Examining Our Temple for Strongholds to Overcome

This opening illustration I'll share today comes from Jay Vernon McGee, who was an American theologian. He shared this. He said, Perhaps one could set a new record and jump 30 feet, but nobody could jump to Catalina Island. It's humanly impossible. Every person would miss the mark because Catalina Island is 26 miles away. In Romans 3, verse 23, there is a universal statement that God gives to all men when he says, All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. He concludes by saying, All have missed the mark. All may have tried, but no one has ever come close to a spiritual Catalina. They all jumped. They all tried, of all sorts of things, but by birth, by choice, by action, by nature, man constantly misses the mark, no matter how good his intention may be.

We are currently in a time of the year where the Church of God considers the meaning of the spring biblical festivals of Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread. There is deep meaning behind these festivals, and each of us look forward to their arrival each year. God gives us these days as an annual reminder of the plan of salvation that he is in the process of working out. And these aspects of these days are critical to that plan. They are critical to us as Christians, the meaning behind these days and the importance of them. Specifically for the spring festivals, this is a time that we inwardly look at our lives and consider our motivation and how we measure up to the calling that we have as Christians. Let's open our Bibles this morning to 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 23.

1 Corinthians 11 and verse 23. The Apostle Paul shares instructions that he was given by Christ himself on the Passover and how it is to be observed and how our approach should be to it. Before the passage that we're going to get in here starting verse 23, prior to this, those in Corinth were not keeping this festival in the way that God had intended. There were some, maybe you'd say, corruption that had entered in, some sinful aspects that had entered into how they would gather and keep Passover. The Apostle Paul is providing clarification and guidance and instruction and correction in how he says that this festival should be observed. Specifically in verse 23, he gives us instructions that you and I still apply to our lives today. 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 23 says, This is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. He goes on to say, in the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, The cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

This word in this passage, let a man examine himself. This word examine is a Greek word, dokimazo. That word means to test, to prove, or to scrutinize, to discern, to prove, to try, to see whether a thing is genuine or not. We're given these instructions by the Apostle Paul as part of our preparation as we lead into this festival season, and of course, the Passover evening, to examine ourselves, to scrutinize, to see whether a thing is genuine or not, to see if we measure up. Now, just like that opening illustration, we don't measure up. We can never jump to Catalina Island. We can't jump 26 miles. We will never be perfect as we are human in the flesh. Until God changes us to spirit beings, until He replaces our nature fully with His nature living within us, we will battle struggles and we will never measure up to the stature and to the measure of Jesus Christ. But regardless, we are told that we should examine ourselves at this time of the year. We should consider the past year, consider the events that have gone on, consider our attitudes, our approach, our motivations again, for why we do the things we do.

We should also consider the ways that we have sought after righteousness. These are those positive steps that we've made over the last year, those improvements from maybe previous years or even many previous years. Those ways that we have worked towards and sought after righteousness, but also, of course, areas where we have fallen short of the measure of Christ, which, of course, these are those negative parts. Without proper examination and consideration, we risk taking the Passover in an unworthy manner, as Paul taught right here in 1 Corinthians 11. So in the time we have together today, let's explore the human temple of God and the strongholds that need to be overcome. We'll look at ourselves as the human temple of God and the strongholds that we each need to overcome. In both of his letters to the church in Corinth, the Apostle Paul expresses that individually and collectively, each of us with God's Spirit dwelling in us are the temple of God. A couple questions for all of us today. How is our temple? How can we continue to prepare our temple for this upcoming year? Consideration of these questions and the passages we will look at in a moment, I'll share a note from the Life Application Study Bible. Consider with me if our nation today could be described in similar words as the city of Corinth is described here from this biblical resource. It says, Corinth was a very cosmopolitan city with rampant corruption, idolatry, and immorality. It was a difficult place for a Christian to live. Corinth, a giant cultural melting pot with a great diversity of wealth, religions, and moral standards, had a reputation for being fiercely independent and as a decadent, or in a state of moral decay or cultural decline, being fiercely independent and as a decadent, as any city in the world, meaning it was as evil as any city at that time. The Romans had destroyed Corinth in 146 BC after a rebellion. But in 46 BC, so 100 years later, the Roman emperor Julius Caesar rebuilt it because of its strategic seaport. By Paul's day, which was AD 50, the Romans had made Corinth the capital of Achaea, which is present-day Greece. It was a large city offering Rome great profits through trade as well as the military protection of its ports. But the city's prosperity made it ripe for all sorts of corruption. Idolatry flourished, and there were more than a dozen pagan temples employing at least a thousand prostitutes. He goes on to say in describing the church, it says, The Corinthian church included a great cross-section of believers, wealthy merchants, common laborers, former temple prostitutes, and middle-class families. Because of the wide diversity of people and backgrounds, Paul takes great pains to stress the need for both spiritual unity and Christian-like character. It's again from the Life Application Study Bible. With this background, let's turn a little bit backwards to 1 Corinthians 3.

And we'll start reading here in verse 11. As we consider the backdrop, this city of Corinth with its temples to pagan and false gods surrounding the people, as Paul shares this letter, and as this letter would have been read in front of God's people there in this city, consider what he says here about us being the temple of God. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 11, Paul says, If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer a loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as though through fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. As any physical temple that has ever existed, whether it was the tent of meeting in the wilderness, whether it was Solomon's temple that he built or temples later, where God's Spirit dwelled in those physical buildings and those physical structures, Paul is telling us that God's Spirit dwells within us. And because of that, we are holy. We are set apart. God has set us apart through baptism and through giving us his Holy Spirit. And this is why Paul here refers to us as the temple of God. Paul repeats this a second time in this first letter, in a few chapters forward, in 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 19. But in this one that we're going to turn to here, he focuses more on the individual aspects that each of us are the temple of God. 1 Corinthians 6 verses 19 and 20. Paul again says this, Notice, it's not a collective. He doesn't say, your bodies are the temple of God. He's bringing this down to a personal level in the context of what he's talking about. He's talking about marriage, a husband and a wife becoming one. And that when we are baptized and we receive God's Spirit, we become one with God because of the indwelling of his Spirit. And with that individual focus, he says this again in 19, That your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you. Verse 20, There's a third reference, this time in 2 Corinthians 6, where Paul again emphasizes that we are the temple of God. 2 Corinthians 6 verses 14 through 18. 2 Corinthians 6 verses 14. In the second letter to the church in Corinth, Paul says this, Fellowship and communion are similar words. Again, what communion, what partnership, what participation has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? This is another name or a title for Satan. Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? How could the temple of God have a false idol erected in its midst? He's asking the question.

Sometimes we read through these passages and lose sight of the magnitude of what is being said and described here. Again, I'll just recap these three passages. The phrase, the first one, Paul said, you are the temple of God. The second, he said, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. The third, he says, you are the temple of the living God. As the commentary pointed out, Corinth had an abundance of temples to pagan gods. So when the believers in Corinth would have heard these statements by Paul, it would have immediately brought to mind the temples that surrounded them, and they would have been able to visualize the contrast that Paul was trying to make.

They probably walked past some of these temples on their way to gather on this day this letter was read. They obviously would have walked past them on their way home with this letter fresh in their mind, considering the contrast of what's going on in these buildings with these false gods. These temples all around them contained idols with men vainly worshipping these idols as if they could do anything for them.

The Bible was full of several passages. I didn't want to draw attention away from what we're focusing on today and draw this out too long. But there are so many passages, primarily in the Old Testament but also in the New, where God inspired the prophets and others to write, and even some of the psalmist to write and describe how vain and how useless idol worship is.

They go out and they cut down a tree. They then use tools and craft it into an idol. They use stone, and then they erect it, and then they pray to it. And then they say these useless items that they have drawn, and they make eyes and ears, give them hands. But yet none of that is functional for these idols.

They can't see. These idols of wood they can't hear. Their hands may be extended, but they don't lift anything. They can't move anything. And God has inspired us to consider, not only from the past history, those to consider at that time, but for us to consider today, these idols are useless. And it's almost comical, the way that sometimes it's described here in Scripture, that how useless these idols are as if they can do anything, as if they can do a single thing for people, for mankind.

And this is the mindset that Paul was leaving with those in Corinth as they walked home after hearing this letter, and as they looked around, and as they considered these temples with these pagan gods, and the people lined up, not only to try to worship these gods, but to do other acts that are prohibited in Scripture. You and I, we have to compare and contrast the society that we live in in the same way. Have we established idols in our temple today? Part of this time that we are in is that examination time. Are there idols that you and I have?

Are there things that we have built into our life that we find comfort from, or that we feel support us in one way or another? If we have erected idols in our lives, be them pleasures or pursuits, they have to be torn down and they have to be destroyed. Consider for a moment, if I walked in here today and say I brought a golden calf with me, and I set it in the corner of our room. Imagine that. Imagine how would that make you feel?

You'd be appalled. You couldn't take your eyes off of it. I could give the best sermon that I've ever been inspired to give, and it would be a distraction because of that idol. Or say I brought some religious statue that people worshipped God today. How uncomfortable would that make you feel in here today? But do we allow things into our lives that should equally make us just as uncomfortable? Are there things that we've treated as idols that we've established in our lives that should repulse us to the core, as if I brought a golden calf and said, this is our God?

As much as that repulses you, we each have to consider are there things in our lives that we've erected, that we've allowed to become such a great emphasis in our lives and impact to our lives, as if I brought in a golden calf today. Lawrence Notes shares this. He says, And this is what I really found impactful from Barnes Notes. He says, And assuredly, if Christians had such a sense of the abomination of mingling with the world, they would feel the obligation to be separate and pure. This is that mindset that we must develop if we do not have it today against those idols in the world.

It was idols that maybe have become erected in our own temple, as we are the temple of God. God is dwelling in us through His Spirit, and we must be separate from a sinful, polluted, and self-focused world. We must cleanse our temples from any idols that have been built. So, as Paul described here in 1 Corinthians 11, when we first looked at today, we must examine our lives and consider the shape of our temple.

As we continue to examine our lives during this time of the year, something else we should be searching for and identifying are strongholds of sin. Again, in 2 Corinthians here, Paul describes these strongholds and how they can be torn down. Let's look at this couple chapters forward in 2 Corinthians 10 and verse 3. 2 Corinthians 10, verses 3-6. Here Paul says, For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. Why would we need weapons of God if these were not negative things, if we did not have these in our lives?

He says, For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, they are not of this earth, they are not of human thought or mind, but they are mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. Casting down arguments in every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

This word, stronghold, is the only occurrence in the Greek of this word throughout the New Testament. It's used once throughout by Paul right here as strongholds.

It can also mean or be described as a castle, a stronghold, a fortress, and to bring it down to a more personal level, anything on which one relies. It feels safe to have walls up around you. If you had a big walled city, thick walls, tall walls, towers on these walls to protect you from invading armies, you'd take comfort in that if you were in the right spot to be. But when sin gets a stronghold in our life, it can be like these towering walls that seem too much to tear down or too big, too immovable. How can I do this?

As Paul references, God has not left us ill-equipped to bring down the strongholds, these fortresses that we negatively rely on in our lives. Paul assures us that God's mighty weapons, and some of them are prayer, faith, hope, love, God's Word, the Holy Spirit, these powerful, mighty weapons, they're powerful and they're effective. These weapons or tools can break down the false pretenses that we use to fool ourselves at times, right? To believe that our issues or our sins are not that big of a deal.

My job, my lifestyle, the things I choose to do in life, none of these are really idols. They're not really that big of a deal. They're just things I kind of tinker in. Ideas I let enter my mind from time to time. I don't focus a lot of my attention on it. I don't get drawn into these things. Sometimes we fall into this false way of thought. Or maybe my attitude towards another, the words I use with another, they're just words. They're not that big of a deal. Everyone says these things. Or maybe everyone gets frustrated with people and blur out things out of anger or frustration. It's just part of being human, right?

This is definitely the thought pattern Satan wants us to have so that these strongholds become established. Satan wants these strongholds, these fortresses, to come between our relationship with God. But these strongholds, they have to come down. Paul says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal.

They are not of the flesh. They are not tools that people in society can use. But weapons that only those who are seeking out God can understand and fully utilize. We do not depend on how well we speak, or our abilities, or our talents, or what school we went to, or what education we have, or how much money we have in our bank account, or any of the things that we see people often rely on in life.

These are not the things that we can rely on. These are not the things that are powerful enough to tear down strongholds. God is the creator, the originator of these weapons He has gifted us with the ability to use. So we are not ill-equipped. We do not have bad or faulty tools to tear down these strongholds. God hasn't sent us up against a walled city that then just left us there to flounder and say, Well, I guess you guys can't cut it.

I guess maybe next year you can tear down this stronghold. I guess I didn't give you what you needed this year, did I? That's not the God that we serve. From that moment that God started calling us, we committed our lives. Especially that moment that He put His own spirit within us. His power, not man's power, not any power that this earth can create or can give to someone. God gave us His own power. We're not ill-equipped to tear down these strongholds.

Even as great as these walls may seem, God has not only sent us forth, to tear these strongholds down, but He has equipped us with power to bring these down. Not through our own might, but through His. So it's during this time of the year that we examine our lives and consider the shape of our temple. We look for those strongholds of sin so we can acknowledge them before God. At this point, we must then make a wholehearted effort to overcome, both right now and throughout the year. In the book of Joshua, we have the account of the Israelites crossing the Jordan River, and for the first time entering the Promised Land. But it wasn't just as easy as entering the land God had promised to their forefathers and now brought them each to.

They had to be overcomers of the nations around them so they could possess the land that God was giving to them. In a similar way, you and I have been called to God to understand Him and His teachings, and through the death and resurrection of our Lord, we have a down payment on eternal life. But as with the Israelites, there's still work to be done in your and my life.

The nations in the Promised Land had to be driven out because God's people could not live in the midst of an idolatrous nation and be influenced by their sin. But these nations would not be driven out by the people's own hands.

They would be driven out by God's power and His might. Let's turn to Joshua, and we'll start looking at, I think it's Joshua 6. And consider some of these strongholds that came down through the power of God. I've shared before how much fun it is to read through these accounts. You realize these actual accounts really did happen. And in them, it's kind of like reading an action-adventure comic book, because there's so much action, stories, amazing events that occur through God's mighty hand. The first of these strongholds the Israelites encountered was the great walled city of Jericho.

Archaeologists have excavated and examined the old city of Jericho and have found many interesting aspects to this ancient city. Jericho would have been a strong city that was thriving, not a weak city that didn't have a mighty income or prosperity or even an army. They would have been a city that was thriving, located about six miles from the Jordan River and about 17 miles away from Jerusalem.

It sat at a crossroads for several cities and would have been busy and active in trade. Inside, it had a large gushing spring that flowed up from within the city, and the fertile plains around the city that surrounded it earned the distinction the city of palm trees was so fertile. The city was designed to withstand assault. It was a double walled city. One wall wasn't good enough. Nothing was coming up against this city with its two-walled system. The first wall was a two-part wall.

Huge stones were built into an embankment, or like what we would call a retaining wall today. So you've got this hill. You're going to want to keep it retained. So it had these huge stones built into an embankment, which were 15 feet high. And then on top of that was a brick wall 6 feet wide and 20 to 26 feet high. So this was a huge outer wall in the city.

But if somehow an assaulting army was to get inside, whether over the wall, punch a hole in the wall, come through, break down some gate and get within the city, there was that second wall. That was taller than the first. 46 feet high was the second wall, and it would have trapped invaders between the walls where they could be more easily defeated. This was the first stronghold that Joshua and the Israelites faced upon entering the Promised Land. Let's pick up the story here in Joshua 6 in verse 1. Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel. None went out and none came in. They were fearful.

They had heard about what Israel had battled before, the victories God had given them. They had heard about how God parted and stopped the Jordan River, which was in flood season. This is the spring. It was overcoming its banks. It was flooding. It was a huge river coming through. God stopped it so they could walk through on dry ground. The second time that God's Israelites were able to walk across a huge chasm of water on dry ground. They'd heard this, and they were scared and fearful. Even with this double-walled system, they shut up the gates tight. Nobody was coming. Nobody was going. And the Lord said to Joshua in verse 2, Notice this statement.

It's not the first time that we're going to hear God say this type of a statement as Israel started tearing down these strongholds. And for you and me today, on a spiritual level, God is saying the same thing to us. See, I have given Jericho into your hand, its kings, and the mighty men of Valor. You shall march around the city, all of you men.

You shall go all around the city once. And this you shall do six days. And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. Shall come to pass when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout. Then the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up every man straight before him.

Then Joshua, the son of Nun, called the priests and said to them, Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of the Lord. Then he said to the people, Proceed, and march around the city, and let him who is armed advance before the ark of the Lord.

Wow! This does not seem like the way that I would go about taking Jericho.

This is not how I would tear down a stronghold. Because I'm not God. Because I am not equipped right now as a human being with my wisdom to take down the city this way. But God is making sure that the Israelites know it's not through their strength, it's not through their might, that the stronghold is going to fall into their hands. He's making sure they realize it is going to be through his ability, his strength, his gifts that is going to make this happen. Now Joshua commanded the people, So he had the ark of the Lord circle the city, going around it once, then they came into the camp and launched in the camp. Verse 14, And the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp, so they did this, so they did six days. But it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose earlier about the dawning of the day and marched around the city seven times in the same manner. On that day only they marched around the city seven times. And the seventh time it happened, when the priests blew the trumpets, and Joshua said to the people, The people shouted, For the Lord has given you the city. What an amazing statement and an exciting time. We can shout for joy when our strongholds come down. Not because, again, of our might, because God has given us that victory. In verse 20, Joshua 6, verse 20, So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpet, And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, And the people shouted with a great shout that the wall fell down flat. The people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.

After Jericho, the Israelites had to take the city of Ai. After an initial setback of taking the city because of not properly following God's instructions, And atoning for the sin that was committed, God promised Israel would overcome, though, and take the city. This is in Joshua 8, and we'll start reading in verse 1. Now the Lord said to Joshua, Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed. Take all the people of war with you, and arise, and go up to Ai. See? And here's that statement again. I have given into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land. And you shall do to Ai and its kings, as you did to Jericho and its kings.

So Joshua rose in verse 3, And all the people of war, to go up against Ai. And Joshua chose thirty thousand mighty men of hour, and sent them away by night. And then verse 18, Then the Lord said to Joshua, And this is after the battle had began, And God gave them specific instructions on how to take this city. And they had followed through up to this point. And verse 18, it says, Then the Lord said to Joshua, Stretch out the spear that is in your hand towards Ai, For I will give it into your hand.

It's one thing to take Jericho, isn't it? One thing for that stronghold to come down. And we can be thankful, and we can bless God when he takes some of our stronghold, And one major stronghold brings it down. But God doesn't give us an opportunity to relax and take it easy at that point, does he? He didn't give that to Israel either. It's time for another stronghold to come down.

And this was the city of Ai, and he gave it into their hands. He's not done yet. After these spectacular victories by God, Word spread through the surrounding areas of the Israelites' victories and their great God. Each individual king in the surrounding areas knew that they were no match.

So the southern kings all banded together in order to overwhelm Israel in battle. Have you ever felt, maybe, that Satan is one of those? He sees us overcoming. He sees God delivering the victory into our hands at stronghold coming down, And then he circles his troops, doesn't he, sometimes?

An extra emphasis, an extra attack is sent our way. He doesn't just walk away and say, Well, I guess this person of God, God is with them, And they're going to make good choices from here on out. As the kings did in this land, Satan often will figure out a new attack, A new approach.

Let's band together. Let's see if we can overwhelm this Christian, And then allow them to lose heart. Let's turn to chapter 9 and verse 1 now. Joshua 9 and verse 1, it says, And it came to pass, when all the kings who were on this side of the Jordan, In the hills and in the low lands, And in all the coasts of the great sea toward Lebanon, The Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, They heard about it, that they gathered together to fight with Joshua and Israel with one accord.

We'll skip ahead in the same story, but we'll skip ahead to Joshua 10 and verse 3 and pick it up here. Therefore Adonai Zedek, the king of Jerusalem, Sent to Holharm, king of Hebron, Haram, king of Jarmoth, Japa, king of Leshesh, and Dibur, king of Egon, Saying, Come up to me and help me, that we may attack Gibeon, For it has made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel.

Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, the kings of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, The king of Jarmoth, and the king of Leshesh, and the king of Egon, Gathered together and went up, they and all their armies, and camped before Gibeon to make war against it. And then verse 7, so Joshua ascended from Gilgal, so he's to the south of Gibeon in Gilgal, And so he ascended, once he got word that the camps were coming up to battle Gibeon, Says he ascended from Gilgal, and he and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of Valor.

And the Lord said to Joshua, Do not fear them, for I have delivered them into your hands. That statement, that powerful statement again, Not a man of them shall stand before you. Joshua therefore came up on them suddenly, having marched all night from Gilgal. So not only were they exhausted from marching, in a previous passage, they took their time, And it took them about three days to get there, but this was urgent. They left in the night, no man got to sleep, they powered through, Should have arrived there weak and needing a rest. And then God gave them the sustenance, the internal support that they needed, To then go forward and fight strongly.

Because they marched in verse 9, all night, from Gilgal. So the Lord routed them before Israel, killing them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, And chased them along the road that goes to Beth-Haron, And struck them down as far as Azakai and Makada. And it happened as they fled before Israel, When on the sense of Beth-Haron that the Lord cast down large hailstones from heaven on them, As far as Azakai and they died. So we see another example, that sometimes when our battles against Satan, And we feel like we're losing ground, or we just can't keep up, Then God, in a super miraculous way, intervenes and gives us an extra amount of strength that we shouldn't have. A renewed focus that maybe we didn't always maintain, Or He just provides deliverance from something that we need to be delivered from, As He did casting down large hailstones from heaven to bring the victory to Israel. But again, it doesn't end here because these kings of the northern territories now, Southern kings are defeated, northern territories are shaken in their boots, They've grouped together also in order to stand against the Israelites. Joshua 11 and verse 1 this time.

And it came to pass, Joshua 11.1, when Jabin, King of Hazor, And I'm going to skip a lot of these other names to just keep from embarrassing myself. He went to another king, and another king, verse 2, and another king from the north. Verse 3, And the Canaanites to the east and the west, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perozites, and the Jebusites, And the mountains and the Hivites below Herman in the land of Mizpah. And so they went out, and they and all their armies with them, As many people as the sand that is on the seashore and multitude. This is huge. This is an army coming to stop Israel. No more. We're pulling everything we got together to fight with very many horses and chariots. And you've got to remember, Israel did not have the horses and the chariots. So they are at a disadvantage again. Verse 5, And when all these kings had met together, they came and camped together at the waters of Miram to fight against Israel. But the Lord said to Joshua, Do not be afraid because of them. For tomorrow, about this time, I will deliver all of them slain before Israel. Again, God says, I've got this. I will deliver them into your hands. You will prevail. Another stronghold is coming down. In all, through these accounts, God provided victory over 31 kings as he delivered the Promised Land to the Israelites. God's people were overcomers, not by their own might, but by the mighty hand of God. So often, the struggles we battle with self seem too much for us to overcome. Or maybe they have become a stronghold, and the barrier seems too great. However, just like God assured the Israelites of victory time and time again, we have received assurance from God that we will also become victors if we will do our part and courageously attack the sins in our lives. It's a battle that we can win, not on our own might, but through the strength of God and his Holy Spirit working powerfully in our lives. On the eve of Jesus' mock trial and crucifixion, Christ shared these words with his disciples. He says, These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. How much we want that peace in our lives, right? That spiritual peace. That knowing that the guilt has been lifted away. We don't have to carry more guilt with us as we go through life. Christ says here, he says, That in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. Christ says, But be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. It's in John 16 and verse 33. We too, through the strength of God's Spirit, must be overcomers of the world. Through Christ and his resurrection, and with God's Spirit dwelling inside our hearts and minds, we have the power to be overcomers today. Like Joshua and the mighty warriors in Israel, we must be courageous to face the strongholds in our lives and to bring them down. But not through our own strength, but again, the strength of God. And just like Joshua and Israel, we don't face our challenges alone. God wants to be intimately involved in our struggles against sin, and he wants to aid us every way that he can. For our final passage, let's read what Paul shares as he closes out his second letter to the church in Corinth, 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5.

2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5. 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5.

Again, staying on the same thought of examining yourself as Paul shared in 1 Corinthians and now 2 Corinthians, and he shares it here at the end of this letter. 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5. Examine yourself as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless, indeed, you are disqualified. This word, examine, is parazo in the Greek, which means to try, to make trial of, to test. It's for the purpose of ascertaining his quality or what he thinks or how he will behave himself. This word, parazo, is the same word used when Christ was tempted by Satan. Remember when Christ was tempted? Tempted there is the same word, parazo, which is examine. Christ had to be tested. He had to withstand. He had to use inner strength to make that stand against Satan. And it's the same word that is used that when Christ was tested by the Jewish leaders, he was either tempted or he was tested multiple times. It's that same word that is used here as examine. We have to ascertain our own quality of being able to do the right thing, to overcome sin, to fight the good fight. That's what Paul's saying here when he says, examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. And when he says, test yourselves, that word test is again, doquimazo, just as Paul used when he said, examine yourself. It's that same Greek word to test, to prove, to scrutinize, to discern, to see whether a thing is genuine or not. So Paul here at the end of his letter says, examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless, indeed, you are disqualified. As we do every year in advance of the spring festivals, let us each examine our lives. Let us consider the spiritual shape and environment of our temple. Let us consider the motivations that are leading our lives. Let us identify and acknowledge the strongholds that exist. Let us be overcomers.