IT MATTERS WHAT YOU BELIEVE | Spiritual Freedom | Why Am I Still Struggling with the Same Sin

Welcome and Community Reflection

Welcome to church. Real quick, we're going to pray, and then we'll get started. But before we do that, I just want to say how awesome it is for me to be here and to be around y'all. I've most recently been thinking about and—hopefully, if I embarrass Bob a little, I don't mind—I was thinking about and reflecting this week about Bob and Diane, who just celebrated their anniversary. They're on their way to 60 years. That's so awesome to me because I'm only 26 years married this year, and I think about how long it's been. Then I think about being in shape and getting to 60 years—what a blessing that would be. It's encouraging to see people who are making it and are healthy and vibrant. It's meaningful just to be in community and to see each other. I don't know if Bob and Diane realize how much of a difference they make to me individually, but all of you matter in my life, and I'm grateful for you.

Opening Prayer

Let's pray. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for the gift of Your Word, and as always, thank you for the gift of Your body, Lord, specifically the examples for us. Help us to celebrate when people celebrate and to grieve when people grieve. Lord, for those who have family members who are looking at hospice, and for those who have family members who are unwell, or maybe we in our own physical bodies are unwell, Lord, we ask for Your intervention. We ask that You would heal. We ask that You would bring peace while we wait for the healing, and we ask for Your goodness to invade, that Your light would come into the places where it's dark in our lives and where it's dark in our community. Lord, I want to give You this time. I want to ask You, Holy Spirit, to come and speak and teach us as Jesus said You would. We're confident that You will come. We're going to pray that the things that are of us, or the kingdom of darkness, or those things which do not exist in this place, would have no place and that Your Word would go forth clearly. We're going to pray that what's of You would remain and what's of us would fade, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Series Context: Spiritual Warfare and Responsibility

All right, so there's a ton of context for today's message. If you have not had the opportunity, or if you have forgotten, there's a message on healing about where sickness comes from. That will probably be valuable context for this. Then the last two weeks: two weeks ago, we talked about how Jesus already won over the kingdom of darkness, and then last week, we talked about some of our own responsibility—what's in our life, what are we doing, and what's going on. This week, the Lord willing and the creek don't rise, we'll finish our series on spiritual warfare and then move on to baptism next week.

The Goal of Jesus: Freedom and Setting Captives Free

What I want to talk about this week is there are a couple of different terms and things. If you start looking up things about demons and Christians, you'll see things like deliverance ministry, inner healing ministry, truth encounters, or power encounters. You start to see all of these parts and pieces and it can become really overwhelming. Then you see nonsensical things, like Greg Locke's movie, Come Out In Jesus Name. If you have watched that, that's a great example of somebody who's not qualified to be leading and is just trying to make money. That guy has no qualifications for being a pastor or a leader of any kind. If you're watching his stuff, a lot of it is just show.

How do I know that? How can I say that with such confidence? We're going to talk about that some today. It's not that I don't believe in deliverance, or inner healing, or breaking the enemy's hold on our life—I believe in all of that stuff. But I like to think about it this way: when I worked in a retail store and we would teach new cashiers to be aware of counterfeit money, we didn't show them all the different ways that someone created counterfeit money. We just showed them what a real dollar looks like and we said if it doesn't look like this, then it's wrong.

A lot of times what happens is we look in the Bible and we don't see a step-by-step, like "five points to deliverance," "seven steps to inner healing," or "three steps to have a power encounter with the devil". Because of that, we start to make stuff up. But I think if we take one step back, we do see something that Jesus is interested in all the time. It shows up in the Old Testament and it shows up all through the New Testament. What I would like to suggest is that it's less about deliverance, inner healing, physical healing, or all this other stuff, and it's more about the fact that Jesus came to set the captives free. If we just zoom out and look down from a little bit different perspective, what we can see is that the goal of Jesus is freedom in our lives.

Isaiah 61 and Psalm 147: The Promise of Healing

First, let's talk about the comment I made that Jesus was interested in freedom. Let's take a look at that in Isaiah 61. Jesus quotes this in Luke chapter 4, but I want to read the Isaiah passage. One reason is because—and I'm not saying we would think this—but it would be easy for someone to say, "Yeah, but Jesus came and He changed everything". It's true that Jesus says at the Passover, "This cup is the new covenant of my blood," so certainly there's a new covenant, but God always had these plans.

Isaiah 61:1 says: "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed". He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord's favor has come, and with it the day of God's anger against their enemies. To all who mourn in Israel, He will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for His own glory.

Let's also read Psalm 147:1: "Praise the Lord. How good to sing praises to our God, how delightful and how fitting". The Lord is rebuilding Jerusalem and bringing the exiles back to Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds. He counts the stars and He calls them all by name. How great is our Lord; His power is absolute. His understanding is beyond comprehension. The Lord supports the humble, but He brings the wicked down into the dust.

Confronting the Enemy's Grip: Fighting vs. Carrying

In both cases in these Old Testament passages, we see that the Lord cares for us. He sets us free and He's opposed to His enemies, which is where His enemies become our enemies. If we're struggling as Christians—maybe we've walked with God since we were five, or maybe we've walked with God for the last five minutes—there's a chance that either through actions of our own or actions of other people, there's some effect of the devil in our life. The level of grip that the devil has on us is directly related to how much we tolerate that grip.

There's a story from a church here in town of a young man who comes to a preacher and says, "Hey, I'm really struggling with sexual immorality, pornography, and all these things, and I want to battle against it. I want deliverance". The preacher asks, "How are you accessing this?" The young man says, "On my phone." The preacher says, "Where is your phone?" He takes it out of his pocket, and the preacher says, "Brother, you're not fighting, you're carrying it".

What is happening in our lives that we say we're fighting because it makes us feel good to say it, but really we're just carrying it along with us?. We have to constantly war against those things, which is why we talked about Ephesians 6 last week. Going into a conversation about freedom, could you go to a conference, get prayed for, and get delivered? Yes, all those things are true. But what about the rest of it? That's just a small piece. If I'm talking about being free from the enemy and free in my heart and mind, having a situation where I feel like a demon is being cast off of me is great, but didn't Jesus say that you could have seven more demons come in if you don't clean up the house?.

Three Approaches to Freedom: Inner Healing, Truth, and Power

There are three things I want to talk about: inner healing, what Neil Anderson calls a "truth encounter," and what John Wimber or someone else coined as a "power encounter" where God's power interacts with my life and the devil is driven out. The reason all this stuff starts to get muddy is because all of those work together; they're not three individual things. You probably will always need at least two, but maybe three.

The Authority of Truth in Romans 12

Let's talk about how these show up in the Bible, starting with Romans 12. Here is the premise, and I believe it's true, but it does not stand alone: if I interact with the truth, I will be free. Doesn't the Bible say, "You'll know the truth and the truth will set you free"? Yes, that's true. If the Bible appears to say two different things, can both be true at once?. When the Bible says God loves the whole world and also that God loves you individually, they don't have to disagree; they can both be true. Similarly, if it says "the truth will set you free" and "Jesus comes to set the captives free," both can exist without being opposed to each other.

Renewal of the Mind and the Truth

So in Romans 12, I'll read starting in verse one. It says: "And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect."

There are two things I want to point out here. First, how do we get transformed? It says we are transformed by the renewal of our mind. This is why we speak about the "truth encounter." If I have believed a lie for 20 years—for instance, if I grew up in a household where I was told I was worthless and would never amount to anything—that thought becomes a "fortress" in my mind. If I carry that thought into my relationship with God, I will view God through the lens of that lie. I will believe that God thinks I am worthless.

When we talk about a truth encounter, we are talking about taking that lie and holding it up against the light of God’s Word. When the Word of God says, "You are fearfully and wonderfully made" or "I have plans for you, to prosper you and not to harm you," and I choose to believe that truth over the lie, a transformation happens. My mind is renewed. This is a foundational part of freedom.

Pulling Down Strongholds

In 2 Corinthians 10, Paul talks about our weapons of warfare. He says, "We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments."

What is a stronghold? In the context of the Bible and spiritual warfare, a stronghold is a "base of operations" for the enemy. It is a place where a lie has been accepted as truth for so long that it has built a wall around itself. It becomes a lens through which you see the world. If you have a stronghold of fear, you will see every situation as a threat. If you have a stronghold of rejection, you will see every comment as an insult.

Paul says we destroy these by "taking every thought captive to obey Christ." This is active. It is not passive. It means when a thought enters your mind that is contrary to the character of God or the Word of God, you arrest it. You say, "No, that thought is a lie. This is what God says." That is how you pull down a stronghold.

Inner Healing: Binding the Brokenhearted

Often, strongholds are built on top of wounds. This is where "inner healing" comes in. As we read in Isaiah 61 and Psalm 147, Jesus came to "bind up the brokenhearted."

Think of it this way: if you have a splinter in your hand and you don't take it out, the skin will grow over it, but it will get infected. You might try to put a bandage on it or take some aspirin for the pain, but until you open that wound and pull the splinter out, it will never truly heal. Inner healing is the process of inviting the Holy Spirit into those painful memories or past traumas and asking Him to remove the "splinter"—the lie or the pain associated with it—and then letting Him heal the wound.

Sometimes, people try to get "deliverance" (casting out a demon) without doing the "inner healing" (healing the wound). But if the wound is still there, it's like having a pile of garbage in your house. You can swat the flies away all day long, but if you don't take out the trash, the flies are going to keep coming back. Inner healing removes the "garbage" so the enemy no longer has a place to land.

The Seven Steps to Freedom

I want to look at specific areas where we often give the enemy a "legal right" to interfere in our lives. I’m referencing a list often used in Neil Anderson’s "Steps to Freedom in Christ" because it covers the biblical bases well:

1. Occultic Involvement: If you have participated in things like horoscopes, tarot cards, Ouija boards, or seeking spiritual power through New Age practices, you have opened a door. Even if it was "just for fun," you were seeking spiritual guidance from a source other than God. You must repent and close that door.

2. Deception: This is about the lies we believe about God and ourselves. We must choose to believe the truth of Scripture.

3. Bitterness and Unforgiveness: This is one of the largest hooks the enemy has. Unforgiveness is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. When you refuse to forgive, you are literally giving the enemy a place to torment you. Forgiveness is not a feeling; it is a decision to release that person to God.

4. Rebellion: A refusal to submit to God’s authority or the authorities He has placed in our lives opens us up to the enemy’s influence.

5. Pride: The Bible says God opposes the proud. If God is opposing you because of your pride, you are standing in a very dangerous place.

6. Habitual Sin: If you are living in a pattern of secret or unrepentant sin, you are providing "ground" for the enemy to stand on.

7. Ancestral Sins: We see patterns of sin in families—things like addiction, anger, or divorce that seem to pass from generation to generation. While you aren't "guilty" for your grandfather’s sin, you may be living with the consequences. You have the authority in Jesus to break that cycle.

The Warning of the Empty House

Jesus gave a warning about a person who is delivered from an unclean spirit. The spirit goes out, finds no rest, and returns to find the house swept and put in order, but empty. It then brings back seven other spirits more wicked than itself. The point is this: it is not enough to be empty of the bad; you must be filled with the Good. You must be filled with the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. This is why community, church, and daily devotion are not just religious chores. They are the process of filling your house so that when the enemy knocks, there is no room for him to move back in.

Fighting vs. Carrying

Some of you today need to stop carrying your phone, your habits, or your bitterness. You need to lay them down and say, "I am done giving the enemy a place in my life." If you say you are fighting but you keep the source of the temptation in your front pocket, you aren't fighting; you are accommodating the enemy. We have to be willing to make the hard choices to remove the things that give the enemy access to our hearts and minds.

Closing Prayer

We’re going to pray. As we pray, I want you to ask the Holy Spirit to highlight one area—just one—where you have been carrying something instead of fighting it.

Father, thank You that You are the Great Physician. You don't just see our symptoms; You see our hearts. We ask that You would lead us into all truth today. For those here who are struggling with mental strongholds, I pray that the power of Your Word would demolish those walls right now. We choose to forgive those who have hurt us. We choose to lay down our pride and our rebellion. We choose to be filled with Your Spirit and Your Word.

Lord, in those broken places of our hearts, just as the Bible says in Isaiah and in Psalms, bind up the brokenhearted. Watch over us, care for us, and look after us. Even as Psalm 23 says, care for us like a good shepherd cares for his sheep. Lord, You do it because of who You are, not because of who we are, because Your covenant is with Your people to love us and look over us.

Lord, I pray for my friends here. I pray that as we leave this place, we would not just be people who heard a message, but people who walk in the freedom that Jesus bought for us. Help us to clean our houses and fill them with Your presence. We give You all the glory and the honor. In Jesus' name, Amen.