We're going to be looking at an Old Testament and a New Testament passage because I basically want to look at what I call the cause and then in the New Testament we see the remedy. Now, you'll know kind of what I'm going to talk about because I'm going to ask you a question in just a moment when I ask you to turn there in the scriptures. But I'm doing it a little more inductively. I'm not like deductive is I tell you exactly the point I'm making, and then I kind of build all my sub points. I may not do that way this morning. I'm going to kind of just, we're going to, you're going to say, well, I'm not sure where he's going. So I sort of think I know where he's going. We're going to build to the most practical at the end, OK? And I'm going to try to discipline myself. Because if I get ahead and get excited, and I do get excited about being up here, I may jump ahead and I hate that. Because then I say things that were supposed to be like 30 minutes from now. So I'll try not to do that. But while you're turning, the first place I'm gonna have you turn is, oh, and I broke one of my rules already. I generally like to pray first. I don't mind when preachers talk and then pray, but I was taught, which I think is pretty good, you should pray first and then once you start, start. If you kind of say something and then you pray, you break the rhythm. I don't care. I'm gonna have to do that because I ain't gonna get anywhere without the Lord's help. So let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you again for this church. Lord, for many of us, it has been a long process getting us here. I came here in 2016. There's people that have been here a lot longer than me. There's people that are just coming now. But Lord, I believe that you have a plan for our life. You say in the scriptures, I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of peace and not of evil. To give you an expected end, Lord, I'm thankful for those promises. Lord, you have taken me, you've taken even some of my friends, the Dakes and others. You've taken us through such an unbelievable path. It hasn't been the straightest path. It hasn't been the easiest path. Nevertheless, it was the best path. Lord, we need to trust you. You are the great leader. Lord, they hire people to go on jungle hunts, and they hire people to go hunting, and the best leaders take you, take them, take us, not on the easiest route, but the one that's gonna produce the best fruit or game for their hunting. Lord, you take us on that best route that's going to make us more like Christ, that's gonna be able to bless us and use us even more substantially in the future. And although, Lord, we pray that you would come even back today, Lord, how exciting it would be for you to come right now. It would be so joyous. It would be so exciting. There would be so much praise from our hearts, yet you have decided to still leave us down here for now. Help us to do the work. Work, Lord, as it says, for the night is coming. We need to work while it is day. Help us to have that spirit. Help us to have that attitude. We pray for Pastor and Michelle. And for Pastor Evangelist, Mr. Hoover and Mrs., we pray for them that you might bless them. I pray, Lord, that we would live 2 Peter 3, 18, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Lord, give us ears to hear spiritual things, and Lord, help us to be doers of the word and not just hearers only. Lord, I know I've done some wilderness wandering in my life. I know, and it's good to sit before you, and it's good to take in, but sometimes, Lord, we become like the Dead Sea. We keep taking in, but nothing goes out, and all that stuff just stays stagnant. Help us, Lord, to take in. Oh, we have needs. Our souls are hurting. Oh, bring the blessing. Bring the comfort. But, Lord, help us also then to start having a release for all these wonderful things we've learned. Finally, Lord, ask us. I'm asking for us. Give us a mind to work. in this crooked and perverse generation. Give us a mind to serve you. And Lord, that's gonna be different for everyone. No judgments, no competition. Lord, you even say it is not wise for them to compare themselves one with another. We're not supposed to compare ourselves to each other. We're supposed to compare ourselves to you, Lord. And then you give grace to do exactly what you called us to do, not what someone else thinks we should do. Not even what we think we should do. Lord, forgive me the many times I have fought you, because I wanted to do something different, which probably would have brought me more self-glory, because I wanted to do it. I thought I could do it in my own strength. I thought I was a natural. But Lord, you put us in things that we can't do naturally, so that you might get all the glory. Help us, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. While you're turning, I want you to turn to Numbers 14, 18. The book of Numbers, chapter 14, verse 18. And while you are turning there, I want to ask you a question. Have you given any ground to Satan this week? Have you given any ground to Satan this week? That will make sense as we go forward in the message. You need to really ask yourselves that. Have I given any ground? It's a military term. We need to understand we are in a war. It is a real war. In fact, it touches our lives much more than the wars that are going on overseas, unless of course you're a soldier there. And quite frankly, what I've been seeing in my own government and the decisions that have been made, there may have been a time I would have been proud to have my sons serve and protect our country. That's still there. But the things that we are getting involved with now, I'm sorry, I have no burden or desire to send my sons off to fight those wars. I don't think we have any business being involved in some of the things we do. But as a Christian, We will be in a different, yet nonetheless, it's real, warfare. because God exists. He has existed from eternity past. He is with us in eternity present right now, the eternal right now, and he is with us in the future. I cannot wrap my head around that, but somehow God knew in 1964, I know that's a long time ago, when I was born, by some miracle of God, he knew I would be standing here in 2023. I can't, I have, it just blows my mind, if I may use that word, and that's not too vulgar for the pulpit, you know, I just, I don't understand how he could have known that, and yet God orchestrates our life in such a way that he brings us to a point, wherever He wants us. And remember always, God makes everything beautiful in His time, not our time. How many times I have learned in my life that I have wanted something, and I've wanted it now, or I wanted it early, I wanted it in a certain timeframe, because that's the way I'm desiring it, so why can't I have it? And there were times where God was either silent, I've learned to take God's silences as God is not saying no many times in the silence of prayer. He's saying wait But I got to confess also I've heard God say no to my spirit and boy has that conjured up some rebelliousness in me. How about you? Oh Lord, what do you mean? You're not seeing it like I'm seeing it. Why can't I have this now? I He's such a good God. He's such a wise God. He's such a loving God. He comes to us and He says, no. But one of the things He's allowed us to endure while we're still here, I don't know of any Christian that isn't going to struggle with spiritual warfare. Because God is on His throne, and He is high and lifted up. But there's someone else on some makeshift, real garbage-y, duct tape and bailing wire throne, Satan. You know, he'll take anything he can get. And by the way, I'm not rebuking him at the moment, I'm just talking. I know we just heard that recently, but I struggle again. I just think of Michael the archangel says he did not bring railing accusation, he did not rebuke the devil, but he said the Lord rebuked thee. Again, folks, let me just reiterate. I know the disciples had that special power from God. They were able to, you know, basically the demons submitted to them. But I am not one of those that think that we should go around and telling demons what to do and telling Satan what to do. We have no business doing that. What I see in the scriptures consistently is resist. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Resist the evil. That's our job. That's all God asks us to do. And when God says take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, I'm sorry, I do not see that as an offensive weapon in a sense. Leave that aside for now. Mostly for me, when I'm in spiritual warfare, I've got that little, I told you about this before, the Marines have this little knife. They would wrap their fingers around it and that little blade would stick out of their fingers. That was for cutting the enemy off. Because listen, the demons, the evil one, they want to pin you down. They want to stop you from being effective for God. They don't want you telling your neighbor. By the way, they don't want us reaching Jeremiah. Those demons want children to listen to the lies of the devil, the lies of the media, the woke culture, the lies that there isn't male and female. The devil is having a heyday in our country. They don't want children to hear the truth of how much Jesus loves them. And Jesus made him a boy on purpose. It made you a girl. It made you female. It made you male. I'm sorry, folks. That's never going to change. I'm a Biblicist. I believe many of you are Biblicists, and it will never change. The devil is real, he hates. God cannot, excuse me, Satan cannot touch God. You know that, right? We see in the scriptures that Satan is able to go before God. Remember, was I believe in the book of Job, where Job says, where have you been basically? And Satan said, I've been walking to and fro, up and down to and fro the earth. So right there, you see that Satan has access really to the whole earth and the atmosphere, everything. But what's interesting is Satan also has access to the throne. But I want you to understand that doesn't mean that he can touch God. That doesn't mean that he can harm God. That doesn't mean he can hurt Him in any way. But we have to trust our Heavenly Father in His wisdom. He allows Satan and the demons though to bother us sometimes. I was taught rightfully at Maranatha and one of my friends actually wrote this in my Bible, Rob Pfeiffer, Susan, Rob Pfeiffer. because we were going through spiritual struggles like you all are. You know, sometimes you think in Bible college, oh yeah, man, that's easy, man, you get to live in a dorm and eat this really great food and get to just sit and listen to messages. No, every stage of life has its challenges, folks, and you know that, every stage. I don't care if you're in retirement or you're getting there or you're just born, even babies have struggles. Right, Brother Sigma? What did your baby even went through? Your baby was how many weeks old and already had an illness, was sick, struggling with sickness? How many weeks old was Annie? Just, if you're not old, we have issues. Okay, doesn't matter. My kid, I had a girl, a little Sophia, I think we brought her home from the hospital and she was sick and I'm like, she's a baby, she's not supposed to be sick already. We have to trust God that he allows that. What I was taught at Maranatha, getting back to that, was when you are attacked, and believe me, some of the attacks come like this. It is a heavy pressure, like an oppression on your spirit and soul. It's a trial. Maybe something came forth because of a trial. Maybe there was a hardship in the family. Maybe there was an accident. Whatever it is, you feel this tremendous pressure. And it's obvious that you're gonna feel something because you care about people. But have you ever noticed that Satan likes to pile on? There's this unbelievable amount of pressure. And I've been encouraged that when you are going through things like that, when the devil, when God kind of removes his protection, and he will do this. Again, please trust God, it's in love. When God kind of lifts that little protection, and he allows Satan to kind of get in there and do some things, you need to look at that as spiritual growth. I wish this wasn't the case because I'm a lazy human and I hate pain. But the hard reality is if we don't go through those things, we don't grow. If you ask me would I rather fly right now to Hawaii and sip on a lemonade and swing in the hammock and go on Waikiki Beach and enjoy Diamond Head and have no issues and have a ton of money in the bank and I'm healthy, of course I would rather do that. So would you. And there are times for that. But I've had to come to this conclusion as old as I'm getting now. Yeah, Lord, you're right. If I did that every single day of my life, I wouldn't grow spiritually. I wouldn't care about other people. I probably wouldn't even go to church. It's like, well, why do I need to go to church? See, that's how human nature is. If we don't struggle with something, which actually builds our spiritual muscle, we don't bother with God. But you know what I'm thankful for? I have been like that, and I probably will again. But our God loves us so much, he will pursue us. I've said it before, but remember Adam and Eve. They hid because of their sin. Who made the first move? God. Adam and Eve, oh man, we feel guilty. We're naked. Who told you that? You see, I don't think it's vulgar, I don't think it's too common, it's a biblical fact. They didn't have clothes on, as far as I understand, when they were first made, and they were not ashamed. Because there was no evil for them to be ashamed. But once Eve, and the Bible does say Eve was the one, and then of course man wasn't any better because he responded, he didn't lead properly, okay? He followed his wife in this situation, which he shouldn't have done, but they're both guilty. After that, all of a sudden the guilt came, and now they run and hide, and they hear, oh, I would love, and I can't wait someday to actually hear the voice of God. Can you imagine being in the garden? Could you imagine? God gives you a job to do. Now you're walking in the cool of the day. The sun's going down. I bet it looked unbelievably better than any sunset we've ever seen. And they're in the garden. All of a sudden, they hear God calling. He wants to converse. He wants a fellowship. He wants to talk with them. That's beautiful. I cannot wait for that. Yes, I hear Him talk to my spirit now. But boy, what they must have heard, I'm sure in their ears, you know, the Lord, now they're hiding from Him. And they're miserable because they're guilty. Let's look at numbers 14, 18, and then I'll. Then we'll look at the New Testament. We'll go over the context, we'll make it all really nice, but for right now, let's look at 14, 18. It says this, the Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty. See, shall the judge of all the earth do right? He sure shall. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. Let's stop right there. Generally, we're all sinners, we know that. Everybody has sinned. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, that's why we need a Savior. Why, then, let's look specifically, turn with me, we're gonna go slow, turn with me to Romans chapter six, verse 12, okay? Now look very specifically what's going on here, and I'm gonna bring this up in my system here, which of course I don't have, I thought I saved that, so give me a second here, see, it's gonna take me a while too. Romans six, verse 12. And I want you to see this. We all know generally we're all sinners. What's going on specifically here? It says this in Romans chapter 6 verse 12, The loss thereof now listen folks This is not written to the unbeliever. I believe that Paul was writing to the Christian that tells me that We are even though we're saved and have the white robes of righteousness And if you and I as Christians were to die right now We would immediately go in God's presence with our sins forgiven unless there's something major that still needs to be dealt with I'll be honest with you It seems to make sense to me that if we are backslidden and we're doing some sin and the Lord comes back I would think you'd have to confess that too to the Lord. But basically we have that white rose of righteousness. We are perfect before Him. We are accepted in the Beloved. There is no work to do to gain favor with God. We have all the loving favor we're going to have. But what this verse tells me is we also have somewhat of that free will that we can make a choice. And we can choose to say, you know what, Lord? I know I'm a general sinner, but you know what? Even specifically, you know, this kind of talks to people that say, hey, I'm saved and, you know, basically everything's okay now. They don't understand spiritual growth. They don't understand human responsibility. They don't understand when the Bible says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Folks, salvation is the first step. But when God says grow in grace and knowledge, He doesn't mean just information. The Lord literally wants you to depend more and more on His grace so that you can have Christ live His life through you. But He doesn't mean just knowledge from a book. God actually wants us to know the Savior personally. Personal relationships. Romans 6, 12, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body. That tells me that I have the choice and I can let sin reign there. Does that make sense? I know we're dead. I know now we're dead to sin. I know all those verses, okay? We're perfect in the beloved. We're accepted in the beloved. God looks, but here's the difference. If you're not looking at it that way, you will still live as if this is not true. Do not suffer your mortal body to be overcome. Excuse me, I will say that better. Do not suffer your mortal body to overcome your immortal mind. You ever hear that? Do not suffer your mortal body to overcome your immortal mind. Did you ever think that through? There's no good thing that dwelt in my flesh. This old body is decaying, evidenced by the fact that I have to try to get more rest, try to exercise harder if I can. I try to take more vitamins, build my gut. I'm trying to do all these things. And someone told me a few years ago, they say, hey, watch Larry. Every year it's going to get harder and harder. I had to say that's true. taking enzymes to help digest my food. I'm doing all these different things and they help, but I can't deny that clearly my body is decaying. I'm not 18 anymore, or I'm not as young as BJ is. I see him looking at me back there. He's looking very intently. He is a young man. He's still working with kids. That's awesome. But I can tell the difference. The body's decayed, but guess what is immortal? The spirit. Really, my mind is part of that immortal part of man. The new man, right now, is my soul and spirit in me. I do not have a new body yet. If I die before the rapture, there seems to be an intermediate body that we'll have. We're gonna have something that we're gonna live and be clothed in when we get to go to heaven, but maybe it's before the rapture, before we get the new body. But do you understand that statement? Don't let that mortal fleshly body overcome your immortal mind. Because the battle, as I've said numerous times, is always in your mind. We need to think right. If you think right, you will end up doing right. And by the way, see that's my prayer for Jeremiah. I love him, and I think he just is not thinking right about some things. If he starts thinking right, see, that'll lead to understanding Scripture. That'll lead to understanding Christ. It'll lead to understand a change in behavior. Please keep praying for him. Now I want you to see in the New Testament something. I want you to turn to 2 Corinthians 10. 2 Corinthians 10. verses 1 through 6. And I will let you go there. So far we looked at the Old Testament and I kind of consider that the cause. Our sinful natures, but specifically When we'll get to the context in just a moment, these things will start making sense as we keep going forward. But let me look at the New Testament here very quickly. The cause was not only general sin, but very specifically, these people, specifically the Israelites, they were not controlling their lusts. They were allowing their earthly body, the mortal part of them, which produces the lust and all these various things. We carry that sinful nature with us. They were letting that overtake the mind which had just seen a miracle of God. We'll get to that context in just a moment. Here's the New Testament. Now, here's the remedy. Here is what Paul said, and I'll give you the context here in a moment, too. Here's Paul speaking to us in 2 Corinthians 10, verses one through six. It says this. Now, I, Paul, myself, beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence and base among you, that's really what they were accusing him of, but being absent and bold toward you, that's what he was being accused of. Hey, when you're in front of us, not much to see. In fact, I can tell you have an eye disease. And many commentators believe because of that eye disease, it was actually to the point of being repulsive to people. Understand that. The greatest Christian that ever lived probably didn't present well, as today we always desire, present well maybe in the pulpit. They accused him of stammering his words. They accused him of not being able, you know, this guy, look at him. He's probably not real tall. He's kind of real like shy maybe, you know, when he's around people. He seems to be actually kind of a base fellow. And on top of that, he's probably got something oozing from his poor eye infection. I told you the story, I'm gonna say it again, when I went down south, and I was going to Maranatha at that time, and I was visiting my grandmother, and the grandmother told this lady next door, hey, Larry's going to Maranatha, probably gonna do something in ministry, you know, back then I was working for Baptist Youth Mission, and you should have seen this neighbor lady eyeing me up and down, looking at me, checking me out, and I don't mean that in a girl guy way, I mean checking like, oh yeah, this guy, he's gonna preach, or he's gonna do whatever, can I come too? She made a comment that basically said, I wasn't nearly as tall as the preachers down south were. I mean, I'm about 6. Maybe I'm 5'11 and 3 quarters. I don't care, 6. I'm somewhere around there. I don't care about that, because I have no control over that. Can you add an inch to your height? Well, if you hang upside down in inversion boots, you might be able to add a half inch. You ever see those boots? I used to have those. I wanted to be even taller, so I hang upside down, right? Those are fun. You can exercise them and do a bunch of things, and you don't have to blood rush to your head and stretch your back. But really, we can't change a lot of who we are. But what I'll never forget, I saw that lady, the way she looked at me, and she looked kind of with a little, I could tell a little bit of disdain, because she was used to the Southern preachers, you know, down there, the Southern Baptists, and the big churches, and those guys were at least six foot three, six foot four, and they would tower over the people. A little bit carnal to me, folks. A little bit carnal. God help us to see people the way God sees people. God help us to measure the worth of somebody, not on how tall they are or whether they have eye issues. Okay? Let's look at the heart. Let's look at the soul. But I'll never forget her doing that. But that's what we do. We look on the outward appearance. That's why Saul, the Bible says, was a head above. Saul was a head above everybody else. Head taller. Because God knew that the Israelites were saying, you know what? We don't want a theocracy. Lord, we really don't want you to be the main guy over us. Could we have a king like every other nation? Could we do that? God said, okay, I'll give you what you want. And he did. Do I need to say anything more about what happened to Saul? Was Saul's stature or height, did that have anything to do with how spiritual he was? Not even close. Yet I'm thankful for tall people. They can reach things I can't. My wife's always like, hey, can you get that for me? I mean, our cabinets, man, they're like way up here, some of the stuff. And I wish Ryan was at our house, because he wouldn't even need the step stool like I do sometimes. Right, Ryan? I would, you know, he's awesome, but my boys are growing up, too, and they're great helps. But what I'm saying is, Lord, help us to have spiritual eyes. Lord, help us. And again, I believe up north, sorry, being a little prejudiced here, north against the south, right? Something about, I love the Midwest, I love the people here, I love the churches. I don't think we do that. I don't think we look at someone and say, you know what? You're not tall enough, so you're not spiritual. That's ridiculous. That's ridiculous. Wait a second, Steve, why are you saying that? Steve, you're about 5'11 and a half, too. You're just right under me, right? No, Steve is an ordained minister, if you didn't know that. And I can tell in Sunday school class, when we go call in and do various things, he's a spiritual man. Praise God that doesn't have to depend on our physical. It's what we are in our hearts. Verse 2, "...but I beseech you that I may not be bold," says, "...that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh." That's a bad accusation against Paul. They're claiming that Paul was not in the Spirit and not a real Christian minister. "...For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war," here's our warfare, "...we do not war after the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal." but mighty through God to the pulling down of what? Strongholds. Oh, there's so much to say. I'm thankful for our Second Amendment, and I don't plan on ever changing on that. I'm thankful for men for concealed carry. I'm thankful not only for police officers and military people that carry, but I gotta be honest with you, I am thankful to know that even in our culture, we've been somewhat wise enough to allow people to carry. I'm thankful for people that have guns in their home. Now, if you choose not to, and actually it's interesting, I wanted to get a really nice, a newer one, and right now I just don't have peace to do that. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the guns or Second Amendment. What I am saying is, it's a case-by-case basis, but to say this, I am thankful, and I do have them at home, and I hope to never have to use it, but folks, we have a right to defend ourselves. We have a right, let me tell you something. I know a lot of you guys feel the same way. I will die, I will fight to the death to protect my wife or this girl right here, or my family. And by the way, we will do that for you here too. I really believe that if someone came in here, we're dealing with it. And we've got men prepared to do that. Just to let you know. If you don't feel led to do that, God bless you. Because you know what? There have been cases like George Washington even where he was shot and they found the little ball bearing actually just in his coat and it never even pierced his skin. Now maybe that's because the shot was a couple hundred yards away. I don't care. Whatever the reason is, you need to do specifically what God asks you to do for your warfare, for protection of yourself and your family, the country, whatever. That is between you and God. That is a conscience issue. So there's no judgment here. If you don't like that I have a gun at home, or you don't have one, and you don't care, that's your business. God literally could protect you. You know that. It has happened where guns have jammed, and they have not worked. That has happened. But I will always take what the famous general said. Remember, I've said this before. Listen, please, again. My brothers, keep trusting the Lord, but keep the powder dry. Do both. Trust in the Lord. But by the way, this powder is gunpowder. We need it for the war. Keep it dry. That's the carnal aspect of our weapons. We do have carnal weapons in this life. We have to use them. I like knives. There's various uses for the knife. I mean, I carry one when I walk and do various things. You know what I do? Sometimes in the park, I get nervous about a stray dog. I don't want to hurt someone's pet. Please don't misunderstand me. I love pets. I love our cats to death. I told you I was never a cat person. I love our cats now. But listen, if I'm walking with my kids or I'm walking and some stray dog or something comes up, I got to have something. And I really don't feel like putting my hand, I've been told to stick my hand down their throat and yank on everything you can. That goes against me. I'd rather like cut them all, get them away from me. I don't want to do that. But that's what they say to do, reach in and grab their tongue. Yeah, sure. You know, that's real easy to say when the dog's not barking at you. Right? But I'll be honest, I would probably be frozen with fear. I couldn't do that. But if I had something on me, I believe in using it. More importantly, our weapons in our warfare against evil, they're not carnal. They are spiritual, you are right. How do we do that? Casting down imaginations and everything that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Folks, listen. We can win the war if we will win the battle in our mind. And listen, let me say this again. It is not hard to understand God. It is not hard to be saved. It is not hard actually in the Christian life. What is hard and what is straining is that we have this old nature that is constantly pulling at us to get us to go back and think the way we used to. That's the strain. God isn't making it hard. Oh, it took me so long to understand this. I'll be honest with you, I was such the scorner. Even as a Christian, I was scorned. You know, Lord, you could have done this so different. Oh, God, forgive me. You know, Lord, why does it have to be this way? Why does it have to be so hard? Why does it have to be like this? Lord, how come, you know, I'm doing what you want, then why is all this temptation hitting me? Why do I feel so horrible? Why is it like these people, I can't even go on the internet, and it's a clean page, and all of a sudden something comes up. Hey, look at this. Why, Lord, okay? God didn't do that. My great-great-grandpa did Adam and Eve. When you understand the economy of God, and how he works, and how he respects our free will, and lets us do, you know what I mean, he doesn't force us, and you understand how God doesn't force people to be saved, he draws, you understand how that works, now you understand the wisdom of God. Sometimes I wish God would just remove all evil immediately right now. Who doesn't? But in God's economy, in God's wisdom, he allows it to be here. That means, that behooves us, Paul beseeches us to cast down imaginations. Let's look at what that means very quickly. Let's look at a couple of those words. What's a stronghold? Listen to this. The stronghold where it says we are able to, let's go back up to the verse here, verse four, it says, but the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, again, they're not the gun, they're not the knife, they're not our fist, they're not our muscles, but mighty through God to the pulling down of what strongholds? Guess what in this context a stronghold is. Now when you think of a stronghold and I do, what do you think of? I think of a big fort, right? I think of something that you can't penetrate. I love the old castles where they had the moats around them, okay? That's really neat. And you had to have the drawbridge go down with the big chains, clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk, and that's the only way you could get in. Okay? But when that goes up, that is a citadel. There's a bulwark that is strength. That's what I think of. But how does that fit in our context here? Stronghold is any strong points or arguments in which one trusts. What am I saying again? Your mind is where that type of stronghold is. We just saw that even this morning, through accusations which I won't bring up again, But there are so many things that the modern world is getting through a media that is extremely biased. They're only gonna show one side, and that's clear. Man, if you don't believe that yet, you're not looking at what's going on. Your head's not out of the sand. Because I've already envisioned if someone were to come up to me and interview me, I probably wouldn't talk with them. I wouldn't give him the time of day, I said, I don't trust you. And yeah, maybe you're not currently, you're not the big ABC, NBCC, all this stuff, but if you can't see clearly that there is a satanic stronghold, here we go, on the thinking of our media, on the thinking of so many things on the news and social media, then you have not had your eyes open. when they cancel the president on Twitter, but they will allow foreign ministers or foreign presidents that are murdering people. You see, you understand the difference here? That means there is a stronghold even in their life. when our current president, for example, can hide documents by his Corvette. And by the way, I love Corvettes. I think those are neat cars. But you notice he had to repeat it a few times. Yeah, my Corvette, it's locked in my garage, my Corvette. He's got to brag, right? I got a 60s Corvette. Good for you. I know a pastor that has one. Yeah, whatever. It's great. They're fine. But when we can look at that, and many people can say, oh, that's completely different than when our previous president hit someone in Mar-a-Lago, see? Oh, that's completely different. There is a stronghold in their thinking. What's a stronghold in this context? Any strong point or argument in which one trusts. They are trusting in an argument which says the means justifies the ends. In other words, I can lie about my opponent. I can lie about some false thing about Russia that Trump was involved in. I can make all that up. But because for the greater good that people, democracy, some of the people in America matter more than truth, then we can justify. See, that's the argument they're believing. They have a stronghold. So Paul is saying, what do we do then? Because you know what? As Christians, I know we struggle with strongholds in our thinking. We do. Here's what he says, casting down imaginations. I know what imagination is. I can picture myself flying an airplane. I'm a flight enthusiast. I think that's really neat. I use my imagination for that. I can picture in my imagination going up to Kathy and giving her the elbow. We call it the wing shake or something. My imagination just came up with that. I just thought about us doing that. I can picture that. There's nothing wrong with that use of imagination. When Jessica's practicing her recorder, which by the way, praise the Lord that she plays recorder for us. Hey, I forgot to mention, man, I get to sit right here. Yeah, the piano's a little bit loud in my ears. But I get to hear violins, guitars, who else? We have recorder and piano. Let me tell you something, it's such a blessing. I can't tell you, I love hearing the music. I can sit right here. You guys are doing an excellent job. But I have no problem with Jessica using the right use of her imagination is to say, hey, I want a picture. How do I do this with my fingers? See, then you think it through. That's good. Imagination in this context. giving consideration and reflection. So it's what you're thinking about and what you're reflecting on preceding and determining conduct. I'll say that one more time. The use of imagination here is when, in our minds, we are giving consideration to something, we're actually reflecting on it, mulling it over in our head, and that proceeds right before we're about to do something. Can you see how important it is what you think will determine what you do? You see how important that is? A right use of our imagination is to dwell on the word of God. We're supposed to, what's the word? I'm having a mental block, but when you meditate, there we go. When you meditate on the word of God, you're supposed to be thinking about that in your mind. The word is taking root. The more you think about it, you think about maybe some more questions to ask. You wanna study that phrase or word more, and it blesses. I guarantee if you are using your imagination to think on the word of God, I guarantee you're gonna be doing different things. Good things you're gonna be doing. Good things. Paul is saying here, casting down, now this must be negative, because why would you cast down a good thing? He's talking about casting down the imaginations. Those are the lies that we believe. Those are the things that we take in, and by the way, this is so amazing, but again, we lie to ourselves. Our sinful heart actually casts up muck and mire into our brain. That's what I have to find. I have to find every day. I have to say, that's not true. Or if I'm dealing with a brother or sister in this church even, any church I've been in, and there's something said, and maybe I don't feel that it was said a certain way. I don't, you know, something kind of felt like it was offensive, and I'm not really sure what they meant. I can't believe how many times the evil one will come in there and add fiery darts. Remember, we preached that. He'll add his fiery dart to that, and now I start getting inflamed, like, yeah, what did that brother mean by that? I think they were trying to be dissing me or something. I think they're trying to be, no, go talk to the person. Go talk to them, the Bible says, and find out what they meant. And I'll guarantee you, 99% of the time, it is a misunderstanding. But in the 1% of time that your spirit was perceiving without Satan's help, you were perceiving that that person was not good or right. Matthew 18 tells us exactly what to do. Matthew 18 says, go to that person. Alone, right? Alone first. Do we do that? Not always. Hey, I gotta tell my, I gotta vent to my friend first. and get his opinion. Now another person's involved that didn't really need to be involved. Folks, I'm just being honest, because I've done that. I think we've all done that at one point. Let's not do that. Let's say, God, what should I do here? What should I do? I need to go to that friend. I need to go to that person. And when I have obeyed God, I cannot tell you how many times it was a lie of the devil. That's the warfare. That's just one little snippet of the warfare that goes on. Why? God would love nothing better than to unite and hate one another right now. Oh, look at that person. They're fake. They're cheap. Oh, look at the pastor. Look at him. Look at the deacon over there. The lies that enter our heads about each other, can we just be honest, they come in. They come in. Paul says, casting down imaginations. These things that we're reflecting on, we're thinking they're true, and they're not true. casting down and bringing into captivity every thought. Folks, the Christian life needs to be disciplined. If you want the best that you can have down here from God, we have to have discipline. That's where disciple, remember, disciple, discipline, that's where that comes from. It was easy to get saved because Jesus did all the work. Jesus hung on the cross. I believe Jesus worked harder than any man in this world has ever worked in a sense In doing the will of God all of us work and feel the strain of doing spiritual things for God It comes to us. It stretches us. It's difficult. Sometimes we understand. It's not God making it that way It's our old body that fights God and his truth, okay? But Jesus, in a sense, worked harder than anybody. He submitted to the will of the Father and suffered the most pain that anybody could ever feel. And I believe Jesus felt it more severely because He had a perfect body. I believe He had perfect nerves. I believe He felt it even worse than I would have felt. And I would have passed out from the pain long before Jesus did. He's much stronger than I. But we need to see that God wants us to work, too. Do we work on our jobs? Yes. Do we work around our house? Yeah. But I cannot get away from the scriptures when it says God has given us pastors, leaders. Why? For the perfecting of the saints. Why? so they do the work of the ministry. That does not mean pastors also don't do that work. But folks, we need to have a mind to work. So what's the practical? And I wish I could do this after a number of, I don't think I'm gonna continue this next week. Let's stop here, but it would be good to go through a whole series of this sometime. The reason I bring up that Old Testament verse about the third and fourth generation, let me give you two examples. You'll start understanding now what I'm getting at. I have in my family, without mentioning their names or being hurtful, I have a family that's, I would say, pretty religious. We see them quite often, Christmas, various times. When they first got married, and I was a real little tyke, They could not have children on their own. This was a, I'll just use the word religious family, I'm not into really, I don't really wanna name a name right now, but they were a, you know, the wife for sure was very religious, had been brought up that way. My cousin, that's our side of the family, he was a state trooper, he was a hunter, all good things, but I don't think I've ever seen him without him telling maybe a dirty joke or something, to be honest with you. I just don't see it, I don't see it, okay? They adopted a child, which is great, because they couldn't have children. Interestingly, after they adopted this child, they had children of their own. Here's what I find interesting. All of the children that are their natural children basically are even keeled. They have jobs, families, they're pretty stable. the boy that was their first boy, the boy that was adopted, which, by the way, I think adoption is just excellent because we're adopted into the family of God. It's a wonderful thing. But this man, sadly, as of this day, and these are decades later, he has burned through two marriages, and his last marriage, he left three children. I mean, three triplets. I'm sorry, a set of triplets. and his wife. He's off somewhere, maybe in California, I don't know where he is, last time I heard he's never made contact with the family, completely gone. Now that didn't make sense to me at first, because I'm like, wait a second, that was their first one, then they had their own kids, and I know this family, I don't think they treated the kids any different. Why did this firstborn who was adopted, and this young man, has gone off the deep end, and he has not, at all, seemed to follow the pattern of the other kids? One more example. When I did a vacation Bible school, I did it for a godly family. A godly pastor, definitely a godly wife, wonderful boys, wonderful kids. They decided to adopt. Again, a great idea, right? For some reason I cannot figure out, I can now. But I looked at that and I saw that all the kids that are their natural kids are in ministry right now. Now, by the way, the other one I'm talking about, I haven't been in touch with the family recently, so hopefully there's been repentance. But this family, who I love, I did a VBS for them. They're very sweet people. They didn't make a mistake. What I just find interesting is, in case you're tempted to say, well, Larry, that was a religious family. They probably weren't saved. That's why that happened. Uh-uh. It happens to all. Because this Christian family that I know, they treated all those kids the same. The same boy that was adopted got kicked out of school. didn't want anything to do with fundamentalism, reacted completely different, completely different than the other boys, who I believe now are in full-time ministry. Why does that happen? I believe when we look at this Old Testament verse, I believe when we see it says, Fathers, wow, stop right there. Fathers, not all of us are fathers, but some of us are fathers in here. When I look at this, do I see how unbelievably responsible I am for the rest of my family? How important it is that I do what God says. How important it is that I better start getting victory in some areas and making sure Ephesians 427. I better make sure I'm not giving place to the devil. Remember like we talked about earlier that one moat? Remember the big citadel? Remember the big fort? The big stronghold? God wants by His grace to protect you. But when we decide to think wrong, in other words, we're not letting every thought be captive to Christ, we're letting our thoughts go back to the past, wishing that we would kind of go back to the way things were, you know, feeding our flesh, what you are doing is lowering that drawbridge down and you are allowing the evil one to come in to the fort and attack your heart. The Marines talk about a beachhead. If they can get a beachhead somewhere, then they can come in through that beach and they can attack the whole country. The devil is looking. The Bible says, and it was in the context there of anger, but it says, neither give place to the devil. When we are giving place to the devil, here are some words that it means to give place. It means to give a foothold. It means to give ground. It's kind of like if we have a chink in the armor, we're allowing something to get in. Fathers, we have a huge responsibility, because you and I, what we do in moderation, our kids will be tempted to do to excess. All the time. Oh, Dad didn't really make a big deal. See, I get bit by that a lot. Because I told you I live with my Holy Spirit. That's my wife. I'll be honest with you, she has more character than me, and she's more spiritual than me. I admit that. I admit it. Doesn't mean she's called to do the same thing. You'll never see her up here preaching. But I'm thankful God gave her to me, because I have the Holy Spirit from God. But I also have a godly wife. And I need to be careful. I love having fun with my family. But I've got to be careful, because what I do in moderation, they will be tempted. And I just lost this, and we're almost done anyway. So I'm going to take this. Sorry, Brother Charles. This fell off, and this fell off. I'm going to shut this off. I'm going to be tempted to do this and think, well, I can get away with this a little bit. No. They're going to do it to excess. What I believe is going on, why you see this adoption, why you see the kids turning out different, I believe that when we allow sin in our life, we allow the stronghold We don't cast down the imaginations. We don't let every thought be captive to Christ. The devil gets a foothold in our life, and this is what's really sad. Many times there are men that never repent of that, and they have that besetting sin that never leaves them. God loves us. But I also believe that there are demonic forces involved. They rejoice that that father is in that sin and stuck in that stronghold and can't get out. They've given up ground to the devil. Have you done that this week? We have a temptation to do that every day, every week, giving up ground. And God says, no, I want you to get that ground back. And how you're going to get that ground back is you're going to think like I think. Look at the word of God. Look at truth. Stop your imagination from believing and trusting lies from the devil. They that regard lying vanities forsake God's mercy. That was said in the book of Jonah. Jonah did not do what God told him to do, I believe, because in his heart, the devil had a stronghold in his life. And he was the reluctant servant. He did not want to go and do what God said to do. And you and I know when we submit to God, there's always a blessing. But Jonah said, you know what? I don't want to go. I'm going to turn around and go the other way. Why did he do that? In the book of Jonah, it says right there, they that regard lying vanities, What's a lying vanity? It's an untruth and it's empty. There's nothing to it. That's what these are here. Casting down lying vanities. Casting down imaginations that are not from God, they're from our sinful nature or from the evil one. I believe that many times why you see differences in families like that, and I hope there's repentance there, and they can do the same thing Paul said right here. Cast that down. Let every thought be captive to Christ. Every one of us can be set free from the clutches of the evil one. But many times we're not because we will not do what God says to do right here. We will not let every thought be obedient or captive to Christ. What does Jesus think about this? Lord, help me with my thoughts. Help me to think your thoughts, God. Help me to think the way you see this. It would stop a whole lot of bitterness in relationships. Right? God, why did you give me this person? I know that. Why do I have this friend? Why don't I have this person? And we start believing lying vanities about God. And that's why we get angry at God. Fathers, don't give place Don't give place to the devil. I think that's what some of these fathers will end with this. Thank you for letting me go long, and thank you for your beautiful attention. The context in numbers. Do you know what was going on there? Does anyone know? When I talked about where it sits to the third and fourth generation, Brother Jerry? Do you know what was previously? What had just happened there? Yes. That's in the general area, but the verses just, yeah, the verses right before that, though, were where they just left Egypt and they were crying out to go back. How about that? You're still in the ballpark. But if it's okay, I want to focus just on that. Israel, do you know what they were doing? I want to go back. I miss the leeks and the garlics. I want to go back to Egypt. You see what they're doing, folks? Worldliness is not new to us in this country. It's not new to the Christian in this century. Worldliness has been around from the beginning. God does this great miracle and takes them from the bondage of Egypt and says, hey, I got something new for you. Is it going to be super easy? Am I going to grease all the wheels? Am I going to get a limo for you? No. but it's way better because I'm releasing you from that bondage. Do you know that the devil has selective memory? He teaches us to have selective memory. You know that, right? He doesn't want us to remember the bad. Satan only wants us to remember the good. Do you remember how that pleasure felt? eating those leeks and garlics, and I love onions and garlic by the way, that's great, that's not the point of this verse, but the point was they had the taste of Egypt on their taste buds. That's what you and I do when we are putting into our ears and our minds and eyes too much of the wrong world stuff. That's our fault. The more we feed on these things, that's why we hunger for them. And then we wonder why we're even thinking lies about God. We're not even thinking right about God because we have such worldly thoughts bombarding our brain. And it's not God's fault. It's our fault for us putting them there. They were complaining so bad to God right before this. They said, we should have died. Would to God you would have let us die in Egypt. Would to God you would have let us die in the wilderness, now we have to be out here. And then they even complained about that wonderful food called manna. Remember I told you I call it the heavenly Pop-Tart. It's sweet, it's good for you, but Pop-Tarts aren't good for you. But I love them, I could eat the whole box. I used to, when I was a kid, eat a lot of them. You can tell. Sugar does something to the brain. But, I will say this, they have gluten-free ones now and dairy-free. Anyways, so I get those once in a while. But the heavenly man, I can't even imagine, it was probably sweet and it was soft. And like my sister, she loves dough. We all love dough. Who doesn't like a good sourdough roll over at some restaurant or something? I think that's what God was giving them. But they said, no. I miss the leeks and the garlics. I miss the way Egypt, I remember the pleasures of Egypt. Right now, I'm in this wilderness. And you know what? I'm really going out with a lot of stuff. I don't have a lot of things in my life I used to have in Egypt. Duh, you're not in bondage anymore and God's bringing you to a promised land. Folks, listen, this is done right here. God's bringing you to a promised land. He wants you to be like Christ, you have heaven someday, but even on this earth, if he's asking you to give up the lies, give up the worldly views, give up those things, he's got something even down here for you right now. Jesus said he has not given up mother, father, sisters, houses, lands, that will not receive a hundredfold down here. If you will do what God asks you to do. And it's not about just rewards and what you're getting, it's all about trusting God to meet your needs because he knows you might have given up something. The Israelites gave up Egypt to learn to trust God for something way better, but in that interim time, They were struggling, just like you and I struggle. You and I struggle with this. We don't wanna trust. It's hurting at the moment. I can't see the end from the beginning. I don't know, God, I know you're telling me, you're leading me, and this seems to be a good thing, but it's hurting right now. Casting down imaginations, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. That is the cure. That is the remedy. so we don't have to have our third and fourth generation kids still struggling with the same thing we did. Confess and forsake and find the mercy that God desires. Elizabeth, would you just come up? I'm gonna have a word of prayer. Lizzie's just gonna play a little bit just as I am. If you feel so inclined, come up and pray. If not, make your decision there. That's fine with me. Whatever you feel the Lord is prompting you to do, that's all I'm asking you to do. But Lord bless you guys, wonderful listeners, wonderful attention. Praise God for his word. Let's pray and then we'll just have one song. Heavenly Father, Lord, would you, through your spirit, just bless, encourage, strengthen, Lord, we want to be more used of you. And Lord, that will happen when we give up our personal way of thinking, when we stop leaning upon our own understanding. when we stop believing the lying vanities causing us to forsake even our own mercy that we could even have in life. Lord, help us to take our thoughts, think the thoughts after God, think the word of God after you that you've given us. Lord, help us to spend time in our prayer closet and in the word. May we have music that has the word of God in it. May we have in our cars the word of God. May we listen to VCY. May we study, may we have the Word of God hidden in our hearts so that we can start thinking the way you do. And Lord, help us to reclaim any ground in our life that we've given over to the evil one. Help us to use the right weapons, not our anger, not our emotion. Help us to use the spiritual weapons. Help us to use our mind properly, casting down those vain imaginations. Let every thought be obedience to you, Lord.