Destined for Victory

Paul Sheppard: Saul's problem is not just that he comes short, disobeys God, but his heart doesn't care. By contrast, David is called a man after God's own heart. He's not called a man who's perfect; he's called a man after God's own heart. That's what he was called when he was first established when this same prophet Samuel goes to Jesse's house.

Announcer (Male): I'm sure you want to please God, but what does pleasing him look like? Hello and thanks for stopping by for today's Destined for Victory where we feature the preaching ministry of Pastor Paul Sheppard. Is pleasing God rooted in performance or outward obedience, or is it something else?

Today you'll hear about two very different men, both were sinners who made their share of mistakes, but the difference was in their response to those mistakes. Their story comes your way next. We hope you'll stay tuned, but just in case your schedule won't allow, remember you can always visit PastorPaul.net where you can listen to any of our recent messages on demand and get details about how you can access the program on your favorite digital platform, including our free app. That's PastorPaul.net. Now let's listen closely to Pastor Paul's Destined for Victory message, "Anatomy of a God Pleaser."

Paul Sheppard: If you have the spirit of Saul, the spirit that offends God, you'll say, "Look, God, you just got to understand, a sister got needs." And so now we're replacing marriage with friends with benefits and we want God to be okay with it. Because after all, he made me a sexual being so he understands what I have to have. And so now we got Christians shacking and say God got to understand. Living together for years like husband and wife.

Or see, the economics don't work out. And so I really some of my income stream, I have to be single to take advantage of that. So we live together but one day we probably will get married. I'm telling you what I hear. I'm a pastor. Folk have told me this. And when they get good and ready they want me to marry them. After we get our ducks in a row, we're going to call you, Pastor.

You heathens want me to preside over that? And I'm thankful I've had some who when they told me their situation, I said, "Well, that's not God's will." And I've had several who said, "All right, Pastor, we hear you." That's why I'm a shepherd. That's my job is to lead and feed the people. I'm trying to get you right with God. I've told them, I say, "You don't need the money to work out. You need the blessing on your life."

If God blesses you, he'll make sure the ends meet. And I've married several former shackers because they heard the word of the Lord and they didn't have the heart of a Saul. You can't be a Saul and want to be blessed like a David. And we got Sauls in the kingdom and the Lord is sending this word to warn you. You don't get to dictate to God.

God is King of kings, Lord of lords. His word is the last word. He is sovereign. What does sovereign mean? It means he doesn't ask anybody what they think. The word of God is clear. God's will is his will and you can't get him to back down off of it because you got a little something-something on the side and you want him to understand. The spirit of Saul is an offensive spirit to God.

Now by contrast, David, Saul's successor, is a man who is far from perfect himself. Y'all need to realize God doesn't like you because you're wonderful. God's not pleased with you because you just have it like that. Well, what's there not to like? You got to understand if you're so full of yourself like that, you got a whole lot of work God needs to do on you. Some of y'all need to finally figure it out: you are not all that. You are some of that, but you're also jacked up.

You got some actions, some attitudes, some motives, some predispositions, you got some dysfunction, you got some cray-cray. I know y'all sitting up here looking good, got your church clothes on, looking fine, got your Bible. How many crazy folk are walking around with a Bible every day? Don't mean you're not crazy.

So we see that Saul's problem is not just that he comes short, disobeys God, but his heart doesn't care. By contrast, David is called a man after God's own heart. He's not called a man who's perfect. He's called a man after God's own heart. That's what he was called when he was first established when this same prophet Samuel goes to Jesse's house, David's daddy.

And the Lord sends him down there and by this time Saul already knows God has already pronounced, "I'm going to replace you." And Saul's on the lookout. I better not see a replacement come. So much so that even when Samuel goes down to Jesse's house, he says, "You know what, I got to take some stuff, I got to act like I'm sacrificing," and he does sacrifice when he gets down there.

So that if the king heard hears that the prophet's going down to Jesse's house and if the king says, "What's he doing down there?" he can say, "Well, he's down there offering a sacrifice," which he did. But then he walks up to Jesse says, "The Lord said one of your sons is the next king. Go get your sons and I'll tell you which one it is."

And what does he do? What we all think. He trots out his biggest, his best, his brightest, oldest son. Samuel says, "Nope, not him." Next son, "No, not him." Third boy, "No, not him." Fourth, "No, that's not him." And finally, he sends out the son just above David. And Samuel asks Jesse, "Do you have any more? Because I'm going to know him when I see him. I've seen your boys, but I haven't seen him yet."

And Jesse said, "Well, I got my youngest." You can tell Jesse's not impressed with him. That's my youngest, he's out there with the sheep. And Samuel said, "I'm going to stand right here until he's in front of me." Jesse runs and gets David, say, "Come on down here, the prophet want to see you." And he goes down there, come in smelling like sheep. Soon as Samuel looks at him, God says, "That's him."

And he's a man after my own heart. In fact, Samuel says to Jesse who's pretty much protesting, "Why wouldn't you get one of my big strong sons?" He said, "Because the Lord doesn't see like we see. Man looks on the outward appearance." That's why some of y'all were in trouble now because you're looking on the outward appearance at situations and job opportunities and relationships and everything is based on what you see.

And God would tell you you don't see what you think you see. You got to learn to see what I see. Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. And so he anoints David. Now David does fine in his early life. God blesses him. He serves Saul, comes up through the ranks properly. He's not clamoring for attention early on. He serves the king well.

But after a while the people start singing his praises. They come back from one particular victory war and Saul hears the women singing, "Saul has killed his thousands, but David has killed his tens of thousands." You know Saul's like, "Say what?" And so God is blessing him and exalting David. And he gives him a wonderful career as the leader. Not perfect, he makes mistakes along the way.

You read them as you read through 1st Samuel, you read various mistakes that he makes. But he has a heart that is quick to repent and get himself right because he knows I can't move forward if I'm not right with God. We get all the way over in the 2nd Samuel, he's getting older. He's got many years of victories, many years of experience. He's fought a lot of battles.

But in 2nd Samuel 11, the season comes when they are to go out to yet another battle and David says, "You know, I've done this so much. Joab, my general, he can handle this without the king going with him. I'm staying home in the palace. Let Joab go out with the soldiers." And in chapter 11, you find David getting up one evening, a little restless, wasn't sleeping well, didn't take any Unisom.

Little restless. He said, "I'm going to go out and take a walk up on the top floor." Walks out there and he looks down at the neighboring property and he sees a woman, beautiful woman, the Bible says. Bathing. That means she don't have no clothes on. Y'all get with me. She's bathing, naked, in view of the king and he says she is beautiful to behold and he continues to behold.

Now you got to understand some commentators, some scholars who have written commentaries on this, some of them really light into Bathsheba. Some of them say now she know where her house is in proximity to the palace and she know better than to be out there sunbathing and taking a bath in full view of anybody who would be on the palace roof. She know.

And some of the commentators light into her as though it's her responsibility to handle this matter. The Bible doesn't say that; it just says she's taking a bath. Now y'all can speculate all you want, but at the end of the day, it's not her fault that David won't turn away. David had every opportunity to do that. "Wow, she pretty," and turn.

I'm trying to help somebody. Some of y'all got to get your turning skills together. Some of y'all don't turn too well. You look and then you look and then you look. It's not going to change, nothing's going to change. She's going to remain beautiful and she's not yours. So what he should have done is said, "Ooh, look at that beautiful woman," turn, go on back to bed. But he doesn't.

Announcer (Male): Let's pause right there for a quick timeout, but don't go away. The second half of today's Destined for Victory message with Pastor Paul Sheppard is coming right up. First, the ministry team here at Destined for Victory wants you to know how much we appreciate you, our listening friends and partners. You're the ones who provide all of our financial support and we're so grateful to you, not only for your generosity but for the positive eternal impact it's having in the world.

To make a generous donation today, please visit PastorPaul.net or call 855-339-5500. You can't always control the thoughts that cross your mind, but you can control how long you let them hang around. Pastor Paul helps us understand that better now in the rest of today's Destined for Victory message, "Anatomy of a God Pleaser."

Paul Sheppard: Y'all ever had to get something out your mind? See, y'all looking holy. Look at y'all. I need a few honest folk. I don't care what it was, what it was, you would be honest enough to say, "I know what it's like to have something lock in the my head that can't stay if I'm going to do the will of God, so I got to get it out." Thank you for the honesty. Pray for all the folk who didn't raise their hand.

So that's what he should have done. We all know that. But instead he feeds what's in his head. Whatever you feed grows. Whatever you starve dies. You want to live right, you got some things to starve. Don't wait for them to no longer appeal to you. I just feel like, sooner or later, I'll just be able to let this alone. No, you keep feeding it. You keep thinking about it. You got to remember thoughts turn into actions.

You don't do anything you didn't think about first. You didn't feel first. You let the feeling result into a thought and the thought you kept feeding so it turned into, "I got to do something about it." Next thing you know, this king is saying, "Okay, that woman is beautiful." Just like some of us don't turn from something that's going to take us in the wrong direction, whether it's a relationship or an illegal opportunity or a wrong relationship with family or friends or whatever it is, there's some things you got to turn from.

And David doesn't turn. Instead he inquires. He sends somebody and say, "Go find out who that woman is. Get me some information. Bring it back." They come back and they say, "King, that's Bathsheba. She's the wife of Uriah the Hittite. Her husband Uriah is right now fighting your battle in your army." Now they can't tell the king, "You need to check yourself." He's the king.

So they just provide information but they're hoping he's reading. That's Uriah's wife, King. Uriah, the Hittite. You know the Hittite? David has filled his head with a fantasy that he refuses to shake. Some of you are in trouble because your fantasies have overwhelmed you. And you need to surround yourself with some folk—you're not the king—so you need some folk who can check you real good.

You need some folk who can tell you, "Look, you need to get that woman out your mind because she's going to ruin your life." If some of you all don't let the right people tell you the right thing when you need to hear it, some of you are so touchy your friends can't even tell you you need a mint. You're too touchy. They just and they love you, they just trying to hand you something. "Oh, what you trying to say?"

I'm not trying to say anything. Put this in your mouth and get a bang out of life. Come on somebody. Some of y'all need to let people tell you the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. But they can't say that to David. That's Bathsheba, that's Uriah's wife. David says, "Go get her." He knows her husband's out there fighting his war, but the fantasy has taken over. Go get her. Brings her over. He sleeps with her.

If only for one night. You know Luther Vandross? Let me take you home so I can keep you safe and warm. If only for one night. Songs can make sin sound so good, but it's still sin. David has if only for one night with her. And few months later, two, two and a half, maybe three months later, she's missed a couple of periods. She sends word, tell the king, "I'm pregnant." Uh, say what?

Now the problem is, Uriah's still on the battlefield. So you can't blame it on him. But sin and fantasies will make you desperate. Go tell him the king's giving him immediate R&R. Send him home on a furlough immediately. But this man is a soldier. So he comes back to town because the king said you got to come back to town, you're taking some R&R, but he's got the heart and the mind of a soldier.

And he says, "I'm not going to go in there and lay with my wife as if I were a civilian when my comrades are out there waging war every day." So I will not. He comes back to town but he won't go in with his wife. King gets a word: he's in town, but he not going to act like a civilian, he's a soldier. I need some of y'all to realize you need to quit acting like a civilian. You in the army of the Lord.

Your commander in chief has already told you what to do. And so he gets word he won't go in and sleep with her. The king says, "Oh, all right, send some wine over because if I get him buzzed, that'll knock that soldier right out of him." Sends the wine over, but the Bible says Uriah's too much of a soldier and he still will not act like a civilian until his comrades are safe from war.

Now the king is desperate. I got a husband that won't cooperate with me and I got a situation that I got to deal with. Sin will make you desperate. Finally he decides, "I got to handle this." He sends Uriah back to the battle with orders, sealed orders. And Uriah such a soldier, he won't read them on the way. Why? Because they're not for him, they're for Joab, they're for the commander.

Some of y'all would have said, "Well, let me see what's in here." He gives it back to Joab and Joab opens it to find out that the king has ordered him, put Uriah on point. Put him out front of a hot battle and then tell your other troops to withdraw and leave him to die. How cold is that? Some of you in your human thinking would say Saul wasn't that shady.

Announcer (Male): What distinguished David from Saul was not behavior but belief. David believed he had sinned against God. He believed he needed to confess that sin to God. And he believed God would forgive him and restore a right spirit within him. He wrote about it in Psalm 51. So the next time you need God's forgiveness, be sure to meditate on Psalm 51 and make it your own.

If you haven't already downloaded the Destined for Victory's free mobile app, we encourage you to do so today. Just search Destined for Victory in the App Store and you'll be able to listen to these messages wherever you go. You know, it can be easy sometimes to be nice to strangers, but what about the people closest to you, especially your mother? With Mother's Day right around the corner, we've got a great resource to share with you as our way of saying thanks for your donation to the ministry.

It's a booklet called "Clothed in Love: Seven Gifts for the Ones Who Matter Most." Based on Colossians 3:12-15, "Clothed in Love" will challenge you to direct your best selves towards the one who matter most. Pastor Paul Sheppard points you to seven virtues: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, and forgiveness, and how giving these gifts away can transform your most important relationships.

It's called "Clothed in Love: Seven Gifts for the Ones Who Matter Most," and it's our gift to you today by request for your generous gift to Destined for Victory. You can give by phone by calling 855-339-5500. Once again, that's 855-339-5500. Or visit PastorPaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. Now you can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538.

Paul Sheppard: God is trying to bring us into conformity to the image of his son Jesus Christ. He's making all of us like Jesus and in order to get you there, he's got to make a number of changes.

Announcer (Male): It isn't always easy. Sometimes it can be downright scary. The challenge of change on our next edition of Destined for Victory. But until then, remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.