess with you. uh various parts of my journey and story following Jesus since I was a freshman in high school have have I mean the amount I would take the rest of the sermon just to talk about the different strongholds that I've had to by the Holy Spirit's help see eliminate and replace some of them over and over again some of them for a for dramatically for a season constantly reoccurring some of them one and done uh include anxiousness terror lust, people pleasing, shopping, pornography, social media, comparison, moodiness, fear, and to the present moment amazed.

Amazed how quickly I can be pulled towards temper and outburst of breath. Amazed by how easy it is for me to respond with a 10 to something that deserves a two. Amazed how quickly I grab a hammer and not everything in life is a nail. amazed by the way this can become a stronghold in my life.

But these aren't the only ones. Of course, there's also complaining and there's bitterness and there's doubt and negativity and criticism and gossip and jealousy and and gambling and and and and all and on and on and on with sex addictions and all sorts of different things. These these can become these quickly can become strongholds or I should say they these actions and the pain we face can become where strongholds start where strongholds start.

We'll pick that up a moment later. But first let me give you our second point. The second point is this. You will never experience all life holds living with strongholds. >> If you are comfortable with the strongholds that are there or you're like you know what you're being dramatic. you just had to write a sermon, so you tried to come up with something edgy, right?

Um, let me just save you some time. We're all excited about it being 2026 and 10 years ago, 2016. Um, I looked up last time I preached an entire message on strongholds. And it was actually, interestingly enough, 2016. So, let me now jump forward into your time machine and say, if you don't take this seriously, where are you going 2036?

What are the strongholds you're comfortable to to stay oblivious to going to do for you? I'll tell you. They're going to take you away from the abundant life Jesus died for you to enjoy. >> Because he said, "I came that they may have life, but that's not all.

Life more abundantly." That's John chapter 10. I came that you have may have may have joy that's that's overflowing and and abounding and and he said, "But the thief, the thief only comes to steal and to kill and to destroy." He's trying to keep you back from what I died for you to have.

I think about Matthew 15:30 that talks about the different sort of people that had needs that Jesus was willing to meet. Great multitudes came to him and with them came the lame, the blind, the mute, the maimed, and many others. They weren't didn't fit into any of those categories, but just needed something from Jesus.

And let me ask you a question. How many of those maladies existed in the Garden of Eden prein? >> How'd we do with free will? We invited in sin. We invited in what Jesus promised would bring us death. We invited the curse into this world. All of these things that Jesus is dealing with are the result of us listening to the serpent and knowing better than our father.

So they're a microcosm then of what Jesus intends to restore that's been lost, that's been surrendered, that's been taken, and that will continue if we stay in our own way to be a picture of our future. He wants to give us back our movement. He wants to give us back our vision, our speech, our soundness, and our vitality.

But to the extent that you're willing to just shrug your shoulders and and and move forward in life and allow these strongholds to remain, you will never experience all of these to the degree that Jesus wants you to experience them. Jesus wants there to be range of motion.

Jesus wants there to be spiritual supernatural vision that you can be trusted with dreams that you can open up your mouth and speak the oracles of God to your generation. Jesus wants there to be a soundness and a vitality and not an emptiness, not a heaviness and not a dread and not a forboding and not give into chronic anxiety.

Jesus wants you to be in your right mind with the light of the glory of God shining from your eyes. To wake up every day knowing it's on purpose. To wake up every day knowing God's got a plan. to wake up every day without the oh no which one of which mask do I wear?

How do I fake it? So how do who do I pray? No, I am I'm a child of God. I'm a bloodb son or daughter of the King of Kings. I don't got to worry. I don't got to fear. He's with me. The Lord is my light and my salvation.

He's the only stronghold I need. His name is a tower I can run to. I can be. That's what God wants for you. The devil is coming for your eyes. He's coming for your tongue. He's coming for your ears. He's coming for your limbs. He's just coming for general maladies.

He just He doesn't even know what you're in the doctor office for. He just wants you just I don't know. I just aching just just kind of complaining. Just kind of I don't know. I just feel less. I just feel blah. I just feel mad. Jesus don't want you mad.

Jesus wants you. Yeah. He wants you Hallelujah. He wants you praise the Lord. You see what I'm saying? He wants your whole life. He wants you to be a Hallelujah from head to toe. That's what that's what he offers when he says, "Come to me if you're laboring and heavy laden.

Come to me if you're weary. Come to me if you feel like you're you're you're you're long lay the world in sin and error pining." He's, "Come find rest for your souls. Take my yoke upon you. I am gentle. I'm lowly of heart." The devil, he wants to plunder the the goods from your house.

He wants to plunder and rip off your marriage. He wants to He wants to tie up that strong man. He wants to come in and and steal and kill and destroy. And the devil is terrified of what will happen when you get the revelation that unity leads to power and division leads to weakness.

There are there are a lot of places in the Bible I could turn your attention to. Matter of fact, I did a little digging and I stopped after 188 because the amount of verses in the Bible that extol the strength of unity or warn about the the destruction of division and factions and and pulling away because literally when a a clump of cells or tissue in your body pull away from the body to do their own thing, do you know what they call that?

I think the technical term is cancer. These are cells that are pulling. It's it's literally what kills us. So the same thing can happen in a relationship. The same thing can happen like I've said in your own self. And yet look at the miraculous supernatural power of unity.

Psalm 133. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity. What is it like? It's like precious oil. This is anointing oil. A picture of the Holy Spirit's power that doesn't just stop on the head, that runs down the beard, that runs down the edge of his garments.

It's head to toe blessing. It's God's supernatural favor on your life. That what is that like? What is it like to have the the released power of unity? I don't know. It's like the dew of Hermon. That's a mountain descending upon the mountains of Zion. Can we just pause right here?

Those two mountains are 120 miles apart in Israel. Look at a map. Do that lands on the top of one does not land on the bottom of the other. I don't know what can I say. Impossible things happen in Jesus name. >> Where we tap into this this this power.

What what does it happen? I don't know. The Lord commanded blessing there. life and life more abundantly forever more. Do you want to be living a God-sized story where you're like, I don't know how it happens. Five of us chase a 100red and a 100 of us can put 10,000 to flight.

Who knows? Five loaves, two fishes. Yeah. Food for 5,000. Yeah. You see what I'm saying? This is what is possible if you tap into unity in your home, in your marriage, in your team, in your school, at your workplace, in your church. There is something that happens where two or more come together united in Jesus' name.

We lose ourselves. We find ourselves and we watch God do what we could never do on our own. And all of a sudden, shucks do from one mountain is do can't travel 120 miles, but all of a sudden ripple waves and and shock waves are are released through your life watching God do through you what you could never do for yourself. >> How do 11 apostles plus the Apostle Paul turn the whole known world upside down? something something to be said for how many times in the book of Acts it says they were united they were in one accord and the devil's always going to try and pull you away to be separate to be superior the rules don't have to apply to you they don't realize how you see everything that pulls you away is arrogance is pride it's in it's it's inflammation and that's what the devil knows God can't bless because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble who humbly say I'll be assimilated.

I'll be in that number when the Saints go marsh. I don't need to be I don't need a plaque. I don't need a you know what I mean? I I just want to be in that number. I'm going to lose myself to find myself. Then impossible things can happen. >> When people don't care who gets the credit what God can do, >> what God can do. >> The devil also knows that uh and he wants to keep you blind to this.

I'm trying to say this like like God showed it to me. A way to detect these strongholds is when you see the presence of God's gifts in your life not being used how God intended them to be used. That shows you their strongholds. For example, Judges 6, a text that literally begins like this.

Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and Israel built strongholds that the enemy used to attack them from. Not good. So now the Midianites and the Amalachites are attacking the Israelites from fortifications in their own country and Israel had to abandon their own homes and to live in dens and caves.

Okay, stop. Collaborate and listen. They're they're using what shouldn't be used in the way it wasn't intended to be used in. It's a it's a dead giveaway that that there's a stronghold. Okay. So So what happens next? It says Gideon was threshing wheat in a wine press. Wine presses are not intended to thresh wheat inside because you need wind and that was an indoors environment.

Okay. But but again when we start using things in ways they weren't intended to be used for like uh I don't know uh social media. It it can be used and and God can utilize it in a way that is can lift up Jesus and can edify. It can be used in a way that's toxic and soul destroying.

Uh money, uh money is evil. No, it's not. Genesis, read Genesis sometime. It's awesome. Tell you about everything. It says, uh before there was sin, there was gold. And before there was sin, the gold was good. So, so it is meant to be used and can be used in a way that worships God and is utilized as a blessing from God.

But it also can be used in a way where it takes God's place. So, let's go to the wine press. All right. So, he's using the wine press in a way it's not meant to be used. Scripture says, "Wine is a gift from God to gladden the heart of man."

And you see Jesus with his disciples lifting up a cup, longing to enjoy the joy of sitting together. But we also can use it to numb the aching emptiness inside of us. Okay? So where scripture, someone said it this way, never drink because you are sad, only drink because you are happy.

So where you have in scripture this gladdening of the heart of a man, someone says, "I just need a drink just to take the edge off." Ho ho ho. You weren't meant to have the edge taken off. You were meant to have a sharp edge on the blade of your soul.

To be sober, to be vigilant, to be ready to do, to stay alert, to stay on your toes, to be ready to do. The moment you're using it as anesthesia to darken the pain you're feeling, you're looking to a counterfeit God to do what only God can do from you.

So don't look it to numb. Don't look it to take away pain. Look to Jesus to do that. And you might not be on this or some people cannot be at a place where any alcohol is introduced without it going to that place of now it is numbing me from the pain I need it to live.

We're using the wine press but we're threshing wheat. Do you see what I'm saying here? It's we're living in a cave. We got a house down there. Why don't we add the house? We built the enemy a stronghold in our own territory. That's why I said a minute ago, the stronghold has got to go.

Come on. This is our land. It ain't your land. We need this. This is God's land. We can go on and talk about sex. Sex was a gift from God. It can be used in a way. If we're using any of God's good gifts in a way that's not inind with how he intended them to be utilized, it shows the presence of strongholds.

Now, fundamentally, now I'm going to get back to the thought I gave you a moment ago about that's where strongholds begin because I I wrote off that whole list of all the different things, right? And said that's where strongholds begin. But it doesn't it doesn't it doesn't actually turn into a stronghold with the behavior.

It has to be mixed with a belief to get there. All right. So, here's the third point. You can't live right if you don't think right. So, I've preached it in 2016 and by God's grace, I'll preach it this way in 2036. The thought life is so vitally connected to strongholds.

Why? Because as goes the mind, so goes the man. >> As you think in your heart, so are you. As we think, we turn behaviors eventually into beliefs. And it's not a stronghold because you did it. The little piece got handed to the enemy. He builds the stronghold and it hardens into its shape when we choose to believe it's always going to be this way.

I'm always going to be this way. It is satanic thinking that causes us to see the barrier he erected with our help as insurmountable. To the Israelites, Goliath was a stronghold because they believed nobody could defeat him. Not one of them could do. This is always how it's going to be.

Strongholds take their form in our lives when mixed with a belief of hopelessness of despair. And we have to counter it with godly thinking to transform our daily living. The renewal of our minds by the word, not by what we feel and not by what the enemy's whispering and not what we see in the world.

So, one way for just a small little example, I've I've learned to counter sometimes just the overwhelm I can feel to keep it from turning into that in in the morning thinking about the day, thinking about the problems, it all starts to hit. Anybody relate or am I the only one?

I just have to declare over my day. This is the day that the Lord has made. >> I will rejoice and be glad in it. Yeah. >> And when I center my heart and when I center on my my mind on that, I no longer am believing the challenges are too much today and too many today and I need to distract myself.

I need to go just go buy something. I can track it. It'll be it'll make me feel happy. Little dopamine hit, right? But no, no, no. I'm going to sit in what I'm feeling. I'm going to let it speak to me. I'm going to direct my mind and thoughts by God's word.

Because otherwise, the distorted patterns that occur in our mind, the enemy, prince of the power of the air, who can't possess us, but can put thoughts out there for us to think, if we choose to grab them, that mind can be hardened into a mindset. The foothold turns into the stronghold that he wants to use to turn into a chokeold.

And now we get stuck in this is always how it's going to be because the habitual grooves of our thinking are so entrenched. They feel like inescapable reality. And now any other thought process or behavior seems altogether impossible. Which is why I've said it this way for years.

You need to install TSA in your mind. And don't give the devil pre. Make him take his shoes off every time he shows up with some dumb thought. So Philippians 4:8. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there's any virtue, if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things.

You realize you don't have to think every godless, evil, wicked, selfish, small thought that shows up in your head. And just because you think it doesn't mean you are it. Separate yourself from it and use Jesus's power to banish it. You got to replace it. is powerful. Look, you can't stop the enemy from dropping a a little thought grenade into your head, but you don't have you don't have to let him get to terminal B and get a Cinnabon and put his feet up.

You see what I'm saying? You your mind belongs to Jesus. You can bring your mind into obedience. You can choose to take your thoughts captive. You go, "Oh, this sounds like Dr. Phil. What are you What are you telling me?" like mind over matter. No, I'm not saying every solution to your life is mind over matter.

But I am telling you as your pastor, what you allow in your mind really does matter. >> Okay, Yoda. Well, half empty, half full. No, no, no. This isn't about glasses half empty and glasses half full. This is about in Jesus' name, your cup is overflowing. And if you choose to ignore that fact, you get to walk around wondering about what your circumstances say about your reality.

When you're tapped into something so much more powerful and significant and true. Number four, you cannot just eliminate. You must also occupy. You cannot just eliminate. You must occupy. It's like gopher holes. You can't just keep filling them in. You got to kill that dang gopher. You see what I'm saying?

It's got to go and then you got to replace. Okay. So, Matthew 12, let's continue on. Jesus's thought that we began with continues when he says, "When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, the spirit goes through dry places seeking rest and finds none." Then he says, "I'll return to my house from which I came."

And when he comes, he finds an empty home swept. Good job, you. You even put things in order. What does he do? He goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that man is worse than the first.

So shall it be also with this wicked generation. Who was Jesus speaking to? Who was he denouncing? The Pharisees because they had religiosity but no Holy Ghost. They had religiousness but no Jesus. They had all the rules. They had all the reasons but no actual spiritual transformation because they had ignored the Messiah who had come to write his word not on tablets of stone but on the tablets of flesh of their heart.

So, you can't just eliminate. This is true of possession by the dark forces, but it's also true of oppression by the dark forces where they've been messing with you and caused you to believe lies that you've told yourself and each time handing a brick to him. And now all of a sudden, there's this fortress he has and anytime he wants, he can dump hot oil on your head and shoot down cuz it's always elevated.

It's always high ground. That's why I said it's all mental. Why? Because there's no higher ground than your mind. It's the highest ground you got. Nothing's higher than than how you think and the lies you believe. So if we eliminate what we've identified, what do we then have to do?

We have to replace. It can't just be, well then I I'm never doing this again, right? We've all done that. Oh, I'm never looking at porn again. Well, I'm never going to say that. I'm never going to do that again. I'm Oh, here's the rules. Here's the rigidity.

Here's the here's the now ways I'm going to bar myself in. No, no, no. You need the new star requires a new heart. And only God can put hearts of flesh inside of us where there was before a heart of stone. >> And then we have to of course fill that.

You you have to fill the space and time where you were doing this with this. Let him who stole steal no more. But rather let him work hard with his hands that he might have something to give to those who are poor. You were taking, you know, you have to you have to fill that time.

I was always watching this. Well, every time I get that urge, I'm going to go and read this. I'm going to go and do this. I'm going to go on this walk. I'm going to I'm going to have the carrot sticks. I'm going to I'm going to snap the rubber band when I want the cigarette.

You see all the different things that we must be willing to do. And then it has to involve each other. James 5:16, confess your trespasses to one another. Pray for one another that you may be healed. Only God can give forgiveness, but only the family of God can give healing. >> When I go to God, I relationally am restored with him for what was already paid for at the cross.

But when I go to someone and I'm vulnerable, here's what I've done in the house of God. I get healing by confessing this is what my strongholds are. If there's not someone in your life who knows what you're struggling with today, it's an area of weakness. Number five, you don't have to demolish what was never built in the first place.

That's a shocking thought. It's like all this talk about strongholds that I need to tear down today. What do I not want built for tomorrow for 2036? What I'm trying to say is don't toy with sin. I had to set up some rat traps a while back and I was not poking and proddding them with my finger cuz I have a healthy fear of a rat trap cutting my finger off. and so should you with sin.

Little foxes must be caught. The Bible says, "Don't make it easy for the enemy to get you. Make him work for it. Make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust." I love the quote by CS Lewis in The Great Divorce where he tells us how hell begins.

How that's a scary thought. How hell begins. Here's how it begins. He says it begins with a grumble. Ooh, hell begins with a grumbling mood. You just start complaining a little bit. Then you blame others, but you're still distinct from it. You are not the grumble yet. You may even criticize it in yourself and wish you could stop the grumbling.

But then there may come a day when you can no longer grumb grumbling and grumbling becomes autopilot. Then there will be no you left to criticize the mood or even to enjoy it. Just the grumble itself going on forever like a grumbling machine. it he says this is this is powerful is not a question of God sending us to hell in each of us there is something growing which will become hell unless it gets nipped in the bud so what he's saying if you're not tracking with the quote first you are a person who grumbles then you become a grumbler finally you are nothing but a grumbler This, he says, is how hell begins.

So you today don't have to ever tomorrow try and tear down what while it's small and easy to go, h rationalize eh, it's not so bad. Other people have it worse, right? You can choose today to to stop it while it's while it's still a bud. And then lastly, we close here.

Never Oh, this is this is this is good. Never bring a knife to a gunfight. Never bring a knife to a gunfight. This idea of being outclassed, you showed up, you've got a you got a knife and the other person's got a revolver. That's not good. That's what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10.

He says, "Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh." Right? So don't don't bring the enemy's got this gun. Don't bring a knife. Don't show up with a with a knife to the You're no match for the devil. You realize that you are no match for the devil in your flesh.

Don't you dare show up. He's got a gun. You don't bring your knife. So, you're saying, "I need to get a gun." No, don't get a gun. Bring God. Don't Why would you go get a gun when you got you got God, right? I'm not coming at someone coming at me with a with a with a gun with a with with a with a gun.

I'm coming at the enemy with my God. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down, where do they start? in the mind arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Taunting like Goliath, you who I I defy the armies of God against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

I love it. I love it. I love it. There's this stronghold in the Israelites. The Goliath can't be defeated. Goliath, it's always going to be this way. It's always and and Goliath stands there with his javelin. He stands there with his spear. He stands there with his helmet.

He stands there with a shield and David stoops because you can't rise up like a lion until you first bow down like a lamb. I think picking up those five stones he he knew he didn't even need the extra ones. Just gave him time to pray. >> And he stands up and Goliath bellows, "You come at me with a with a stick.

What am I? Do you have stones? Am I Am I a dog?" And David said, "I don't I don't come to you with a sword or a spear. I'm I'm not going to try and match you at your own at your own battle. I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of angel armies, who today will deliver us from you and feed your flesh to the birds of the air.

He came with a name. It's the name above every other. It's the name that is power. It's the name that can save. It's the name that can heal. It's the name that can make you whole. It's the name that can reveal. It's the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

That stronghold, it's got to go. That stronghold, it's coming down. But not by your might and not by your power. It's not coming down by knife. It's not coming down by gun. It's coming down by the name of our living God. It's coming. And when this is our confession, our story will be miracle power.

When we walk in the blood, when our testimony is our God is good and he is here. And they said it couldn't be done. And they said it couldn't be true. But wait till they get a hold of me. Wait till they get a load of me. Wait till they watch the story.

I'm walking out. I shouldn't be here. But for the name. But for the name. So, I finally called to get my windshield replaced. And you know what they said? 5 years ago, you bought unlimited windshield replacements. We We couldn't believe you never came in. Everybody always comes in.

You You paid You paid for unlimited windshield repair. It's It's on your plan. It expired just a couple days ago. But if you'd like to renew, we'd be happy to sell. Oh. Oh, I had it the whole time. >> Don't get to heaven and look back and go, "Oh, I had what I needed the whole time."

Confess. Is it hard to get strongholds down? No. Confession, the name of Jesus, God's people, radical repentance. >> Cuz God told me to tell you, no repentance, no revival. >> You can't repent like Augustine who said, "God, make me pure." Because he was struggling with sexual impurity. He said, "God, make me pure, but not yet.

I still got a couple things I want to do and then take it away. But by then, you may have handed the enemy so many bricks. You may never see past the lies to call out the name. You may be silent and and and and blind. Today, if you hear his voice, church, it's not I mean, you you got confession, repentance, the blood of Jesus, spirit of God.

It's just a question of whether you ever pick up the phone and be like, "I got crystal fusion. Apparently, I got upcharged into that 5 years ago and um could you just give me some new glass? I'd like to see is you're going to walk away go, was it that easy?"

Yeah, cuz the easy things to do are also easy not to do. >> Well, let's do it. >> Let's do it. Let's repent from our sins. Let's turn to God with with Let's say, God, unite my heart to fear your name. Jesus, we don't want to have a bunch of us.

We don't want to have parts of our lives in the shadows and parts of our story we got to keep straight and where we were and what we spend and what we did and and and we don't want to hide under fig leaves. We're so grateful that we don't have to because you butchered a lamb to cover our nakedness. the lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world.

If you needed this today, if you needed this today, if you if you say, "Jesus, open my eyes to see. Eliminate and and occupy. If this is me, you're saying, "This is me. I'm in." Just raise up a hand. Raise up a hand. Raise up a hand. Raise up a heart.

Raise up a heart. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Tear them down, God. Tear them down. We need you, God. Put your hands down. If you're here and you don't know Jesus, you've not trusted him for salvation. You're like the religious leaders. You're sweeping the house out. You're trying to religiousize things.

You're trying to take care of it on yourself. You're going to end up blind leaders of the blind cuz that that one you kick out coming back was his seven ugly friends. How did Mary Magdalene end up with seven demons in her? Maybe it was trying to follow the religious Pharisee work work and way.

She ended up worse than they were. But but when you just one word, Jesus, when you with just one word touched her, and healed her. She was saved, set free, and she was sent to help others. That can be your story today. If you're here and you don't have Jesus in your heart, it's not do do.

It's done. He did it for you on the cross. That's our message. So, if you are ready to say yes to Jesus, pray this prayer with us. Church, say it with us. No one praying alone. All of us together across the campuses and stream the archive. Say this.

God will hear you right where you are. This is your prayer. A lot of people say marriage vows, but when you take your vows, those are your vows today. This is your day. This is your moment. This is your time. Say this to God. Dear God. Dear God, >> I know that I'm a sinner. >> And I cannot fix myself.

So I believe in you. >> So I believe in you that you came for me. You died for me and you rose from the dead. Thank you for new life. I give you mine in Jesus name.