Pray together. Lord Jesus, this is surely true. Had it not been for the work of Calvary, where you offered yourself as a sacrifice for our sins, we would be lost. Without hope headed for hell, I thank you that you came into the world, that you offered yourself on the cross for our sake. Today we want to confess that our faith is in you.
And we are unashamed to proclaim that, not only in the auditorium of this church, but publicly, before television cameras, before the watching, sometimes mocking world. We are unashamed to proclaim that you are our Lord. Give us grace, I pray, that we may bear the title Christian well before a watching world. May we be men and women of integrity and character. In Jesus' name, amen. I'm sure that many of us were glued to our televisions and watching the bizarre scenes
being played out Friday night as O.J. Simpson and his friend led police on a 50-mile parade through Los Angeles. I don't know what your feelings were. Mine were different at different times. But in summation, I would simply say that to me it was both sad and very sick. What happened anyway to cause all of this? Well, we don't really know the whole story. No one does except O.J. Simpson at this point. But we can say that behind what happened this last week, O.J. was consumed by wrong thinking.
He was not thinking correctly. He was not thinking rightly. And those thoughts caused him to make a series, apparently, of terrible mistakes that will surely haunt him the rest of his life. Spiritual strongholds are something like that. Wrong thinking deceives and dominates. It then leads to wrong behavior. And if that is not recognized and repented of, it forms patterns of control. These areas of life control where Jesus Christ is not truly Lord are strongholds.
They exalt themselves against the knowledge of God in us. Last week we talked about the stronghold of unforgiveness and how that that deep root of unforgiveness can bear bitter fruit in our lives and in the lives of others. We talked about how important it is that the stronghold of bitterness and unforgiveness toward those who offended us be torn down so that we ourselves are not destroyed by it and so that we can go on and grow and advance in our Christian lives.
And now someone is going to come and share a testimony with us. She has destroyed and pulled down the stronghold of bitterness that was destroying her life. This is better than 10th grade high school. I remember that one. I would like to share some of my feelings and personal experiences regarding last Sunday's message on removing strongholds and holding grudges. I was born and raised in Gary, Indiana, the fourth out of five children and brought up Catholic.
At age three I suffered a head injury which brought on two serious convulsions, then seizures and behavior problems. First grade was completed at a private school. As a result of the seizure problem grades two through five were spent at the National Children's Rehabilitation Center in Leesburg, Virginia. Most of the children there were severely retarded and epileptic, a condition I had never been exposed to. Thinking as a second grader I thought my parents hated me because of my obesity.
I had an obesity problem all my life. I was only able to come home at Christmas time which were not the happiest times. I didn't fit in at the National Children's Rehabilitation Center with my classmates. They were far sicker than I was and I couldn't identify with anybody. On my last Christmas visit home I was determined I wasn't going back to NCRC so I overdosed on my seizure medications.
I can remember the nurses at Mercy Hospital and Gary gagging coffee after they pumped my stomach and dragging me up and down the hallways. To this day I know why I hate coffee. I hate it, even the smell. I survived and began sixth grade at Ambridge Elementary School in Gary, Indiana and I made it through. I started seventh grade at Horseman in Gary and was not the greatest. I was a year behind my sister Cathy who is ten months older and whatever teachers didn't care for Cathy punished me for.
During the summer following seventh grade my parents received a summons from the court system accusing me of throwing scissors at a classmate which was a lie. My sister Cathy had the same teacher the year before and they were not friends. So whatever problems she had with my sister the year before she took it out on me.
Being a minor I was not allowed in the courtroom and my parents could not afford an attorney in the fall of 1963 we were on our way to Indianapolis to enroll me in a school called Marydale, a home for troubled teenagers run by the sisters of the Good Shepherd. I didn't know or think I was troubled. My thoughts went back to my family hates me because of my weight problem. Riding this phase of my life stirs up a lot of ugly memories, pain and emotions so if the tears start forgive me.
I went from age 14 to 190 overnight. In actuality Marydale was a hard core women's prison. I was an infant compared to the seasoned criminals residing there. I won't go into the gory details describing the physical, sexual and mental abuse. At age 14 I did not know what a homosexual was or what they wanted. In my home we barely knew about the birds and the bees it wasn't talked about. A good many days were spent in lock up for physically fighting to protect myself and survive.
I didn't always win. Upon release 21 months later in 1965 my parents and I had to return to court to have criminal removed from my name. No high school would accept me until then. Unfortunately I couldn't have cared less whether I had a diploma or not but my father was a lot larger and stronger than I was. I was enrolled in a private school in Hammond, Indiana where my retired brother Jim who is 16 years older, I can't remember, and my sister Sally graduated back in the 50s.
The first day of school sophomore year my teacher barked at me. And I mean she barked, are you any relation to Sally Paxson? And I lied through my teeth. I said no sister I've never heard of her. Excuse me I wasn't supposed to say that. Sally graduated in 1958. She said I look just like her and I do. I thought here we go again another sister. Little fear got me through and to graduation and I've never gone back for reunions or otherwise. That's enough for me.
To conclude my sister Kathy and I as teenagers used to stand in our old hallway mirror checking out our pimples or zits. We'd stand back and see who could hit the mirror. A year ago March 31st I had a big 30 year old infected zit full of bitterness and unforgiveness. Our devoted pastor and friend Galen was my mirror.
We went through Dr. Neil Anderson's steps to freedom in Christ where I had to write down every person by name, each specific act and forgave every person for each incident and drained out all the poison. I also told my brothers and sisters I could not tell my parents about the abuse I suffered though I think my mother suspected. I was accepted, I accepted Christ and was baptized at Grace Church Roseville in 1985. It's been a difficult journey and I've had several falls.
I am a survivor but only because of Christ our Lord. Isaiah 40-31 grabbed me immediately in 1983 and remains my favorite verse. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Being permanently disabled I do the best I can. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint. It's taken almost a lifetime to get off the ground but now I am soaring with eagles and I love it up here.
Whoever thought I would be at church an hour early just to hear the angelic voices in our choir sing. Music remains a lifeline and helps recharge my battery and that's the end. That's enough. That's enough. That's enough. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And one more. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm one of the six.
Peggy told us the story, but what she obviously could not share in a brief time was the pain and the emotion that was involved in her life and which had been bound up within this stronghold. It nearly consumed her, it nearly killed her. God has given her new strength, though she still has health problems, but she's free and she's soaring.
And I want to encourage you, if last week you sensed the conviction of the Holy Spirit, to follow through with the steps of forgiveness that we talked about and allow yourself to be free from that stronghold. Today we're going to talk about a new stronghold, a different one. It seems to me to be an important one, especially on Father's Day, because it is a stronghold that men in particular battle.
Now Peggy, you took away some of my notes, so unless you want just the conclusion of my sermon, you're going to have to give me back my notes. Talk about dirty tricks. As we have said before, strongholds obstruct our spiritual progress and so they must be attacked and destroyed. We don't have a choice in this. They must be attacked and destroyed. Immoral behavior is a stronghold in the lives of many people, including many of God's people.
It's that one we want to talk about today, but first let's open our Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 10 and remind ourselves of the key verses that we're focusing on as we think about strongholds. 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 3, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. In a February 1989 report entitled The State of Adolescent Health in Minnesota, 55% of the females and 70% of the males reported having had sex by the 12th grade, with one fourth of the females and one third of the males reported to have done so by age 13. Now that should not surprise any of us, though it's tragic.
One out of every 250 Americans today has the AIDS virus, most of the time from sexual contact, but as you know not exclusively. Three million teenagers in America contract sexually transmitted diseases every year, three million teenagers. Syphilis is at a 40-year high in America. There are 134,000 new infections every year. 25 million Americans are infected with the herpes virus. The fact is that most of us know people today who are living, shall we say, without the benefit of marriage.
The sexual revolution that hit America back in the 60s has swamped our nation and the ship is sinking. This is not a modern phenomenon, of course. Ancient cities and cultures likewise were steeped in immoral living, especially Rome, the powerful and controlling force in the New Testament times, of course, was Rome. Its politics, its religion, its social customs were all contaminated by immorality, which contributed to the eventual collapse of the Roman Empire.
Immorality was a major problem in the early churches in the Roman Empire because you see immoral behavior was an accepted part of the culture of that day. The very religion that many of them had come out of, the worship of the gods of Mount Olympus, the very religion that had been a part of their lives until they came to Christ, was mingled with sexual immorality. Most of the temples to these false gods and goddesses had temple prostitutes, male and female.
And to go into them was to worship their gods and to commune with their gods. That is why when they came to Jesus Christ, continued immoral behavior was a problem. It was a stronghold that many of the people in the early church needed to overcome. The apostle was aware of this. In the book of 1 Corinthians, he writes some very strong words to the believers in the church there. I'm going to read now from 1 Corinthians 6, beginning in verse 9.
He says, Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers shall inherit the kingdom of God. Let me just take a moment to say that immoral behavior is far more than sexual immorality.
Immoral behavior includes all of those things that Paul has just listed here, but because sexual immorality was such a difficult problem in that day and is today, I'm focusing on that particular immoral behavior. Now Paul goes on to say regarding these believers, and such were some of you. In other words, the believers in the Corinthian church were involved in the kinds of sins that he has just talked about.
But you were washed, you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God. And so he affirms the fact that Jesus Christ had done a genuine work in their lives. But he had heard some disturbing news. Apparently some of them were reverting back to the old patterns. And so he says in verse 15, do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot?
May it never be. Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a harlot is one body with her? For he says the two shall become one flesh, but the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with him. Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God and that you are not your own?
For you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body. The sexual immorality that obviously had overtaken many Christians in Corinth and in other New Testament churches has emerged again in the last part of the 20th century as a major problem in the contemporary Western church.
In fact, surveys that are done by both secular and Christian organizations indicate that the practice, the behavior of people who profess to be Christians is not much different with regards to sex than people who are in the world. That's how much of a problem it is. Now, if this is not currently a stronghold in your life, then praise God.
But for many people who are sitting in this auditorium this morning, we're dressed up in suits looking nice on the outside, on the inside, we struggle with strongholds. And one of them, faced by people right here in our midst whom we love, is a stronghold of sexual immorality. And it's no wonder our culture is permeated with sexual innuendo and permissiveness. The concept of moral right and wrong is no longer acceptable in our society.
If you declare yourself in those kinds of terms, you are accused of setting yourself up as a judge of others. It's tragic. That kind of language is no longer acceptable in our classrooms. Our children are not being taught right and wrong with regards to morality. Problem has swept over our society and the result is destruction.
Likewise, in our culture today, advertising and entertainment shamelessly exploit sensual themes and images to the point that you wonder sometimes what are these people really trying to sell. This is not a modern phenomenon that we are facing today, but neither is it an acceptable practice. It is not any more right for us who name the name of Jesus Christ to live immoral lives today than it was when the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians. Why is it that this kind of living is wrong?
Why is it not acceptable? There are many, including some in so-called churches, who would condemn what I am saying to you this morning, who embrace or at least excuse immoral living of various sorts and perversions. But why is this lifestyle of immorality, whether heterosexual or homosexual or other sorts of perversions, why is it not acceptable among those who name the name of Jesus Christ? Well, there are several reasons and they ought to be obvious to all of us.
First of all, this kind of behavior disobeys God's law. God's law exposes and reveals His character. In His law, He tells us of His moral expectations for His creatures. To break the law is to transgress. What God's character says is right. Not only does God tell us in the law how we ought to behave because of His character, but because of His concern, His concern for us. The fact is that if we obey His moral laws, we have happier and healthier lives.
It is for our own good that God establishes the standards He does as well as to reveal His character. To live otherwise is a violation of God, our Creator. Secondly, it's not acceptable because it denies Christ's work. Paul says to these believers, you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You claim the work at Calvary. You say His blood was shed for your sins. You say you are filled with the Holy Spirit of God. So He says flee immorality.
Flee from it. Have nothing to do with it because it denies Christ's work in your life. Third, it defiles the Spirit's temple. The Holy Spirit dwells within us and our bodies as frail as they are made of dust, our bodies nonetheless contain the Spirit of God, not in a limiting sense, but in a presence sense. He is within us. That is not some theory or idea or notion. It's a reality. The Holy Spirit lives in our bodies.
And so He says if we're involved in immorality, it defiles the Spirit's temple. Another reason that this kind of behavior is unacceptable in the church is because it disgraces the church's witness. Back in the fifth chapter of this very book, the apostle Paul writes to them about a specific case, a man who was living openly in an immoral way, in such a way that even the Gentiles held their noses at what he was doing. Even the pagans thought this was terrible.
Apparently the church in some sense embraced him and said, well, that's okay. They thought it was all right for him to live that way. And Paul sternly tells them that it's destroying their witness. And so he says that man must be purged from your midst. He commands them to discipline him and put him out of the fellowship. Church discipline was important and its goal was then that that man might repent of his sin and be brought back and restored.
And according to the second Corinthian letter in the New Testament, that's exactly what happened. Immorality disgraces the church's witness. And fifth, immorality can draw demonic participation. There is a classification of demons called unclean spirits. Now it's not really that any of them are clean. They're all defiled by the rebellion against God. But unclean spirits are unclean in a sexual way.
There's a certain category of spirits that are drawn toward people who are living immorally in order to influence them to gain a beachhead in their lives and then take control of their minds and their bodies. And they do. They do. So it is unacceptable, even dangerous, to live immorally, to allow that stronghold to be established in one's life because it draws demons. When immoral behavior is engaged in and not repented of, it can become a stronghold that would destroy one's life.
It has now become a stronghold overnight. It's when that kind of thinking is allowed to control to the point that it begins to be acted out. And in the acting out of those immoral thoughts, there is a pattern of activity that is established and control is gained. And then it's a stronghold. It is not acceptable in the church of Jesus Christ. It is not acceptable in the testimony of one who is a Christian to be also immoral.
We are to guard ourselves against immoral behavior, not just against because it's a sin against the body. It is that. But because it damages the soul, as Peter tells us, beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Friend of mine was sharing recently, actually in a group meeting, very transparently, that in his work a woman had come and when he first saw her there was this spark of attraction.
He called it a window that opened in his life. This is a very happily married man. He's a godly man, father of several children. But when he saw this woman and they looked at each other, there's something happened. There was chemistry there that was evident to him immediately. And though he had never experienced a lot of sexual temptation in his adulthood, suddenly this window was there and it was before him every time that he ran into her.
He did a very brave thing in sharing it with us and we together prayed for him and he repented of any thoughts where he had entertained fantasies and opened himself up to us as a group to be accountable so that we have the privilege of asking him, how's it going? Then that day what he really did was to shut that window. Now he can go back and make the mistake of opening it again.
The point is though that he shut the window that day as an act of his will and I'm talking to some folks right here now who have windows like that in your life. And so often it happens at the workplace. And too often it begins as friends, as one person who's having trouble in his or her marriage and there's sympathy and so there's talk about it over coffee and before long those kinds of conversations turn to more and a window of lust opens up.
If that's something you're facing today, I plead with you to go to your spouse first and to say honey there's something I need to share with you. It's very hard for me to do it. I want you to know I've done nothing wrong but here is what I'm facing. Here's the temptation. You know what you'll do? People slam that window so fast. Now in a moment of weakness you can go back and pry it open again. You've got to guard yourself.
But that window is especially alluring as long as it's private, as long as nobody else knows, sharing it with your spouse, sharing it with a trusted friend is the best way in the world to shut the window of temptation toward immorality. But I'm also speaking undoubtedly to some in whom this is a stronghold. It's not just a temptation. There has been a yielding to temptation. There has been the establishment of control in your life.
There is ground that belongs to Jesus Christ that he is not lord of in your sexuality. Maybe it involves pornography or self abuse or some unhealthy attraction or relationship. How do you pull down a stronghold? We go back to the same three statements that we used last week. Discover what is true. I tell you at the base of the stronghold of immorality are so many lies, so many lies. Let's think of a couple of statements of truth and there are many others.
First of all, statement number one, what is true is this. Immorality is a good gift from God. Have you ever prayed in your life, oh God, take this away from me? I've prayed that before. That was a stupid prayer. Why? Because that's part of being human, to be sexual. We're asking God to make us less than human if we ask God to take that drive away from us. To ask God to do that indicates that we think it's wrong, that it's dirty and it's not. It is not evil. It is not immoral to be sexual.
Our sexual drive is a powerful creative energy given to us by God for enjoyment, for blessing and for the oneness of marriage. I tell you it's great. Discover what is true, that sexuality is a good gift from God. Don't believe a lie about that. Secondly, sexual control results in freedom. That's the opposite of what the world says. The world says if you want to really be free, then just go out and do what you want to do. Don't worry about control.
But it is sexual control that results in freedom. That's the truth. Freedom from disease, freedom from wrong associations, freedom from guilt, freedom from memories that haunt the mind, sexual control results in freedom. It gives you the freedom to present yourself to your spouse without any regrets. Sexual control means that you don't have to live in bondage. It results in freedom. Thirdly, what is true is that the Holy Spirit enables your will to be strong.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, da-da-da-da, and at the end comes what? Self control. Self control. We do not have to live as victims of our drives. God wants us to be victors in life. He does not want us to be helpless prisoners of our sensual appetites, even the good ones He's given to us. He wants us to experience self control, and when you and I exercise our will and live in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, we can know consistent self control.
I wish it meant that we could be sinless. It doesn't mean that, but it does mean that we can know consistent self control. After you've discovered the truth, choose to act on it. Determine ahead of time that you will obey God and preserve yourself.
This last week, the Southern Baptists held their convention down in Orlando, and one whole day around that convention center, there were 150,000 individual commitment cards signed by Southern Baptist teens promising to wait, to enjoy sexuality in marriage, promising to wait.
Later this month, when DC 94 occurs in Washington, they are going to plant a million of these cards on the Capitol Mall to testify to those people in our leadership in this nation, including the Surgeon General, who believe that somehow we are victims, helpless victims of an animalistic drive. A million cards from teenagers who say, I choose to wait. What a great thing. If temptation arises at work, choose ahead of time how you're going to respond to it. Choose to act on the truth.
Enjoy God's order of marriage. That's another way of doing it. Cultivate the intimacies of your marriage. Save yourself for the one you promised to love and honor. Act on it. Choose to act on it. Flee from temptation. Avoid sexually stimulating and seductive situations. Do not allow yourself fantasies. Do not play with temptation in your mind. Live with no secrets. Establish barriers and walls around you. Decide now that you will not yield should the temptation come.
I was in graduate school this last week in Chicago and one of my profs, he walked by himself down through Chicago late one night just to get a feel for what's happening in the city. And while he was on this walk, he was propositioned. Sometimes temptation comes when you may not expect it. Decide ahead of time what you will do when that moment comes to say no. Third wield your weapons. Pray. Pray what Jesus taught us to pray. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil.
Ask God to make you a Joseph to deliver you from being a Samson. Use his word and graft it into your heart, its teachings, its warnings. Jesus responded to temptation. It is written, Psalm 119 says, how can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to thy word. With all my heart I have sought thee. Do not let me wonder from thy commandments. Thy word I have treasured in my heart that I might not sin against thee. And then fellowship, another powerful weapon to wield.
Allow yourself to be transparent with another or with others. Be responsible to each other in your group for asking honest, personal, probing questions. You cannot afford not to do that, my friend. And gentlemen, I speak especially to you because I understand your problem. I don't understand the temptation of women in this area because I ain't one. I know it's real. But I can speak to you men because I'm a man that we need to wield our weapons well.
We cannot afford to lay our weapons down and be casual in the spiritual warfare of our culture. Sometimes it helps us to face our strongholds if we take a long, hard look at the consequences of strongholds, if they remain unchallenged. Let me just read to you some thoughts from Charles Swindoll as to the consequences of this kind of a stronghold. Where we fall into immorality, the consequences include the total devastation that your sinful actions will bring to your children.
Their growth, innocence, trust, and healthy outlook on life will be severely and permanently damaged. The consequence of the embarrassment of facing other Christians who once appreciated you, respected you, and trusted you. The consequence if you're engaged in the Lord's work of suffering the immediate loss of your job and the support of those with whom you've worked. The consequence of disillusionment and anger which will spread rapidly among those to whom you once ministered.
The consequence that your fall will give others the license to do the same following your example. The consequence that your mates will immediately, most probably, be isolated by those who once stood near. That's not the way it ought to be, but that's the facts of life. The consequence of inner peace that you enjoyed will be gone. The consequence that you will set in motion a generational chain reaction that you won't be able to stop no matter how hard you try.
The consequence of the heartache that you will cause your parents, your family, your peers, your mentors. The consequence that you will never be able to erase the fall from your mind or from the mind of others. It's the name of Jesus Christ who will be tarnished, giving his enemies reason to sneer. The consequence that your mate will feel betrayed and can never again say that you're a model of fidelity. Suspicion will rob him or her of your trust.
The consequence that your escapades will introduce to your life and to your mate's life the very real probability of a sexually transmitted disease. We could go on. There's no need to. The consequences of sexual immorality are so clear. The advantages of doing what God tells us to do so clear. How can any of us, realizing that we have a stronghold of sexual behavior and immoral behavior in our lives, how could any of us look at that stronghold and not say, let me at it?
I will not allow that stronghold to remain. I will not allow that stronghold to destroy me, my family, and disgrace Christ. I will not allow that stronghold to open me up to the control of demons. The grace of God, that stronghold is coming down. Let's pray. This is a heavy duty stronghold. I understand that. It's a very personal and private stronghold. I know that too. But oh my friend, you dare not ignore what I've talked about this morning.
If it's not a stronghold in your life, then breathe a prayer of thanks to God, but don't let your guard down. If it is a stronghold, will you determine by God's grace to be at it today? To plan your attack, use your spiritual weapons, choose to act upon the truth. And God promises that that stronghold will eventually collapse, and your thoughts will be brought to the obedience of Christ.
Oh God, our Father, today may we attack with every bit of power that you would give us, this stronghold of immoral behavior, as it may exist in our lives. Let us never be content with it, compromise with it, excuse it, but rather destroy it with our spiritual weapons. Search our hearts, oh God. Find within us any wicked way, and forgive us, and establish our feet in the everlasting way. In Jesus' name, amen.