In this message, pastor Clint applies biblical teaching to the issue of finding freedom through Christ from spiritual strongholds that manifest as physical addictions and habits of the flesh, psychological and emotional dysfunctions and distorted theological beliefs.

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Summary by Darrin Koehler

God created man mind, body, soul and spirit; it is Satan’s mission to build strongholds against each of these things in the believer’s life. He knows that he cannot take us from the security of the Father, but he still wants to kill us and make us completely ineffective. We all know what it’s like to have strongholds that hold us captive – to experience depression, bitterness, laziness, shame, etc. – but Jesus has made a way for us to be free.

Satan’s methods haven’t changed much, though. Since the beginning, in the garden of Eden, Satan cast doubt and question on God’s character. He did it with cunning and subtlety, feeding Eve half truths that seemed appealing at the time. He showed her the bells and whistles but hid the price tag. It’s his plan to cause us to rebel against and resist Godly authority. We see this as a pattern throughout the entire biblical narrative: against Moses, against the prophets, against the New Testament Apostles. It continues today.

To these strongholds, there is only one solution: repentance. Repentance is a gift from God that is made possible through the work of Jesus on the cross. The greek term for this word is a compound word which means a change of mind. This important because that is where repentance starts. It starts there, and it ultimately results in a permanent change in behavior. This is by the power of the Holy Spirit who enables us and empowers us for freedom. Repentance begins in the heart and mind, and bears fruit that is evident outwardly.

Sermon Passages

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CrossWay Church is a modern expression of the biblical community of faith, hope and love serving the cities of Debary, Orange City, Deltona, Deland, Sanford and the surrounding central Florida area. Our passion is for the glory and fame of Jesus Christ. Our vision is to effectively engage our contemporary culture with his timeless gospel. Our mission is to help people find and follow hard after him. Visit us on the web at crosswayflorida.com

Part four of a miniseries that explores a biblical theology of marriage and family. In this talk, pastor Clint discusses the New Testament teaching about divorce and remarriage.

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CrossWay Church is a modern expression of the biblical community of faith, hope and love serving the cities of Debary, Orange City, Deltona, Deland, Sanford and the surrounding central Florida area. Our passion is for the glory and fame of Jesus Christ. Our vision is to effectively engage our contemporary culture with his timeless gospel. Our mission is to help people find and follow hard after him. Visit us on the web at crosswayflorida.com

Part three of a miniseries that explores a biblical theology of marriage and family. In this talk, pastor Clint discusses Jesus’ high view of marriage.

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CrossWay Church is a modern expression of the biblical community of faith, hope and love serving the cities of Debary, Orange City, Deltona, Deland, Sanford and the surrounding central Florida area. Our passion is for the glory and fame of Jesus Christ. Our vision is to effectively engage our contemporary culture with his timeless gospel. Our mission is to help people find and follow hard after him. Visit us on the web at crosswayflorida.com

Part two of a miniseries that explores a biblical theology of marriage and family. In this talk, pastor Clint discusses the principle of two becoming one flesh.

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CrossWay Church is a modern expression of the biblical community of faith, hope and love serving the cities of Debary, Orange City, Deltona, Deland, Sanford and the surrounding central Florida area. Our passion is for the glory and fame of Jesus Christ. Our vision is to effectively engage our contemporary culture with his timeless gospel. Our mission is to help people find and follow hard after him. Visit us on the web at crosswayflorida.com

Part one of a miniseries that explores a biblical theology of marriage and family. In this talk, pastor Clint discusses the importance of building on a solid foundation.

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CrossWay Church is a modern expression of the biblical community of faith, hope and love serving the cities of Debary, Orange City, Deltona, Deland, Sanford and the surrounding central Florida area. Our passion is for the glory and fame of Jesus Christ. Our vision is to effectively engage our contemporary culture with his timeless gospel. Our mission is to help people find and follow hard after him. Visit us on the web at crosswayflorida.com

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CrossWay Church is a modern expression of the biblical community of faith, hope and love serving the cities of Debary, Orange City, Deltona, Deland, Sanford and the surrounding central Florida area. Our passion is for the glory and fame of Jesus Christ. Our vision is to effectively engage our contemporary culture with his timeless gospel. Our mission is to help people find and follow hard after him. Visit us on the web at crosswayflorida.com

Part eight of a miniseries that answers the questions, “What is the Gospel and how are we to respond?” In this talk, Pastor Clint addresses the hard issue of church health and unity, and church discipline. How do we protect the body of Christ from false teaching, division, and blatant unrepentant sin?

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So how do we deal with the Peacebreakers? By being either a peacefaker or peacemaker.
Peacebreaker – self-explanatory
Peacefaker – one who enables sin to continue by not “rocking the boat.” (often in denial)
Peacemaker – one who intervenes to bring shalom. (Don’t confuse with a pacifist.)

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” – Matt 5:9

3-tiered response of the Peacmaker. (Rises in severity)
1. Overlook
2. Intervention
3. Disassociation

What about Judging?

Didn’t Jesus say, “Judge not?” Yes.

Matthew 7:1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

but in the same sermon, on the same page, in the same chapter, almost in the same breath, Jesus also said:

Matthew 7:15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

The word has a range of meanings, just like our word “love.”

“judge” (krino) (3 meanings in the NT)
to decide, discern, determine, conclude, regard
to condemn, pass final verdict
to sue, stand trial, go to law

There is a judging that is punitive, and self-righteousness and condemning without offering the hope of repentance and restoration.

There is a judging that is protective, and discerning and loving that leads to intervention and, if needed, discipline.

For example, “Molesting children is wrong. Child molesters should not be allowed to work around children, but they should be incarcerated.”

That is a discerning, judicial and wise statement.

*One last thing… let’s never forget that the Jesus who showed mercy to humble sinners and ate with tax collectors is the same Jesus who called self-righteous religious hypocrites a bunch of snakes, and drove greedy con-men thieves from the temple with a whip.

Now back to the responses of a peacemaker.

I. Overlook
Some sins (offenses) need instant grace and forgiveness.

Prov 19:11 A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.

These are minor, personal offenses. They are out of character. No big deal. I don’t need to nitpick, just forgive. (BUT, if it bothers you enough to make you want to tell someone else, you must talk to them about it first.)

II. Intervention
Galatians 6:1 Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

This is where love takes guts. This is where the peacefakers are found out.

1 Cor 13:6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

Eph 4:15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

The lease loving thing you can do is prop someone up in there sin, and aid them in there irresponsibility.

For example, Prov 13:24 says that he that refuses to discipline a son hates him, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.

[1 Tim 5:19-21 states that elders are to be rebuked publicly.]

III. Disassociation (after intervention)

* this only applies to professing believers

A. False Teachers

2 John 1:10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him.
In Rev 2:20-23, Jesus said to the church at Thyatira, “20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. 21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.”

2 Pet 2:1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign LORD who bought them–bringing swift destruction on themselves.

Acts 20:28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.

B. Divisive

Stirs controversies, slanders, gossip.

Titus 3:10 Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him. 11 You may be sure that such a man is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.

C. Unrepentant blatant sin

Sexual immorality, greedy (covetous), idolater, slanderer (reviler), drunkard, swindler.

1 Cor 5:9 I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people– 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. 12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”

(Divine double standard.)

D. Idle Men (deadbeats)

2 Thess 3:6 In the name of the LORD Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. …14 If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of him. Do not associate with him, in order that he may feel ashamed. 15 Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

E. Someone sins against another directly, and refuses to repent or reconcile.

Matthew 18.15 “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. 16 But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector. 18 “I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19 “Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.

* These all require intervention, but only one requires disassociation: unrepentance.

IV. Restoration

What do we do when someone blows it and repents? Simple. Forgive, restore them to fellowship (but not necessarily leadership), and bear one another’s burdens.

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CrossWay Church is a modern expression of the biblical community of faith, hope and love serving the cities of Debary, Orange City, Deltona, Deland, Sanford and the surrounding central Florida area. Our passion is for the glory and fame of Jesus Christ. Our vision is to effectively engage our contemporary culture with his timeless gospel. Our mission is to help people find and follow hard after him. Visit us on the web at crosswayflorida.com

Part seven of a miniseries that answers the questions, “What is the Gospel and how are we to respond?” In this talk, Pastor Clint explains that as God’s chosen tribe, we are a living letter sent into a world of darkness to bring life. We are family, and there are few things the enemy hates more, so we learn why we must fight for our family to stay faithful to the mission of God.

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Summary by Darrin Koehler

As a part of Jesus’ body, we are all a testimony to the world around us. In 2 Cor 3:3 it says, “You show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” As “living letters,” we are ambassadors to this world, showing the kind of love that can only come from God – a selfless and sacrificial love (Greek: agape). We are instructed in Colossians to “put on… compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love.” Put on love? Paul describes the character of agape love in 1 Corinthians 13:

Shortly before Jesus was crucified, he prayed for His disciples – us. He prayed, “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” It is absolutely essential to our purpose and mission on this earth that we are in unity and love as Christ’s body. We are plan A – there is no plan B.

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CrossWay Church is a modern expression of the biblical community of faith, hope and love serving the cities of Debary, Orange City, Deltona, Deland, Sanford and the surrounding central Florida area. Our passion is for the glory and fame of Jesus Christ. Our vision is to effectively engage our contemporary culture with his timeless gospel. Our mission is to help people find and follow hard after him. Visit us on the web at crosswayflorida.com

Part six of a miniseries that answers the questions, “What is the Gospel and how are we to respond?” In this talk, Pastor Clint explains what it means to no longer be enemies, orphans or exiles, but instead to be part of the Tribe of Jesus.

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Summary by Darrin Koehler

No one can be a Christian and be apathetic to Jesus at the same time. In fact, 1 Peter 2 emphasizes this point, “to you who believe, this stone [Jesus Christ] is precious. But to those who do not believe, ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone,’ and, ‘a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.”

Now, the significance of Jesus being the capstone, or cornerstone, is tremendous. The imagery that Peter painted would have been very clear to the readers of the day. The cornerstone is the single most important part of the building process. It is the first step; and if the cornerstone is not laid perfectly – with exact precision – then the whole rest of the building will be crooked. Likewise, our families, marriages, relationships, business decisions, and every other aspect of our lives must be built on Jesus Christ as the foundation. Otherwise, they are in vain, and will not stand against the storm.

Keep in mind, however, that the dwelling place of God is not in buildings or temples or sanctuaries. According to the new testament, God resides in the regenerate hearts of believers. This is called the Church, or Christ’s body. 1 Corinthians 12 describes the body of Christ as being made up of many different parts that all serve an integral purpose and function. When one part of the body hurts, the whole body hurts. As Christians, we are given many, many commands for one-anothering. Here are just a few of them:

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CrossWay Church is a modern expression of the biblical community of faith, hope and love serving the cities of Debary, Orange City, Deltona, Deland, Sanford and the surrounding central Florida area. Our passion is for the glory and fame of Jesus Christ. Our vision is to effectively engage our contemporary culture with his timeless gospel. Our mission is to help people find and follow hard after him. Visit us on the web at crosswayflorida.com