KENT CHRISTMAS – PROPHETIC MESSAGE

You’re watching KCMitv I’m glad you joined me today.
And, uh, the other day I was in my daily Bible reading and I come across a verse that really leaped in my spirit.
So Uh, what I wanna talk to you today about is something I think that every single one of us as believers uh, probably a good word is to struggle with.
And, uh, you know, when we give our lives to Jesus Christ, Uh, you know, we feel like god’s gonna take care of me and, uh, god’s gonna keep me from difficult things and all of that.
But I think the verse says through much tribulation.
Do we enter into the kingdom of god?
And um, over the years of serving the lord.
I’ve come to realize this that when we give ourselves to the lord and we become a new creation, we still have a personality and nature, all of those things that is in the process of being changed by the power of god.
Our spirits are are created new in that moment. We give our lives to Christ.
But, they’re the maturity that it takes to walk, uh, in relationship with the lord, it it can’t really be taught.
It has to be experienced. You have to go through the process. And so the lord said this.
He said, It’s the the testing. It’s the tribulation. It’s the trials that that make us strong.
It’s the adversities that make us strong.
And so The other day, I was reading this verse and I’m gonna read it out of the ESV version.
And Paul is he’s riding in Philippians 411. He said, not that I am speaking of being in need.
But he said for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content He said I know how verse 12.
I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound.
And in every circumstance.
And I’m just gonna stop there for a moment because if you’re going to long term be able to serve god, you’re gonna have to be able to navigate seasons that your idea for god doesn’t line up with who he is, that you’re gonna go through god’s gonna allow you to go through things.
That you just can’t make it line up with who god is.
God is love and god is my father.
And when the enemy comes in like a flood, the spirit of the lord raised up a standard against it, whatever you bind, I’ll bind, whatever you lose.
I’ll lose the the Bible is full of these scriptures.
But I’m I just know this and you know this that Christians go through some very difficult times.
Um, I I just think of so many people right now that um, are fighting with health issues and children that are that are dying or they’ve just buried a loved one or they’ve just buried a child or, uh, they’re a tither and all of a sudden, you know, finances have just dried up and it’s I think it’s when you feel like that you’ve done everything the word says to do.
And yet you’re still in these situations that that you can’t understand, uh, why god would let me go through these things.
When when Paul was, uh, writing this in Philippians He he wrote this also in 2nd Corinthians.
He said I have been in labors more abundant in stripes above measure, in prisons, more frequent, in death, deaths often.
The Jews five times I receive 40 stripes say 1. 3 times I’ve been beaten with rods.
Once I was stoned three times I’ve suffered shipwreck. A night and a day, I’ve been in the deep.
In journeyings often in perils of water, perils of robbers, and perils by my own countrymen, uh, by the heathen and perils in the city, in the wilderness, in the sea, uh, among fall brother and and weariness and painfulness and watchings often and hunger and thirst and fastings often and cold.
And nakedness besides those things that are without that which comeeth upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
Uh, and then in verse 30, he says, if I must glory, I will glory the things which concern my infirmities.
And, uh, you know, Paul wrote about 2 thirds in the new testament and you think of this mighty man of god, And you were thank god he is so powerful in the kingdom, but you know what made him powerful?
It was being able to walk through these.
And and none of us could could write a, uh, bargain fee that even begins to measure up to this.
And yet, He said in in, uh, Romans chapter 8 and verse Um, I think it’s 35.
He said, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation is stress or persecution or famine or nakedness of peril or sword.
He says, nay, and all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that has loved us.
So far, I am persuaded that neither death nor life angels, principalities, powers, things present, and things to come.
Neither high depth, any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of god, which is in Christ Jesus, our lord.
So what Paul is saying here, he’s saying, there is a place that you can reach in the lord.
That doesn’t matter what you go through.
It won’t shake your foundation in Christ Jesus.
And, um, I think a lot of us could could say this. I can’t say this.
That the ministry that I have today or the anointing that I have, the office that I walk in I could not have reached this place in the lord without also going through the difficult seasons.
That I went through over my lifetime.
And so, uh, I wanna finish this verse that Paul is writing here that we use for our text.
You know, he’s talking. He said, I’ve learned whatever situation I have been to be content. That’s a mouthful.
It’s, um, it’s very difficult when you’re in great need financially to be content in god or when your children aren’t serving the lord or you’re fighting can’t serve some type.
But Paul said this, he said I have learned in whatever situation He said I am to be content.
I know how to be brought low.
I know how to abound and in every circumstance.
And this is what set me on this course for this podcast.
He said, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hungry.
Or hunger and abundance and neat.
Um, you know, abundance can I’ve seen abundance shipwreck people as much as I’ve seen needs shipwreck people.
Um, and Paul, he mentions this.
He said, I’ve learned that whatever circumstance I’m in, whatever surrounds me, that I’ve learned how to survive in it, whether I’m in need or I’m in abundance.
He said, it doesn’t matter which end of the spectrum I’m at.
He said it doesn’t affect where I am and gone, you know, in the old testament David was talking about how he struggled with watching the wicked prosper.
And he said, you know, it almost seems in vain, lord, that I’ve served you.
And then he said, I didn’t understand what I was watching and the abundance of of the unbeliever and all those things.
And the suffering that I was going through, he said, until I came into the sanctuary.
And then he said I understood.
Uh, I don’t think he was necessarily referring to a physical building.
I think that in this in this setting, the sanctuary is referring to the presence of the lord, if you can carve a place out in your life that you live in the presence of god.
Then when you go through the testings and you go through the trials, uh, whether it’s divorce or death or financial setbacks, disappointments, uh, your ministry not functioning, that those things can’t move you from your position and gone.
I was in prayer this morning. I was thinking about how the enemy tries to move us out of position.
And, uh, the 5 foolish virgins Uh, they got moved out of position because of their laxness that when they heard that Jesus was on its way, they left where Jesus was coming to go look for oil.
Don’t let the enemy create such a void in your life.
That you have to leave where the lord’s gonna be in order to look for something.
And so I’ll I wanna dwell on this a little bit. Because Paul was saying this.
He said, there is a secret to being able to be content in either abundance or need.
You know, I I I’ve seen some people who God begins to bless him in their life.
And instead of realizing that that blessing is to create an atmosphere where they can spend more time with the lord or be more focused on the lord.
They let that blessing become a distraction. And it that becomes their joy.
And that becomes their fulfillment, and they leave the presence of god. So they’ve they’ve not learned how to abound.
And then there are others that they go through such difficult times that they get mad at god and they quit serving the lord because they never learned how to be content in need.
You are going to have to learn how to be content whether you’re prospering or you’re in need.
And, uh, when when Paul begins to write this, he said there is a secret.
I think of Psalms 91, it says, he that who dwelleth in the secret place. Of the most high.
There there is a place in god that I don’t think a lot of people have found.
And that that secret place in god is a place to where nothing around you is where you find your joy and your contentment.
It strictly comes from Christ. I I many times in prayer, I will tell the lord gone.
You’re not just my father. You’re the essence of who I am.
You’re the very core of my being. I cannot survive without you. Don’t wanna survive without you.
And so, um, when I was reading this, and, uh, and Paul said this with the ESV version.
He said, I have learned, um, the secret facing plenty and hunger abundance in need.
And I’m sure that some of you are thinking, well, pastor Kent, what is the secret.
Well, Paul tells us in the next verse.
Philippines 4 13, one of the very first verses I ever memorized. He said this.
I can do all things. Hallelujah. I can do all things through him.
Who strengthens me. This is the secret in god.
That w do you really think that god would place you in a in a situation?
That pushes you out a measure.
Paul Paul said in one place, he said, I was in such a difficult place that I was pressed out of measure till I wanted to die.
And then god came in. He said, my grace is sufficient for thee.
There are this is how you learn to be content in whatever situation you’re in.
You have to stop looking to the outside for the answer, and you have to learn to rest and gone.
And god says that you and I can survive any situation.
We can come through any But the secret is we have to let god be our strength.
David said this. You gird me with strength. To do battle.
And if, um, he who dwells in the secret place are the most high, Shele abide Psalms 91 says under the shadow of the almighty.
And, uh, I think part of the secret is there have been many times in my life.
That I just could not come up with an explanation of how god could let me go through what I went through.
It’s in those times that you just have to come to grips with.
Gone, I don’t understand it. It looks like the word is wrong.
It seems like you’re not treating me right. It seems like that you’re not living up to your word.
In the natural. That’s what the enemy wants you to think.
In that moment is when you have to tell god I know it doesn’t seem right, but I know that you are right.
And I know that one day, you will give me the explanation, and I’ll understand this.
But until then, I will not indite you, but I am leaning on you, lord, that you will strengthen me in this place that I’m in.
God, don’t let me be distracted by blessing or wealth or abundance.
Don’t let me be distracted by the seasons of need and hunger, but god help me to learn the secret.
Of being able to abandon you, to be content in you. How do we do it?
We can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens us.
God may not extract you from where you are right now, but I will tell you this.
He’d give you the strength to carry the load and to walk out of the burden that you’re in.
I wanna encourage you. Don’t let the enemy separate you. If if Paul says this, nothing.
Shall be able to separate me from the love of god when the Holy Ghost told Paul to write that.
He saw you He saw the need you were in. He saw the sorrow you’re in.
He saw the abundance that you walk in and the temptation to get lax or lukewarm. Don’t do it.
Learn the secret that we can come through anything, abundance, or need.
Through Christ, who strengthens up. Well, I hope this has helped you. Um, god bless you.
I wish that I could meet every one of you that I’d talk to through this camera.
And one of these days, you and I’ll sit down on the other side and we’ll talk about how we triump in God.
You’d be strong in the lord. I’ll see you next week. God bless you.
For more information about Kent Christmas Ministries International or regeneration Nashville, go to Kent Christmas.org, or regeneration nashville.org.