Back to Basics: Stand - Min. Kimberley Ritter

The foundation scripture is from Matthew 16, verses 13 to 19, but we're really gonna focus on 18 and 19.

Matthew 16:13–19

But I'm reading 13 to 19 for context.

And here at the King Garden Baptist Church, we usually read from the NIV, but in this instance, I'm using the King James version.

When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?

And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremiah's, and one of the prophets, or one of the prophets.

He said unto them, But whom do you ye wait, but whom say ye that I am?

So he's asking them, Who do you say I am to his disciples?

And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus answered him and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

And I say also unto thee, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever shall be loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Now, I stated that the main focus is 18 through 19.

Where it said that this verse, in in doing my studies, this verse is very controversial.

Yeah.

A lot of um, there are a lot of different theories about what it means.

Um the Catholic has one theory.

And um, so it's a very controversial.

So I was wondering if I if I if if I heard correctly, because I myself would like, but how if it's controversial way I go in with that, but a mighty fortress, that defender shows us the path and the way through everything.

So again, and I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.

So Peter, in uh in um, in other translations, in the NLT, it literally says Peter, which means rock.

And I say, and and so, like I again, some religions actually believe that when Jesus said that, that the rock is Peter and it's built on Peter.

But today, Kimberly is saying to you that the rock is the revelation that Jesus is the Christ.

The rock that they're talking about is the revelation because Jesus said to Peter, um, flesh and blood didn't tell you that.

So, what he was saying is that somebody else didn't tell you that.

That information had to come from heaven, so he knew that he had a relationship with Christ.

So the revelation there, the rock, is the Christ.

And then it says, I will build my church upon this rock.

Now, we know in order to build anything, you first have to go down to come up.

That's exactly what Jesus did.

He died, was buried, and then he came up.

So if we want to build anything, if we are created in Christ's image, we too have to go down and come up.

We go down in prayer to come up, we go down in baptism to come up.

So it says we have to build, so we establish we have to go down to come up, to build my church.

So I looked up church, and when I looked it up, the word is ecclesia.

Now, an ecclesia is a gathering like what we have right here.

It's a gathering, but they discuss not only what I'm discussing, but they discuss a lot of legal matters.

The legal matters that take place in the government, the ecclesia, the church leads the charge.

So, again, I was doing a lot of research, and Tony Evans to me described it in a really, really good way.

He said, the ecclesia is like the United States Embassy.

Any place in the world you go, you could find a United States embassy.

And right now, that may mean nothing to you if you're an but if you go to that place and you're an American and you get in trouble, oh, that embassy is gonna mean a lot to you.

Because once you step foot in the embassy, you are now in US soil.

Doesn't matter where it is, but you are now in U.S.

soil.

So Tony Evans was saying that the church is like the embassy.

So that means if Peter is the rock, because he got revelation from God, then we, because Peter was a human being, then we should be getting revelation from God, and then we make up this place that gathers and control the government.

Stay with me.

Now, in the entire world, there's a hundred and ninety-five countries.

In the US, have a hundred and seventy-three embassies in different places.

So you could go almost any place.

And I say 195, but that includes Vatican City and the state of Palestine.

So you could go any place, and when you get into some kind of whatever, if you're an American citizen, you could find the embassy if you get into trouble.

Now, if that's what the US Embassy does, and that should describe the church, then when people get into trouble, they should find the church.

Now, we have mistaken the church for this nice building that has been erected, but Peter is the church.

So that means you are the church.

So when you go to work, when you go to the grocery store, when you go to the hospital, when you go wherever you go, the church is arriving because you are arriving.

Because I am arriving.

And so because the US embassies have all these little, so all over the world, outside of the US, they have these little pockets of the US that you could run to.

And that is what God wants from us.

That all over the world, there are little pockets of heaven on earth.

My question is, is that the case?

Are we little pockets of heaven wherever we go?

I gonna tell you why.

And yesterday, revolution went to safe haven.

And let me tell you something.

Of all the activities we have ever done, I left there saying, I know we touch God with what we did this time around.

I know we touch God with what we did.

And let me tell you, the boys, if your son, your son came there yesterday, don't let him fool you.

Them boys were washing the dishes willingly, happy.

Your sons, without too much, without too much, they were washing the dishes, they took heaven on earth.

Is that what the church is doing?

Or are we only Sunday Christians?

Now let me go back to the word.

It says, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

So hear this.

If we become the church, if we become who we are supposed to be, standing on this solid foundation and becoming pockets of heaven every place we go, the gates of hell shall not prevail.

Let me say that again.

If we become who we are called to be, the gates of hell shall not prevail.

So I say, well, let me see what gate is.

We know what gate is, it's entrance to get into something, and the gates of hell shall not prevail.

We all know that the enemy comes after us with something at some point.

If we aren't standing on solid ground, if we are not pockets of heaven in our rightful places, there is a possibility or an opportunity for the gates of hell to be opened in your life.

But the word says, not Kimberly, the word says, if you stand on this rock that he built his church on, the gates of hell shall not prevail.

So the question is, are we heaven on earth?

I've gone back to the word again, and then it says, and I not Kimberly, this is Jesus speaking, and I will give you, and I not me, Jesus, but I'm his representative right now, and I will give you the keys.

Let me read it in King James, okay?

And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

Do you see how we could actually become pockets of heaven?

Because he wants to give us the keys.

Not a key, the keys.

What are keys?

Keys open doors.

Keys speak to authority because everybody doesn't have a key for your house.

Only the people that are authorized to enter your house has the key.

So he ain't given keys to who isn't his.

So we have no excuse to not be pockets of heaven wherever we go.

So I could ask, are we pockets of heaven?

And you guys don't have to answer.

I could answer, I'm not always a pocket of heaven.

That's why this study and this was so like, geez, like you got tightened up, you gotta get yourself together.

I think we're consumed with our own problems, forgetting that we are actually part of a bigger, better place and just living in a foreign land.

The enemy has tricked us into believing, he has tricked us into accepting what the gates of hell have been presenting to us.

But the God that we serve has given us the keys when we go down and come back up.

If you ain't humble, walk on it.

And so that takes me to the word stand.

Because the theme is back to basics.

We've gone through foundations and rocks, and this speaks to all of that.

Upon this rock, I build my church.

He had to go down to come up, to be called the Christ.

And then he built a church on top of it for us to stand on so that the gates of hell don't prevail in our lives, so that we could be like not the US Embassy, but heaven's embassy here on earth.

So the word stand, that's back to the basics.

Because when you have a baby, the minute that baby gets some strength, what's the first thing he's trying to do?

Stand.

Stand.

That's the first thing.

So we're back to the basics.

Don't think for one second, we know the basics.

So the word stand, it means to be upright.

Enduring or tolerating.

So if we're enduring or tolerating, does it mean that I have to work off somebody that says something to me that I didn't like?

Does it mean that I have to take offense?

It also says, remaining in effect, you stay valid to the core, you stay valid to your foundation.

And this one I had never seen.

It says, buying a treat.

And the example that they had is, let me stand you a coffee.

I'd never heard that before.

So I went to go to look it up.

So it was something from 1821, um, where they use that as an English word, like let me stand.

But the meaning freaked me out to pay for something for someone else.

That's who that's that's who we're supposed to be.

We supposed to be willing to pay for something for somebody else.

We're supposed to be in a position to pay for something for somebody else.

So all of those that I just gave you, that's verb, that's stand as a verb.

Now hair verb as a noun, hair stand as a noun.

Physical support to hold up, like furniture, like a sales booth.

Like I could hold something to sell, like a like a sales booth, affirm opinion.

I stand in this position and this attitude.

We standing in positions and attitudes, I know if it aligns with this, but if it's not, get it aligned with this.

And then a certain area.

Okay, we're gonna skip that one.

So I want to show you this.

One of them young people saw me reading my Bible.

They're like, that Bible look like you read the whole thing.

I was like, yeah, you should read yours too.

So this is my Bible that we're supposed to stand on, right?

If Dr.

Mike were here, he would have something to say.

This is my phone.

I'm not an iPhone, I'm a sang sum kind of chick.

Dr.

Mike, I hope you're hearing this.

Your people clapping.

This is my phone.

Don't get this example twisted.

I am not saying that you shouldn't read your Bibles from your phone.

You should.

Nothing is wrong with that.

Phone.

I got a fancy phone.

Let me open it for you.

Phone.

I'm going to stand on my phone.

Because that's what most of us are doing.

Standing on our phone.

I don't want to stand on it this way.

I standing on it this way.

I ain't fully stable.

But you see this phone?

This is something we'll go back home for.

If we forget our tides home, I'll just pay it next week.

But you ain't gonna do that about this phone.

And I ain't comfortable.

I ain't standing firm.

I ain't standing steady.

If Elijah come and push me, I gonna fall off.

But we standing on all kinds of other things.

I standing on my phone, but some of us standing on our children, some of us standing on our spouses, some of us standing on money, some of us standing on children, some of us standing on all kinds of things.

No.

I go and stand on the word.

This feel better.

If you like to push me, I'm gonna move, but I ain't going no place.

When you stand in on the word, storms will come, it will blow you and Move you, but you will not go anywhere from this word.

The problem is we are standing on culture, we're standing on what our parents taught us.

Even though our parents did the best that they could do, they're not always right.

We are standing on community, we stand in on entertainment, we stand in on everything that will fail, versus standing on the word that will never fail.

I like my Bible bad.

So you guys have homework.

I was a teacher before I moved to Tatola.

So you guys have homework.

We're gonna go through some scriptures that talk about standing or stand, just so you know that I ain't up here talking crazy.

So I'm gonna give you the scriptures and we're gonna just read for you to get a context, but your homework is for you to go home and read the whole thing so that it gets on the inside of you, so you begin to stand on it.

So Exodus 14, 13 reads.

But Moses, but Moses told the people, this is an NLT, but Moses told the people, don't be afraid, just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today.

The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.

Now the backdrop before this is the Israelites were just they just got the okay to leave Egypt.

They were slaves in there for a very long time, and they just got the okay to go.

So while they were leaving, they hearing the Egyptians changed their mind, and they're hearing them coming after them.

So if you know somebody coming after you who you know stronger than you, you're gonna be a little nervous.

But we don't really have to deal with that right now.

So that might not sound important.

So let me give you a little something.

When I was 14 years old, I was in the I was in the ninth grade, and I had a party.

My teacher, Mr.

Elliot, I remember him so clearly, he gave me a note to give to my mother.

But he had a party that weekend I wanted to go to.

So I ain't given her the note.

So Mr.

Elliot then sent a second note, Miss Rita.

I know that you're not this type of parent.

I sent you a note and you didn't reach out to me in reference to Kimberly.

I know that you are a parent who's concerned and involved.

So I want to know, I need to speak with you concerning Kimberly.

Well, probably how them Egyptians had feel at the second note is how I had feel.

My mother wasn't no joke, right?

Because now it's closing in on me.

It's like when you tell a lie, but it's closing in.

So I say, and and he gave me the note folded, but of course I read in it before I take it to her.

So I said, Well, you know what?

I done went to the party and had fun, and it looked like he ain't gonna stop.

So let me just give it to her.

How I look at it now, I was repenting.

You know, that's a good thing.

So I gave my mom the note, and she like, but came, they say, Well, first they were first note.

Well, I said, Mommy, that was the weekend at a party, and I had really wanna go to the party.

Oh my gosh.

That's I believe how they felt when they were coming, because my mother was a strict aunt.

They love her, but they really want to come by her house because she's gonna pinch your wall up, she can do whatever.

So I was really nervous about so I just trying to let you see how they they felt.

For me, I will getting in trouble with my mother.

That's a big deal.

If you're getting in trouble with somebody, you know you did something wrong.

So that was a big thing.

But God said to them, stand, I will deliver you, and you will see them no more.

So God is asking us to stand on his word, and he will deliver us.

So then in John 5, 8, um, again, read from 5.

Wait, read from chapter, read from verse 5 to 8, but I'll go right to 8.

It says, No, I'll start at 6.

When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, Would you like to get well?

And the sick man said, I can't, sir.

I can't, sir, the sick man said, for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles.

Someone else always gets there ahead of me.

Jesus told him, Stand up, pick up your mat and walk.

Now listen to this.

Jesus said to him, Do you want to get well?

You see what he does?

Start complaining.

Well, I want to get well, but somebody always in front of me.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You want to get well, Oa.

Stop the noise.

Stop the noise and stand on the word.

You want the position, Oa, stand on the word.

You want the job, stand on the word.

You want the money, stand on the word.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Stop the whining.

Jesus ready for you.

Right?

And that's an illness, too.

I went to the doctor in August.

I've gained 20 pounds.

Everything high.

She starts talking pills.

I said, Miss, wait, wait, wait.

Give me a chance.

Give me a chance to dance.

She said, okay, well, from that day, I walk in straight.

I just want you know my pressure is like 112 over 77, 78.

I don't have to get no pills.

Why?

I stand in on the word.

I do and what I supposed to do.

I put in faith mixed with works so that I could get results.

Ephesians 6, 13.

No, you gotta read that one.

It says, therefore, put on every piece of armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil.

Now, when we hear the word evil, we think evil is something so bad, like, oh, the evil.

Evil anyone we think it is, you know.

If you don't gossip, you participate in something evil.

If you think you're better than somebody else, you participate in evil.

If you don't lie a little bit, or a lot better, you participating in evil.

If in your heart you devising wicked plans, yeah, they do me that.

I gonna get them back, I gonna catch them.

You participating in evil.

And if you bearing any false witnesses, you know it ain't went like that, but you're still there.

You participating in evil.

And this one, to one who sows discord among brothers.

If you causing confusion in the camp, you are also participating in evil.

Notice, I'm not saying that you are evil, but you're participating in evil.

So I am here to encourage you that we stand on the word so that there's no more evil intent with us.

And the last one for us, I ain't gonna say us, for the ones who have life together, and they don't have any issues, they don't have any problems, everything is hunky-dory and perfect.

1 Corinthians 16, 13 reads, be on guard, stand firm in faith, be courageous and be strong, and do everything in love.

So even if life is perfect with you, it says, be on guard.

Why?

Those same gates of hell waiting for opportunity to come in.

So I don't care who you are, I don't care what you do, did, done, planned to do.

God is asking us to stand firm on his word so that we could move from this place to the next.

And I'm just going to wrap up now and wrap this message all together.

What I have understood from studying this message was when Jesus went on the cross, he died so that he could leave a foundation for us to stand on.

The foundation is the Christ.

Christ can be Christ is revealed to us.

You see the Bible?

It's an open book, but it's really a closed book.

When you begin to connect with God, then He's able to reveal certain things to you that's in there.

When I read it, nobody didn't tell me, oh, you have to dig down to come up.

That was my relationship with Christ.

I never saw it before, and I read that scripture before, I heard it a million times, but because I'm preparing to share with his people, he gave me a nugget for you.

Dig down to come up.

We all have to go down to come up over and over again.

It can be revealed if we accept him as our Lord and Savior and not just say it through our mouths or just be like, oh, I'm a Christian, you come to church on Sunday.

No, no, no, no, no.

You gotta work on that relationship and build something from in here and the inside so that when you walk and when you go where you are called to go, you are legit taking heaven on earth with you.

That does not require you to be a yes person, like you have to do everything.

No, but to take heaven and earth every place that you go.

So when we do that, we stand on a foundation that's unmovable, we stand on a foundation that's unshakable.

I don't care how much education you have, your education couldn't do nothing for you in this in the middle of a storm.

When all my nobody cared who or doctor this or miss this or what we were just trying to stand on something to get out alive.

This is what God has for us.

This is what Jesus did for us.

We need to lock in.

We need to lock in.

Majority of the times.

When we come in here, we only come in in here, we're thinking about ourselves, our own problem.

No, we are a body and a unit.

And look what happens when revolution went out.

I promise you, I could ask every one of those young man parents, he'd a wash up at home, and they are going to say no.

They wash them big pot and pan, what sister Claudine has, and they were laughing, washing them.

But that is what happens when the foundation is built, right?

Because I don't I don't had a conversation with them before we went, hey, we're going over here to show these people who may not look like you, who may not have what you have, but we're going to show them the best of God that we could show them.

The only way that we could show them God is if we be God when we get over there.

And I don't mean that we're God.

Please walk with me.

We just have to go over there and show them love.

That's why we serve them food.

We just have to go over there and show them love.

That's why the guys gave them the drinks.

We just went there to show them love.

That's why they built the bench.

I don't know if I supposed to do this, but since we're supposed to be setting the rules, if you see the benches that the residents have to sit on there.

No, I ain't talking about the ones we built, I talking about what was there before we got there.

How a government that could hold such an enormous carnival could have people, flesh and blood sitting like that.

But that's okay.

Because revolution, loving them.

We went last year, and we went this year, and we're gonna go again next year with something else.

So, what I'm saying to you, church, we have to come together, you have to put your selfish ambitions on the side, and come in here so we could get together for Christ.

When the guys were building the bench, Sister Marion, Sister Rochelle, had the girls in the kitchen baking bread, cooking.

Why?

Because we stood together and made it happen.

So, this is what needs to happen when we come into the church, and I am not speaking to anyone, I speak into me.

I have to do a better job, standing on the word, coming in here because we are a family unit.

If we count the skills of everybody that's in here right now, there's nothing that we can't do.

We have a doctor, I'm sure we have a lawyer or maybe one in the making.

We have a coach, you have a preacher, you have a teacher, you have a principal.

There's nothing that we don't have, but we forgetting that we're not an individual island.

We represent a heavenly kingdom who is asking us to take over the world, but we could only take it over standing on his word.

So if you heard something today and you want to stand on God's word, stand with me.

Let me pray and and and I standing too because well, I was standing, but I mean, if I had to come to the altar, I would come down to the altar because I too need to repent for sometimes standing on this instead of standing on this.

And when I just using the phone, not saying the phone is uh, you know, but we do things on the phone and it consumes a lot of time when we should be overhead.

That's my issue with the phone.

And if you want to stand even more, I wasn't even asked to come to the altar, but if you want to come to the altar, come to the altar.

Remember, this is for the people who are standing on his foundation.

So if you aren't standing on his foundation, I can't move without giving you an opportunity to stand on his foundation.

So is there anyone who needs to give their life to Christ so that they are standing on his foundation?

Okay.

Heavenly Father, gracious Lord, we thank you, Lord God, for how awesome and amazing you are, Lord God.

Father God, there is none like you.

Thank you for your son that you are liked, you allowed to die on the cross.

You allowed him to go down so that he could come up, so that we have a foundation to stand on and build on, Lord God.

Lord God, I ask that you forgive us for standing on anything other than you, Lord God.

Forgive us, Lord God.

Father God, we repent as a church, Lord God.

We repent as a community and we repent individually, Lord God, for all the times that we stood on something else, Lord God.

Lord God, I ask that you open our eyes and you touch us now, Lord God, that we may begin to see your word for what it truly is, Lord God.

We thank you that your word is a double-edged sword that could cut anything that's going on in our lives, Lord God.

We thank you that your word is a lot to our feet, that you can guide us into where you have thoughts, Lord God.

We thank you, Lord God, that your word is as sweet as money, that we could taste your goodness, standing on your foundation, Lord God.

We thank you, Lord God, that today is the last day of us focusing on anything, of us standing on anything that's not your word.

We thank you, Lord God.

We bless you, Lord God.

We thank you for your guidance, Lord God.

And we look forward to the new.

Because when you come down a new, you're going into a new creature and cry.

So we thank you that we are new and new Lord God! We thank you that we are new and new Lord God for your way in our lives.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen and amen.

God bless you all.

Thank you for worshiping with us today.

If you'd like to go deeper in your walk with Christ, we invite you to contact us at 28442.

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