From His Heart

Speaker 1

Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, we'll learn how to slay the final giant of Strongholds.

Speaker 2

A stronghold is a sin that has a strong hold on you. The giant of strongholds is overcome in Jesus Christ.

And what happened to you yesterday doesn't determine what is going to happen to you today and in the future.

Listen, the Lord wants to break every stronghold so that you and I can walk in freedom and in victory with the Lord Jesus. Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1

Are there strongholds in your life that just will not let go? I mean, you've done everything in your power and they still dominate your thinking or cause you to stumble in your Christian walk over and over again, and you hate it. And there seems to be no power to overcome them.

Maybe it's the giant of anger, of discouragement, of evil desires, of fear, guilt and shame, insecurity, lust, worry, discontentment. Or perhaps today's giant, the giant of strongholds. If you can't get over them, perhaps you're using the wrong power source.

Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, you'll learn how to have power over the strongholds in your life. So if you have a copy of God's Word handy, turn to 1 Chronicles, chapter 20. And let's get started with the final message in the Facing the Giant series called the Giant of Strongholds.

Speaker 2

Well, I ran across a story about a snake. It was about a big snake, actually the biggest snake in the world. It's found in South America. It's called an anaconda. These things get to be up to 30 feet long. They can weigh 550 pounds. They're big snakes. That's a big dude. And they got really sharp teeth, a hundred teeth. They're like razor sharp.

Well, true story. This year, a little boy in Brazil, an 8-year-old boy, was playing on his grandfather's farm, playing down by the river. He got attacked by a 15-foot anaconda. It bit him in the chest, held him there, and began to wrap its body around him, to squeeze him to death and to eat him. The screams reached the grandfather's ear, and he ran to help his grandson. The grandfather began to beat on that snake with rocks to no avail. He had a machete and began to slash at the snake with it. After 30 minutes, he finally killed the snake and freed his grandson from that stronghold of the anaconda.

And today we want to talk about the giant of strongholds. A stronghold is a sin that has a strong hold on you. It's just some kind of sin, and it's different for different people, but it's some kind of sin that just seems to always trip you up, to always mess you up. It's something that you can't seem to get loose from, like that anaconda around you. It just has you bound and held in its grip. I think if we're honest, we can all identify with a sin that seems to have a stronghold on us.

Well, here's the good news. The Lord wants to break every stronghold. He wants to destroy the strongholds so that you and I can walk in freedom and in victory with the Lord Jesus Christ. First Chronicles, chapter 20. I'll begin reading in verse six. The Bible says, "And again there was war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature who had 24 fingers and toes, six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. And he also was descended from the giants. And when he taunted Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea, David's brother, killed him." These were descended from the giants in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants. Five giants total that David and his servants faced: Goliath, Ishbi, Benob, Lami, Saph, and then this giant. God doesn't give him a name. We don't know what his name is, but he had an interesting characteristic.

I think the reason God doesn't give a name is he doesn't want you to focus on the name. He wants you to focus on the fact that this guy had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. What's the picture here? Here is a giant. He can grab you and hold you in a vice grip. This guy is a picture of a stronghold of sin, a giant with six fingers. He pictures a stronghold of sin.

Now I want you to notice with me three truths concerning this passage and concerning this six-fingered giant, this stronghold of sin. Truth number one: the giant of strongholds seems to be too strong. When a stronghold gets in your life, it seems so strong, too strong. I'm reminded in the book of Judges as God's people went into the promised land. God said there are enemies in the promised land: the Canaanites, the Jebusites, and the Philistines, and all these people that you have to drive out of the land. The Bible says they hit the people that lived in the valley, and they couldn't drive out those people. The reason they couldn't drive them out was because they had iron chariots. "Ugh. How can we go up against these people, God? They have iron chariots." What's a stronghold? It's an iron chariot. Sin in your life.

Truth number two: because the giant seems to be too strong, the giant of strongholds begins to steal our hope. You know, you go up against this giant and say, "All right, I'm gonna defeat this giant," and the six-fingered giant just has you. You can't get free. Like fighting that anaconda, you can't seem to make a dent, and you can lose hope. Verse seven says about this giant that he taunted Israel. He taunted, he defied, he reproached Israel. That's what the devil does to you and me. That's what the giant of strongholds does to you and me. It says you're never gonna break free. You're never going to have victory over this area in your life. Then we begin to believe the lie that the only thing left for you to do with this stronghold is to give up and give in.

Have you given up and given in because there's a sin that has a hold of you and you can't break it and you can't shake it? God is the God of hope. Now may the God of hope, the Bible says, fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Lord can do anything. God is able. Oh, the giant of strongholds. So strong. Seemingly too strong. So you give up hope.

But truth number three is this: the giant of strongholds is overcome in Jesus Christ. He's overcome in Jesus. Now in this story, Scripture says, "And when he taunted Israel," verse seven, "Jonathan, the son of Shimea, David's brother, killed him." The name Jonathan means "the Lord has given you." What has the Lord given his children? He's given us himself. The moment that you receive Christ, Christ comes to live inside of you by his Holy Spirit. We have Jesus living inside of us. The scripture says in 1 John 4:4, "Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world." Greater is he who is in you than any six-fingered giant. The Lord is the dread champion. As Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 20:11, "The Lord is with me like a dread champion." Who can whip the dread champion? He's the all-time Jesus Christ, the all-time undisputed heavyweight champion of the universe. He doesn't lose any fights, and he is inside of me. He is there with me.

How do you defeat the six-fingered giant? How do you break the stronghold? You break it in Jesus. There are three things you need to do. Number one, keep looking to Jesus. You know, we talked about that verse in Hebrews that says, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. We're to lay aside that sin, even the sin that so easily trips us up. The very next verse says, "Looking, fixing our eyes on Jesus." Looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. Get your eyes off your giant. Get your eyes on the Lord. Keep looking to the Lord. Even when you fail, keep looking to the Lord. When you go up against that iron chariot sin, keep looking to the Lord. Keep your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.

And keep speaking the truth. Number two, I keep my eyes on Jesus, and I keep speaking the truth. What is the truth? Well, the truth is opposite from the six-fingered giant's taunts and lies. The truth of God never says, "This is the way I am." The truth of God never says, "You're never gonna have victory." The truth of God never says, "You're a bum and a scum and a drunk and a dirtbag." The truth of God doesn't say that. So I say in my heart what God says about me, and I speak the truth within. Psalm 15, verses 1 and 2 says this: "O Lord, who may abide in your tent, who may dwell on your holy hill? He who walks with integrity and works righteousness and speaks truth in his heart."

It's so important to speak truth in your heart because the enemy keeps telling you, "Yeah, but that's not true because you keep failing. You're talking about victory. You're speaking words of victory. But look, I am so much stronger than you. I have six fingers. You've never been able to get out of my grasp in this area of life. I own you." That's the reality. Those are the facts. Listen, truth is not what you think. Truth is not what you feel. Truth is what God says. What happened to you yesterday doesn't determine what is going to happen to you today and in the future. You keep speaking what God says in his word. You keep speaking the truth in your heart.

Galatians 5:1: "It was for freedom that Christ set us free." That's the truth. Romans, chapter 6: "For sin shall not have dominion over you." That's the truth. Philippians 1, verse 6: "For I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perform it, will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." That's the truth. Romans 8:37: "In all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loves us." That's the truth. You have to keep telling yourself the truth, and listen, so very, very important: do not let yourself be defined by the enemy. Don't let him tell you who you are and what you can do. You let God tell you who you are. You let God tell you what you can do. And I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Keep seeking and looking to the Lord. Keep speaking the truth. And thirdly, keep seeing the victory. Proverbs 29, verse 18 says this: "Where there is no vision, the people perish." No vision. You and I have to have a vision before our eyes of what is going to be in our lives based on the truth of God's word. See, if you're all bound up and sin has you like that anaconda had that 8-year-old boy, just all bound, you have to start seeing your freedom. Why? Because God's word says it was for freedom that Christ set us free. You got to start seeing your freedom over that sin. Sin shall not have mastery and dominion over you, over me, over this church. So we start to see what God says. You see the victory.

Hey, if you're struggling with food and food becomes your giant and gluttony just has you in its clutches, you know what you need to do? You need to start visualizing a slimmer, trimmer you. I heard about one lady who was struggling with her weight and she was struggling with overeating. So she did something about it. She got a picture of a very slim, trim woman in a bikini and she stuck it inside her refrigerator. Her daughter came home from college and saw the picture in the refrigerator and said, "Mom, what is this?" She said, "Well, that's to help me." Her daughter asked, "Is it working?" She said, "Well, yes and no. I've lost 10 pounds, but your father's gained 20."

You gotta have a vision of what you're going to be. Without a vision, the people perish. See, look to the Lord. Let the God of hope fill you with hope. If you're caught in drugs and in alcohol, in substance abuse, see yourself free. Keep putting that vision before you. "I'm gonna be free. God is breaking me out. The devil is not as powerful. The sin is not as powerful as God. I'm looking to him. I'm trusting him. I'm speaking the truth in my heart." That's what David did when he faced Goliath. When Goliath barked at him and yelled at him and cursed him by his gods and said, "Come here to me, little boy. I'm going to break you up in little pieces. I'm going to feed you to the pigeons."

David, who was speaking the truth in his heart, David, who saw a vision for victory, said to Goliath, "You come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted this very day. I am going to cut off your head and I'm going to take your life. I'm going to feed you to the pigeons so that all the earth may know that there's a God in Israel. God doesn't deliver by sword or by spear. The battle is the Lord's, and he will deliver you into our hands."

You and I need to see the victory before us. Speak words of faith, and build up your inner man with the truth of God's word. God wants to set us free. Listen, as a church, God wants to set us free. There's a stronghold in this community. It's called the stronghold of religion. It's the stronghold of the fear of man. It's the stronghold of looking good on the outside and being rotten on the inside. And God wants to break it. He wants to change people from the inside out. You gotta get honest. You gotta get real. Say, "God, here's where I am." And God, I'm gonna begin to speak the truth, and I'm gonna begin to claim what your word says.

Speaker 1

You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, where today we're learning that there's always power when we agree with God's word and claim His promises, as young David did when he faced the giant of Goliath. But you and I must be honest with ourselves and with God about the stronghold that keeps us in its grip.

In a moment, Pastor Jeff returns to conclude the lesson with a convicting life example of a man who defeated what he thought was an overwhelming giant in his life. And it can happen to you. You see, all this month, Pastor Jeff has been helping us face giants. Which ones control you? Anger? Lust? Guilt? Insecurity? Discontentment? Or worry? Or maybe all of them. Or others.

Hey, we all struggle with those kinds of problems, and they seem to get bigger and bigger, harder to conquer. But Pastor Jeff Shreve can help you understand the power of God that is available to you today to overcome these giants. His popular seven-message series, Land of the Giants: How to Deal with Your Biggest Problems, is our special gift of thanks to you this month for your support of any amount to From His Heart.

It's available on CDs, DVDs, MP3 download, or on a USB flash drive. When you just call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE) or go to fromhisheart.org, these giants actually are all spiritual problems. Learn how to use the power that is already yours as a child of God.

This is the last day we'll be making this offer, so visit us online today or call 866-40-BIBLE and receive our gift of thanks to you: the Land of the Giants series. We'll also send you the booklet When You Don't Like Yourself. God bless you for supporting From His Heart.

Now let's conclude this dynamic lesson called the Giant of Strongholds from Pastor Jeff.

Speaker 2

You know, as I've been preaching this series, I got inspiration for this series from this book, *The Giant Killers* by Dennis Jernigan. I heartily recommend this book. I read this book, and every time I read a book, if I read something good, I always dog ear it. This is a new copy, my copy at home. I have about, I don't know, 100 pages. Dog ear. It's a 180-page book. Every page is just like, "That's good, that's good." It's such a good book.

And you know what I love about this book? I love the author, Dennis Jernigan. I love the fact that he shares his struggle. He shared about his six-fingered giant. His six-finger giant was homosexuality. That's what had a hold of him. That's what he couldn't seem to break. And he heard the taunts of the enemy, the jeers of the enemy, the lies of the enemy. "Listen, Dennis, once gay, always gay. This is the way you were born. You're never gonna be anything more than a homosexual. You're not going to have a ministry, you're not going to have a family. You're not gonna have any of those things. Cause I own you, boy." That's what he heard.

But he began to seek the Lord. God did such a work in his heart. And Dennis Jernigan began to believe the very, very simple truth that you and I so often forget. Jesus really does love me just the way I am. He loves me, but he loves me too much to leave me in the situation that I'm in. And when Dennis Jernigan began to believe that God really does love him, a person who's struggling with a terrible, horrible sin, a person who has the six-fingered giant around him, that has that anaconda all around him, can't break free, he began to seek the Lord.

He began to speak words of faith. He said, "I'm coming out." He said, "I am not going to be bound anymore." The enemy says, "You're a homosexual. Once gay, always gay." And Dennis Jernigan said, "I'm a heterosexual. I'm a new creation in Christ." The enemy said, "But you were born this way." And Dennis Jernigan said, "Yeah, and I've been born again. I've been born again." And he began to just trust God.

The enemy says, "You'll never marry." He said, "I'm going to marry." The enemy says, "You're never going to have children." He said, "I'm going to have children." The enemy said, "You're not going to have a ministry because your past is going to tear you down." And Dennis Jernigan said, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has God removed my transgressions from me. He's buried them in the depths of the sea. He's pushed a sign that says no fishing." And he said, "I'm gonna have a ministry."

And this day, Dennis Jernigan has a wife, nine children, and a ministry that blesses people all over the world. Amen. God broke the six-fingered giant that had such a hold on him. And the same God that did that for him, the same God who loves him, loves you. And he wants to do that for you. He will do it for you if you'll seek him with all your heart, if you'll speak the truth in your heart, and even when you fail, you claim Micah 7:8: "Do not gloat over me, my enemy. Though I have fallen, I will rise."

Speaker 1

So here's the question: Is there in you right now a stronghold that you are letting or have let get control of your life? Only through Jesus and his power will you have victory that can take you out from under such a weight of sin. Do you know that your sins are forgiven? Do you really know that? Would you like to know that you can allow me to lead you in this prayer?

And remember, it's not the repeating of these particular words themselves that save you. It's the condition and intent of your repentant heart and the genuine faith you have in God alone. For everything that does that work for you for today and for eternity. From your heart, pray something like this that echoes your heart and feelings:

Say, "Father in heaven, you sent your son Jesus to die for me and you raised him from the dead so I could know that I too can conquer death through what Jesus Christ did for me on the cross. I want to become your child. Jesus, come into my heart, forgive my sin, and save me. I repent and surrender to you as Lord, and please make me the person you want me to be. I trust you to save me, and I thank you for saving me. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen."

Now, if you've trusted Christ, please go to fromisheart.org and click the Contact Us tab on our website and let us know of your decision. It would be a great encouragement to us for sure.

And be sure to click on the "Why Jesus?" icon on our website for some free downloadable resources to help you in your new Christian walk. We are thrilled and thank you for listening, for your prayers, and for telling others about this broadcast outreach of Pastor Jeff Shreve.

I'm Larry Nobles inviting you to be with us next time as Pastor Jeff transitions from big giants to big questions. It's a series entitled "Life's Big Questions." That's next time right here on From His Heart.

Speaker 2

There is tremendous truth Love that you always dream, Love he can heal every scar.

Speaker 1

From his heart is the listener supported Broadcast Ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world.

Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out more at from his heart dot org.