Strongholds Pt 1.

2 Corinthians 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.

Thayer Definition: Stronghold
1) a castle, stronghold, fortress, fastness
2) anything on which one relies
3) of the arguments and reasonings by which a disputant endeavours to fortify his opinion and defend it against his opponent.

There are strongholds in every person’s life and in every church. You might not recognize them in your life until you attempt to remove them and realize how deep the roots run.
In the personal lives of Christians, there are strongholds like food, smoking, television, sports, gambling, drinking et.al
In themselves, they may not be inherently sinful. Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man. But Jesus gives us the principle very clearly by teaching us that anything we place before God is an idol and that 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD OF GOD.'
In churches there are strongholds. The most pronounced one being an unregenerate congregation. People are just not born again. The gospel is preached and people continue in their sins and wonder why the pastor doesn’t move on to something, “more applicable.” Other strongholds in churches are the love of money, love of the world, idolatry, hypocrisy, and pride. Many of which stem from stronghold #1 – “Such were some of you, but now you are washed…”
At various times we attack these strongholds in our own life. We have a solid concrete structure (strong hold) and we get so sick of it dominating our lives that we seek to destroy it. So we get out a huge sledge hammer and we take a mighty swing at it. Only to realize that it barely made a mark and now our back hurts. We begin to reason amongst ourselves that even if we do smash it, it will make such a terrible mess and rebuild itself anyway (Luke 11:26 Then 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 we quit, and have a treadmill drying laundry in the basement, a gym membership we have to pay on but never use, and now we are smoking more than before we tried to quit… Strongholds.