 So my message today is who gets the last word and we're going to be reading out of 2nd Corinthians, chapter 10. So the theme verse is starting at verse 4, 2nd Corinthians 10, verse 4. Our theme verse is for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God, for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and 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. So Paul here is writing a second letter to the Corinthian church. I don't know if you guys know but Paul was the founder of the Corinthian church. Paul had been on this missionary trip where he would go from city to city giving out Jesus Christ to the people and Paul was the one who had founded these people. He was the one who originally brought Jesus Christ to them and people had gotten saved and then he had formed leadership there. He had stayed with them enough time that he had formed leaders and then his calling was to go on and move on to another city and continue to do his work. So he did that. He left the Corinthian church there in Corinth with leaders, with elders, and he felt he had spent enough time trying to establish their Christian walk and then later he'd come again and visit. But once he left he didn't just forget them. See he had a heart for them. He loved them and in his absence he would write them. He would write them these letters. So what we call First Corinthians, the book of First Corinthians or the book of Second Corinthians, they really love letters. They're really letters of concern where Paul would continue to just feed the sheep and nurture the sheep and lead them. So he wrote them in First Corinthians and then here again he writes them in Second Corinthians. In First Corinthians we know that he had to rebuke them for all sorts of things. Whenever you're dealing with people, whenever you're dealing with sheep, there's always things you're going to have to correct them. The spectrum of things that he had to correct went from, on one hand they were like, they went from not being believers to being believers and being so gracious that they were even allowing sin to be in the church and he had to correct that and then he corrected the division that was happening within the church because what happened that was that when people were getting saved they were starting to divide. They were saying, well you know what? I'm of Apollos and I'm of Paul and I'm of Jesus and it was almost like they were gangs within the church, right? Like they all became these really, really clicky and Paul had to address that and he corrected them and he told them, listen, none of us are anything. He said, in fact he says in First Corinthians 3-6, he says, I planted Apollos watered but God gave the increase. So he tells them, listen, none of us are anything. Like we all just come here, we all play our part but it's God who does the work and so he was constantly correcting them. You know the Corinthian church, they struggled even in their Christianity to you know walk and do the right thing and they even sometimes allowed their spiritual gifts, the things that God had given them and equipped them to minister to one another. They had actually started using it to puff themselves up and well you know what? Well I'm a teacher, well I speak in tongues and I do this and so he had to correct them for that too. So in love Paul was constantly writing these letters, constantly loving them. So whether he was there with them or whether he was away from them, he was always thinking about them. Another thing that he did was that when he wasn't there, he sent Titus. Titus was a young guy who Paul had trained up in the faith himself and so he sends Titus and he says, you know what Titus? I'm getting ready to go to Corinth. I want you to go ahead of me and I want you to you know go tell me what's happening, you know, let me know what's going down over there. So Titus comes back to Paul and he informs him about all the things that he saw and all the things that were going on in the city of Corinth in this church and so when we get to 2 Corinthians, this is a letter now where Paul is addressing the good and the bad that Titus reported to him and so it's got a whole bunch of different things. Usually when I teach I like to read the entire book to find out what's going on before the passage that I'm going to teach and there was a lot going on, you know. I myself have a brother who's in prison, he's in Texas and I just wrote him yesterday and because I was responding to something that he had written to me, my letters covered all kinds of stuff like I was writing to him about my mom, I was writing to him about my daughter, I was just like bouncing all over the place and so 2 Corinthians is kind of like that he covers a lot of things but towards the end of this letter he we get to this part in 2 Corinthians 10 1 and this is what he says he says now I Paul myself am pleading with you by the meekness and the gentleness of Christ who in presence and lowly among you but being absent and bold towards you but I beg you that when I am present I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh so here in verse one Paul addresses the accusations that some people were saying about him so he says in verse one and you can almost see him putting quotes because he says who in presence and lowly among you but being absent and bold towards you so this isn't something that he was saying about himself this is something that they were saying about him he they were pretty much accusing Paul of saying look you're all big and bad when you write your letters but when you show up you're nothing and that's kind of what they were saying and I know as a mom I can kind of relate this how many of you guys are at work and you send a text message to your kids and you tell your kid you know what I'm coming home and things better be the way that I told you they needed to be right my kids have kind of one up on me because I downloaded this app on my phone that's called life 360 and it tracks me and my family has this app because I used to run outdoors and my husband had a hard time because I would run at night and he would say you know somebody's gonna kill you one day so I say well you know what I'll put a tracking device so you can find me if they do kill me someday so my whole family has this app where they track me so the kids actually can tell when I'm around the corner they're like oh the the app goes off and mom's coming but I still sometimes send them that letter saying listen I'm gonna be home and I intend to be bold if things are not the way that they need to be right now imagine one of my kids tells the other one you know what mom always talks trash and her text messages but when she gets here she never does anything she never punishes us she just yells a lot or talks a lot but she doesn't do anything right then I would be like oh really oh really you know I don't do anything then I would be like okay well you know what I intend to be bold I intend to enforce what I said I like and this is what Paul was saying Paul was saying listen this is what the Word of God is telling you to do this is how you should be living now there's some of you who say that in my letters I'm strong but when I get there I don't do anything I don't rebuke I don't correct well you know what what I intend to be bold so he says please shape up do what you need to do because I don't want to have to be bold with the boldness that I intend to be so Paul intended to boldly confront those who were accusing him and Titus of walking according to the flesh so there was this accusation that these guys were actually coming and that they were in it for selfish reasons that Paul and Titus were not there because they love the people but they were there actually they were there for their own reputation and they were there for the money because one thing that Paul would do was that when Paul would travel from city to city he would take money from the wealthier churches he would ask them and they would give and then he would take it to the churches where Christians were less fortunate and where they had less and so there was this accusation that maybe Paul was in it for the money but how exactly is Paul going to confront these people how is he going to confront his critics well and Paul describes these people in in second Corinthians 11 13 in this way he says for some of them are false prophets I'm sorry false apostles deceitful workers transforming themselves into apostles of Christ and no wonder for Satan himself transform transforms himself into an angel of light so Paul is saying listen I'm going to have to confront some people I'm going to have to speak boldly to some people and he says these people some of them who are criticizing my ministry they pretend to be Christians they pretend to be apostles but you know what they're they're they're nothing more than what the enemy is somebody who pretends to be an angel of light and I know that in your life and in your ministries you come across this where you're trying to do a work for the Lord and people oppose you people criticize you you know they're not willing to do anything themselves for the Lord but they're all ready to criticize how you're doing something for the Lord and how do we deal with these things how do we deal with opposition in our lives well is he going to stoop down to their level no is he going to trash talk them no is he going to go on Facebook and blast them no that's not how he's going to do it in fact 2nd Corinthians 10 3 says for though we walk in the flesh we do not war according to the flesh so Paul tells him I am going to go over there I am going to be bold but listen even though I'm in the flesh in other words even though I'm human even though I live in this body I will not fight as humans do we are in this world but we are not of this world in fact James chapter 1 verse 19 through 20 tells us this so then my beloved brethren let every man be swift to hear slow to speak and slow to wrath and this is the key for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God do you realize that when you take matters into your into your own hands when you get carnal when you get in the flesh when you try to fight your own battles when you try to back yourself up you're never going to see the righteousness of God in that situation we need to make sure that we are fighting the right way and that we're fighting a spiritual war with spiritual weapons so God's righteousness cannot be seen in us when you and I decide to fight it out in our flesh as we continue to read in 2nd Corinthians 10 4 this is what he says he says for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but they are mighty in God for pulling down strongholds for casting down arguments in every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and we bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ so Paul understood that he was in a war and he knew who the real enemy was which is extremely important because listen if you don't even know that you are in a war then you're an easy pray if you don't know that you're in a war then you're not going to have your game face on you're not going to be ready to go to battle you know the fact that I know that I'm constantly in a spiritual war no matter what the enemy throws at me I have my game face on I'm ready I'm like oh I see this I know this before I'm going to teach at a retreat my life goes crazy before I'm going to teach at a conference all this doubt starts coming into my mind and into my heart before I'm going to do something for the Lord something always goes wrong but because I know that I'm in a spiritual war I know who the real enemy is it's not my kid who's acting a fool it's not my husband who suddenly becomes really needy it's none of those people there is an enemy behind it there is there's a war behind it and if you don't know that you're in a war then you're easy pray so the first thing that Paul acknowledges is that he is in a war there is a real spiritual fight going on if you don't understand again what kind of war you are in and what kind of enemy you are fighting you are going to be using the wrong types of weapon and you know I find that when we're using the wrong weapons and when we're fighting the wrong war we get exhausted we get so tired because no matter what we do or what we say things just don't change people don't change the situation doesn't change and a lot of times it's because we're fighting the wrong war we're fighting a war on the wrong level so it's important that we understand like Paul that the battle that you and I face every single day those battles are spiritual and that we need to fight back using spiritual weapons that are mighty in God Paul says our weapons are mighty in God and we choose to use the flesh instead so do you realize that there is a spiritual battle and a spiritual side to everything that you and I go through that the real battle is not the person who's irritating you right now that it's not the person who's not behaving the way you want them to right now that it's not the person who's criticizing you right now no the battle is against the spiritual forces that are motivating those people to behave the way that they are behaving you know I have a son who's 23 years old and I have to say by far he's definitely like my daredevil he's that middle child he's like if anybody's gonna do something crazy and stupid it's gonna be him right and he he has gone through so many different battles when he was 18 he got kicked out of school and then he kind of came back to the Lord came back to the Lord and we thought okay we're in the clear you know he kind of got whatever he needed to get out of his system and he went off to go to a Christian university you know with a scholarship and everything and we're like really happy we're like oh praise god this is behind us and then only come to find out that he was really living a double life that although he was going to a Christian university and he was you know functioning in school and he worked he had a job and he looked really good on the outside there was this whole other side to him he was sneaking out at night he was he had began to smoke cigarettes started vaping and eventually was doing drugs and he was doing all this crazy stuff and it got to the point where we had to give him an ultimatum and we had to ask him you're either gonna repent and stay or you're gonna take that stuff and you're gonna leave because there's you just can't live here in harmony with us and my son chose to keep his stuff and leave and he left and he was homeless for a couple of months all he had was his car he lost his scholarship lost his job and like I said was eventually just homeless in his car and then one day he came he called me asking for money and I said no I can't I'm not giving you I can't give you any money and he said mom I have nothing and I said yeah I know and I told him this is where you need to look up and figure out how did you get there and he came back and was repented was walking strong with the Lord and every now and then he gets these like urges to go back to doing something and it frustrates me and it gets me angry and I start to think like well why can't he just get it together why can't he just figure this out doesn't he understand how his decisions affect me how it affects how I feel his family our reputation and I start thinking about me me me me but then when I realized that there's a real battle for the soul of my son and for his life rather than battling him I start battling with him against the enemy because I started to realize that my son and his stronghold and his battles those are how it's that's a spiritual war and rather than just go into his room and start telling him why can't you do this why can't you do that I started to just speak truth into his life I started to tell him you know what Isaac do you understand that Satan's purpose is not to entertain you that Satan's purpose is to destroy you that whatever he's giving you now that the end leads to death that if you continue to do this it's going to lead to that and that's going to lead to this and that's going to lead to that and in the end you're either going to be homeless dead or imprisoned and I tell him this is from the enemy and I speak truth and I still point out the sin but now I tell him you know what let me battle with you when you're struggling when these things are coming into your mind when they're coming into your life let dad and I know we want to pray for you we want to battle with you and I can honestly tell you that now we've locked arms together and now we're on the same side battling the same enemy but why because I understood that my son himself is a victim that those strongholds and those things that come into his life are from the enemy so when I understood who the real enemy was I began again to speak truth into his life and now we fight together so I wonder do you realize when you are irritated and angry when you're fighting the people in your life that you're fighting the wrong war if you don't you are going to be fighting against the wrong people and you're going to be fighting the with the wrong weapon and you are going to get exhausted because it will become a never-ending war pa knew that since the battle was spiritual he couldn't use weapons of this world he knew that the weapons of this world would be ineffective in dealing with the source what is the source who's putting these thoughts in their mind in their minds who's motivating these people to act the way that they act what is the source it's the enemy how do we fight that how do we fight that root problem well we cannot waste any more time and effort fighting on the wrong level in 2nd Corinthians 10 for he says for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty and God they pulled on stronghold they cast down every argument and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and he says that he brings it we bring in all our thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Christ so if we don't fight with weapons of the flesh or carnal weapons what do we fight with we fight with something that's much more powerful and it's the word of God do you realize that the word of God is living and alive and powerful and Paul says to be able to bring down strongholds to be able to cast down arguments Paul sent this letter under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and he meant for it to encourage some to teach some to correct some to rebuke some to expose some only the word of God can do that the same word of God that goes out today listen in a group like this the same word of God that's going to go out today is going to hit every single one of you guys in a different way what can do that the word of God some of you need correcting some of you need encouraging some of you need rebuking and some of you just clear out need to be exposed and the word of God can do that because it is powerful and it is living and the Bible says that it's able to discern your thoughts your emotions your motives in a way that nobody else can and no other word can so only the word of God is mighty enough to do these things and we see this in the life of Jesus when Jesus came face to face and battled with the devil if you want to turn your bibles to Matthew chapter four we're going to be reading verses one through eleven Matthew chapter four starting in verse one says this then Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil and when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights afterward he was hungry now when the tempter came to him he said if you are the son of God command that these stones become bread but he answered and said it is written man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God then the devil took him up into the holy city set him on a pinnacle on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him if you are the son of God throw yourself down for it is written he shall give his angels charge over you and in their hands and in their hands they shall bury you up lest you dash your foot against a stone and Jesus said to him it is written again you shall not tempt the Lord your God again the devil took him up on an exceedingly high mountain and he showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and he said to him all these things I will give you if you will fall fall down and worship me then Jesus said to him away with you Satan for it is written you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve then the devil let him left him and behold angels came and ministered to him and then the book of Luke says this Luke 4 13 says now when the devil had ended every temptation he departed him until an opportune time he wasn't done he'd come back later again so no matter what arguments are going on whether they're external or whether they're internal whether the enemy is someone else or whether we are our own enemy we fight the same way with the word of God because the reality is and I don't know about you but I've come to realize that the person who gives me the most trouble is me the person who I fight the most with is me in here every day every minute from the moment that I wake up there's a constant battle going on in my life so I don't know about you but most of the arguments in my life and most of the battles that I'm fighting in my life are happening in my own head and in my own flesh do I eat the donut do I not eat the donut you know I just did a 45 minute cycling class that only killed about half of that donut and you know that's a real petty decision but we're constantly deciding every day who wins the battle does my flesh win the battle or do does what I know to be right wins the battle I'm constantly at war but sometimes the enemy is someone else and the attack is clearly coming from my spiritual enemy and his forces listen no matter what the source is we fight in the same way with the word of God we see that Satan attacked Jesus in the same way that he attacks you and I today by tempting us to do something that is outside of God's will and outside of God's plan if Satan had no respect for the Son of God I want you to think about that if Satan had no respect for the Son of God and came to him and tempted him at his weakest point what makes you think that he's not going to do the same to us if he said I'm done with you now but I'm coming back at an opportune time do you not understand that Satan is looking for that opportune time in our life when we're tired when we're worn when we're maybe maybe it might even be when everything's going great we need to understand that there is a fight going on and that the only way to battle it is the way Jesus did with the word of God so Satan will and does come into our lives and he argues and tries to convince us to live in ways that are contrary to how God says we should live to meet our own needs to take matters into our own hands he tells us but Jesus knew how to cast down those arguments he knew how to cast down everything that Satan promised that exalted itself against the knowledge of God over and over we read that Jesus responded it is written it is written it is written so it didn't matter if those things benefited Jesus or not it didn't matter if it was bread that benefited him it didn't matter if it was glory that benefited him it didn't matter what the enemy was promising Jesus would not allow his own need to cause him to compromise in the end the word of God would get the last word and so I wonder who is getting the last word the word of God needs to be the highest authority and should always get the last word in our lives and in our battles he needs the word of God needs to be the final say so in those arguments that are going on in our heads and in our hearts who I am what I say what I do how I respond they all need to be directed and guided by the word of God today we want to identify ourselves by so many different things I'm Mexican I'm female I'm this I'm that but the thing that defines us the most is the word of God the way I behave the way I respond everything about me needs to start and end with the word of God I cannot allow anything to deviate me to change the course of my life because the Bible says that God has a plan for my life and I need to be in his word figuring it out what is that and not allowing anything or anyone to take me away from that plan so Satan tamed you and I in the same way that he tempted Jesus and in the same way that he has been tempting people since Adam and Eve with the lust of the flesh the pride of life and the lust of the eyes Jesus came out victorious because he battled the enemy with the word of God not his emotions or his needs was Jesus hungry yes but he did he was not going to compromise to meet his own needs was he the son of God yes but he would reveal that to those who had faith in him when he died and rose again he didn't need Satan to take him on this high pinnacle and let him fall and the angels carry him to reveal who he was Jesus said no my father has a plan on how he's going to reveal that and I don't need to cut corners did he have a heart and a desire for the world yes Jesus Christ died for it but he would not worship Satan to get it because ultimately it was going to be his in eternity and I wonder what real need do you have today what real work does the Lord want to do in your life today but are we cutting corners are we willing to compromise to get those things then those things have become our God we need to put those high things and put them in their place under the Lord and allow God to do that in his timing because otherwise we're going to be like Eve who lost the argument with Satan because rather than holding on to the word of God she was willing to reason with Satan who promised her so much but delivered so little do you realize that that the enemy always promises you a lot his his like presentation is amazing but he never delivers on those promises and Eve was willing to reason with him she was willing to listen to his words she was willing to elevate Satan's words and his promises above those of God and what God had clearly said because she wanted what Satan had to offer and she did not consider the consequences and I wonder how many of you guys today are entertaining the whispers of Satan how many of you guys are willing to close an eye to sin or willing to step into sin because he's offering you something that you want don't be like Eve you we need to consider the consequences because when we get things but we get them outside of God's will there's always a consequence behind it and let me tell you the consequences stick around a lot longer than any pleasure you got out of that sin so we need to consider the consequences of the decisions we're making we need to not be listening to the voice of Satan and definitely not elevating those things to the level of Bible to the level of God's word so again I wonder today who gets the final word in your life does the word of God cast down and win the arguments and the positions in your life that are contrary to God who sits in the high places of your heart who or what have you exalted to the throne of ultimate authority in your life and who gets the last word in your life do you understand that we are in a spiritual war and that the only way we can win is to fight back with spiritual weapons which is the word of God and prayer that's how we fight back so if you have elevated anything or anyone in the position that only God should hold I pray that today you would decide to cast those things down whether they be your dreams whether they be your lust whether it's your sin your habits your character your heritage it doesn't matter what it is why i'm mexican and this is the way that we act why i'm this or where i'm that you know what it doesn't matter what it is whatever it is that's making you behave contrary i don't care if your dreams as since you were a child if it's contrary to what the Lord has in your life and what he's asking you to do then we need to cast those things down because you've given those things a place a high place a throne an authority that does not belong to it that place belongs only to God listen your feelings are not bible they're not bible i don't know about you but my feelings can change the bible has been around god is the same yesterday today and forever more my feelings change if i just drink coffee like honestly before i'm gonna teach anywhere i never drink coffee because i know how much just sugar or caffeine can influence my feelings my feelings are not bible my hopes my dreams as good as they are my hopes my dreams for my husband for my family for myself as good as those things are they're not gospel they're not gospel and sometimes the Lord has a better plan in fact the bible says that god is able to do far beyond what you and i can even imagine so my dreams my hopes they're not gospel they're not on the same level of god's plan and god's will in my life my opinions are not inspired although you you know some of us are willing to argue our opinions and we're willing to like really you know dig our heels on it listen your opinions my opinions they're not inspired the word of god is inspired the holy spirit inspired these people to write these things these are the very words of god only the bible contains the words of the living god and his words are alive and living and again sharper than any two-edged sword so we need to trust god and trust his word he knows you better than you know yourself and he knows the desires of your heart and he knows when and how to meet those needs and those desires listen to this i really want you guys to get this he will never give you something that will hurt you but he's never gonna keep something from you that is good so the next time the enemy comes and says well why wouldn't god want you to have that when he starts putting that argument in your heart and in your mind you have to say if god doesn't allow me to have it right now is because it's not good for me right now if god wanted me to have it i'd have it and with god things i'm ready for it i will have it so know that the lord knows you he knows the desires of your heart and he's gonna give you the things that are good but he'll never give you anything to hurt you so i want you today to let go of any part of your life today that opposes what you know to be true in god and i want you to hold fast to his better plan remember that the day will come when you and i will come face to face with jesus just like the day came when those people had to face paul paul did eventually go to corinth and there was an accountability i eventually do get home and my kids do have to give me accountability those dishes better be washed but listen the day will come when you and i will stand face to face with jesus christ whether that comes because the lord comes back or whether you and i die go home to be with the lord we are all going to stand face to face with the lord and there will be an accountability the bible says that some of us will enter into eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life and i hope that you will not be foolish like those who said that paul he writes boldly but he does nothing listen the only reason that the lord hasn't come back is because the bible says that he's graceful not willing that none should perish and i hope that you're not foolish enough to say you know what the bible talks a good talk but you know what i don't see any consequence in my life don't wait until the day of reckoning don't wait until you are standing face to face with the lord god is merciful god is not willing that any should perish but he has sounded the warning and one day he will return so i pray that today you will be people who hear the word who change the things that need to be changed and who anxiously await the day that we stand face to face with jesus christ amen