May 16, 2016 · 3:34 pm

What Is Grace?

Peninsula Community Church

What Is Grace? 

May 15, 2016

This morning I would like to look at the subject of what is grace. We talk about grace. We sing about grace. We read about grace but what is grace really. Let’s read this passage together.

Ephesians 2:4-10 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

What a powerful scripture. As we begin I ask that you notice a couple of things about this passage. First, God who is rich in mercy did not give us what we deserve. You see we deserved death. Because of our sin we deserved the penalty that was laid upon the back of Christ. Instead of the penalty of death, through mercy we received life. Secondly, notice that Paul says that we are saved by grace. Through mercy we did not receive what we deserved and through grace we received what we did not deserve. But notice a third thing in this passage, it takes faith to believe that Christ has given us eternal life. This acceptance is not because we deserve it but it is just the opposite. We did not deserve it but because of Christ’s love for us He has saved us. That is Paul’s message to us.

To fully understand grace let us look at three distinctive qualities found in grace. First of all grace is unmerited. Paul stated that “It is by grace that we are saved and not by our works.” I heard Robert Morris, senior pastor of Gateway church, tell the story of a pastor who was questioned about what grace is. After the pastor thought for some time he described grace like being in a row boat. He described the boat itself as grace and the river as being life. He described the Christian life as placing the oars into one’s hands and then rowing like crazy against the current of life. If successful and if he maintained his strength he believed he would make it to the end and he would receive his reward. But here is the problem. Being fully dependent on the one doing the rowing is tiring, exasperating, and not very joyous. The pastor’s idea was that if he was good enough and strong enough he would make it to the end but that is so far from the truth. And that is certainly not grace. We cannot work for grace and we cannot work to maintain grace.

The second observation about grace is that it is undeserved. Look at what Paul had to say in Romans 3:24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus… We must understand that our sin disqualified us for redemption because our sin had separated us from a holy God. But because of God’s grace the very thing we did not deserve God gave us. We deserved death but God gave us life. He gave us life regardless of what we have done. The grace of God is not measured by our sin but by His gift of love.

The third aspect of grace is that it is unearned. Romans 11:6 And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work. Please note this, there is a big difference between free and earned. If it is free then it is not earned and if it is earned then it cannot be free. It is either or but it cannot be both. Can you imagine getting a birthday gift and the person giving you the gift saying here is my gift but I need $89.52? That is not grace.

To understand grace we need to understand the meaning of the Greek word for “grace.” The word is CHARIS. Before CHARIS was used by the Christian community the word originally was used by the Greek culture. The word represented a superior who gave a gift to one that is inferior. We would assume that there were two people involved but in the Greek culture there were often three people involved. The first person was the one providing the gift. The second person is the one receiving the gift. The third person was the broker. The role of the broker was to survey the needs of the community and then approach those with the ability to give to satisfy the need. The gift giver would be asked to donate or provide for the need. But here is the amazing thing. While the broker would connect the patron and the client together, it was the broker who paid for the gift. Imagine with me for a moment as we apply this spiritually. God was the one with a great gift of grace to give. But grace was beyond our ability to pay. So Christ brought us together with God and as the third party Christ paid the price with His life. He connected us to God through grace and He paid the price. That is unearned grace.

So what is grace? Grace is the dimension of divine activity that enables God to confront human indifference and rebellion with an inexhaustible capacity to forgive and to bless. Grace is the divine activity of God enabling humankind with an inexhaustible capacity to forgive and bless. How powerful is that? His love and forgiveness is tireless and beyond measure. This means that there is no sin or wrong that is too big to be covered by God’s grace. That is grace.

While we see what grace is let me give you a couple of things that grace is not. First of all grace does not negate the law. The law was given to show us sin and to bring Godly conviction when we disobey God’s purpose or plan. The problem with the law is that we can be deceived into believing that we are followers of Christ by keeping the rules. We are deceived into believing that a good relationship with Christ is based on what we do or what we do not do. The result is that we feel that by keeping the rules we are accepted and loved by God. Grace however speaks to who I am and not what I do. Through grace the law is actually fulfilled and here is why. It is much easier to follow the rules when we are in a relationship where we are given love unconditionally. Through grace we know that we are accepted by Christ and I am more about being than doing. I keep the law because I am righteous and I am whole, not because I have to, that I want to be accepted by God, or that I want to be loved more by Him.

This brings me to the second the concept. Grace is not a license to do whatever we want to do. The argument against a grace teaching often centers on the idea that there is an emphasis on giving people a license to sin or do whatever they want. Paul addressed this in Romans 5:19-21-6:4. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Many of the Romans believed that because of grace they were free to do whatever they wanted to do. The word here for “increased” speaks of sin growing larger and being more expansive with the passing of time. This describes the growing nature of unrestrained sin. So Paul is not saying that we should sin more so that grace is expanded but rather true grace frees us from sin. Because of the Roman view on grace Paul continues in Romans 6 by asking if we should continue in sin so that grace would abound. While grace covers sin and produces righteousness in us we do not sin more so that grace is revealed more. That is circular thinking and is an error. Here is the fact. Grace covers sin but more sin does not increase the value of grace. No! Grace is a free gift of God so what we do or don’t do never impacts grace. Grace is grace because it is a free gift.

John Piper made this observation about sin and grace. No matter how deep in the power of sin we have sunk, God’s grace is deeper still. No matter how deep into the power of sin we have sunk in the rebelliousness of our lives, Christ’s grace abounded all the more in order that righteousness, rather than sin and life, rather than death, might have the final word.

Grace does not remove our responsibility. We must receive the gift of grace. The action we are to take is to receive God’s gift. God is offering a free gift that has been paid in full by Christ’s death and resurrection. While it is free we must receive the gift that He is giving. And then we must apply the work of grace into our life. We can try to obey all of the law and keep all of the rules so we feel accepted or we can receive His grace which covers all of sin and removes the guilt of striving to be loved and accepted. How freeing grace is? How freeing it is to know His love?

For an audio of this message go to http://pccministry.org/media.php?pageID=14

Copyright © 2016 All Rights Reserved Robert W. Odom

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May 9, 2016 · 7:41 am

Moses’ Mom: A Story of Faith and Courage

Peninsula Community Church

May 8, 2016

Moses’ Mom: A Story of Faith and Courage

Exodus 2:1-4 Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him.

Today is Mothers Day! What a great day to celebrate all that mothers do and who they are as a person. In preparing for this message I looked at a number of mothers in the Bible but I was especially moved by the story of Moses’ mom. We will see that she was a mother who had great faith and trust in God’s plan for her life and the life of her son. We will also see that her faith was tested and her trust in God was certainly stretched.

The story of Moses is a compelling story of a mother’s love, her trust in God, and her faith in God’s story being written for her and for her son. She trusted and loved God in the midst of some very difficult situations. She did this against all odds. She lived in a time where Pharaoh, the leader of Egypt, had made an edict that all boys born to Hebrew families were to be killed. His motivation was out of fear that the children of Israel were growing so fast that if Egypt were to go to war they might side with the enemies of Egypt.

To understand this we must go back about 350 years or so before the story before us today was written. If you remember, Joseph had been sold into slavery which led his family to move to Egypt. This eventually led the children of Israel into captivity to the Egyptians. For thirty plus years Israel and Egypt had a great relationship. But once Joseph had died and a new Pharaoh was raised to power the cordial relationship soon turned to one that was antagonistic. Listen to what Moses wrote about this. Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens (Exodus 1:8-11).

The more time that past Pharaoh began to put his thumb on them more and more. But the reality is that while they were under the thumb of Pharaoh they were still in the hand of God and God had a greater plan for them. For 300 plus years Israel suffered the suppressive demonic strangulation by the Egyptians. Their plight was so rough they began to cry out for a deliverer. They wanted, they needed a deliverer that could stand against the power of Pharaoh. While things seem bleak, God was at work and He was orchestrating and He was writing Israel’s story.

This is where we pick up our story for today. We find that Moses is born to two loving parents who knew God and served God graciously and magnificently. Little did they know that this little boy would be a great leader. But the odds were against him. With that said let me make a few observations about this story and let me make a few key points that will help us when the world seems to be against us as well.

First of all Moses’ mom was specifically chosen for the task of raising Moses. God purposely placed Moses into her hands. He saw something in her that qualified her for the task. He saw her faith and her trust in God. It is noteworthy that she did not know the story that God was writing. She did not know that he was to be the leader of Israel. She did not know that he would be the deliverer of her people. Never in her wildest dreams did she imagine that he would be the one that God was going to use in such powerful ways.

This morning I want you to know something very special. You have been chosen as the mother of your children. God saw something in you that qualified you for this great task. You may not always feel it nor will you always believe it but it is true. You have been called to nurture, protect, and disciple those who have been given to you. You are called to be a mother and your children have been chosen by God to be your children.

Secondly, Moses’ mom chose life over her child being killed. Moses’ mom was definitely pro-life. She could have chosen to take the child and have him killed at birth. This would have been the easy thing to do but she chose life. Rather than follow the law of man she followed the law of God. She knew that He would protect them. She knew that He had a plan. Some of you here today against great odds have chosen life and that is honorable. For some, the events leading up to the birth of your child may not have been the best but you chose life and that is commendable and it is to be honored.

Let me make a side note here. I am aware that some have made the decision to abort a child but God wants you to know that there is grace and forgiveness at the cross. There is hope for you and it begins by forgiving yourself as God has forgiven you. Too often we allow the guilt of a past decision to rule our lives in the present.

Thirdly, in this story her name is omitted. It is interesting that God chose not to reveal her name here. Sometimes we feel that we have lost our identity but God never forgets us because He calls us by name. Let me ask you “Do you ever feel that you are not recognized for what you do as a mom?” “Do you ever feel that you are just a shadow in your home?” “Do you feel under appreciated?” “Do you feel that you have lost your identity as a person?”

I do not know if this ever happened to you but as my kids got older I was no longer Bob Odom but I was Kate and Joshua’s dad. I lost my identity. But let me remind you that though you feel that you have lost your identity, God knows you and God knows you by name. The fact is she had a name and it was Jochebed. The name Jochebed means “Jehovah is glorious.” She lived up to her name as she was one who trusted Jehovah no matter what the circumstances of life might bring or what the leaders of Egypt required. She trusted in God because He was God.

Fourthly, Moses’ mom had a courageous faith. Even under difficult odds she walked in faith. She trusted God. After all the edict to have the new born males killed had been pronounced before she became pregnant with Moses. When Moses was born rather than have him killed she hid him until he was over three months old. Can you imagine the fear and the stress she experienced every day? I am sure that she would worry everyday that the door of her home would be opened and in would walk the Egyptian police to arrest her and to kill her son. Even with her fear she still trusted God. Her faith in God was stronger than the fear of the edict that had been made.

Finally, she put her faith into action. This is most vividly seen in the steps that she took. After hiding Moses for three months, she took a basket and place insulation around it so it would be protected from the water and from the effects of the river. She placed Moses into the basket and then she walked to the Nile were she placed the basket in the bulrushes. I am sure that she had tears flowing down her face as she pushed the little ark into the water.

This was an amazing step of faith in that the river itself was a source of death. There were crocodiles and other animals in or near the water that could easily destroy him. Even today National Geographic has reported that 200 plus people are killed every year in the Nile by crocodiles alone. Not only did she worry about the crocodiles but this was also a place where the women of Egypt would come to bathe. This in itself was a threat to Moses because if the wrong person came to the water’s edge she could have had Moses killed.

It is noteworthy that the word used here for the basket is in essence the same word used for Noah’s ark. It was a place of safety and protection. When she pushed the ark into the water I believe that her faith was revealed more in what she did not do than in what she did. Notice something in this story. When she approached the water she placed the basket into the water and pushed it into the river. As I have read this story one thing stands out to me. No where in the story do I see that she tied a rope to the basket. She released the ark with her son inside to God.

This leads me to the final point I would like to make. When we walk in God’s faith and love there is a time where we have to let go and let God control the outcome of our children’s lives. She did not tie a rope to the basket because she trusted God to protect him and keep him safe. Here is the issue for us, too often as our kids grow we want to hold onto the them and try to control the outcome of their life. But as we all know there is a point that we have to push the ark into the water and let go. In letting go, we are saying that we trust God fully and completely. This does not mean that we don’t worry. Even Jochebed worried and was concerned. We see that she had her daughter stand by the river to watch over Moses. But, nonetheless she released Moses into God’s hand.

The problem too often is that we have a snapshot of our children at a certain age and that picture is them as little children. We struggle to let go because we still envision them as kids who need our guidance and our decision making prowess. In this process sometimes we try to control only what God can control. I love what Michelle says, “Control is an allusion.” And yet we live our life being controlled and trying to control others. Our faith in God is measured best when we let go of things that we cannot control anyway.

We need to know that our children will make mistakes. Too often their mistakes come as they test the boundaries that we have set for them all of their life. They test the waters because they want to make the truths they were raised with their truths. Sometimes we will find that our kids will try to do the right thing but they will do it the wrong way. They will fail but that does not mean that we are failures as parents. That is a lie from the enemy.

Finally and this is most important. God loves your children more than you ever will. This is where trust comes in. We must surrender our children to the God who loves them more than we ever could. That is what Jochebed did. She trusted God. She loved God and she loved Moses. But she had resigned in her heart that God loved Moses more than she ever could. That is why she could push the ark into the water and let go. That is faith. That is courage.

How about you this morning? Do you have enough faith to let go? Do you have enough trust in God to give your children to God? It is not easy but it is right. We can still pray for them. We can still intercede on their behalf but we still need to let go.

For an audio of this message go to http://pccministry.org/media.php?pageID=14

Copyright © 2016 All Rights Reserved Robert W. Odom

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May 2, 2016 · 10:37 am

Strongholds – The Finish

Peninsula Community Church

May 1, 2016

Strongholds – The Finish 

Ephesians 6:10-13 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

As we come to the end of this series, I trust you have been encouraged and challenged to allow God to bring change into your life. No matter where you have come from or the events that you have faced, God can bring victory to you today and for the future. The goal of this series has been to help us in our journey and in our growth in Christ. The desire from the beginning has been to assist you in knowing what strongholds might be in your life and to give you the tools you need to live as free people in Christ. While we might be wrapping up the series we will continue to discuss the freedom that is ours in Christ. This discussion will continue to be a element of every message we share.

Paul understood the need for freedom and release from the strongholds of life. He understood the work that needed to be done in a person’s life. For that reason he encouraged and challenged the church at Ephesus to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. The idea presented by the word strong is to be empowered with strength. It is a power that is resident within us. Just as in a stick of dynamite there is power but it is not revealed until the fuse is lit. We are empowered by the work of Christ in us and that power is revealed when we need it.

This morning I would like to look at nine things we can do to assure that we are dealing with the strongholds we face. I will call these the 9 R’s*. Let me say from the onset that this is not some secret formula but rather it is an ongoing process of walking and living in freedom. I would also suggest that we need to apply all of these in our life so that we are fully and completely free. Acting on a part of these would be like leaving out key parts of a building process. For example, the building process will not be what it should be if you leave off the doors and windows. Without doors and windows the thief has easy access to our home. I would also suggest that applying these nine principles separates those who want to go through the motions of life as a believer and those who mean business about their freedom. I am not sure about you but I mean business today.

The first “R” is relationship. To truly be set free we must begin with a relationship. You see the one true relationship we need more than any other is a relationship with Christ (John 1:12-13). To know Christ is to know real freedom. This is critical because we know that religious acts alone will not set us free. We know that just keeping the rules will not bring freedom. The one thing that sets us free is our personal ongoing relationship with Christ. By having a relationship with Christ we live without condemnation (Romans 8:1). I shared with you a couple of weeks ago my personal journey with the strongholds I faced and continue to face at times. I can tell you today that my life radically changed the more I found myself in relationship with Christ and I accepted the fact that I do not have to be condemned by my past.

The second “R” is recognize. We must recognize and thus admit that we have a problem. The fact is we cannot change what we do not admit to or accept as a problem. We cannot trust completely in Christ to save us until we come to some awareness that we are helplessly, hopelessly lost, and unable to save ourselves by our own good works. In this case, we must admit that we have been living with a spirit of anger, self-pity, bitterness, being wounded, guilt, regrets, abandonment, lust, and so on. We must admit that we have allowed these negative emotions to control our life and that they have reduced our effectiveness to live life to the fullest.

The third “R” is responsibility. We must then take responsibility for our actions and for allowing the strongholds to control us. By allowing these things to control us, we in essence become a servant to the stronghold. But to be free we cannot blame others. We cannot blame our circumstances. We must however take responsibility for our actions and for allowing such things to dominate our lives. Refusing to lay blame means we come to the place where we accept the need to change and begin to take a course of action to change. That brings us to the next ‘R’.

The fourth “R” is repent. It is here that we must ask for forgiveness (1 John 1:9-10). True repentance means there is a change of heart which leads to a change of action. Through repentance the heart is changed which leads us to change the way we act and the way we respond to the issues we face. By repenting we take a stand where we no longer allow these things to control us or to define us. When we take responsibility for our actions and for being controlled by false standards we will repent. Let me add one caveat here. Our repentance must be in the name of Jesus who brings life, hope, and the promise of a new day. So, what does repenting in Jesus’ Name mean for us? It means that we accept Christ’s authority and all that His name represents. In essence we are inviting the authority of Christ into our lives to assist us in overcoming the obstacles we face.

The fifth “R” is renounce. Not only do we repent but we must renounce these things so that they can no longer control our life. The term renounce is defined as to “formally declare one’s abandonment of a claim, right, or possession.” By renouncing these things in our life we are saying that we will no longer claim a right to these strongholds. We renounce their power to control us or to define us. By allowing them to continue to exist we are in essence allowing sin to dominate us. And in so doing, we will never experience full freedom.

The sixth “R” is remove. We must cast the work of the enemy from our life. How do we do this? Jesus who is our example. He spoke to the demons that existed and He commanded them to go in His name (Matthew 10:8, 12:28). We must remove the work of the enemy from our heart but we must fill it with Christ and a new way of thinking. Without doing so it will be too easy to fall back on what is natural or common for us. Without a new way of thinking or living we will be tempted to fall back to the way we use to respond or think about things. In so doing we will find ourselves trapped again.

The seventh “R” is resist. While it is important to repent, renounce, and remove these elements from our life; the fact is we can be tempted by the thing that we have dealt with. Once free we must continue to resist the enemy’s work in us because it is an ongoing battle. Continue to resist the devil and he will flee from you. Don’t give in and don’t surrender your new way of thinking to an old way of thinking. Refuse to go back to the way things were. The problem is illustrated by the Children of Israel who were delivered from Egypt and the ways of Egypt and yet they continued to want to go back to their old way of living. They desired the leeks and the garlic of Egypt more than the water of life that God was offering (Numbers 11:4-6, Exodus 14). It was a comfortable place of them as that is the place they knew and even though it was a horrible place they found comfort in that place. Don’t go back. Resist the devil’s temptation to recapture your thinking.

The eighth “R” is rejoice. We must give God praise and thanks for what He is doing and what He has done in us and through us. We praise God for our freedom and we praise God for giving us the wisdom to see that we need Him. We must give thanks for all that God has done in us and that we have the ability and the opportunity to live in freedom. The joy of the Lord is our strength and as we learn to rejoice in Him we are more likely to be free from the power of the strongholds that we face (Habakkuk 3:18-19, .

The ninth “R” is restore. We pray for restoration for ourselves but we also begin a ministry of restoration to others. We emulate the work done in our hearts and we promote the good work of Christ in others. We share what Christ has given us. Here is the beauty of this. Healed people will heal people. That is our goal and purpose. We are to experience the healing of God so that we can bring God’s healing to others.

As we close let me say this. While most of the statements that have been made today seem to imply that the success of breaking the strongholds in our lives is dependent on our actions but that could not be further from the truth. We must take advantage of the power of the Holy Spirit that is ready and willing to help us overcome. We must partner with and invite the Holy Spirit to break us free from those things that hold us bound. After all, where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty and freedom. To be free, we must invite the Holy Spirt to reside in us.

Finally, we must take action. I would like to close today by having us take a particular step toward being free and delivered. I would ask that you take one of the small sheets of paper that we are now distributing. On the page I ask that you write down one or more of the strongholds you face. After you have done that I invite you to come here to the altar and present it to God. We do this through repentance where we turn this over to God and we take steps to resist the work of the enemy in us. As you do this I ask that you go through the steps that we have shared here today. Start with your relationship with God. Recognize that you have a problem. Take responsibility for the problem and then repent, renounce, and remove that stinking thinking from your thought processes. Then once you have surrendered this to Christ continue to resist the enemy’s attempt to recapture your heart. Finally, begin a life of rejoicing and one of restoration where we celebrate what God has done and we begin to share this work with others. Are you ready? Let’s do it.

  • Adapted from Kim Karlson’s 9 “r’s” of freedom.

For an audio of this message go to http://pccministry.org/media.php?pageID=14

Copyright © 2016 All Rights Reserved Robert W. Odom

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April 24, 2016 · 7:51 pm

Strongholds – The Heart

Peninsula Community Church

Strongholds – The Heart

April 24, 2016

Jeremiah 17:9-10 – The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.

As we continue our conversation on strongholds we will focus our attention on the heart today. Spiritually the heart has been defined as the seat of our emotions. Because of this, our emotions can be an area of our life that is ripe for strongholds to be established within us. The heart is that place where the enemy of our souls negatively influences until we are controlled by unhealthy emotional responses. Today, I would like to look at the susceptibility of the heart to errant emotions. We then will look at what we can do to have a new heart.

Let’s begin with the passage before us today. Jeremiah makes a definitive statement about the heart. He states the heart is deceitful and is desperately sick. The fact is without the Holy Spirit’s intervention our hearts will remain deceitful and sick. This happens because our hearts, as the seat of our emotions, can be wounded by past actions and by the words that have been spoken to us. Most of have used the cliche “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” How many would agree that is a lie? Sticks and stones do hurt us but words also hurt us. Most of the time it is easier to heal from the wounds of the sticks and stones but it is much harder to heal from the wounds of spoken words. Why is this? It is because words go to the depths our psyche. Words wound us. Words negatively effect us.

When it comes to the heart, I would propose this morning that there are several kinds of heart we can experience and all of them can be deceitful and sick at the core. I would suggest that we can have a wounded heart. We can have a hardened heart. We can have a broken heart. And we can have a weary heart. Let’s look at these for a moment. First, the wounded heart. This is the heart that is effected by the hurtful and negative words that have been spoken into our lives or by the failures we have experienced. You know what I mean. We hear words like we are not good enough. We are a failure. We don’t deserve God’s love. We will never change. These words have the potential to wound our spirit and injure us for life. As a result, unless we change we are destined to failure and to fall short of God’s desire for us.

Secondly, is the broken heart. This comes when those we trust have let us down. The spouse we loved, left us. We lost our job. We have had bad medical news. Our children have abandoned the path we have set for them. We have been hurt by infidelity and mistrust. For others it is the loss of a loved one. Each of these create in us a broken heart and broken hearts are not so easily healed. And if they are not healed they can be the reservoir of deceit and pain as everything we do will be filtered through the broken heart. Now don’t misunderstand me please. Brokenness of heart is a real issue. I have lived it myself. I certainly do not mean to minimize any one’s pain but I am also cognizant of the fact that if we do not allow God to bring healing to us the enemy of our souls can use our brokenness as an opportunity for negative influences and for the possibility of strongholds to be developed.

Thirdly, is the hardened heart. The heart is hardened when we refuse to allow the truth to impact our heart or we have been deceived. We see this in the Book of Romans when Paul says that those in the Roman church and in Roman society had rejected not only truth and but they rejected the God of truth as well. Through a rejection of truth, their heart had been hardened. The result was that the truth of God could not penetrate the heart. This occurs in us as well when we either reject the truth or we are deceived. Hardened hearts can also be realized when we continue to suffer from brokenness and wounds. We harden our hearts so we will not suffer any more pain. But the opposite is actually true. Instead healing we receive more heart.

Fourthly, we can also have a weary heart. You know how it is. We can become tired and weary of the things that impact us. We are over worked, and emotionally overwhelmed. A weary heart causes us to want to give up. A weary heart occurs when we confront the same issues over and over again which never seem to be resolved. Our children are rebellious. Our work is topsy turvy. Our family seems to have unresolvable financial issues. On and on it goes. The result is that we feel we want to give up because we are too tired and we no longer have the energy or the will to keep going on.

As we look at the heart we find it is here that the enemy of our souls loves to influence us neagtively. You see even as believers, while satan cannot possess us, he can certainly influence us to make bad decisions and do things that make our life more miserable. He can influence us to hold onto the past and not let go of the emotional bonds that are not easily broken.

But what is the answer and how do we overcome this? How do we experienced a healed heart? First, we must recognize that we need help. We must understand that our heart is broken, wounded, hardened, or weary. We must understand that we need something to change and begin to identify what that is. The problem too often is that we have been convinced this is just the way things are going to be. We are confronted with the messages that there is no hope and there is no means to bring change. We settle for bondage rather than freedom. We are convinced that we will live this way the rest of our lives. But that is a lie from the very pit of hell.

The fact is there is hope. We have the promise for a new heart and new way of life. We have a promise that God will take our stony, broken, wounded, and weary hearts and He will heal them. It is noteworthy that throughout Scripture that God gives us a new heart. He takes our wounded, broken, weary, and stony hearts and gives us a new fleshy heart. Ezekiel understood this when he penned these words. And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God (Ezekiel 11:19-20).

And then in Ezekiel 36:25-28 we find these words. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

Yes! it is true that within our hearts there is a battle that is raging but that does not mean that we have to continue to live that way. We can choose to allow God to break our stony hearts and renew us with a fleshy, sensitive heart. Why is this critical? It is critical because to have a stony or wounded heart means that God is blocked from doing His work in us. And we need Him to work. By having a fleshy sensitive heart we are empowered to follow God’s commands and to follow His will which leads to receiving all that He has to offer us.

Secondly, we have to hide the world of God in our hearts. There are three passages in Scripture that bear this out for us. First, David stated How can a young man keep his way pure? Notice that David answers his own question. He states we keep our way pure By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your statutes! With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth. In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.  I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word (Psalms 119:9-16).

We also find that the temptation of Jesus comes to mind as he was confronted by satan directly (Luke 4:1-13). Notice that in His temptation that Jesus did not use positive thinking. He did not try to hide the problem. He did not justify his actions. What did He do? He used Scripture to counter satan’s ways. You see much of the temptation Jesus was faced was emotional. Notice that Jesus was hungry and satan offered him bread. He was playing with Jesus’ emotions but Jesus passed the test. Finally, the Scripture tells us that when we know the truth, the truth will set us free. For this to happen we must know the truth and that truth must be applied in our life (John 10:10).

Thirdly, we must recognize that this is an ongoing process of healing and restoration. We can never rest on the laurels of the past or on what God has done in the past for us. We must always be aware of the tactics of the enemy. He seeks to capitalize on our weaknesses and our failures. He knows the hot buttons in our life and he knows exactly what will set them off. Have you ever noticed that we are attacked at the most inopportune times. We are attacked when we are tired! We are attacked when we are overworked. We are attacked when we feel under appreciated. We are attacked when we feel that we have been deceived. While I have overcome the enemy over certain things I must be aware that I must consistently resist the devil and his schemes and he has many.

Fourth, we need to shut the door of our heart to the works of the enemy. When we recognize that the enemy is at our door, we must slam the door shut. Remember Cain and Abel. God spoke to Cain and said that sin is crouching at his door. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. (Genesis 4:4-7). This is the sad part of this story. Cain was warned that the enemy was at the door of his heart and that he had a chance to block his work. The enemy who is a thief was at the door of Cain’s heart to steal his heart, and to rob his brother of his life. Let me ask you, if a thief were standing at your door at home would you open the door and allow him to come in. To do so would not be very wise nor would it be helpful. They would raid your home and take what does not belong to them.

That is why Jesus reminded us that The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10). We must recognize the thief for who he is. He is a thief. He is a liar. He is an accuser. The problem for us as Christians is that too often we give the enemy territory in our life that should never have been given to him. We open the door for him to come in and set up a residence which results in us being controlled by lies, distortions, and bondage that is unnecessary. The result is that we begin to die. We begin to become ineffective and we become weakened.

So let us resist the devil and he will flea from us. Stand your ground and be attired in the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18). Through Christ we have a new heart and a new way of living. We do not have to live in bondage or in the distortion that comes. Are you ready to live a new life? Are you ready to be free? After all we are promised an abundant life in Christ. It is a full life filled with promise, hope, and a new vision for what He can do within us.

For an audio of this message go to http://pccministry.org/media.php?pageID=14

Copyright © 2016 All Rights Reserved Robert W. Odom

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April 18, 2016 · 7:16 am

Strongholds – The Baggage We Carry

Peninsula Community Church

Strongholds – Baggage

April 17, 2016

Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

I ask your forgiveness in the beginning of this message. I know that it will appear that the message will be focused on my life and my testimony. But I ask that you bear with me because as I was preparing I thought there was no better way to express the power of the baggage we hold onto than through my personal testimony. As I share this I do not in any way want to take away from the Gospel but it is the Gospel and the power of Christ that I am where I am today.

With that said in 1979, when I moved to New York City after Bible College, one of the jobs I had was to help refugees resettle to the United States. In particular, we were helping Christians who came from Communist countries and had lost everything as a result of their stand for Christ. In that job one of my roles was to travel to churches to present the program and seek to have churches sponsor refugees. I enjoyed this because I was able to fly around the country and visit some exciting churches and meet some awesome people. On one such trip, upon my arrival back to New York I found out that the person who was suppose to pick me up was not able to do so and I would have to find an alternative way home.

So I began to consider how I was going to get home from LaGuardia Airport which was not as easy as it might seem. The problem was that I had a huge trunk, a large suit case, and a brief case because I had to carry all of the church presentation material with me. Upon investigating how I was to get home I found out that I needed to take a bus from the airport to the Grand Central Station. From there I had to take a subway to Penn Station where I would catch the Long Island Rail Road to West Islip. On the Long Island Railroad I was required to make one transfer. Can you imagine me pulling a 75 pound plus trunk (with no wheels), a large suit case, and my brief case onto the bus, down the stairs of the subway, up the stairs of the train station, and then down the other side to catch the Long Island Rail Road and then to do it all over at the transfer point.

Once in West Islip I called only to find that no one could pick me up. So I had to get a taxi to take me home. So now I had to wrestle with this stuff again. When I arrived home, I drug the trunk, the suit case, and the brief case into the house only to find the person who was to pick me up was watching boxing matches with his sons. Needless to say I was not a happy camper. By the way it took me almost four hours or more to get home from the airport. I laugh at that story now but the fact is the excess baggage I had with me weighed me down and kept me from being very mobile. I had to drag this baggage around with me in order to make any progress at getting home.

While this is a humorous story the fact is that many of us have baggage that tends to weigh us down as we take this journey called life. The writer of Hebrews expresses this as weights and sin. Both the weights of life and the sin (ongoing sin) that possesses us holds us back and causes us to be immobile and ineffective in this journey called life. It is of note that a weight in itself is not necessarily a sin but it is something that is cumbersome, annoying, and it holds us back from being all that we could be, otherwise.

I am sure that you know what I mean. Our collection of baggage begins early in life as we experience the ups and downs of life. For me, it began as a child because when I was just a year old or so I was rushed off to my grandmother’s house to live so that my mom could find herself in Texas. During this time my grandfather who was my best bud died. It was in that moment that I began to pick up the bag of rejection and abandonment. The problem of course was that as I grew older I began to stuff that bag with more and more rejection and abandonment. When I was six years old I moved back with my mom. While living with my mom we moved every year to two years until I was eleven because of my step dad’s drinking problem. At eleven years old I was moved to my aunt’s house because of the issues at home. And after one year with my aunt I suddenly found myself at the doorsteps of my dad’s home in Alabama. Each of these actions added to the baggage I carried. The bag of rejection and abandonment became much heavier. To make matters worse I began to filter everything through the prism of rejection and assumed that rejection and abandonment was going to be a way of life for me.

In addition to the baggage of rejection and abandonment, I also picked up a bag of abuse and wounds as my step dad was abusive physically, emotionally, and mentally. He would punish me with military type punishments. One such punishment was to have me stand six inches from the living room wall with one foot in the air for 45 minutes. If my foot dropped, he would slap me and the time would start over. This was just one case of the physical abuse. In many ways the physical abuse was nothing compared to the emotional abuse I encountered with my dad. By the time I turned eleven or twelve my self esteem was blown and I had experienced the power of insecurity in big ways.

This lead me to take on other baggage such as fear and guilt. I feared for my life as I did not know how my step dad was going to be when he arrived home. I also felt guilty because I felt I was the problem. After all my step dad would regularly remind me that the issues at home were my fault. He would say such things as I was never wanted and that I should have stayed with my grandmother. He would blame me for all of the problems he was facing and would blame me when he and my mom would fight which was often. At 7 years old I began to accept the idea that my parents issues were my fault.

Throughout my life I picked up more and more baggage until I was weighed down and had became immobilized by the baggage I carried. The fact is I knew no better. The fact is that people who were around me did not even know that I was dealing with this burden as I did a great job of hiding my real self. I assumed that this was just the way of life so I had to a accept it and move on. On March 4, 1974, as a teenager, I received Christ and through that action I thought that life would be grand. While I had been forgiven of my sin, I still carried the baggage I had collected throughout my life. In fact, instead of getting rid of my baggage I actual picked up another piece of baggage called religion. Even though I had accepted Christ and I was going to church regularly, I still carried the baggage of my past. Instead of living in freedom, I tried to obey the rules that had been given me. But as I continued my journey with Christ, particularly after my Bible college years, I began to realize that I did not have to walk with the baggage that was weighing me down. I learned that there was a better way of living.

Let me share with you a few of the Biblical truths I learned that helped me let go of the baggage in my life. First of all I learned that true forgiveness meant that none of my past issues had to dictate my present circumstances or my future life. You see I had accepted Christ but I had not accepted His forgiveness. I confessed Christ but I not taken what He had accomplished for me to heart. I failed to grasp what Peter had stated in 2 Peter 1:3-5. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. You see one of my problems was that I was relying on my own strength and I was good at keeping all of the rules to be a “good Christian.” I did not fully realize that God had already given me everything I needed to overcome the baggage in my life and that I could be a partaker of the divine nature of Christ which brings freedom.

Secondly, I learned that I did not have to walk in the fear of rejection or abandonment again. The words of Timothy reminded me that God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. You see I had so much fear that I could never be free or so I thought. I was afraid of everything. I was afraid of rejection. I was afraid of being abandoned. I was afraid of the future. But once I grasped the power of the words of Timothy, I now know that I do not have to walk in fear but I now have a power to overcome the baggage in my life.  

Thirdly, as I grew in Christ, for the first time in my life, I began to realize that I was accepted and received by Christ. Even though I had accepted Christ I still struggled with the fact that Christ really accepted me. What I did in life was in fact done to get Christ to love me and accept me. I did not want Him to reject me. After all I felt everyone else did so. As I began to grow in Christ I began to realize and grasp that I was accepted by Christ not because of who I was but because of who He is. Listen to the words of John 1:12-13. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. Look at this, Christ gave us the right. He gave us permission. He opened the door for us to be children of God. You see Paul is saying you are not just forgiven, you are accepted by God as His child.

Fourthly, I learned that I was not responsible for the actions or decisions of others. I also learned that I needed to take responsibility for my life, for who I was, and what I had done. While I had many things done against me I defaulted into the blame game mode. I had become  good at pointing out other’s sin and their shortcomings. I was good at blaming my parents, my step dad, my mom, my real dad, my step mom, my brothers and sisters for my sin and the wrongs I had done. But I had to take ownership of what I had done. I had to own up to my sin. I had to come to terms with the fact that I had allowed baggage to begin to dictate how I was to live.

Fourthly, as the baggage began to fall off, I realized that I had to fill my life with something. According to physics, a vacuum is never empty, it always filled with something. It is for this reason that Jesus Himself explains the need to be filled with all that God is and not to remain empty. “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came. ’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation (Matthew 12:43-45). 

You see I can get rid of my baggage but I need to be filled with something good or else I will begin to fill my life with more baggage and I will find that seven more evil spirits will come. You see I need to be filled with Christ’s love and the power of all He has given me. I need to be filled with His word, His spirit, and His power. In so doing, I can let go of all of the baggage in my life and not worry about being entrapped by those things again.

For an audio of this message go to http://pccministry.org/media.php?pageID=14

Copyright © 2016 All Rights Reserved Robert W. Odom

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April 11, 2016 · 11:49 am

Strongholds – The Mind

Peninsula Community Church

Strongholds – The Mind

April 10, 2016

Romans 12:1-2 – I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Last week, toward the end of the service I made a statement that I want to restate today. Too often we seek forgiveness as a means to deal with guilt but salvation is so much more than guilt management. We must renew the mind and develop our minds to follow after Christ. The goal is to have the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5) and grow to be Christlike. In having the mind of Christ we are empowered to overcome the power of evil and thoughts which do not honor God. You see God never intended for us to be just forgiven, but He wanted us to live in freedom (Galatians 5:1). He desires that we have an abundant life not just a mediocre one (John 10:10). Jesus envisions a life for us that is filled with freedom and victory.

To grasp freedom and victorious living we must recognize that the mind is a reservoir of every thought, idea, or imagination we have ever had. It is also filled with everything we have ever learned. Now some of you might argue that point because like me I am sure that you feel that you have forgotten more than you have ever learned. But the fact is it is in there. That is why we suddenly recall a memory or a fact that we thought had been long forgotten. This happens to us when we seek to live a full free life. We think we have won a victory and suddenly out of the recesses of our minds a thought comes. It is our mind reminding us where we have been, what we have done, and what has been done to us rather than what God is doing and can do in us.

You see he mind is a filtering system where every thought, idea, or imagination is processed. This can include both conscious and unconscious processes which effect and impact what we do and how we do them. It is through these processes that we begin either reject or accept the truth. Most often the truth we receive is filtered through our past experiences and the things that have had happened to us. Once filtered and accepted these thoughts, ideas, and imaginations begin to form and shape who we are and how we respond to life and they begin to define who we are.

Strongholds are established when we begin to believe the lies or begin to follow after the thoughts, ideas, and imaginations which we have allowed into our minds. For example, because of past experiences we often adapt certain views about life in order to function. Let me illustrate this. When you were growing up, you may have lived in a home where abuse was very evident. The result is that you begin to tell yourself that this is the way people are. The result is you find it difficult to trust people because you begin to believe that every relationship you have will end in abuse. At times we reject others not because they have done anything but because we believe that they might hurt us. We therefore live in fear and rejection. It is a vicious cycle of defeat. But God wants to deliver us and free us from these cycles of failure and defeat.

A stronghold can also be established in the mind by way of our personal attitudes. For example, we can be filled with anger or worry which binds us and creates in us a stronghold. Rather than being controlled by God’s peace we are controlled by worry and fear. Our fail safe for dealing with issues we confront is to fall back on worry and fear rather than on God’s peace. The problem is that we attempt to control our fear and worry instead of being set free and established in Christ.

The story is told of the man who bought passage on a passenger ship. He had worked hard to save his money for this trip. The day finally came and he boarded the ship to head to America. Along with his luggage he brought a bag of food and crackers to have in his room. Just as they were about to dock in New York the captain of the ship saw the man standing by the rail. The captain approached the man and stated that he had been missed at the captains dinner. The man explained that he did not have the money to eat at the captains dinner so he had been eating in his room. The captain hung his head with sadness as he spoke to the man. He then revealed that the meals had been included in his ticket price. You see for us we have had salvation purchased for us but we are not taking advantage of the everything salvation has to offer. We have been forgiven, yes, but we have also been given a full and free life. Let’s live like it.

Because the mind is the reservoir of thoughts, ideas, imaginations, and intellect we can be negatively impacted by the stimulus around us. So how do we live in freedom as designed by God. To do so we must fulfill the command of Romans 12 to renew our minds. And how do we renew our minds? We do so by being transformed through the renewal process. The Greek word for transformation is the word metamorphosis. It is the idea of being changed from one thing to another. The classic example of this is the caterpillar which is turned into a butterfly.

With that in mind there is a caution we must also consider. Transformation is not a matter of switching from one list of things to do in the flesh to a list of things to do in the law. When Paul replaces the list of the works of the flesh he replaces it with the fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22). You see the Christian alternative to immoral behaviors is not a new list of moral behaviors. It is the triumphant transformation of the Holy Spirit through faith in Christ. It is a new way of living that is not managed by a list of do’s and don’ts, but rather it is a new way of living. Rather than a list of new activities, it is way of being.

When it comes to the mind I propose four steps to overcome and break the strongholds that impact us. First we need to test every thought. To renew the mind we must control the thoughts we allow into our mind. That is way Paul stated in Corinthians that we should take every thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:5). In essence, we have to cut off the power of the stronghold at its source. So what are you thinking? The fact is what we think we become. The thoughts we allow in effects what we become and what will eventually define us.

To bring something into captivity means to control, to conquer, or to bring into submission. We take every thought captive. We make our thoughts submit to the obedience of Christ. We make our thoughts to submit to the word of God. The problem however is that my mind does not always mind. My mind wants to do its own thing. That is why we have to make our thoughts obedient to Christ and to His ways. You see the battle for sin always begins in the mind and it has to end in the mind as well. To control our minds and thoughts is to know Christ and His ways. That is the template we must use.

A second thing we need to do is to guard against garbage. The New Living Translation has an interesting interpretation of Proverbs 15:14. It says “A wise person is hungry for knowledge, while the fool feeds on trash.” Nutritionist will tell you that there are three types of food. There is brain food which makes you smarter. There is junk food which is simple calories. Its not poison but it is empty calories. Then there are toxic foods which are filled with toxins that destroy the body. The same comes to the thoughts that we let in. We want the thoughts that are going to make us smarter and stronger.

Paul in Philippians 4:8-9 gives us a secret to control our thoughts and to control against the garbage that comes in. Listen to what Paul says. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”

Let me ask you. Do you sit around and listen to gossip and negative comments? What do you watch on TV? What do you read? What do you allow into your mind that impacts and effects who you are and what you are about? When we put in garbage we get garbage out. The opposite is true as well. When we put truth in then we will get truth out. So we must begin to fill our minds with truth and what is pure. When you fill your mind with truth, the truth will set you free (John 10).

The third thing we can do to battle false mindsets is to feed on God’s Word and learn as much as you can. Be a student of God. This is not learning for the simple goal of learning but our learning must be focused on knowing God and understanding His ways and His wisdom. We do not study to get more knowledge; we study to become more Christlike. We must become life long learners of God’s grace. For example here at PCC we have a number of opportunities for you to learn. We have Sunday School. We have small groups. We have ladies study on Thursday. We have the men’s gathering at McDonalds. We have Sunday worship. We have opportunities for fellowship and to get together. We do this so you have an opportunity to grow and learn.

I am also reminded that Rick Warren has said that truth is never invented, it is discovered. We must discover the truth of the Gospel. We read! We listen! We study! We ask questions! That is how we learn and how we keep on learning. We feed our minds with the word of God because it renews and strengthens us. We feed our minds with the word of God because it begins to change us and begins to transform our thinking.

And finally, let God stretch your imagination. So many of us live under the power of strongholds because we do not know how to live otherwise. To overcome the strongholds in our life, we must believe there is a better way to live. We must believe that God has a plan for your life that does not contain the mindsets and strongholds that have been established against us. When we believe that God has a different plan for us, we really really believe it, and we begin to act that out we will live differently and we will act differently. By allowing God to stretch your imagination of what could be we can then move from a state of forgiveness to living victorious. That is the power of overcoming the strongholds in our life.

So how are you doing? Are you ready to live free?

For an audio of this message go to http://pccministry.org/media.php?pageID=14

Copyright © 2016 All Rights Reserved Robert W. Odom

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April 4, 2016 · 6:10 pm

Strongholds – Boundaries

Peninsula Community Church 

Strongholds – Boundaries

April 3, 2016

James 4:1-10 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double- minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

As we continue our study on the strongholds that pursue us and enslave us I want to look at a specific area of truth this morning and it is what I will call a boundary mentality. A boundary is a line that marks the limits of an area. It is a diving line. It is also a limit of a subject or sphere of activity. Therefore boundaries are established to aide in understanding one’s limitations in terms of what they do, how they do it, and where. In the Old Testament, particularly, we find that God established boundaries so the Children of Israel would know their limitations and what they could or could not do. These things were established for their benefit and not their harm. As a parent we set boundaries for our children so that they would be protected and would be kept safe. One of the boundaries we set was that they could not play in the street. Why was this boundary set up? It was because we knew that playing in the street was dangerous. We also knew that crossing that boundary could result in negative consequences.

The fact is boundaries are necessary in our lives and we all have them in some shape or form. Boundaries are necessary because they give us guidance and they establish limits so that we know when we are crossing the line into sin, unhealthy relationships, making poor decisions, and so on. The law of God and the Commandments of God are boundaries that have been established to give us the ground rules. They were established not to bind us or take away our fun. They have been established to give us life and liberty.

But even in the best of circumstances what has been designed for our good can become a trap for us. So there can be a problem associated with boundaries, if we are not careful. You see the problem at times is that we allow the boundaries we establish to begin to define us. The result is that too often we are defined more by what we cannot do rather than what we can do. The fact us our boundaries must never define us. We must be defined by relationship with Christ.

One problem with setting boundaries is that too often we use boundaries to management our sin rather than allowing God to change our heart. I have often said that it has been easier for us to establish a law or in this case a boundary than it it is to deal with the real issues of the heart. We can have as many rules and regulations we want but we will still struggle because the heart has not changed. God is after a heart change and not boundaries. When we try to manage our sins, the tendency is that we become more legalistic than we should be. The tendency is that we focus more on the boundaries and what is right or wrong rather than focusing on God. While trying to live for God, we in essence live with a fear of sinning so that we can never be free to be what God has called us to do. I have shared before that I grow up in a legalistic environment. Rules were established to control us and prevent us from sinning. There was no bowling, no skating, no movies, no cards, no dancing, and so on and so on. What a relief later in life to know that I was not going to be condemned for watching a movie or playing cards.

The root of the problem is that boundaries, like the law of the Old Testament, point us toward what sin is and it defines sin but the law does not and cannot save us from our sin. Deception and bondage come when we believe that if we tow the line and do everything right then we will accepted by God. Jesus warns us about this kind of mindset. He reminded us that there would be many who will stand before God that will be able to describe their list of accolades and abilities. Even though they have an impressive resume of successes, the sad commentary was that they did not have a personal relationship with the very one they were trying to get approval and acceptance from. Jesus reminded them that many will cry Lord Lord and yet God will deny them entrance into heaven because they were not true passionate followers of Christ (Matthew 7:21). With that said I want to be clear that God does want us to obey His commands but we must never do so apart from a relationship with God.

A second problem with setting boundaries is that too often it too easy to move and change the boundaries. This is especially true when we no longer like a particular boundary or rule. The result is that we no longer have a fixed focus on truth in our lives. If we believe the boundary is no longer appropriate or it no longer serves its purpose we simply move, remove, or redefine the boundary. When we are with Michelle’s family one of the things we love to do is play games. But we always have a problem. There are those around the table that at some point during the game who decide to change the rules. They change the rules because they do not like the rule or they feel the rule is not benefitting them.

We see this being played out in our society in a big way today. Drugs are now being legalized. All forms of sexual sin are being normalized. Rebellion and anarchism are being praised as a way to overcome those we do not agree with. Our boundaries and our moral footing have moved and have been changed. Think about this if you will. It is very similar to dieting. I am sure that none of you have done this but I have. You say I will have an extra donut now and then tonight I will eat less but that never seems to happen. The problem is that once we have moved the boundary of what is acceptable we have the tendency to allow other things in as well.

This also reminds me of a story I heard a number of years ago. A group of boys in Philadelphia went into a local store and switched as many price tags as they could. They never stole anything but they simply switched the price tags on as many items as they could. When morning came, the store opened as usual but something was different. Both the customers and the store owners were shocked to find that the prices had been changed and the price tags had been switched. That happens to us. The price tags have been switched and the boundaries that once stood firm have been moved. The enemy of our souls loves to switch the price tags so we no longer value what God values and in so doing we move the boundaries.

The third problem with setting boundaries is that too often we live as close to the boundary as we can. By living on the edge we can be easily pushed into sin or into a wrong pattern of thinking. The closer we live to the boundary, the greater the temptation is to be sucked into a lifestyle or a sin that is knocking at our door. The other problem is that when we live at the edge of the boundary the lines of right and wrong begin to blur. It is here that we fall prey to the lies, the accusations, and the doubts of the enemy. It is way too easy for the lies, accusations, and doubts to become a part of who we are. In essence, we flirt with sin and we flirt with stepping over the line. All it takes is a slight nudge by the enemy to cause us to step over the edge.

And finally, the greatest problem with setting boundaries is that when we live near the edge of the boundaries we set there is a tendency to live further from God. The tendency is to focus more on the boundaries and what we can do and what we cannot do rather than trying to live close to God. In other words, rather than living close to the edge, lets find out what God is saying and do that. Remember our verse this morning that says“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double- minded.

Let me ask you today, do you have a security in the lines you have drawn. Or, do you rest in the power of Christ to accomplish His will in your life. Please note, I am not asking or even suggesting that you remove the boundaries you have set. I am simply saying that your trust must be in God and not in the boundaries we set. What if we changed our focus? What if we focused on Christ who offered us the cross and the resurrection. Let me say this and I hope you hear this. The walk of a Christian is not sin avoidance. It is Christlikeness.

Rather than boundaries we should ask what would honor God? What would cause His glory to be manifested in and through my life. You see setting boundaries focuses on forgiveness and that is so important but Christ died for more than our forgiveness. Too often we want the removal of guilt and not the work of Christ in us. Know this Christ died for more than the removal of guilt; he has called us to live a vibrant abundant life filled with joy, peace, and love. We are more than forgiven, we are called to Christlikeness. It means that I allow God into every area of my life. I receive victory because I am forgiven but I live in victory because I seek to be Christ like. You see the gospel has to be more than guilt removal it has to be a way of life. It is “life abundantly lived.” So are you living abundantly or are you living close to the boundaries?

So what do we do with this? First, what boundaries have you set in your life? Do you focus more on the boundaries that have been set than on Christ who died and gave Himself for us? Second, I suggest that you refocus your life to move closer to Christ than living on the edge. You will find that the temptation toward sin will be diminished. I am not saying that it will be annihilated but the temptation to be pushed over the edge is diminished. And finally, if we want to know how to live closer to God we must know the word. We read it. We memorize it. We live it. That way we can be victorious in all we do.

For an audio of this message go to http://pccministry.org/media.php?pageID=14

Copyright © 2016 All Rights Reserved Robert W. Odom

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March 28, 2016 · 7:31 am

Easter the Power to Overcome – Do Overs

Peninsula Community Church

March 28, 2016

Easter the Power to Overcome – Do Overs

John 21:15-17 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.

We are in the midst of a series on the strongholds and the mindsets that prevent us from being all that we have been called to or created to be. We started the series by briefly looking at some of the strongholds that are evident in our lives. Last week we were reminded that the debt of our sin has been nailed to the cross. We were reminded that the enemy of our souls loves to throw accusation, lies, and half-truths at us in hopes that we will take the bait and fall victim to his ways. But the cross reminds us that the debt of sin charged against us has been paid and the cross is the receipt of that debt.

Today, we will look at a second aspect of our life in Christ. As I noted last week it is important for us to establish an understanding of who God is before we move on to deal with the issue of strongholds and mindsets more specifically. That is why we looked at the cross last week and today we look at the results of the resurrection. While the cross reminds us that our debt has been forgiven, the resurrection reminds us that we have the power to begin again. The resurrection gives us the power to start over regardless of our past sin or our past failures. In essence we get a do over.

When I moved to New York, in 1979, I began to “try” to play the game of golf. When I first began to play, I played with some people who did not make the game very much fun. They continually corrected me. They criticized my swing, the way I was standing, the way I approached the ball, how I hit the ball, and on and on. They were so critical and such perfectionists that I wanted to give up the game which I did do for some time. But a number of years later I was asked to play again. After some persistence on their part and reluctance on my part, I agreed to play. I was surprised when there was a totally different environment this time. They gave instruction but it was done in a way that was not harsh or belittling. In fact, as we played I hit my normal bad shot. When I did that they said something that revolutionized my life in relationship to golf. One of the guys asked me if I wanted to take a mulligan. Of course I had never heard of that before because the people I had originally played with did not give mulligans. They were serious if not legalistic about their golf and they did not believe in such a thing. For those that may not know what a mulligan is, it is a second chance. It is a do over. You hit a bad shot and you have an opportunity to hit the shot again.

My message this morning is a message of do overs. It focuses on those around Jesus who failed and failed big time. You see when we talk about mindsets and strongholds in our life there is no greater place for this to occur than in the area of failure and blown opportunities. We feel life is over and there is nothing left to do. This comes as well when we have committed that sin or that thing that we believe has derailed us for life. The result is that we feel that our life has come to an end and there is no hope for a better future. You see this is much like the friends that took me golfing earlier in my life. Each failure was overly emphasized and I was reminded how horrible a golfer I really was. Instead of hope, I experienced disappointment and wanted to give up. But the resurrection is a reminder that we have a chance to start over. Because He lives, we have hope and we have a chance for a do over.

As we think about the resurrection and do overs we cannot help but think of the disciples who were negatively impacted by the events of Christ’s death. Think about it, the disciples who were by Jesus’ side for three years were nowhere to be found during His trial or the crucifixion. All of the disciples except for John ran and hid. Thomas doubted Jesus. Peter, as prophesied, denied his relationship with Jesus. We find the disciples are confused and when they received a report that Jesus is alive they reluctantly went to the grave site. This was in part because they struggled to believe the story that He had risen but also because they were afraid they might be arrested by the Roman guards.

Let me ask you this morning do you ever feel confused? Do you feel that you have been betrayed? After all Jesus said He would never leave them? Do you ever feel you have failed so big that there is no chance of forgiveness or opportunity to start over and make things right? Do you feel there are too many pieces to the puzzle of your life that are not fitting together? The fact is there are so many questions and so much brokenness around us. But we must hear the rest of the story to understand the day of new beginnings.

While all of this was happening we must be reminded that actions of the disciples did not prevent Jesus from being raised from the dead. That is the power of who Jesus is. Our lack of belief in Jesus or our sinful condition, no matter how bad it is, does not change who Christ is nor does it change what He has done on our behalf. We find in the story of Jesus that He rose again. Though He was dead, He now lives. But here is the amazing part of the story for me. As soon as possible, Jesus purposely goes to see the disciples. This band of believers who had failed to stay strong when it mattered most were in hiding but Jesus knew where they were. And most importantly, He knew the condition of their heart.

If you are familiar with the resurrection story you know that Jesus sought out the disciples. Jesus knew their pain. He knew the hurt, confusion, and rejection they were feeling. They should have known better but they still acted in a way that betrayed who they were. They failed to follow Jesus’ words and yet Jesus wanted to see them. It is noteworthy that while over 500 people saw that Jesus was alive, the scripture hones in on his visits to the disciples.

First, Jesus encountered Thomas who was a doubter. He doubted everything. How many have doubts today about your future and the hope you have? Doubt is such a robber of faith and it can cause us to be frozen in the past and in only what can be seen in the present. Notice that Jesus did not discredit Thomas’s doubt but gave him a chance for a do over. He allowed Thomas to touch His side and His hands and in so doing Thomas found a spirit of faith arise in him. He had a do over.

Then Jesus went to see Peter. He knew Peter’s rejection and denial. While Peter had failed, Jesus saw beyond his failure and saw his heart. If you remember, Peter was a passionate person. He was quick to speak out. Peter defiantly had promised Jesus that he would not forsake or leave His side. In that moment there was no doubt that Peter meant and believed what he said. He had ever intention of fulfilling his word but as we know from the crucifixion story, it was not long before Peter denied his relationship with Jesus, and he did so not once but three times. Can you imagine the heart of Peter in the moment when the rooster crowed? Can you imagine the guilt and the rejection he felt? What did Peter do, he ran and hid. Rather than heading to the cross, he headed to a back room in Jerusalem.

But here is the amazing part of the story. While Peter was confronted by Jesus and was questioned about his love of Jesus there is a greater story here. Notice that each time Jesus asked about Peter’s love for Him, Jesus commanded Peter to feed the sheep. That speaks to the fact that Jesus still trusted Peter to fulfill His mission. Peter was given a second chance. He was given a do over.

So what do we learn from this? First of all we see through the story of the resurrection that Jesus is always concerned about us and He is ready too give us a second chance. There is nothing that you can do to cause Him to stop loving you. Some of you who are here may feel that you have blown it and that there is no way that God could love you or forgive you. But here is the good news. He is seeking you out today. He wants you to know that He loves you and He desires that you come close to Him.

So how do we do that. We surrender your fears, your doubts, and your failures to Him today. In so doing, we must remember that our failures and shortcomings are not the end. They are a chance at new beginnings. There is hope and there is an opportunity to start over. Jesus is calling and He is coming to you today. He wants you to know that no matter what you might have done, life is not over. He loves you and He is extending His hand to you today.

Secondly, we must be aware that we need a do over. The problem too often is that we do not accept the fact that we need a do over when we have failed. We can be deceived into thinking that everything is ok, when it is not. It is also possible that no one has ever shared with you that you have the opportunity for a do over. Here is the fact we need to understand. Jesus has extended a hand of forgiveness. To go back to my golf analogy, there have been times where I have refused to take the mulligan and it cost me each time. Instead of being on the green in three or four I ended up with 7 or 8 strokes before landing on the green. The result was that my confusion and frustration was magnified. It did not have to be that way but I allowed it. So then the key is to recognize our need for Christ in our life and accept his do over.

And thirdly, confession is always a necessary process in this discussion. John was clear about this when he stated that If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Paul also stated For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith (Romans 3:22a-25). Here is a fact we can live with. We all need forgiveness. We all need restoration. Because we have all blown it at one time or the other. But thank God for do overs.

So as we close do you need a do over? If so, Jesus is here and He is extending His hand to you. Will you take His hand and hear His heart? He is saying I am ready to give you a do over. It comes by way of confessing the issue that is at the core of your heart. And it requires you to make whatever change is necessary to never go back there again. Are you ready? Let’s pray.

For an audio of this message go to http://pccministry.org/media.php?pageID=14

Copyright © 2016 All Rights Reserved Robert W. Odom

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March 21, 2016 · 6:56 am

How Easter Gives Hope to Overcome

Peninsula Community Church

How Easter Gives Hope to Overcome

March 20, 2016

Colossians 2:8-15 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

The week we continue our look at the strongholds that impact our life. If you remember last week we defined a stronghold as a mindset or a thought process that controls our lives. Last week we looked at the fact that we walk in the flesh but we do not use the armaments of the flesh to fight our battles. This week we want to look at the victory that has been won on our behalf. Because of Christ’s death on the cross we have been positioned for complete and total victory. Now before we get into the details of strongholds and mindsets I want to set the stage by talking about the power of God and work of God on our behalf. That is our focus today.

The passage we have before us today issues us a warning but it also gives us a solution for winning the battle for our minds. Paul begins where we left off last week. He states See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. He offers us a warning to watch out for philosophies and empty words that control our way of thinking. In essence, Paul is saying that the ideas presented by a worldview which is not secured in Christ will be found empty and useless.

Paul continues by stating that the full authority of God is found in Christ. Paul states that in Christ the whole fullness of Deity dwells bodily. In other words, Christ is the manifestation of God here on earth because He is God. While that is pretty awesome, Paul goes on to say that we have been filled in Him. What is Paul saying? While it is true that all of the power of God is in Jesus, it is also true that we have Jesus in us. Therefore, we have the fullness of who God is in us. Remember last week we stated that greater is He that is in us than He that is in the world (1 John 4:4). Paul explains why here. Jesus who is full of everything God, and who lives in us, has all authority and rulership over the kingdoms of our lives. That makes Him greater than any force that can come against us. So why would we not choose to follow Him and obey His commands.

At the end of this passage, Paul makes an incredible powerful life changing statement. He says look not only was Christ raised from the dead but you were too. Listen to Paul’s words. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

There are a couple of things in this that bears comment. We have been made alive in Him. We who were dead in our trespasses and in the works of our flesh have been made alive in Christ. In so doing, we have been forgiven and the sin debt we had was cancelled. So the shame, regret, and desire to control has been dealt with on the cross and we are free today as a result.

But there is a problem in that the enemy of our souls loves to bring accusation, lies, and half-truths against us (Revelation 12:10). His very nature is to be deceitful and to distort the truth we need (John 8:44). When this occurs we have a choice to make. Will we allow false accusation to rule us and therefore walk in the lie of misinformation; or will we reject the lies and live in the truth that is ours through Christ. What truth is that? It is the truth of forgiveness and the fact that our debts have been paid. The debt we owed has been cancelled and it is been discarded as if it never existed.

A few months ago I received a bill from a doctor who was looking for a payment on some medical work that Michelle had done back in 2006. They had attached a note that read if I did not pay the bill I could be taken to court and I would be reported to the credit bureau. Their note was an attempt to intimidate and pressure us to pay a debt that had already been resolved. But heres the deal. Yes! There was a time that I owed that bill but the debt had been paid and it had been paid in full. Fortunately, for us I had all of my receipts and I was able to go back and locate the bill and the check that that had been written to pay off the debt. I contacted the company and sent them a copy of the check and the paid invoice as well as the monthly statement that showed we were paid in full. There was nothing they could do.

You see in our life the enemy of our souls loves to bring up past due bills that have in reality already been paid. He loves to remind us where we have been and what we have done. He loves to remind us how many times we have been rejected and how many times we have done things that have brought us guilt and shame. He is so good at reminding us of our past but when He does that we can go to the file cabinet of our heart and pull out the paid in full receipt that we were given when we came to know Christ and have confessed our sin. Christ paid the debt. What receipt do we have? Spiritually, we have the cross because it was there that our debt was nailed to the cross. Therefore the cross serves as a reminder that the debt has been paid and it has been paid in full. The debt no longer exists.

Let me give you another illustration. A number of years ago I received a call from a collection agency demanding the payment of a debt we did not owe. Even though I provided evidence that I was not the person they were looking for, they continued to call. Each time they demanded payment of a debt that we did not owe. In fact it was a debt that was never ours. Each time they called they agreed they had the wrong person and said they would not call again. Then one night they called and got Michelle on the phone and started pressuring her with scare tactics and manipulation. It upset her. About the time I got home they called again and I had enough. I asked for a supervisor and after some hesitation they finally had a supervisor come to the phone. Because I had journaled all of the dates and the times they called when the “supervisor” finally came to the phone, I let them have. I told them that I was tired of the accusation and the phone calls. I began to list the dates of the calls and who I had spoken to each time they called. I demanded in that moment that the calls stop or else the next person they would be speaking to would be my lawyer. I must have gotten to them because we never got another call again. Here is the point. The pressure to pay the debt was not removed until I threatened to bring in an advocate to handle my case. You see Jesus is that advocate and he is ready to stand in the gap on our behalf. But we must be willing to stand our ground and make the call for Him to do His work. That is why we pray Your kingdom come, Your will be done. We invite God into our world and into the issues we face.

The scripture here today says that Jesus has disarmed the rulers and authorities. This word disarm literally means to strip or to deny power to. In others Jesus by way of the cross has stripped the enemy of his power to effectively accuse us or use any false accusation against us. Listen to me this morning the debt of your sin and past mistakes have been paid for on the cross. Yes in some cases we suffer the consequences of what we did but the guilt, the shame, and the power of the enemy to hold that over you has been dealt with at the cross and you are free today as a result. The power of that sin has been disarmed and the accuser of the brethren has been shamed and defeated. You have been forgiven so forgive yourself. You must walk in the righteousness you have been given. When the debt of guilt comes knocking, let God open the door. When the debt of past failures comes knocking, let God open the door. When the debt of past sin comes knocking, let God open the door. He has come and we are free because of Him.

For an audio of this message go to http://pccministry.org/media.php?pageID=14

Copyright © 2016 All Rights Reserved Robert W. Odom

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March 14, 2016 · 7:36 am

How Easter Gives Hope

Peninsula Community  Church

How Easter Gives Hope

March 13, 2016

2 Corinthians 10:3-6 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

This morning I am excited about this new series. Over the next few weeks we will look at how we can overcome strongholds and mindsets that hold us back from being what we need to be in Christ. This series is a natural outflow of the prayer series we just completed. You see through the movie “War Room” we were challenged to pray. Through small groups we have been challenged to understand the grace of God and the power of forgiveness.

Two weeks ago, we looked at the Lord’s Prayer to gain a greater understanding of how to pray effectively. As you remember, one of the key parts of the Lord’s prayer is praying that God’s kingdom would come and that His will would be done in us and in our circumstances. By praying this pray we are literally asking that God’s Kingdom and His will would invade everything about us. We pray He would invade our minds, our jobs, our relationships, our health issues, and so forth. The fact we are verbalizing the desire we have for Him to rule our life.

That brings us to our study today. While we sincerely pray and desire for the kingdom of God to be established in us, the fact of the matter is there are many kingdoms vying for that position. As we have read in our text today, Paul reminds us that we walk in the flesh. We live in a world that has been subjected to the power of sin and the rebellion of mankind. Because of this, we walk in the flesh and we are subjected to the work of the flesh in our lives. But Paul is also clear that even though we walk in the flesh, as passionate followers of Christ we have a set of weapons that can destroy the schemes of the enemy and the the strongholds that have been established in us.

So what is a stronghold? If you look at the second part our passage for today, you will find that Paul defines the idea of a stronghold. He states We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. So a stronghold is a mindset or thought process that controls our lives. It can be a sin we continue to confront, a shortcoming or failure we continue to experience, a past experience we can’t let go of, or a strong emotion such as fear, jealously, or anger that keeps surfacing. Without dealing with these strongholds they hang onto us and deter us from who we should be. They become a stumbling block and serve to defeat us rather than strengthening us.

As we look into this subject let me give a warning at this stage. We must never become so focused on spiritual strongholds or demonic activity that we fail to see that Christ is victorious in us. To do so gives credit to the enemy that he does not deserve. To do so allows us to justify our sin, our actions, and our negative thoughts. It is more effective to focus on His victory, His word, and His power in our life. That is the message of Easter and it is our message today.

With that said, let me dive into this subject. We must understand that while we have come into a relationship with Christ, we come into that relationship with baggage from our past. This baggage can include but is not limited to various mindsets, emotions that have not been healed, sins that have not been confessed, or a misconceived theology for living. As we live life we are also impacted and affected by the experiences we have and the people we encounter.

To fully understand this battle our discussion must not begin at the fall of mankind or focus on the post fall condition of man. We must begin our story earlier in the narrative. The fact is we must begin with the intent and desire of God in the creation. Therefore it is necessary to  begin with the creation and not the fall. That is why it is not a mistake that the Biblical story begins in Genesis 1:1. The first chapters of the Bible teach us that God created something beautiful and wonderful. After each day of creation, God proclaimed His work “good.”

But why start here? We do so because we need to be reminded that in creation we were fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). We were not only created out of the dirt of the earth, but we were created in the image of God. That should mean something to us. Because we are created in the image of God, we have value and we have a purpose. This also means that every life has value no matter who the person is. He made an amazing creation created in His image and filled with His breathe.

But as we know, by way of the historical perspective of the Bible, there was a problem. Because of the fall of mankind, what God created was contaminated by sin. If you will for a moment think about life in the Garden of Eden before the fall. Man walked with God and He had an acceptance with God and with each other. That was priceless. They walked in an innocence that was pure and perfect. In the Garden, man was called to have dominion over the earth and the animals of the earth. So, we find that in the Garden of Eden mankind had acceptance, he walked in innocence, and he had dominion over God’s creation.

But, as we know, that all changed on the day Adam and Eve sinned. All of life was pushed out of kilter. From that day forward what was once so easy for mankind had now become a battle. What God had given man and the essence of creation has been defamed and destroyed. With that said let me make sure that we know that while the situation has changed we are still valuable in the sight of God. We are still a creation of God. That is why the process of redemption is to restore mankind to His original purpose. Redemption provides us with acceptance. We are given  forgiveness which is restored innocence. And dominion over all of creation has been restored.

As we consider this in relationship to the theme of strongholds, we begin to realize that humankind’s attributes before the fall become glaring needs after the fall. First of all in the Garden mankind walked in acceptance. But after the fall acceptance by God and subsequently by others was replaced by rejection. The result was a need to belong and because of sin it became more difficult to feel accepted. The problem is exasperated when we are rejected over and over again. The result is that we begin to feel rejected as a person and we begin to think that rejection is a way of life for us. Because of the feeling of rejection we strive more and more to be accepted and loved. In our effort to be more accepted and loved we succumb to peer pressure to be liked and loved. If we are not careful we will do whatever it takes to be accepted by our peers, our coworkers and our family. We end up in a vicious cycle of wanting acceptance but we experience rejection. The result is that we allow a stronghold of rejection to establish a false kingdom in our heart. When this happens we filter our decisions and the actions of others through the filter of rejection. Because we feel rejected, we lose the will to try.

Secondly, because of the fall of mankind innocence was replaced by guilt and shame. The result is that too many people have a poor sense of self-worth therefore they strive to find their worth and value in people and things rather than in Christ. The advertisement world plays on the need for self worth. If you buy this car, shop at this store, wear this brand of clothes you will have worth and you will be accepted by your peers. Striving for a sense of worth can cause a stronghold to be established as we will do anything to feel worthy, even if it is a false worth. You see we strive for self-worth by doing things we believe will fill that void in our life. We work harder and do more and yet we feel more shame and guilt. To make things worse we begin to filter the activity of our through shame and guilt which inevitable brings more shame and guilt.

The third aspect here is that dominion was replaced by weakness and helplessness therefore we have a need for strength and self-control. People attempt to meet this need by disciplining themselves or by trying to control others. Trying to control others is in reality a symptom of insecurity and a lack of self worth. In essence, we try to satisfy the need for dominion by trying to control others. Control is a stronghold that is sin’s answer for lost dominion. On the other hand while we try to control others we also try to control ourselves. We do so through strict and extreme efforts to discipline one’s self and one’s actions. We try to manage sin rather than dealing with sin. The result is that we are led to a spirit of legalism, perfectionism, and self-destruction. Additionally, when we try to control ourselves and control others we are never satisfied so we try and control more. Thus the stronghold only gets stronger.

As we bring this to a close today, I read this week that as believers we are not trying to become saints we are saints who are becoming like Christ. That is so true. That is why we do everything we can to bring every thought into captivity to the glory of God. We filter everything not through the hurt or stronghold but through the filter of God’s word, His redemption, and His power. In our HVAC systems we have filters that take out contaminates and dust out of the air. If that filter becomes clogged it will not allow the air flow through the filter and then there are problems. The same goes for our mind as well. We need a new filtering system. That is what we will be talking about over the next few weeks.

For an audio of this message go to http://pccministry.org/media.php?pageID=14

Copyright © 2016 All Rights Reserved Robert W. Odom

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