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Devotional, subscribe today In touch with Dr.
Charles Stanley, celebrating 45 years of God’s faithfulness and sharing the gospel worldwide. Next on in touch, a strong life.
You can have a strong body and have a weak life.
You can have a strong life, have a weak body or you can’t have a strong life and a strong body.
All of us know what constitutes a strong body, but what constitutes a strong life.
And that’s what I want to talk about in this message is we said we’ve had three in this series of church and, and uh family and now the whole idea of a strong life, what is a strong life?
So I want you to turn to a very familiar passage that just perfectly describes what we’re talking about.
And that’s the seventh chapter of Matthew and the sermon on the mount and in the beginning in the 24th verse, and how many times have you read this?
And so I want us to look at this in light of a strong life.
And so Jesus said in verse 24 therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and slammed against the house and yet it did not fall for, it had been built and founded on the rock.
Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
The rains fell and the floods came and the winds blew and slammed against that house and it fell and great was its fall.

When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at his teaching for he was teaching them as one having authority and not as describes when I look in the scriptures.
And I think about all the verses in the Bible that talk about life and so forth.
Here’s a perfect picture of a week life and a strong life.
And remember this, every one of us is still building our life.
Whether you’re 16 or 76, you’re still building your life.
And what we are on the inside makes all the difference in the world.
If someone had to look at your life and try to figure out which is true of you.
Do you have a strong life or a week life? What would they consider if they look at you?
They may say, well, he’s gotta be, he’s gotta have a strong life. She, she must have a strong life.
But what would they say when these difficulties and hardships and trials and tribulations come, how you respond in those days?
That’s how we judge when their life is strong or whether it’s weak.
So what I want to do this message is simply this, describe a strong life.
We know what our weak life is. What, what’s a strong life about and how does our life become strong?
There’s not a question of whether you face trials and storms or not, they are coming and they will reveal who we are and what we like and what our foundation is built on.
And you as a parent, I need to think about this.
You’re building into your Children, either a firm foundation that will make it possible then to face in, in all the situations in life that are coming or you may neglect that part of your discipline in life for them and they come along and they get blown off the foundation, whatever foundation they had to begin with.
And oftentimes parents say, well, I can’t figure I can’t, I just can’t believe you’re acting like this.
It just may be that you never built the foundation and them that would show them how to face when the torrent of temptation comes their way.
When the storm of trial comes away in disappointment and heartache when there’s loss in their life.
How do you respond if you don’t have a strong life, you don’t respond correctly.
And oftentimes when that storm comes, instead of standing strong and building you stronger, what happens simply this, you cave in and oftentimes a person will run and wrecked their life.
So I want us to think about these characteristics.
And if you’re wise, you’ll jot these down, they’ll all be on the screen.
And I want to encourage you to do this, not only to jot them down, but listen, be strong enough, courageous enough if that’s what it takes for you to write them down and take them home and, and put them on the table beside your bed.
And tonight before you go to bed, just read over them and ask yourself the question.
Or Lord, number one, uh in this area. Is this, this in my life and my strong here.
Am I strong here? Oops. Oh, I don’t have to ask you about that one. Lord. What about this?
And what about that? In other words, take a little survey. Somebody says, well, I don’t need to do that.
No, you don’t need to. But you’ll be wise if you do because watch this, you only know how strong you are when you find out what your weaknesses are.
If you don’t know what your weaknesses are, the devil will trip you up for sure.
Somebody says, well, I can never be tempted by that. That wouldn’t ever come my way.
You’ve set yourself up for an attack because Satan would like, he’s not going to ignore that boast.
So I want you to listen carefully and um I want you to think when I mentioned each one of these uh where does that fit in my life?
So let’s begin. The first one is simply this and that is a strong life has placed their trust in Jesus Christ as their personal savior.
That is a strong life begins with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of their life.
That’s first, that’s foremost, you can’t put that any other place except on the bottom.
That’s the foundation that you trusted Jesus.
And that, that is, you can look back in your life and know at a particular time, you may not be able to name the day of the week or even the month, but you know, or maybe even the year.
But you know, at a certain time, you remember that you gave your life to Christ and that you know that you’re saved, that’s foundation evidence that you have a strong life.
Secondly, and that’s this, that you are guided by the Holy Spirit.
A person has a strong life is guided by the Holy Spirit.
When Jesus saved you, he sent the Holy Spirit into your life to end well.
You why did he send him?
He sent him for the simple reason that you and I he knew could not live adequately apart from him.
This is why he said to his disciples before you launch out on fulfilling the Great commission, you’re not ready yet.
You’re not ready until the Holy Spirit filled you and enables you and empowers you to do what I called you to do.
The truth is every strong life is a life that has the indwelling Holy spirit and has him there for God’s purpose that is to guide us and to lead us.
We can’t look around and read the paper, listen to watch the television and find out how to make decisions.
We find out how to make decisions by coming to God, asking Him and the Holy Spirit who lives within every single believer will guide you.
He will enable you. He will show you the past. You should taking decisions you have to make in life.
He’ll show you which ones are the wisest decisions.
A wise person will listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit in your life.
And that’s why when the Spirit of God speaks, you can’t say, oh, it’s just my feeling.
Oh, you know what, I’m not going, God speaks clearly, not audibly, but he speaks very clearly and often times stronger than audibly because he will impress your heart, your life, your mind, your attention to one particular area of life that you’re dealing with.
He’s trying to say something to you. A strong life, listens to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Thirdly, a strong life has this priority in their life.
And that is spending time alone with prayer and prayer with God, spending time alone with God and prayer is that, listen, this is the connecting point you have with God, you look all around you, you can read this at noon and so forth.
But your connection point with Him is the time you spend with Him in prayer.
And people say, well, you know what? I just found myself too busy to pray.
No, it’s just a miss. Listen, it’s a misalignment of what’s important in your life.
The most important thing in your life is your relationship to Him, your connection to almighty God.
He’s the one you talk to.
He’s the one you, you bring your needs to a strong person has a strong prayer life.
I’ve never, I’ve never met a strong person really that did not have a strong prayer life.
You can get by with some little praying here and there.
But you know what, that doesn’t make you strong, a strong life has a communication with God.
You know how to talk to him, you know how to listen to Him.
You know how to bring your needs and hurts and joys and peace and, and everything else to him.
And that is an absolute primary of your life.
In fact, if you think about teaching your Children in life, if you don’t teach them early in life, by example, first and by your praying with your Children listen, watch this.
You have cheated them, you have denied them.
Listen, you have, you have hurt them in more ways than you will ever know.
They’re gonna grow up thinking they got to figure it all out. They gotta depend on you for everything.
No, they should grow up believing in their heart. That Almighty God is their God. They know what prayer is.
They know who God is and teaching them to spend time in prayer with God every day.
There’s not a single one of us who is too busy to pray.
Now, if you tell God, you’re too busy to pray, here’s what He may do.
He may just lay you out with something that put you in the hospital for about two weeks flat on your back and then all you’ve got to do is pray.
And so sometimes we bring things on ourselves.
Well, Lord, I would just would, if I, if I had time, he will give you time.
The truth that you have time and the time you have is the time he’s given you.
It’s a matter of your choosing, how you spend your time.
Listen, you can’t, it’s not spending, you can’t invest your time in any way.
That’s stronger, makes you stronger than praying and talking to him as a daily listen.
It’s not just the habit, it is a habit. It’s a daily discipline in your life.
He is first above everything else. Very important for strong life.
Then of course, a strong life is built upon the teachings of the word of God and listen and the application of them.
It’s one thing to hear it, but applying it is something else.
So when you come on Sunday morning, you take notes, for example, what do you do with them? Its application.
And I think about how many people go to church week after week and month after years and years and years, they never carry a Bible, they never take a note.
They couldn’t tell you anything the pastor said and, and they, and years and years and years later, they can’t tell you anything why because they heard it, but they didn’t apply it.
We have to think of all the sounds that you get in any given day, whether it’s television, radio traffic, people talking, whatever it might be.
The sound of the sound of the word of God and the sound of the voice of God is the most important sound.
And you and I cannot do anything any more important than feeding upon the word of God.
That’s for example, you show me a strong life and I’ll tell you somebody, if you keep talking to a little while, they’ll bring up some scripture that God has laid on their heart and all of us who have been through difficulty and trial, we’ve got scriptures, scriptures that God placed upon our heart to take us through difficult times.
If you don’t read the Bible, you don’t have one. You’ll say, well, there’s some verse in the Bible somewhere.
It goes something like this. Um You know what, that won’t work and somebody will say once in a while while you keep, why do you keep holding that Bible up?
Because that’s what this is all about. This isn’t about my opinion.
This is about what holy God who created us and has a will and purpose and plan for our life who will be there when we die, who will call us the judgment.
This is all about Him and all about his relationship to us and our place in life.
That’s why we hold the bible up.
You go to church to be instructed in the word of God, not just to go to church to sell your conscience.
And but that’s exactly what some people do consistently listen.
A person who has a strong life consistently obeys God as a habit and attempts and tries to leave all the consequences to Him.
Sometimes we don’t. That’s why I said, try if you have the habit of your life obeying God, for example, think about this as a follower of Jesus Christ to disobey God should be and should be an exception in your life.
To obey Him, should be the norm for your life. Why?
Because that’s who we are and a strong life is a life that is built on obeying the truth of the word of God.
Then of course, one of the, one of the areas of a strong life is that we see the Lord Jesus Christ as the strength of our life.
Now, think about this for a moment.
Paul said I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me is in jail, beaten, chained, locked up, you name it and you know what?
His foundation was so solid that no matter what they did, they never discouraged him, they never made him quit.
They tried their best to stop him from attempted assassinations to everything else. They didn’t why?
Because he was strong, he was strong in the word of God. He was strong in his relationship to God.
He was strong in his obedience to God.
And he knew in his heart that the strength of his life was not in his body but was in his relationship to Jesus Christ.
That’s where our strength lies in relationship and all these other things are part of that relationship.
So ask yourself the question. How strong is your life?
How, how much of you like, for example, do you get it in the morning?
You say, well, I’m gonna do this and the other. How often do you get up to say, father?
I want to thank you that you are my strength today. And if you have a job that’s very difficult.
Do you ever say to him? Lord, I need, I need your strength today to get this done.
I don’t even know how, how I’m gonna be able to do what I’m supposed to do.
You’re my strength and what you’ve done is you, you have invited the Lord God into your life, so to speak through His Holy Spirit, to enable you and strengthen you, encourage you.
And don’t, it does not let you quit because with Him, you can accomplish anything God has said before you to accomplish.
Then of course, expressing love and care for other people.
If you can’t express love and care for other people, you’re not strong. If you can’t love, you’re not strong.
Love is one of the basic.
Listen, listen, when, when Paul describes the fruit of the Holy Spirit, where does he start?
Love, joy, peace, love, loving somebody else. You’re giving yourself away to someone else.
You may give them things or you may, you may give them yourself no words.
But most of all loving someone is making yourself available to them, cheering them up, encouraging them.
A person who really loves is an encourager, a person who really loves is a person who makes a difference to the people around them.
So ask yourself this question, the people who know you do.
They think of you as a person who loves or a person who complains all the time.
How many of you love being around a complainer?
None of us people who are just complaining about everything. It doesn’t mean it’s what happens.
They find something to complain about Godly people, strong people find something good, something good, not something to complain about all the time.
Loving is very important. Then of course, a person who has a strong life, they love, listen, they love, they live and they serve God out of their spiritual gifts.
Now, a spiritual gift is a gift of service or a gift of giving gift of exhortation.
They’re all seven major gifts in the book of Romans.
It will just give you joy to learn what your gift is because once you begin to operate of your gift, a lot of things that are paying to you now won’t be paying more.
In fact, you just say, oh, is that the way that is?
And so once a person learns their spiritual gift, then they become strong.
You, you work out of a whole different resource.
A spiritual gift is a gift from God that enables you in a particular area of your life to do exceptionally well.
And so when you’re trying to do something, you don’t have a gift for it, it’s difficult.
But I’m simply saying when you have that gift, there’s a sense of inner strength, we all have one or more that inner strength does something to you for the inside and you’ll be able to do better whatever you do, then of course quick to forgive.
A strong person is quick to forgive you, wanna, you wanna hinder yourself, you hold a grudge, you be unforgiving.
And you say, well, what’s that got to do with a strong life?
I’ll tell you what happens to a person who has an unforgiving spirit. It will affect you.
Ultimately, it will affect your very physical body.
If you have an unforgiving spirit, you hold grudges and you have a sense of hate.
Uh those attitudes, attitudes that affect the person because you see whatever affects your emotions, affects your body because you can’t separate spirit and emotions and physical.
But it all goes together and it isn’t just a spiritual thing.
It’s a spiritual thing to act that way, but it becomes a physical thing.
What you think and how you feel makes all the difference in the world.
And a strong person is careful about how they relate to people.
And so you would be quick to forgive. Let me ask you a question. What profit is there?
What profit is there in a person’s life when they hold a grudge, they’re not forgiving, they build hatred in their life, animosity.
They just hold it there. What advantage to you is that not one? What disadvantages there to you?
Many messes up your relationship to God.
You say you mean to tell me if my relationship somebody else’s not right.
My relationship to God is not right is exactly right.
And guess what happens when you hold those attitudes in you?
And not only hinders your relationship to the Lord, it hinders every aspect of your walk with him and it’s going to affect your body.
People who have that attitude after a while, you know what it shows first.
Right here you started watching them, it shows there it’s already been working on the inside, but that’s where it shows first.
God intends for us to be Godly and to walk before him in a holy fashion.
He created us that way. And you know what, it doesn’t make any difference.
If a million people tell you, it’s not right. Just let them say it.
The truth is that’s what the word of God teaches.
If you think about a God who is holy and loving and forgiving.
And you say, well, sometimes I have that problem.
I can remember the time when in my life I dealt with that once and for all and knew how to deal with it.
Something that happened to me that hurt me.
And so I was just sort of saying, well, Lord, you know, you know, all that stuff you tell him he doesn’t listen to.
And so it’s like the Lord said to me. Remember the cross? I thought, yes.
How many times have I forgiven you? Yes.
Have I held anything against, you know, do you?
What right do you have to hold anything against anyone when I have forgiven you of everything you have ever done?
And I have even beforehand forgiven you all you’ll ever do that cured me. It should cure everybody.
If you, if you have those kind of feelings towards somebody else, just look at the cross, his outstretched arms and his shed blood, took care of all of our sin, all of our mistakes, all of our heartaches and all of our burdens.
Strong life is very, very forgiving, quick to forgive.
And then of course, there’s inner peace person has a strong life is gonna have been apiece.
Why your relationship with God is right? Relationship with others is right. Difficulties, hardship, pain comes through into your life.
What happens in spite of all that? There’s a piece.
And I can remember this, you know, some things you can remember. You’ll never forget.
I can remember when I heard the worst news I could ever here as a pastor worst.
And I got the phone call and when I finished, I put the phone down, I had this overwhelming sense of awesome piece.
And I remember saying, God, you’ve carried me through all these other storms.
You’ll take me through this one because, because God is faithful, he will keep his word no matter what we do.
And it’s all of these things that build strength into our life that so when the torrential storms come, we don’t waver, we don’t give up, we don’t quit.
And then of course, listen to this belonging to a bible teaching church.
Now, I wouldn’t tell anybody else where to go to church.
But I can say this if you’re gonna live a Christian life.
You need to know what a Christian life is all about.
If you’re gonna live a Godly life and follow the Lord Jesus Christ, you need to be taught.
Listen, God’s continually teaching me. I study all week long. I’m not looking for sermons.
I’m looking and asking God to speak to my heart. Teach me something new work in my life.
If you go to a church and sit there 20 or 30 minutes an hour and nobody opens the Bible, you’re in the wrong church.
You may not like that.
But let me ask you a question, why to go spend an hour in a, in a church and the word of God is ignored.
That’s what church is all about churches, about worshiping Him. How do I know who I’m worshiping with?
From the word of God? Very important that you belong to a church where they teach the word of God so that you can grow in your life and you can be strong and you can be, you can be fruitful for the Kingdom of God.
I will not tell you what to do about your church.
I’m just asking you, why would you spend an hour in the church where the gospel is not preached and the very qualities and characteristics of Almighty God and never talked about Jesus is totally ignored.
What’s that all about? I wouldn’t go to church like that. I wouldn’t go to church.
They didn’t teach the word of God because this is what this is the time to worship Him.
And what, what helps me worship him is knowing the truth about Him.
What do I learn that I learned from reading myself?
And I also learned it from those who have gone before me, who also teach me the truth that they’ve learned very important.
If you’re gonna be a strong person that you have a source from which you strengthen continuously.
The last thing I would say is simply this and that is uh this kind of life we’re talking about will impact the lives of others.
You’re gonna have an influence on other people.
A strong life always impacts other people.
So I would encourage you to whether you listen or whether you are sitting here to take this list and you’ll say, well, does all this apply to me?
Well, I feel that it’s certainly for everyone, I’m applying to me.
I want, I want every single one of those things in my life.
When I, for example, want to remember something when I want to uh when I want to go, when I want to accomplish certain things, I write them down, I put them beside my bed, I put them on my study.
Now as I go over and over and over because I don’t want to lose them.
If you just put this, you put this in your Bible.
So I’m gonna keep this really close in my Bible. No, no, no, no.
That I just get it off the paper and get in your heart and in your life, if you mean business, if you keep it somewhere close, that you can keep reading them and reading and you think God, what’s missing in my life?
And the Lord shows you. Well, first of all, uh you’re not being obedient to me.
First of all, you’re not spending time in prayer and the words if you want to, if you want a strong life, and if I should ask you how many of you want a week life, nobody is gonna want a week life.
And I’ll just share with you the things that make for a strong life.
And I pray God will entrench them into your heart and into your daily activities of your life. Amen.
Father. We thank you this morning that you’re so good to us, so gracious and kind and even in our best efforts, father, we falter.
You always then figures up, keep us moving. And the girl was like yourself.
You said you predestined does to be conformed your image.
I pray that you will sink these truths into every life and that each person would be wise enough to look at themselves in the light of what is a strong life and make a decision to give you their best in Jesus name.
Amen.