How to Stay Strong in the Lord in These Difficult Times!

hello to the most wonderful people on earth and i really mean that i don't just say it just to say it you are the most wonderful people on earth and to jesus be the glory and the praise and god's people said amen amen a great week this week we start this week something very special and i want to say thank you first of all i want to say thank you for being my partner my wonderful partner my wonderful friend and i apra the lord will reward you again and again and again in jesus name now what i want to talk to you about is really important how to stay strong in the lord in these difficult trying times and how to remain strong even if things get worse it doesn't matter because the bible has some amazing secrets to give us on how to be strong how to stay strong no matter what happens in the world so father we come in the name of jesus and lord i ask you to anoint me today and to anoint your people today that i might be able to speak the word and that they will receive it with might in the name of jesus that we would be strong in you and the power of your word in jesus name and god's people said amen and amen all right the bible tells us very clearly in the epistle of jude it says building yourselves up building yourselves up on your most holy faith that's jude verse 20. there's only one chapter in jude praying in the holy ghost now that's not exactly what i want to talk about because i want to really focus on how do you build yourself up to be strong well let's first go to first corinthians chapter three we're going to read a very very kind of foundational fact about this in verse 9. so if you'll all go with me to first corinthians 3 verse 9. now often i say my hellos and read your comments and names today i have so much to say this will take me a few days by the way to cover because there's so much good and i mean like superb information in the bible and this week you know i want to just deal with this because i'm hearing things already that are very very troubling of what's happening out there among people in the church i'm not talking about outsiders i'm talking about people in the church so we need to be careful with what is being said and what is happening out there that we don't let it affect our you know our hearts so it's very important now that we focus on our on our souls and how to finish strong in the lord because that's really all that matters on that day when we see the lord and stan in his presence all that will matter is how did we finish how did we live our christian life and how did we finish our christian life that's all really that matters not one of us wants to hear i don't know you depart from me we don't want to hear that we want to hear well done thou good and faithful servant that's what we all want to hear so we read in verse 9 first corinthians 3 for we are laborers together with god ye are god's husbandry and again the word husbandry means field land ye are god's building so the christian life is compared to a building not only that but the bible tells us something very important in in ephesians two and you know when you talk about a building it's how do you build to stay strong how do you build to last so let's look again at ephesians 2 22. it says in whom ye also are builded here again in the building he also are build it together for inhabitation of god through the spirit so what do we see here well what we see is how do we construct our lives so let's take the example now of the natural in the natural the first and most important feature of any structure is the foundation because the foundation sets the limit to the weight and to the height of a building you know i come from israel and there's a lot of walls and pillars that have been there for like over 2000 years there are a lot of buildings still standing from the times of the british mandate so you know the way they did it is they they went deep so the deeper you go the higher you go the deeper you go means you're gonna last and so like in the natural the foundation sets the limit to the weight and the height of a building a foundation not laid properly a foundation that doesn't have depth will bring what collapse will bring rule and so a lot of people today who are questioning the faith or walking away from the faith or weak in the faith it means that their foundation is flawed their foundation is not has not been built properly and the lord really tells us clearly in the world how to build the foundation so before we go on talking about how to build the building how to build our lives how to keep you know stay strong and on let's talk about is the foundation laid properly well first of all let's talk about this who is the foundation is the foundation something natural of course not when it comes to the spirit when they were building my home back when i lived in california we had built our home sue and i and i went out one day to talk to the supervisor and i happened to notice that the that they were digging a very deep hole you know to lay the foundation and i said to him i said and i think his name was david i said why why are you going so deep he said well because this is earthquake territory we don't want the house to collapse wow that's a very spiritual you know statement he said he said your house cannot be shaken with an earthquake he said it cannot crack because the whole thing will fall he said if there's a major earthquake he said this whole house will stay together when it it you know goes down and i said wow and he gave me a great spiritual lesson he said the house will be as high as it is deep think about that it will go as high as it is deep it will go as wide as the foundation allows after wow that's a very important matter also spiritually nobody can go as high unless they are deep it has to be the same measurement in other words of depth as it is of height so the question is how deep are we spiritually now you say well you know can i still start oh yes you can you can you can literally deepen the foundation of your christian life by listening to what jesus said and what we have to do because storms you know in the christian life come all the time and the storm when the storm comes it depends on how deep you are because if you're deep nothing can touch you nothing can shake you no matter how strong the storm is so when you look at at first corinthians 3 11 it begins to tell us about the foundation first first of all for other foundation can no man lay then that is laid which is christ jesus so jesus is our foundation the foundation is nothing more than the person of jesus christ when we are deep in jesus we can go as high as we are deep now the bible is very clear that the foundation is not some other thing you know people for example you know some people sadly believe that peter is the rock you know when when the lords are upon this rock i will build my church no no peter cannot be the rock because the bible over and over and over tells us that god and only the lord is the rock and what the lord meant is when peter said you are the christ the son of the of the living god he said upon this rock what rock the rock he just spoke upon this revelation i will build my church he didn't say on you peter will i build my church and peter himself said something that is so important so now here's peter talking here's peter writing and he says wherefore also it is contained in the scripture behold i lay in zion a chief cornerstone elect precious and he that believeth on him not on me peter on him if peter wasn't talking about himself shall not be confounded meaning put to shame or put to ruin so peter is is is repeating the blessed promise from the book of isaiah 28 16. so let's look at isaiah because the book of isaiah told and and here peter repeats it you know told us that there's only one foundation and that foundation is the lord jesus himself because it says in verse 16 it says this therefore thus says the lord god behold i lay in zion for a foundation for a foundation a stone so it could not be peter so when the lord said upon this rock i'm going to build my church he didn't mean peter because it says in isaiah i lay in zion for a foundation a stone a tri-stone a precious cornerstone a sure foundation he that believes shall not make haste so he that believes in jesus is the one who really has the right foundation not one who believes in some group or some man or some organization that's not a foundation biblically speaking the foundation is the lord and now this foundation is a rock wow mighty rock forgive me for having a little praise break here in tongues but the bible is very very clear in the word of god that jesus is the rock we sing about it we shout about it let's look at let's look it up in the bible so and i and i'm going to tell you now i'm just simply giving giving you the beginning of my of my teaching but look at psalm 18 verse 2 the lord is my rock the lord is my rock and my fortress he is my delivery he's my god he's my strength in whom i will trust i'm not trusting some man named peter and i'm not trusting a group or some what whatever in organization i'm trusting the lord and only the lord because he is my god he is my strength and he is the one in whom i trust and he is my buckler meaning my shield he's the horn of my salvation meaning the strength of myself of my salvation whenever you read the word horn it's strength and he is my high tower in other words he's my stronghold he's my stronghold nothing can shake me because the lord is my rock and then in psalm 62 again i'm you know make sure to write these down because i'm telling you what we are coming into a time of great trouble on earth psalm 62 verse 6 he only is my rock no one else he only is my rock he can't have two of them he only is my rock jesus is the only rock and my salvation he is my defense i shall not be moved that's it i shall not boom i won't be shaken i won't be moving no matter what the world comes into who cares i will not be shaken if jesus is my foundation because it says he's my foundation he's my rock on him i stand and it's not about listen it's not about repeating scripture it's about a relationship with the lord so the deeper the relationship the higher you go the deeper the relationship means no storm can knock you out the deeper the walk the stronger the relationship and the stronger the life now you can keep keep building that foundation of course you can in the in the spirit you can keep going and going and going and i'm telling you there's no end to it there's no end to it and in this day and age i would recommend you go as deep as god allows you with the relationship but we must have the word of god so let's let's let's go let's go to matthew 16. i'm going to show you how to start now i know many of you are there already you already began building the relationship with the lord but i'm sure there's one or two people there that maybe haven't done it right so let's talk about doing it right in matthew 16 and verse 13 right through verse 18 that's matthew 16 to 18 we have the four headlines of how to begin building how to begin building the foundation the foundation it's all about the foundation before we can get to the building let's talk about building the foundation and making sure the foundation goes very deep in our life so when jesus came into the coast of caesarea philippi he asked his disciples saying whom do men say that i am there are the son of man they said some say you are john the baptist some say you are elijah or elias others jeremiah or one of the prophets he said unto them but whom say ye that i am and simon peter answered and said thou art the christ the son of the living god and jesus answered and said unto him blessed are thou simon baryona or the son of jonah for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee but my father which is in heaven the word baryonybite means the son of jonah so peter's father's name was yonah and i also say unto thee that thou art peter and upon this rock what you just said not you peter upon this revelation you just spoke i will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it that's it so here we see four amazing things happening before the lord spoke these words upon this rock upon what you just said i will build my church and the gates of hell won't prevail and i can tell you right now no gates of hell no power of hell can ever knock you out if you are grounded and founded on the lord himself what do we do well here's what peter did number one he had a personal face to face encounter with the living christ that i've shared over and over and over you cannot be saved properly unless you had a face-to-face encounter with the living christ i asked a young man who used to work for me years ago or worked with me whatever because i tell my staff you don't work for me you work for the lord and you work with me i said have you ever had a face-to-face encounter with the living christ because i had such trouble with that guy i said have you ever had a face to face in countries well i speak in tongues and i go i attended and grew up in a in a pentecostal church i said that's not really what i what i said have you ever met the lord face to face he could not answer my question you know why because he never did speaking in tongues has nothing to do with the foundation having the gifts has nothing to do with the foundation no today we have to be in the center of the field and here's what i mean by that remember the lord spoke of the sower when he sowed seed some fell on the wayside and the birds ate them up and some fell next to the fence which was a rock fence by the way out of rocks and it had no depth and some fell with thorns around and the thorns choked it that's the cares of this life but some fell on the good ground and then they produced 30 60 and 100 so how many of you think will actually last in the kingdom well if you look at that you only have one third of them really in the right place somewhere on the side the devil comes and steals the word some no depth so they fall away some they they're taken by the cares of of work and money and business and politics and friends and this and this and that and then it chokes it all up and they're gone but those who commit to the lord are the real christians who are founded upon the lord and they are the ones that will produce 30 and 60 and 100 fold and they're not going away nowhere and i'm telling you god wants us to be in that group of people because there's going to be more temptations out there more thorns is really what i mean more trouble more covetousness and greed more of all the troubles of life and we just can't let that we will not and we cannot allow that to affect us so what do we do we just get deeper in our relationship and the deeper we go those things won't affect us not whatsoever so we build a foundation by a face-to-face encounter number one and if we have not had it we'll go back and do it right meet the lord properly what his presence becomes more real than your life and i still remember when i was saved february 14 1972 when jesus became more real to me than my teacher and the kids in class and in the school i got saved in number two what was the the second thing the second thing is a personal revelation jesus said flesh and blood did not reveal this to you meaning that only the holy spirit can reveal jesus to our hearts we we cannot find jesus by reading the bible even though the bible talks about him we cannot find the lord by going to church and being religious we only find him through the holy spirit the holy spirit reveals jesus to our hearts there's a lot of people who know the bible and don't know the lord a lot of people go to church that don't know the lord so the only way to really know the lord is by allowing the holy spirit to reveal him to our hearts number three number three is peter acknowledged him he said you are the christ you are the son of god meaning we have to confess the lord jesus and number four he said that he confessed publicly everyone around heard him when he said you're the christ meaning that we cannot be ashamed of the lord we cannot be ashamed of his name so anyone today that is ashamed of saying jesus publicly is not they don't have the right foundation they are afraid of what the world may think about them so you begin laying the foundation properly by meeting the lord properly and by receiving the revelation by the spirit and acknowledging him without fear now each stage involves a definite experience face to face revelation by the spirit acknowledging the lord and acknowledging him continually so it's not just a one-time lord coming to my heart it's acknowledging the lord every day of your life for the rest of your life where you declare who he is in your life but now we we we begin once that foundation is laid once that revelation is seen in our lives then something begins to happen we begin now to build i'm going to begin by talking about this and then we're going to go on tomorrow we begin to build how do we build how do we build about on on that experience with the lord like i said the more we have that beautiful relationship with god the more we acknowledge him the more we allow the holy spirit to speak to us and then we acknowledge him in our lives continually the deeper we go because his reality grows and grows and grows his revelations grow and grow and grow his acknowledgement in us grows and grows and grows and we become bolder in him because we are deeper the deeper the bolder the deeper the stronger and so it said here let's let's begin saying reading i should say this is matthew 7 24 therefore whosoever heareth the sayings of mine and doeth them i will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon the rock so now the foundation is laid how do we start constructing our lives the lord says i will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock and the rain descended so the storms will always come and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not meaning you will never fall for it was founded upon a rock for everyone that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house on the sand and the rain descended and the floods came and the wind blew and built upon that house and it fell and great was the fall of it now so notice each house here had to endure the storm christianity is never going to be a sore a a storm-free experience or a storm-free passage to heaven we're not going to get to heaven without storms coming our way that's just not going to happen so the lord clearly states that the storm will come whether you're built right or built wrong if you're built right nothing will shake you if you're built wrong it goes but what did he say he said two things whosoever heareth i gotta hear right the sayings of mine so number one i have to hear what jesus is saying to me not what jesus is saying to my pastor to tell me what jesus is saying to someone else to tell me you can't build properly by listening to people and depending on people to tell you what god is saying to you that's why today the prophetic has replaced the voice of jesus in the church and many are depending on people to tell them what god is saying to them well that's not the way to build yes we need the prophetic of course we do but it cannot replace the voice of god in your life through his word through his word therefore whosoever heareth these things are mine so number one you gotta have the right ears on and two the lord who's speaking number three and do with them so really there's three things i build by listening and i build by listening to the lord and then when he talks to me i practice i do it but let's go back and talk about the storms of life for a minute you know in acts 14 22 it says we must through many tribulation enter the kingdom so the storms are going to come the tribulations are going to come yeah i'm going to continue tomorrow and show you how to build but now we have to just say what i have to say any road sign any road sign posted to heaven which which bypasses tribulation is deception if there is no tribulation in the life of a christian he'll be deceived she'll be deceived that's that's just a fact so any road sign posted to heaven which bypasses tribulation will lead to deception so building right is what hearing right knowing jesus right and also building acting continuing right so i have to hear and in hearing i'm going to add study his word number two i want to know him through his word better meaning i have to also read the old testament how can you know the lord if you ignore the prophets every time i read the old covenant i know jesus more think about it in the new testament in the book of acts they did not have the new testament they didn't have matthew mark luke john they didn't have acts and romans and the epistles they had the old covenant and they were really strong when they they were strong in the lord big time and the church grew and multiplied and miracles were happening they knew the lord through his word the apostles knew him before they knew the word sorry the apostles knew him before they knew what the word really said even though they grew up knowing the old covenant but later the holy spirit made that word so alive in them that they knew more about jesus through his word than they knew about him when he was with them and peter would preach such an amazing message on the day of pentecost and later on when they had the conference in acts 15 james would stand up and say the prophet said because there was a big question about can the gentiles really become believers can the gentiles really become believers by faith and not by obeying the law what's a big big uh you know uh disagreement uh with the religious jews and the and the hellenistics from you know the from greece because many were greek jews and some were local jews and they got into this big talk about do we really have to do it and finally what settled it when james said the scripture says and he and he used amos chapter 9 and he went to the old testament to prove his point and settle the whole matter because they knew the bible so in our case we have to hear the word both old and new study it carefully and now get to know the lord through the word and then apply in our life i'm going to talk more about that because i want to talk about the application tomorrow how do like how do i do it to build my life strong so when the storms come nothing affects me or you dear jesus dear jesus dear jesus use this teaching to establish your people use this teaching to make them so strong to make that one listening so strong that no devils in hell can affect his mind or our mind no demons in hell will shake their faith now the storms of life or the devils himself will affect their faith but they'll be strong and get stronger and get stronger and get stronger and reap the benefits the 30 in the 60 and the 100 fold of spiritual blessings in their life in jesus name amen okay we continue tomorrow please don't miss it this is so important oh dear god it's so boring because i'm hearing i'm hearing about all the things happening today that people are leaving the faith i was listening to billy graham's granddaughter yesterday talking about the fact that if if jesus today came to some churches he would not be welcome because they don't even teach what he said anyways we'll talk more tomorrow now it's time to give to the lord's work it's time to sow seed in the work of the lord for your security also not just spiritually but financially because financial security is also important in this day and hour when everyone is afraid of what the next virus may be or the next problem may be so let's secure it through our giving to the lord's work because the more you give the more he blesses financially okay you can do it on the platform you're watching me on ben hey ministries or you can go right to our website bennyhin.org or you can simply text it bhm 4577 love you i thank god for you be strong stay strong in jesus name and please don't miss tomorrow and share this with your friends and loved ones shalom you

Channel: Benny Hinn Ministries

Views: 32,994

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Keywords: Benny Hinn Ministries, Benny Hinn, Pastor Benny Hinn, bible teaching, bible study, ministry, prayer

Id: BrFCTPdJ1pY

Length: 34min 26sec (2066 seconds)

Published: Mon May 24 2021